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Be sure to tell Freehold you're coming, then manage to not be where he's expecting for the entire stay.I'm not sure yet if I'm going by plane or car but I'm definitely (hopefully) going to New York City for my birthday weekend.
I have the funding I just have to figure out the logistics.
Oh, he knows I'm coming, he won't be able to hide from me! I once found a sewing needle in a hay pile, I can find Freehold in Brooklyn.
Edit: it's for my birthday, I'm a hippie, it's to be expected.
Oneida county is considerably north of the Dells.Where in Oneida County?
Hazelhurst. Just south of Minocqua.
Hazelhurst. Just south of Minocqua.Oneida county is considerably north of the Dells.Where in Oneida County?
Back in the early '60s, my grandparents built a cabin (now belonging to my uncle) on some land up in the boondocks north of Rhinelander. I spent a lot of time up in Oneida County as a kid. My folks are actually up there visiting my uncle right now.
Back in the early '60s, my grandparents built a cabin (now belonging to my uncle) on some land up in the boondocks north of Rhinelander. I spent a lot of time up in Oneida County as a kid. My folks are actually up there visiting my uncle right now.Hazelhurst. Just south of Minocqua.Oneida county is considerably north of the Dells.Where in Oneida County?
Are there even roads north of Rhinelander? I thought it was all state forests and water. Pretty, though. I had a friend in middle school who lived in Newbold (a bit west of there), and to get to her house, we had to drive past a large field of coniferous trees that changed color to gold in the fall. I want to say Tamaracks. I loved those trees.
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...must not post Texas weather data...
...must not post Texas weather data...
...must not post Texas weather data...Sigh.
You SHOULD. It would make people feel a LOT better if someone other than me posted.
Yesterday: "Darn. It's time for my lunch walk and it's only 63˚F. I'd better put on a sweatshirt."
haaaaaaaaaaaate yooooooooou sooooooo muuuuuuuch
Hazelhurst. Just south of Minocqua.Oneida county is considerably north of the Dells.Where in Oneida County?
Sounds like I can purify myself there.
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Impus Minor is about to head off camping with his friends.
Impus Minor: How crowded is it going to be there?
NobodysHome: Not at all.
Impus Minor: How can you be so sure?
NobodysHome: Most people want to go summer camping where they can wear bikinis, have cookouts, bask on the beach, and otherwise enjoy the summer sun. It's currently 59°F at noon at your camp site, the water temperature is 56.1°F, and it'll be in the high 40s or low 50s every night. That's not what people think of when they think of "summer" camping.
Impus Minor: Fair enough.
So yeah, I'm not worried about him needing bug repellent, but in addition to sunscreen he's going to need a decent coat and sleeping bag...
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To be fair, you can wear bikinis in any weather, though they may look a bit odd worn over a snowsuit, or in conjunction with hip-length waders and a sou'wester.
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(last winter)
Walk into blood collection place
Like I've said before, sometimes when I zone out I stop registering as a person. Walking with a hurt back requires going slow, which can also be VERY quiet.
So the rather small phlebotomist comes around the corner take two steps in the hall, gets about three inches from me, THEN notices me and EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSS.
"Oh. Sorry. Didn't see you there. You need a ma...."
I am wearing a fox mask However the beard blends in very well with the bottom part.
"Start over?
"yes please"
"Here for some bloodwork..."
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You are reaching the point of being the scenery even in the urban environment?
Are there even roads north of Rhinelander? I thought it was all state forests and water. Pretty, though. I had a friend in middle school who lived in Newbold (a bit west of there), and to get to her house, we had to drive past a large field of coniferous trees that changed color to gold in the fall. I want to say Tamaracks. I loved those trees.
There's more than a few roads up that way; not a whole lot of year-round inhabitants, but a decent amount of the land is still privately owned (though less and less every year, thanks to people selling off to the government and the Boy Scouts of America). Also, if you ever get the chance to head back up there, there's an amazing steakhouse out in the middle of nowhere east of the Rainbow Flowage.
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You are reaching the point of being the scenery even in the urban environment?
High-level ranger hiding in plain sight?
In my little city-slicker part of the world, it was time to harvest my stevia today, so I've trimmed it down in the hopes that it will relax a bit, take a hint, and start thinking about getting ready to go dormant in the autumn. As a Canadian outside of our tiny zones that are warm enough, there's no way that it can overwinter outside in my neck of the woods.
I strained my whacking muscle on my left arm.
Unfortunately I still have at least one more day of whacking pavers, so looks like my right arm gets a workout today!
Tiny T-Rex and I went to an advanced screening of the new TMNT movie coming out this weekend.
Overall, it was really good! Definitely way more of a lighter tone but still good.
They are targeting a slightly younger audience but it's still relatable to teens so I suspect it will do well.
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I'll admit, I'm mostly relieved but slightly disappointed that it looks like Impus Major's first jury duty will end up being a no-show. They've gone through groups 1-35 on Monday and Tuesday, and Impus Major is in group 99, so unless things somehow explode he's not going to have to go in. (My experience is that each day they bring in fewer groups, so unless some judge was on vacation and scheduled a case to start on Thursday or Friday I think he's good.)
Pros:
- We're finally planning the "Dad & Sons" road trip on the 7th, so not having to report at all means he'll be able to go on the trip.
- School starts on the 21st, so he won't have to take a "school hardship" for a particularly nasty trial.
- He gets to relax for his final weeks before school.
Cons:
- Even though he intellectually understands the jury selection process, I'd like him to go in at least once before he moves out so I can make sure he can handle the abject bureaucracy involved.
- I was looking forward to his legendary experiences on some poor defendant's trial. Of course, any defense attorney who let Impus Major on a jury would be making a grave mistake, but they don't know that... unless they understand that he believes what he tells them he does. (For example, he's a big advocate for using lethal ordinance instead of glitterbombs for package thieves...)
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I whacked the middle finger on my right hand, so at the very least the pain is evened out, and actually because I whacked it with the German mallet (which is far superior to American or Chinese mallets so it hurts twice as much) I barely even feel the muscle strain on the left arm at all.
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I whacked the middle finger on my right hand, so at the very least the pain is evened out, and actually because I whacked it with the German mallet (which is far superior to American or Chinese mallets so it hurts twice as much) I barely even feel the muscle strain on the left arm at all.
Have you tried whacking a toe? You might be able to get everything balanced like a well-tuned machine...
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I whacked the middle finger on my right hand, so at the very least the pain is evened out, and actually because I whacked it with the German mallet (which is far superior to American or Chinese mallets so it hurts twice as much) I barely even feel the muscle strain on the left arm at all.
Tuesdays haven't been the same without Yesterday's Thumb-Whacking Mallet Reviews. Good to have them back.
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I strained my whacking muscle on my left arm.
Unfortunately I still have at least one more day of whacking pavers, so looks like my right arm gets a workout today!
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I strained my whacking muscle on my left arm.
Unfortunately I still have at least one more day of whacking pavers, so looks like my right arm gets a workout today!
C'mon Freehold...open your mouth again...
I whacked the middle finger on my right hand, so at the very least the pain is evened out, and actually because I whacked it with the German mallet (which is far superior to American or Chinese mallets so it hurts twice as much) I barely even feel the muscle strain on the left arm at all.Tuesdays haven't been the same without Yesterday's Thumb-Whacking Mallet Reviews. Good to have them back.
Just wait until next week when I compare whacking my fingers with the American mallet vs with the Free Shipping Mallet (which I bought for 3 dollars so the order would qualify for free shipping). I expect the American one to win, it's actually one of the better mallets I have.
Impus Major had his first car crash yesterday, which is pretty good considering he's been driving for 4 years now.
Unfortunately, it was absolutely avoidable and something I trained him to watch out for: He was in the right lane of a 4-lane road (2 lanes in each direction) and the car in the left lane stopped. He assumed it was because they were turning left (turn signals are virtually nonexistent around here, so it was a reasonable assumption). Unfortunately, he forgot everything I taught him about proceeding slowly in such situations because if you can't see why someone stopped, you need to slow down just in case. He didn't, and it turned out that the person stopped in the middle of the road to let cross traffic through.
I could tirade about how dumb ceding the right of way because you want to be "nice" is, but yet again, it caused a collision. The person at the stop sign saw the stopped car, assumed they could go, and sped across the intersection, again to "be nice" and not block it for too long. So she T-boned the Celica.
Everyone's OK, but it's around $4000 in damage to the Celica and insurance won't pay it because it totals the car.
I am... displeased...
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C'mon Freehold...open your mouth again...I strained my whacking muscle on my left arm.
Unfortunately I still have at least one more day of whacking pavers, so looks like my right arm gets a workout today!
...oh god.
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Impus Major had his first car crash yesterday, which is pretty good considering he's been driving for 4 years now.
Unfortunately, it was absolutely avoidable and something I trained him to watch out for: He was in the right lane of a 4-lane road (2 lanes in each direction) and the car in the left lane stopped. He assumed it was because they were turning left (turn signals are virtually nonexistent around here, so it was a reasonable assumption). Unfortunately, he forgot everything I taught him about proceeding slowly in such situations because if you can't see why someone stopped, you need to slow down just in case. He didn't, and it turned out that the person stopped in the middle of the road to let cross traffic through.
I could tirade about how dumb ceding the right of way because you want to be "nice" is, but yet again, it caused a collision. The person at the stop sign saw the stopped car, assumed they could go, and sped across the intersection, again to "be nice" and not block it for too long. So she T-boned the Celica.
Everyone's OK, but it's around $4000 in damage to the Celica and insurance won't pay it because it totals the car.
I am... displeased...
Thank god he is alright.
I'm so sorry this happened.
So is that it for the Celica? After so many years?
So is that it for the Celica? After so many years?
No, it's the usual misconception as to what "totaled" means. Everyone thinks it means, "The car can no longer be driven." What it actually means is, "The cost to repair the car is greater than the value of the car."
So when a truck hit the Celica when it was parked, the insurance company wanted to total it, because they felt it was only worth $2200 and the body shop wanted more than that for the repairs. But if you get your car totaled, the insurance company owns it (so you would have to buy it back from them) AND it's marked as totaled by the DMV, making it much harder to insure.
Instead, you just pay out of pocket for all the repairs, decline the insurance, and you're fine.
So... would you rather pay $4000 for a used car with a fully rebuilt engine that's in fantastic shape, or take $2200 cash and try to use that to buy a used car?
I'm paying to get it fixed, assuming it can be (which it should -- it looks like it's just body work and replacing some struts).
EDIT: OK, now it's a little less optimistic -- the dent is so deep that the body shop isn't 100% sure they can get it out, in which case the Celica is indeed doomed. We should learn more by EOD today.
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Obviously most important is that the Impus is ok.
So is that it for the Celica? After so many years?No, it's the usual misconception as to what "totaled" means. Everyone thinks it means, "The car can no longer be driven." What it actually means is, "The cost to repair the car is greater than the value of the car."
Oh, no, I got that it wasn't actually destroyed—I was wondering if you consider having to pay those 4 grands out of your pockets for keeping Celica operational worth it.
So... would you rather pay $4000 for a used car with a fully rebuilt engine that's in fantastic shape, or take $2200 cash and try to use that to buy a used car?
And the answer is apparently yes.
I'm paying to get it fixed, assuming it can be (which it should -- it looks like it's just body work and replacing some struts).
EDIT: OK, now it's a little less optimistic -- the dent is so deep that the body shop isn't 100% sure they can get it out, in which case the Celica is indeed doomed. We should learn more by EOD today.
If it can be done...
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Obviously most important is that the Impus is ok.
Yep, and I'm pretty pleased with the fact that he's managing almost everything himself. He's not happy about it, but while I arranged the tow to the shop, he met the tow truck driver, paid for the tow, told the body shop what he wanted, listened patiently as they explained that the repairs would cost far more than the car is worth, and then got himself home.
And now he's on the phone with the other driver's insurance company and it sounds like he's doing just fine. On the other hand, when you're being 100% honest it's MUCH harder to screw up talking to them. "Yes, I was in the right lane. Yes, I had the right of way. Yes, your client drove across the intersection and hit me in spite of the fact that they had a Stop sign and I didn't."
He's not quite being THAT snarky, but it sounds like they're pretty resigned to the fact that their driver is going to be found mostly at fault. We'll see how it plays out.
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Obviously most important is that the Impus is ok.
I might have jumped to conclusion too hastily, but I simply assumed that if NobodysHome is expressing his displeasure with such prosaic issue as expenses, it means that Impus Major is all fine.
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And the information keeps trickling in. Apparently the body shop owner was saying that he didn't think they could fix the suspension, so they might have to replace the whole thing to the tune of $5000, and he didn't think Brendan would be willing to pay that.
He doesn't know how much I love the Celica, nor how much used cars cost in this area. Until he breaks $10k, it's still cheaper to get the Celica repaired than to buy a used car.
And that's about how pathetic things are in the Bay Area.
BTW: It wasn't me. I have only now returned to Oakland.
Yes. I am back to playing Watch_Dog 2 for now. I need to finish it. I think I'll start skipping on side quests, I have all the important things from the skill tree anyway, and the rest is mostly boring or upgrades to things that I don't use anyway...
No idea how long this burst of playing will last. The world is pleasant to visit but the gameplay get boring quickly.
Five minutes into the game and I already managed to scratch another car. A good driver I am not.
And now the game has crashed.
It happened before when I was doing previous gang-related story mission.
And the Ubisoft launcher didn't get the memo the game crashed so the Play button is greyed out.
I had to force quite Connect. Steam does that better turning play button into stop button while a game is on (including after those crashes that are not properly registered by Steam launcher making it think* that the game still runs).
*it's funny how we humans are hard-wired into anthropomorphizing our surroundings and considering behaviors/events of everything around us in terms of thinking, intent, emotions, and intelligence, even when it clearly is not.
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I had to force quite Connect. Steam does that better turning play button into stop button while a game is on (including after those crashes that are not properly registered by Steam launcher making it think* that the game still runs).
*it's funny how we humans are hard-wired into anthropomorphizing our surroundings and considering behaviors/events of everything around us in terms of thinking, intent, emotions, and intelligence, even when it clearly is not.
Ohhhh... don't get me started on the non-Steam launchers. I'm pretty sure I had that exact same problem with Ubisoft, and then Epic's won't recognize installed games so even after you've downloaded 100+ GB of stuff, a single glitch and it's, "Nope. Sorry. Re-download ALL of it."
Everyone pines for a good competitor for Steam. So far no one's made even a functional one...
Aaaand... I might be done for now with it.
The mission?
Neutralize three gang bosses. So far, so good.
I sneak upon a boss and put a bullet in his head. Nope. He alerts others and a shot out ensues.
Repeat three times.
Seriously? Utterly stupid decision to make the targets immune to head shots in a game about sneaking around. I could use explosives dropped from the drone but it will alert the others.
And the information keeps trickling in. Apparently the body shop owner was saying that he didn't think they could fix the suspension, so they might have to replace the whole thing to the tune of $5000, and he didn't think Brendan would be willing to pay that.
He doesn't know how much I love the Celica, nor how much used cars cost in this area. Until he breaks $10k, it's still cheaper to get the Celica repaired than to buy a used car.
And that's about how pathetic things are in the Bay Area.
I've heard stories about how if it weren't for carvana and the like, the used car market would be fat, far worse. Kelly Blue Book is apparently a scam or something?
So, the absolutely hardest part of dealing with post-accident stuff is the waiting and waiting and waiting to find out anything concrete.
So far, I've been really impressed by the body shop guy: When he heard we were paying out-of-pocket for everything, he had a retired friend do the tow for us for under 1/3 the going rate for tows around here. (We paid $160. The average in the area is $557.) He didn't have time to do a thorough examination, but he spent "a lot of time explaining how hard it is to decompress metal" (Impus Major's words) to Impus Major. He doesn't want us to get our hopes up until he's thoroughly inspected the damage and decided whether or not he can fix it at all. But it means we're all sitting around here all day wondering about the fate of our beloved favorite car. It's VERY distracting.
Progressive Insurance also gets kudos for at least being interested in the case. And I really appreciated their question, "Whose fault do you think the accident was, and why?" They're obviously looking for, "If this went to court, whose testimony would be more convincing?"
But listening to Impus Major very calmly explain that since the other driver had had a Stop sign and he didn't, the weight of caution was on her, so even though they were both incautious, since she had a stop sign and he didn't it was her fault, I think he did a LOT to make Progressive want to make the accident go away, which is good for us because we're not looking for a payout from them, we just don't want to pay for the other driver's repairs.
State Farm gets the stink eye. They're MY insurance company and I filed a claim last night AND Progressive has been in touch with them, and I haven't heard "Boo" from them. If you're going to charge me top rates for top insurance, I expect you to give me better service than the discount insurance guys.
I had to force quite Connect. Steam does that better turning play button into stop button while a game is on (including after those crashes that are not properly registered by Steam launcher making it think* that the game still runs).
*it's funny how we humans are hard-wired into anthropomorphizing our surroundings and considering behaviors/events of everything around us in terms of thinking, intent, emotions, and intelligence, even when it clearly is not.
Ohhhh... don't get me started on the non-Steam launchers. I'm pretty sure I had that exact same problem with Ubisoft, and then Epic's won't recognize installed games so even after you've downloaded 100+ GB of stuff, a single glitch and it's, "Nope. Sorry. Re-download ALL of it."
Everyone pines for a good competitor for Steam. So far no one's made even a functional one...
I just keep things to a handful of downloaded games per platform.
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Yay! Impus Minor is back in the Prius so we at least now have one functional car for the family. It is DEFINITELY better than nothing!
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Good to know everyone's OK, and that you have some transport.
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I've heard stories about how if it weren't for carvana and the like, the used car market would be fat, far worse. Kelly Blue Book is apparently a scam or something?And the information keeps trickling in. Apparently the body shop owner was saying that he didn't think they could fix the suspension, so they might have to replace the whole thing to the tune of $5000, and he didn't think Brendan would be willing to pay that.
He doesn't know how much I love the Celica, nor how much used cars cost in this area. Until he breaks $10k, it's still cheaper to get the Celica repaired than to buy a used car.
And that's about how pathetic things are in the Bay Area.
No.
Carvana specifically has been banned from selling cars multiple times in Illinois due to shady business practices. They've also been known to sell stolen cars.
The used car market went nuts, not just in the Bay but simply everywhere, after COVID exposed "just in time" supply chain theory as a major issue when anything disrupts any leg of it. In the case of a global pandemic, well, cars are far more computerized than people really realize. Those computer components, specifically the chips, come from China. Fact is, pretty much every modern computer chip in the world right now can be traced to only two chip foundries in China.
COVID made them unable to produce any processors for months.
Then, when they could spin up some production again, they focused on their high volume chips first. Phones. Laptops. Tablets. The chips used in the automotive industry use a design that's a couple decades old. The reason is because it's a proven design known to work in the automotive industry and any change means a complete redesign of several systems. Which basically means having to go through all the red tape to get it certified as well. Which means they had to wait until the chip manufacturers got around to making their chips again. Which meant companies either had no new cars to sell or they would sell a car without all of the features working with a promise to enable them later.
No new cars available means more people have to go looking for used cars. It's why 5-10 year old cars in good condition were selling at or above their original sticker price. Car dealerships ALSO couldn't get their hands on used cars either, so when they did...the made up laws of supply and demand took over.
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Ouuuuch...
OK. There's a reason I go with State Farm: Evil Corporate Attorneys.
All the agent needed to hear was, "She had a Stop sign and Impus Major didn't."
"All right, sir. We're assigning her 100% blame. And if her insurance company tries to give us any pushback we'll assign it to corporate legal."
Oog.
We use SF too. Never had an issue.