Octopus Overlords

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 1:44 pm Not with that one. But any money spent paying for it to be mowed means no mower for me.

How different is that from the current situation?

Indeed. You're very focused on owning a mower when the actual issue is you need your grass cut. Figure out a way to bargain or trade or come to some type of mutually beneficial agreement. It needn't involve cash. You could offer to buy all the gas. You could offer some other exchange of services you're able to provide. Get creative.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 1:44 pm Not with that one. But any money spent paying for it to be mowed means no mower for me.

Granted, but that may well work in your favour. Because realistically, your mobility issues and capability to use and adequately maintain second-hand hefty horticultural equipment completely alone and with extremely limited resources are highly unlikely to improve as you get older. So, for your own safety and well-being, your funds could well be better spent compensating someone such as your neighbour to help out instead of banging your head against a wall in a futile effort to continue trying to do the work yourself. And Smoove is absolutely correct about figuring out a way to bargain, barter, or trade to reach some sort of mutually beneficial agreement that needn't necessarily involve cash (or at least reduce the amount involved).

stessier wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 1:49 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 1:44 pm Not with that one. But any money spent paying for it to be mowed means no mower for me.

How different is that from the current situation?

Well this is stimulus money. I wont be getting it regularly. So I could have my yard mowed 5 or 6 times then not have a mower AND not be able to have it mowed ever again.

Better I get a mower and keep it mowed see. I dont have any extra each month to have it mowed or buy stuff I need. I live right on the edge and do without a lot to pay my home off by 2024.. I have enough food now because they raised my EBT to $200 because of COVID. When that drops back down to $90 I will be going hungry for the last week of the month again. The yard can go f itself compared to that.

Posting history suggests you mow once a year-ish. You could get 6 years worth of mowing or buy a mower that will not be working after this year because you won't have money to fix it.

Ha ha. When I have a working mower I mow every 3 weeks.

Or you will complain about it every 3 weeks.

I may go for every week. Got no mowing to do right now.

Today I have discovered that it is borderline impossible to find out if your spray paint has expired. Apparently it has a shelf life of 2-4 years from manufacture, but they don't date the cans. I'm trying to figure out how much of the paint on my shelf (mostly Krylon) has gone bad, and I'm making zero headway.

Maybe they're hoping people will just keep throwing away half cans and buying new.

Could test spray a small item of junk. Or if its been a few years just toss it all. Im not sure how much spray paint is though as I haven't gotten any in decades and it was cheap then. Unless you bought the 'model' paint.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 1:36 pm Could test spray a small item of junk. Or if its been a few years just toss it all. Im not sure how much spray paint is though as I haven't gotten any in decades and it was cheap then. Unless you bought the 'model' paint.

The problem is that I don't know how spray paint goes bad. Does it spray on fine and then become brittle after a month?

Ah my thought would be it would not mix well and streak and run. But you'd have to look that up.

edit I looked online..some say it doesn't expire. Some say the ball wont rattle in it, and others say it wont spray because the valve is gummed. Shrug.

According to this article, the issue with expired paint isn't that the paint itself goes bad, but that the propellant eventually leaks out. If that is correct, then if you can still use the spray can, the paint is probably fine.

Does Spray Paint Expire?

Do car spray paint cans expire?

Whether the spray paint is for cars, metal, wood, plastic or any other surface, the expiry dates and reasons for them seem to be largely the same. Pressure loss from the aerosol over time. Your car is definitely something you will want to take great care with, so make sure to always read the instructions for best use or enquire with company of the spray paint can for further details if you are unsure if you can still use an old spray paint you had stashed away years ago.

Can you use expired Spray paint?

In some cases, you can still use the spray paint past the expiration date given on the can. Make sure to shake the aerosol can upside down for an extended period (2 minutes or so) before use, and always test the paint before using it on your desired object. Sometimes the cause of a seemingly dead spray paint can be down to a clogged nozzle. In this instance, soak the nozzles in thinners and blow it out with compressed air to clear the pathway. If the issue persists and it seems to be a loss of pressure in the can, it’s still always handy to save and store cleaned nozzles for any future issues with other cans.

I was out walking Dog on Tuesday at lunchtime. We took an unusual route, so Dog was very excited to sniff everything along the way.

At a bus stop Dog had never seen before, we encountered an older Gentleman eating friend chicken from a take-out container. Dog (who loves everyone and has a very winning smile) was entranced, and I was struggling to move him along when the Gentlemen tore off a strip of chicken and tossed it to us. I thanked him and tried to keep Dog moving, but there were four more pieces before the Gentleman finally told Dog to go. It was all very adorable.

On Thursday, my older son took Dog out for a walk at about the same time of day. Dog pulled him along to the same place as before (again, a route we almost never take), and the same Gentleman was sitting there waiting for his bus, again eating chicken. Dog had another three or four bits before the Gentleman even mentioned that he had met Dog before.

I guess Dog is Gentleman's dog now?

Id never let someone give my dog food. Plus with chicken and them being older it could have a bone in it. Chicken bones are dangerous...they are hollow and sharp and break into splinters. If a little one was in there it could get hung in a dog's insides and require surgery. Plus dark meat aint that great for a dogs pancreas.

Happy birthday to me. My bday is tomorrow but i got a lawn mower today! Finally. Seems like a great mower for the price too. The man kept it up. It only has some scuff marks and paint peel in the deck edge. I mowed....and ran over baby bunnies! Argh....they seemed ok. There were 3 of them...yes I looked good for a 4th..no blood and no pieces of a 4th....one was squeaking loudly but I hope I just scared it. It scared me. I checked all 3 real good. No blood and they were moving around and 'seemed' ok. The nest was the size of my hand and they are little with barely any fur and eyes still closed. The front wheel went over them but its a bigger wheel than their nest so hoping nothing got squished. The deck did too but I had it set to the highest as the field grass was knee high.

I marked their area with flags and left a 3 foot triangle of grass by them for mamma to hide in. Man I hope they are ok.Ill recheck them tonight before dark. Ill post pics below.

This is just like the one I got....even the same deck paint wear almost. Its a little over 10 years old I think. John Deere LA 110 Automatic.


Baby bunnies!

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 6:18 pm Id never let someone give my dog food. Plus with chicken and them being older it could have a bone in it. Chicken bones are dangerous...they are hollow and sharp and break into splinters. If a little one was in there it could get hung in a dog's insides and require surgery. Plus dark meat aint that great for a dogs pancreas.

No bones. The Gentleman was just throwing strips of chicken meat. I always get Dog to drop it when he finds a bone on the ground.

I miss our old mail delivery woman. Had her for about 20 years. She was always on time. If something needed to be put on the porch or hand delivered she did it. One time our car got high sided in our yard and since she was in a jeep she handed me a tow cable and just pulled us right out. But she must have retired or got a new route. She has been gone about 2-4 years now.

Since her we've had at least 2 other women and this guy. And I swear he is bad...or lazy. He'll spend more time trying to not do something rather than just do it and get it over with. He is never here at the same time twice...all over the place. Ive had him show up at 11am to 4pm.

Yesterday I see him pull up and fiddle at the box and fiddle and fiddle and shit. He was there a good 4 or 5 minutes. Finally he drove away and me and Buster (I always take my chihuahua to get the mail) headed down to get the mail. I open the box and its just a wall of cardboard. This guy has put other smaller boxes in the box before but this took the cake. I couldn't get it out with one hand so had to bring Buster back to the house then go back down there. I still thought I was going to need pliers to yank it out. When it finally started to budge and start out it just kept going and going. When I finally got it out I held it up to the side of my mailbox and the damn thing was the exact size! He STUFFED that in there. My God. He could have walked up and put it on the porch LIKE HE WAS SUPPOSED TO in 30 seconds.

Dont like him.

Mail folks have some of the toughest jobs in the world, and I don't mean sun, rain, and snow.

They have to walk way too many steps, esp. in urban areas with no place to park, and they get yelled at if anything goes missing unless they leave them in mailboxes. have a friend of a friend's husband medically retired from USPS. He walks as if he rode horses... The knees bowed outward. His claim was his knees got messed up delivering mail.

When I was about 8 years old I wanted to be a mailman. It just seemed so cool that he got to walk around all day doing good work.

This is rural though..no walking ...unless its a package that SHOULD be brought to the porch...he can pull into the driveway and walk a total of 20 steps.

EDIT: Just now he left the wrong mail in the box...again.

Saw this in my FB feed. Its a post card.

1936 Chevy.
$275.00
$75.00 down payment
$14.00 a month for 16 months

Don't forget about the economic situation back then. A third of families back then averaged less than $500 a year income. This was still a toy for rich people.

Also, 80hp will get you a 3-cyl smart car, while over double the current cost, I'm sure has a lot more safety features for when you get pinballed by a semi.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 10:06 pm Also, 80hp will get you a 3-cyl smart car, while over double the current cost, I'm sure has a lot more safety features for when you get pinballed by a semi.

And before somebody else mentions it, yes. Cars back then were tougher. You could get in a wreck with barely a dent on the car. The difference is that today you can accordion a car and walk away from it. Back then you could have a car with barely a dent, but everybody inside had been smashed to jelly.

Mighta been used too.

I paid $275 for my first car in 1972, a '59 Oldsmobile 88. That translates to $1,743 in today's money. A heck of a deal! Well at least until the engine blew out.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 10:46 am When I was about 8 years old I wanted to be a mailman. It just seemed so cool that he got to walk around all day doing good work.

I still think it's a pretty cool job. Our carrier has been on the route for decades and is an integral part of our neighborhood (even though he doesn't live in it). He always makes time to chat for a couple of minutes when we cross paths, which is often.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 10:18 pm Mighta been used too.

*does research*

It was either $535 or $625 new, depending on whether it was the standard or deluxe version.

Check out who'll be here in Oct......not the same without Davey and Peter but id love to see Micky.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 10:21 pm I paid $275 for my first car in 1972, a '59 Oldsmobile 88. That translates to $1,743 in today's money. A heck of a deal! Well at least until the engine blew out.

$300 in 1985 for 72 Gran Torino that I couldn't drive for another year and half. A heck of a deal! Well at least until the engine blew out. Although, it was a lot of maintenance, right up until the engine blew out. Nothing quite like starting a car and watching oil spray on your windshield. "Guess we won't doing maintenance to fix this one." That tank was so much fun.

The time and effort I spent (and my old man spent) fixing $250 - $300 cars was quite a bit. No, thank you. I got up $1000 and then $800 for my last two used cars before I got my first brand new Mercury Tracer for $13,000 in 1997. I got a new Focus in 2008 for $13,000. It's about time to get another new car and I just can't warrant the money yet and the cost of new cars isn't getting any cheaper. Every time I need to put money into my Focus, I re-evaluate though.

So we have this crazy expensive private T1 circuit to select customers. It is about to upgrade to fiber gig because it's cheaper to install a new fiber circuit than it is to maintain the "9s" and latency QOS of the T1. And for the price we're paying, it'll still be expensive.

Blackhawk wrote:

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 10:06 pm Also, 80hp will get you a 3-cyl smart car, while over double the current cost, I'm sure has a lot more safety features for when you get pinballed by a semi.

And before somebody else mentions it, yes. Cars back then were tougher. You could get in a wreck with barely a dent on the car. The difference is that today you can accordion a car and walk away from it. Back then you could have a car with barely a dent, but everybody inside had been smashed to jelly.

Getting less than 10mpg...

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 5:24 pm

Blackhawk wrote:

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 10:06 pm Also, 80hp will get you a 3-cyl smart car, while over double the current cost, I'm sure has a lot more safety features for when you get pinballed by a semi.

And before somebody else mentions it, yes. Cars back then were tougher. You could get in a wreck with barely a dent on the car. The difference is that today you can accordion a car and walk away from it. Back then you could have a car with barely a dent, but everybody inside had been smashed to jelly.

Getting less than 10mpg...

...when gas was 25 cents a gallon. My first vehicle was a minibike with a 0.8 gal. tank. I got change back from my quarter in 1970.

In the 1986 when I got my first car gas was .86 cents a gal.

I paid a total of $850 for my car...a 1974 Toyota Corolla SR5.

My first car was a 1955 white Caddy, an El Dorado and a convertible.
Come to think of it, it was newer than my car and truck now.
Some how that's just not fair.

The first car I bought (in 1974) was a 1972 Opel GT for $1200. I'd saved up that money to buy the mother of all stereos, and had already picked out all of the components except the speakers -- I was trying to decide between Infinity and Klipshorn -- when I went with my best friend to test drive that car. I loved it. When his financing fell through, I bought it for myself. I quickly learned to drive a stick and never looked back. I've only ever owned small cars with manual transmissions.

Never did get to own the mother of all stereos though.

Just read a breakdown of Pride and Prejudice from an unusual perspective:

Pride and Prejudice details the community-wide damage that can be laid at the feet of serial sexual predators.
It details the characteristics of predators, discusses the systemic social failures that allow predators to abuse
others, and grapples with difficult questions of how communities should deal with those predators

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 1:15 am Just read a breakdown of Pride and Prejudice from an unusual perspective:

Pride and Prejudice details the community-wide damage that can be laid at the feet of serial sexual predators.
It details the characteristics of predators, discusses the systemic social failures that allow predators to abuse
others, and grapples with difficult questions of how communities should deal with those predators

I just skimmed the article. It will annoy casual readers ("Why do academics have to write this waaaaay?"), but its interpretation of the novel is solid.

I've taught P&P more than a dozen times, and students are always shocked to realize the implications of Wickham's behavior. There's every indication that he intended to seduce and abandon young Lydia Bennet in London. It's also said that Wickham was "dissipated" during his time in university, which everyone in Austen's time would have understood as not just drunkenness but also lechery involving exploitation of prostitutes. And of course he tried to seduce and elope with Darcy's sister when she was about fourteen.

And everyone in the novel really does enable Wickham's future behavior by refusing to talk about his past when they learn of it.

Nineteenth-century novelists knew the art of talking about sex without talking about sex.