Random Thoughts

Happy hour starts in 5 minutes
skinsmarydu said:
I moved too, only 3 miles away...but downsizing a 3-level house into a 1-BR apartment is the biggest challenge of my life, especially at my age...hopefully yours is smoother!
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Hah thanks. Moving sucks. But we’ll be through it eventually.

Had some wins with the kids in the last 2 weeks which really helps. My 6 year old was ok but making your first new friend is a huge hurdle and put a pep in her step.

My 10 year old… outright depressed. Put him in a lacrosse camp in Raleigh after we got here - he tried to have a good attitude about it but you just see something’s off. Then indoor lacrosse started and he was just… never seen him play like that. He just walked and stood around. Even when the ball came him way he stepped away. His first tryout for one of the premier travel teams down here went like that. It was to a point where it made sense to cancel the rest of his tryouts and pull him out of indoor and wait for school to start so he could make some friends… Being forced into those situations, dealing with the rejection email, and only going to make things worse. We talked him. He wanted one more tryout chance. So we sent him to one more tryout and he got the email first thing the next morning congratulating him and now I have my son back. He’s waking me up to go on runs, and working back yard 30 minutes 3 times a day. He’s finally talking to other kids at the pool. Was a rough month but I’m glad it’s over. 😮‍💨
 
I suppose it helps one of the several tournaments he’s got this fall is in Orlando so his mother has turned it into a Disney vacation


Yaaaaaaaaaaay…..
 
tshile said:
Hah thanks. Moving sucks. But we’ll be through it eventually.

Had some wins with the kids in the last 2 weeks which really helps. My 6 year old was ok but making your first new friend is a huge hurdle and put a pep in her step.

My 10 year old… outright depressed. Put him in a lacrosse camp in Raleigh after we got here - he tried to have a good attitude about it but you just see something’s off. Then indoor lacrosse started and he was just… never seen him play like that. He just walked and stood around. Even when the ball came him way he stepped away. His first tryout for one of the premier travel teams down here went like that. It was to a point where it made sense to cancel the rest of his tryouts and pull him out of indoor and wait for school to start so he could make some friends… Being forced into those situations, dealing with the rejection email, and only going to make things worse. We talked him. He wanted one more tryout chance. So we sent him to one more tryout and he got the email first thing the next morning congratulating him and now I have my son back. He’s waking me up to go on runs, and working back yard 30 minutes 3 times a day. He’s finally talking to other kids at the pool. Was a rough month but I’m glad it’s over. 😮‍💨
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Remember @daveakl? I think he's over that way, runs Abby's Army (remember, his daughter that got a cancerous brain tumor)?
 
It’s not ringing a bell but I bet if I saw a few posts it would.

I give NC credit for how they do the road infrastructure in the Raleigh area. I can get anyways in 35 minutes. Whether it’s 2 am or 8am on a Monday. Polar opposite or northern VA where every drive is a surprise as to whether you can be on time or not.

It’s odd not leaving 30 minutes early in case there is traffic. We showed up to his second tryout at the same time the club director got there to start setup. He was laughing at me.

Also every other person I meet is from somewhere in northern va. Thats not an exaggeration. You can find the locals complaining in the comments section on the local news website 😆
 
Random but tangentially related:

As a UMD fan I’m forced to essentially puke in my mouth constantly down here.

When my kid picked Carolina blue for his helmet stringing/mesh patern a small piece of me died inside.

I supposed the timing is perfect given the chaos and embarrassment that overshadowed what should have been a fun men’s basketball year :( it’s hard to want to care about that program after that.
 
I’m pretty solid on the football front. Jayden Daniels came just in the nick of time to save my children.

I think I’m gonna lose out on hockey. The canes are good and play 35 minutes away…

He’s already not a wizards fan and baseball doesn’t matter to us.

But I absolutely lost the war on the college front. He’s a Duke and UNC fan and I don’t care to going it and make him pick one. I can only take so much.
 
tshile said:
It’s not ringing a bell but I bet if I saw a few posts it would.

I give NC credit for how they do the road infrastructure in the Raleigh area. I can get anyways in 35 minutes. Whether it’s 2 am or 8am on a Monday. Polar opposite or northern VA where every drive is a surprise as to whether you can be on time or not.

It’s odd not leaving 30 minutes early in case there is traffic. We showed up to his second tryout at the same time the club director got there to start setup. He was laughing at me.

Also every other person I meet is from somewhere in northern va. Thats not an exaggeration. You can find the locals complaining in the comments section on the local news website 😆
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We had planned to move south of Knoxville after I retired, then changed our mind. Knoxville sounds the same as Raleigh. Granted they are much smaller cities but the highway system was great, you could get anywhere in short order. Rush hour? Yeah that was a joke, it was easy.
 
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Nobody acts happier to see me than my Aunt Nell. We are in Michigan celebrating her 90th, at the end of the night she was seen dancing with her son and grand daughter. What a great time, people in the Mid West are so damned nice.
 


Yep...Ft. Benning was the hardest ass kicking in my life
 
skinsmarydu said:
I wrote HTTR on the wall of a porta-potty while wearing my 10 Elite at a Robert Plant concert in 2013...
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Nice! I wrote HTTR in the grain dust at the top of a corn silo at the Buffalo Trace distillery. It's kinda hard to seen because my dive-buddy is/was a terrible photographer and it doesn't help that it was a cheap-ass underwater camera....but check out my right fin :LOL:

HTTR Fins.jpg
 
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We are about to pull out of Charlevoix, Michigan on the way home. Charlevoix is a beautiful resort town in northern MI on Lake Michigan, my mom grew up here. Last night we took a short walk to the benches overlooking the lake to watch the sunset.

I discovered stairs so we went down to the beach. I know people in the middle of the country believe a lake has beaches. But to me a beach is the ocean. I went beach combing and literally found a few small clam shells and a few feathers. No other shells, no sea glass, nothing. Sorry that's not beach combing to me so this is not a real beach.
 
I figured being retired, I wanted to get rid of our lawn service. Why pay for work I can do myself, and do a better job too. It helps kill some time each week which is a good thing. While searching for a riding mower, I noticed lots of vintage tractors, and it finally struck me... I need an antique tractor. I sold the project bike being it was going to be way too much to finish it.
Lots of stuff from the 70's and 80's, lots of older mid sized stuff, but due to space, I had to keep on the smaller size. Not really a bad thing actually, lots of cool small garden tractors. Crapped out on the first one... guy decided he didn't want to sell. Came home with the second one... A 1963 Wheel Horse 653. It's built like a tank. It makes my John Deere look like big box store junk in comparison, and the Deere is very well built. I'm in no rush to restore it cosmetically, mechanical first. When I rolled it in, the steering was completely frozen. That's pretty much the biggest issue with it. Doesn't have the original engine, so I'll repower it at some point. For now though, all I need is it to run for shaking down the drive system. The nice part, a garden tractor can run powered implements beyond a mower deck, so I can get a toy for the toy in the future. Doubt I'll have it done for the local show this winter, but ya never know.

So, I've figured it out... I've learned to enjoy slow mornings, with a nice cup of coffee reading the news. I fill the days with a mix of volunteer work, wrenching on the tractor, lawn care, and maybe a movie. Evenings are even slower... Having an absolute blast with the tractor. I have cuts and bruises, a burn or two, and the garage smells like old grease and penetrating oil... I'm lovin it. I've also cut my time screwing around online by easily 65%.
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Never thought id be a 2 pack a day Canadian forest smoker but here i am taking it all in. 😷

Please put down the hockey sticks, mount up on your moose and go fight these damn fires please!
 
heisenberg said:
Never thought id be a 2 pack a day Canadian forest smoker but here i am taking it all in. 😷

Please put down the hockey sticks, mount up on your moose and go fight these damn fires please!
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We got out of upper Michigan a day before the smoke arrived. Pretty happy about that.
 
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