I'm intending on zero interstates, and yes, driving as much of the PCH as mudslides will allow.
Should be hitting the Bay Area around June 8th or 9th. Thereabouts.
Cool deal. PM me once your dates start solidifying and I can get us reservations somewhere. Unfortunately, the "great" California cuisine places are all either gone (Rivoli) or crappy (Chez Panisse), but we have excellent places of almost every other ethnicity imaginable. Bowl'd has killer Korean. Sobo Ramen is the best ramen I've ever had. China Village is solid Chinese. Etc.
EDIT: And speaking of British pub food, the Kensington Circus Pub is fantastic if you're in the mood for such things. Except their fries, which for some reason are pretty bad.
Coleslaw with fish and chips?
Coleslaw?
Bring it over here and let us chuck it in Boston harbour (not THAT Boston, but the original
and best)Also, I'm not sure who voted Fuller's as England's best bitter, but it certainly wasn't me.
And it's 'fare', not 'fair'
Coleslaw with any fried fish is pretty normal in the US. And yeah, it tends to show up that way in most faux English/Irish/Scottish Pubs here.
Cutting across northern Kansas to Colorado Springs.
Currently planning on stopping in Manhattan on the 1st.
Not terribly far for me. Might have to nudge Orthos about a meetup.
I'd be up for that.
I'm intending on zero interstates, and yes, driving as much of the PCH as mudslides will allow.
Should be hitting the Bay Area around June 8th or 9th. Thereabouts.
Cool deal. PM me once your dates start solidifying and I can get us reservations somewhere. Unfortunately, the "great" California cuisine places are all either gone (Rivoli) or crappy (Chez Panisse), but we have excellent places of almost every other ethnicity imaginable. Bowl'd has killer Korean. Sobo Ramen is the best ramen I've ever had. China Village is solid Chinese. Etc.
EDIT: And speaking of British pub food, the Kensington Circus Pub is fantastic if you're in the mood for such things. Except their fries, which for some reason are pretty bad.
Coleslaw with fish and chips?
Coleslaw?
Bring it over here and let us chuck it in Boston harbour (not THAT Boston, but the original
and best)Also, I'm not sure who voted Fuller's as England's best bitter, but it certainly wasn't me.
And it's 'fare', not 'fair'
What? No comment on their putting frigging salsa on a shepherd's pie? That one's so bad we always ask them to hold it.
And that is why I don't fear AI.
After another failed attempt to apply for the new credit card online, I called a human being. After filling out all the necessary paperwork and patiently listening to her legalese, I explained my issue to her. She immediately transferred me up the food chain. I explained my issue again. She said, "I see your scores from 2 of the 3 companies. Do I have your permission to try the third again?"
I gave her permission and in 15 seconds I was approved.
I simply cannot envision a future within the next 20 years where an AI would be able to parse the problem and figure out a solution. Prove me wrong, AI, prove me wrong...
EDIT: In general, the issue is a biological creature's willingness to do the exact same thing and expect a different result. The AI does something. It works or it doesn't. It records the result, learns from it, and moves on. A biological creature does something. It works or it doesn't. The biological creature makes a note of this, but isn't certain the behavior is repeatable. So we'd have to train AIs to be insane and do the same exact thing and expect different results. And I just don't know that training an army of insane AIs is in humanity's best interest.
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I'd be up for that.
My calendar is clear!
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An Orthos in the wild!
I'm intending on zero interstates, and yes, driving as much of the PCH as mudslides will allow.
Should be hitting the Bay Area around June 8th or 9th. Thereabouts.
Cool deal. PM me once your dates start solidifying and I can get us reservations somewhere. Unfortunately, the "great" California cuisine places are all either gone (Rivoli) or crappy (Chez Panisse), but we have excellent places of almost every other ethnicity imaginable. Bowl'd has killer Korean. Sobo Ramen is the best ramen I've ever had. China Village is solid Chinese. Etc.
EDIT: And speaking of British pub food, the Kensington Circus Pub is fantastic if you're in the mood for such things. Except their fries, which for some reason are pretty bad.
Coleslaw with fish and chips?
Coleslaw?
Bring it over here and let us chuck it in Boston harbour (not THAT Boston, but the original
and best)Also, I'm not sure who voted Fuller's as England's best bitter, but it certainly wasn't me.
And it's 'fare', not 'fair'
Yes coleslaw with fish and chips. It's the only way I eat coleslaw.
I'd be up for that.My calendar is clear!
HOLY S@!*!
I make good coleslaw because I cut it with kimchi and lime zest.
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Hermione is on her end-of-year middle school Adventure Trip, so I'm taking the opportunity to clean her room.
Not completely. Just enough to downgrade it from "Superfund site" to merely "potentially hazardous".
June 1-16. Road trip. Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Home.
I am excited, even though I wanted three weeks to do it instead of two.
State-a-day?
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Not necessarily. If you don't lose the will to live after a few hours in a car, some of those can be done in less than a day. Missouri's about 4 hours from east to west.
I drove from some town, kind of in the middle of Oklahoma, to Flagstaff Arizona in a long day. Probably started around 8:00 AM and it was pushing midnight when I got there. Did the speed limit plus 5(mph) wherever I could.
So, around half of Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle, New Mexico, and half of Arizona.
Not necessarily. If you don't lose the will to live after a few hours in a car, some of those can be done in less than a day. Missouri's about 4 hours from east to west.
If you don't want to lose the will to live, stay out of Nebraska.
2022 was a record year of long drives for me:
Syracuse, NY to Des Moines, IA: 20 hours (1.5 days of driving)
Des Moines, IA to Lake Jackson, TX and back: 17 hours (~1 day of driving) each way
Des Moines, IA to Mesilla, NM and back: 18 hours (~1 day of driving) each way
Colfax, IA to Ticonderoga, NY and back: 24 hours (2 days of driving) each way
I think my record for longest drive with no overnight stops was either the return trip from Lake Jackson, or my return trip from Savannah, GA to upstate NY back in 2010, both about the same length.
Going to be trying to keep it to 8-10 hours, certainly no more than 12 hours per day.
In a Miata.
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Hanging out with baronaremhashevaum tonight!
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Going to be trying to keep it to 8-10 hours, certainly no more than 12 hours per day.
In a Miata.
Going to be trying to keep it to 8-10 hours, certainly no more than 12 hours per day.
In a Miata.
You mentioned Arizona. Doing the Grand Canyon?
Unfortunately unlikely.
I have a couple friends currently living in Maricopa, so I'm stopping by for a visit there.
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That might put Mt. Lemmon in range if you’re rolling on the 10. Definitely worth driving up that mountain, if you have time.
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Dad dunking on Impus Major:
Impus Major: I can't believe the inflation we've had to live through! You used to be able to get a full fast food meal for $5, and now the fries alone cost $5!
NobodysHome: Don't talk to me about inflation. I lived through the Carter years. Shall we compare?
So... $1000 in 1970 was $2034.48 in 1980, so inflation basically doubled everything. By comparison, $1000 in 2014 is $1316.23 in 2024.
I've lived through inflation more than three times worse what you're whining about.
Impus Major: Way to walk to school uphill both ways, Dad!
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It really was uphill both ways when I went to school. Yup, our driveway went over a hill. It was more uphill on the way home.
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What? No comment on their putting frigging salsa on a shepherd's pie? That one's so bad we always ask them to hold it.I'm intending on zero interstates, and yes, driving as much of the PCH as mudslides will allow.
Should be hitting the Bay Area around June 8th or 9th. Thereabouts.
Cool deal. PM me once your dates start solidifying and I can get us reservations somewhere. Unfortunately, the "great" California cuisine places are all either gone (Rivoli) or crappy (Chez Panisse), but we have excellent places of almost every other ethnicity imaginable. Bowl'd has killer Korean. Sobo Ramen is the best ramen I've ever had. China Village is solid Chinese. Etc.
EDIT: And speaking of British pub food, the Kensington Circus Pub is fantastic if you're in the mood for such things. Except their fries, which for some reason are pretty bad.
Coleslaw with fish and chips?
Coleslaw?
Bring it over here and let us chuck it in Boston harbour (not THAT Boston, but the original
and best)Also, I'm not sure who voted Fuller's as England's best bitter, but it certainly wasn't me.
And it's 'fare', not 'fair'
There are certain atrocities that cannot be responded to in words.
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XKCD has a good description of how Impus Major got T-boned. (He was the car in the right lane. Since the left lane was stopped, the car at the Stop sign tried to race through the intersection.)
Our new neighbors have moved in, and it's both interesting and frustrating to see how people with different cultural experiences adapt to moving into the neighborhood:
(1) Typically, when people move in around here they knock at all their neighbors' doors to say, "Hi," and introduce themselves. I'm well aware that this is extremely unusual so I'm not particularly concerned that our new neighbors haven't done it, but it's kind of striking how hard they've worked to avoid interacting with anyone else in the neighborhood. I've seen them a couple of times and tried to walk over to introduce myself, and they either don't see me or pretend not to see me and quickly scurry inside. I'm not about to bang on the door of a family with an infant, so I'm leaving them be until I can catch them outside, but it's been a week now and I haven't even managed to say, "Hi," to one of them. Very private people.
(2) And this is one where Freehold disagrees with me so I'm interested in other people's takes: In general around here it's considered rude to park in front of someone else's house if you have your own parking. The neighbor's house has a driveway and a space in front of it. They've perma-parked their BMW in the street space and work very hard to put their Tesla in front of our house instead of in their own driveway, leading to an ongoing parking battle. I'm hoping to meet them at some point and point out that if they don't like parking IN the driveway, they can park ACROSS the driveway and thus fit two cars in front of their house easily, but we'll see whether they're willing to do that. It's just odd that I know people who grew up in urban areas all over the country and they all have the same take: "Yeah, if there's a space in front of your house and a space in front of your neighbor's house you use the space in front of your house." So odd that they're so bound and determined to take our parking space...
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Not necessarily. If you don't lose the will to live after a few hours in a car, some of those can be done in less than a day. Missouri's about 4 hours from east to west.
unless you're traveling from southwest TN to southeast NE (yup, did that!), in which case Missouri is an absolutely soul-crushing 10-11 hours, simply because diagonal highways aren't much of a thing there. though i'm sure that hour count includes a decent lunch and a couple additional stops . . . .
it was 26 years ago i first embarked on that journey, and i only recall that it was rather miserable. hence my rebranding of the Show-Me State as "Misery".
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I simply cannot envision a future within the next 20 years where an AI would be able to parse the problem and figure out a solution. Prove me wrong, AI, prove me wrong...
I'd be careful with that. In 6 months I saw AI go from making weird salvador dali nightmares of uncanny valley when you asked it for art and instead become my go to for making character images if I don't have one.
Not necessarily. If you don't lose the will to live after a few hours in a car, some of those can be done in less than a day. Missouri's about 4 hours from east to west.unless you're traveling from southwest TN to southeast NE (yup, did that!), in which case Missouri is an absolutely soul-crushing 10-11 hours, simply because diagonal highways aren't much of a thing there. though i'm sure that hour count includes a decent lunch and a couple additional stops . . . .
it was 26 years ago i first embarked on that journey, and i only recall that it was rather miserable. hence my rebranding of the Show-Me State as "Misery".
California has two parallel highways: The Pacific Coast Highway (1/101) is considered one of the most beautiful drives in the country. 100 miles east you get I-5, which is 10 hours of driving through desert-like flatlands (100°F+ day or night, few curves, and even an overpass could be considered a "hill"). "Choose your routes wisely" is especially true here.
The cultural thing might also be renters vs. buyers. When our neighbors across from us and one door down bought their house, they stopped by all of our places, introduced themselves, and apologized for all the construction they'd be doing to make the house their own. When our neighbors directly across from us rented the place, we didn't hear, "Boo," and years later we're still hard-pressed to get them to even acknowledge a wave or a "Hello".
And as a final note before going heads-down for testing today, you might be thinking, "Well, Nobody, they might have a very good reason that they don't want to use their driveway."
There is, and I've watched it several times now with great amusement.
(1) As with all luxury car owners, they are psychologically incapable of pulling nose-first into a parking space, so they insist on backing into the driveway.
(2) The driveway, being designed for "normal" drivers, has the hedge between our two properties on one side. So I've watched as one of the tenants struggles against the hedge to get out, then struggles again to get their child out (since the child seat is on the driver's side). Rather than recognizing that pulling in forwards would be a better option, they've taken to backing up far to the right and onto the landscaping so that the doors are free, but then they still have to carry the child around the car to get to the front door. So, since they have to back in to the driveway, it isn't a tenable parking option for them.
In case you can't tell, I have a major pet peeve against backing into parking spaces.
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Took me two and a half days to drive from east TN to mid KS when I moved. Left immediately after my last day of work on Friday, drove to just north of Nashville then stopped for the night.
Saturday drove north from the TN/KY border into IL, stopping for an hour for lunch somewhere in north KY or south IL, then stopped for the night in mid-west IL.
Sunday drove across MO, stopped in some city for lunch then Kansas City for the night.
Monday finished the drive.
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(1) Typically, when people move in around here they knock at all their neighbors' doors to say, "Hi," and introduce themselves. I'm well aware that this is extremely unusual so I'm not particularly concerned that our new neighbors haven't done it, but it's kind of striking how hard they've worked to avoid interacting with anyone else in the neighborhood. I've seen them a couple of times and tried to walk over to introduce myself, and they either don't see me or pretend not to see me and quickly scurry inside. I'm not about to bang on the door of a family with an infant, so I'm leaving them be until I can catch them outside, but it's been a week now and I haven't even managed to say, "Hi," to one of them. Very private people.
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Not necessarily. If you don't lose the will to live after a few hours in a car, some of those can be done in less than a day. Missouri's about 4 hours from east to west.unless you're traveling from southwest TN to southeast NE (yup, did that!), in which case Missouri is an absolutely soul-crushing 10-11 hours, simply because diagonal highways aren't much of a thing there. though i'm sure that hour count includes a decent lunch and a couple additional stops . . . .
it was 26 years ago i first embarked on that journey, and i only recall that it was rather miserable. hence my rebranding of the Show-Me State as "Misery".
Yeah, I've very, very rarely needed to go far south of I-70 in Missouri. I just know that St. Louis to Kansas City is a pretty easy straight shot that we did fairly often before my grandparents relocated.
Driving from Kansas City to the bootheel for a job interview suuuuuucked. And I didn't even get a callback.
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their BMW and their Tesla
A picture is beginning to form in my mind.
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We're back to a semi-regular work schedule now... but it's not because we have more jobs, it's because we had almost an entire crew quit, so now there's enough work for everybody else.
Basically, our Crew 2 foreman really screwed up a job, and when he got told he'd be on half pay until he fixed it, he rage-quit, and his brother and his cousin went with him. So, including the guy who got fired a couple weeks ago, we've gone from having 9 landscape guys to 5 landscape guys in less than a month.
We're back to a semi-regular work schedule now... but it's not because we have more jobs, it's because we had almost an entire crew quit, so now there's enough work for everybody else.
Basically, our Crew 2 foreman really screwed up a job, and when he got told he'd be on half pay until he fixed it, he rage-quit, and his brother and his cousin went with him. So, including the guy who got fired a couple weeks ago, we've gone from having 9 landscape guys to 5 landscape guys in less than a month.
They must have really messed something up bad! I don't think the boss has docked anyone's pay but he'll have them do it over or stay until it's fixed.
That's why I take my time and make sure everything is right the first time.
I haven't had to go back and fix a project after the fact in my 4 years in charge.
Basically, our Crew 2 foreman really screwed up a job, and when he got told he'd be on half pay until he fixed it, he rage-quit.
Well... Yes. You don't pay to go to work, and once you figure gas clothes, the shower you take every morning and the car you need to get there, at half pay you'd make more staying home.
They must have really messed something up bad! I don't think the boss has docked anyone's pay but he'll have them do it over or stay until it's fixed.
Our crew is going to have to be the ones fixing it, so we got to take a look at it this morning--
For a start, it's a showcase/demo piece for the owner's sister. The job was billed out at cost, and was supposed to be something small but high-end that we could put on our marketing material- basically a small backyard patio with a seating wall, a bar, and a built-in grill.
For whatever reason, the course of block directly on top of the concrete footer for the bar wasn't leveled with mortar--it was just glued onto the footer, which wasn't level either, so the whole thing bows out by quite a bit on all sides (somewhere in the neighborhood of the top being 3-4 inches wider than the bottom).
The thing I don't get is that nobody on the crew questioned it--they just kept cutting in bigger and bigger pieces as they got to the top, then called the boss when they were "done." The whole thing is held together with polyurethane glue, so the only fix is for our crew to go in, tear it down, and start over from scratch with all new materials.
The rationale for docking the foreman's pay was that on top of doing the job essentially for free, now we're in the red to the tune of a week's payroll for four guys plus three pallets of wall block, and we don't have a hell of a lot of other money coming in.
Basically, our Crew 2 foreman really screwed up a job, and when he got told he'd be on half pay until he fixed it, he rage-quit.
Well... Yes. You don't pay to go to work, and once you figure gas clothes, the shower you take every morning and the car you need to get there, at half pay you'd make more staying home.
Half pay for a foreman isn't terrible money, and it would only be for a week, tops. Dude did a really bad job, and he's too young and hot-headed to own his mistakes.
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In case you can't tell, I have a major pet peeve against backing into parking spaces.
For some it's a habit. If you work in the boonies and get stuck turning around you want it to be at the start of the day (on your bosses dime) , when the sun is up, you can see what you're doing, and you have 8 hours to get it right. Not in the dark, when you want to go home, but you're tired and the coyotes are wondering what you taste like, and if you get hung up on a tree the tow company is NOT coming out there with a flashlight.
I haven't noticed people with nice cars backing them in. could be a Californian thing?
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Ah, animals! Both so inspiring and so depressing...
We've been leaving cat food in the yard so we've attracted a regular menagerie: Four crows, two raccoons, two neighborhood cats, and as of yesterday evening a Most Magnificent Skunk. It was a big skunk, and its tail was easily just as big as its body.
And things proceeded as I've always seen: The skunk, being highest on the "don't mess with me" chain, walked over and started eating first. Grey kitty settled down a few feet away and waited patiently. Once skunk was one, kitty went in and ate. Raccoons came along, waited for kitty to finish, then moved in themselves.
Even among different species, they all waited their turn, ate their fill, and moved on. Not a single growl, hiss, swat, or spray.
And I can't help but think that if it were a line of humans, one of them would inevitably declare the food supply their own, set up defenses, and prevent anyone else from getting at it unless they paid through the nose for it.
In case you can't tell, I have a major pet peeve against backing into parking spaces.
For some it's a habit. If you work in the boonies and get stuck turning around you want it to be at the start of the day (on your bosses dime) , when the sun is up, you can see what you're doing, and you have 8 hours to get it right. Not in the dark, when you want to go home, but you're tired and the coyotes are wondering what you taste like, and if you get hung up on a tree the tow company is NOT coming out there with a flashlight.
I haven't noticed people with nice cars backing them in. could be a Californian thing?
Fair enough, but we're talking grocery store parking lots or suburban driveways. Not exactly wild country.
EDIT: So a very short tirade: You never see someone back into a space and manage to center their car, so they're always blocking the doors of the cars next to them, or even so far over that they're taking up two spaces. You never see someone competent doing it; I've had to wait for over a full minute for some idiot to back into a grocery store space because they just couldn't quite get it right (and they were still way off center when they were done). The ones who do it in diagonal spaces are downright dangerous because they're pulling out headfirst into oncoming traffic. I've never heard a decent excuse in an urban setting.
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They must have really messed something up bad! I don't think the boss has docked anyone's pay but he'll have them do it over or stay until it's fixed.Our crew is going to have to be the ones fixing it, so we got to take a look at it this morning--
For a start, it's a showcase/demo piece for the owner's sister. The job was billed out at cost, and was supposed to be something small but high-end that we could put on our marketing material- basically a small backyard patio with a seating wall, a bar, and a built-in grill.
For whatever reason, the course of block directly on top of the concrete footer for the bar wasn't leveled with mortar--it was just glued onto the footer, which wasn't level either, so the whole thing bows out by quite a bit on all sides (somewhere in the neighborhood of the top being 3-4 inches wider than the bottom).
The thing I don't get is that nobody on the crew questioned it--they just kept cutting in bigger and bigger pieces as they got to the top, then called the boss when they were "done." The whole thing is held together with polyurethane glue, so the only fix is for our crew to go in, tear it down, and start over from scratch with all new materials.
The rationale for docking the foreman's pay was that on top of doing the job essentially for free, now we're in the red to the tune of a week's payroll for four guys plus three pallets of wall block, and we don't have a hell of a lot of other money coming in.
Holy s+*$! That's really f**$ing up, dude is lucky he wasn't fired outright and his whole paycheck claimed for damages.
Got excited about a master's program and started putting together my app materials. Then discovered it's not an online course, so I probably can't do it.
Back to researching.
In case you can't tell, I have a major pet peeve against backing into parking spaces.
For some it's a habit. If you work in the boonies and get stuck turning around you want it to be at the start of the day (on your bosses dime) , when the sun is up, you can see what you're doing, and you have 8 hours to get it right. Not in the dark, when you want to go home, but you're tired and the coyotes are wondering what you taste like, and if you get hung up on a tree the tow company is NOT coming out there with a flashlight.
I haven't noticed people with nice cars backing them in. could be a Californian thing?
Fair enough, but we're talking grocery store parking lots or suburban driveways. Not exactly wild country.
EDIT: So a very short tirade: You never see someone back into a space and manage to center their car, so they're always blocking the doors of the cars next to them, or even so far over that they're taking up two spaces. You never see someone competent doing it; I've had to wait for over a full minute for some idiot to back into a grocery store space because they just couldn't quite get it right (and they were still way off center when they were done). The ones who do it in diagonal spaces are downright dangerous because they're pulling out headfirst into oncoming traffic. I've never heard a decent excuse in an urban setting.
At least around here we have started ticketing people who pull head first into diagonal parking spaces. It has lead to a number of fights/arguements with the city and some towing issues when people won't pay/lose in court.
Got excited about a master's program and started putting together my app materials. Then discovered it's not an online course, so I probably can't do it.
Back to researching.
I'm sorry. That must be disappointing.
Holy s$@%! That's really f$&*ing up, dude is lucky he wasn't fired outright and his whole paycheck claimed for damages.They must have really messed something up bad! I don't think the boss has docked anyone's pay but he'll have them do it over or stay until it's fixed.Our crew is going to have to be the ones fixing it, so we got to take a look at it this morning--
For a start, it's a showcase/demo piece for the owner's sister. The job was billed out at cost, and was supposed to be something small but high-end that we could put on our marketing material- basically a small backyard patio with a seating wall, a bar, and a built-in grill.
For whatever reason, the course of block directly on top of the concrete footer for the bar wasn't leveled with mortar--it was just glued onto the footer, which wasn't level either, so the whole thing bows out by quite a bit on all sides (somewhere in the neighborhood of the top being 3-4 inches wider than the bottom).
The thing I don't get is that nobody on the crew questioned it--they just kept cutting in bigger and bigger pieces as they got to the top, then called the boss when they were "done." The whole thing is held together with polyurethane glue, so the only fix is for our crew to go in, tear it down, and start over from scratch with all new materials.
The rationale for docking the foreman's pay was that on top of doing the job essentially for free, now we're in the red to the tune of a week's payroll for four guys plus three pallets of wall block, and we don't have a hell of a lot of other money coming in.
Why did this occur?
I'm sorry. That must be disappointing.Got excited about a master's program and started putting together my app materials. Then discovered it's not an online course, so I probably can't do it.
Back to researching.
Could be worse. Apparently another nearby school has it as an online option, so probably going to work toward that.