OT 18: Anti-Social Distancing

[troyguitar]

Fun times up here in Hoth. We had a water main break maybe 2 months ago that left us without water and meant that the road on our block was torn up for about a week while they fixed it, leaving us without access to the driveway for that time and our road as half shitty gravel since then...

Apparently their fix at the time was merely a band-aid and they are now installing an entirely new water line via tearing up the remaining half of the asphalt on our road. Our whole block has been closed all week and will be closed for another 2-3 weeks minimum with random unannounced water shutoffs as well. Loud ass construction all fucking day right outside our front door, starting at 6AM about 50 feet from our bedroom window, which is open at night because no AC. We normally get up at 8.

Oh yeah and we now get to hunt for street parking a few blocks away and because Corning is Corning we have to move both cars to alternate sides of the street every single day lest we get stacks of parking tickets.

Hopefully(?) at some point after this is done they will close everything again to repave the road. I'm guessing not this year though.

Tell me again why I'm supposed to be happy here?

[ChrisoftheNorth]

I don't think I've ever been in a store you have to be a member of. Is it really worth it? Aren't the quantities kind of large for a family of two?

There are certain things at Costco that are stone cold deals, and some that are just ok At Costco it's not really the quantity that drives the interest level, it is the QUALITY of the merchandise for the price paid. They had 5000 lb Quickjacks for a while for $999. You can buy a 1.75 liter bottle of Herradura Reposado for 54 bucks. That's how much they charge for a fifth at the grocery store. Wine deals, by and large, cannot be beaten. TV's are always competitive with Best Buy and have a 2 year no questions asked return policy. And if you get a business membership the cashback typically AT LEAST pays for the cost of membership so that's not really an issue.

We have the Costco Citi card, which has fantastic rebates. It basically pays us to use the card (which is just a Visa that works everywhere), and we end up with a membership for free. Gas and restaurants (consistently our highest spending) gets extra rebates that beat most other credit cards.

We buy dog food there, wine, and most of my clothes come from there...you'd be surprised at the prices on really quality clothing items. Food is just too much quantity (but excellent quality), so we usually skip that, but there's plenty of other benefits to make it worth it. If we have a party, we buy meat from there. And the Pizza at the food court is some of my favorite of all time. $10 for a GIANT pizza fresh out of the oven with a ton of toppings can't be beat.

We bought our appliances there for the last 2 houses, and will again. With the card, the warranty is extended to 3 years...which applies to ALL Electronics and the prices are lower than anywhere else I can find. Plus free delivery.

[Desertbreh]

I am indeed surprised that there is a Costco in Traverse City Michigan.

TC has every store a large city does. It's :minblown: we're giving up nothing. The ONLY thing missing for us is Trader Joes, but found found this "food cooperative" in town that sources everything from local farms, is as cheap as TJ's, but MUCH tastier. Just lacking the pre-packaged food game. And there's an Aldi up here that's a great replacement for that.

I need to take photos of the Costco here. It opened up a few years ago, and it's situated in the forest with nothing around it but the airport behind it. It's the nicest Costco I've ever seen. When we were leaving the last time we were here, a store associate had a can of paint and was touching up where someone had run a cart into the edge of the door opening. I didn't even know that was supposed to have paint on it, downstate stores are falling apart by comparison.

Interesting. It sounds like T-Dog is corporate center of the universe for UP.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

Baton Rouge crew - Safe & sound.

Didn't do much here, there's a bunch of leaves in the yard, but never lost power.

Good to hear man, glad you're safe.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

TC has every store a large city does. It's :minblown: we're giving up nothing. The ONLY thing missing for us is Trader Joes, but found found this "food cooperative" in town that sources everything from local farms, is as cheap as TJ's, but MUCH tastier. Just lacking the pre-packaged food game. And there's an Aldi up here that's a great replacement for that.

I need to take photos of the Costco here. It opened up a few years ago, and it's situated in the forest with nothing around it but the airport behind it. It's the nicest Costco I've ever seen. When we were leaving the last time we were here, a store associate had a can of paint and was touching up where someone had run a cart into the edge of the door opening. I didn't even know that was supposed to have paint on it, downstate stores are falling apart by comparison.

Interesting. It sounds like T-Dog is corporate center of the universe for UP.

TC is the largest city in northern Michigan(North of Midland in the center of the lower peninsula), and possibly the UP.

[Desertbreh]

There are certain things at Costco that are stone cold deals, and some that are just ok At Costco it's not really the quantity that drives the interest level, it is the QUALITY of the merchandise for the price paid. They had 5000 lb Quickjacks for a while for $999. You can buy a 1.75 liter bottle of Herradura Reposado for 54 bucks. That's how much they charge for a fifth at the grocery store. Wine deals, by and large, cannot be beaten. TV's are always competitive with Best Buy and have a 2 year no questions asked return policy. And if you get a business membership the cashback typically AT LEAST pays for the cost of membership so that's not really an issue.

We have the Costco Citi card, which has fantastic rebates. It basically pays us to use the card (which is just a Visa that works everywhere), and we end up with a membership for free. Gas and restaurants (consistently our highest spending) gets extra rebates that beat most other credit cards.

We buy dog food there, wine, and most of my clothes come from there...you'd be surprised at the prices on really quality clothing items. Food is just too much quantity (but excellent quality), so we usually skip that, but there's plenty of other benefits to make it worth it. If we have a party, we buy meat from there. And the Pizza at the food court is some of my favorite of all time. $10 for a GIANT pizza fresh out of the oven with a ton of toppings can't be beat.

We bought our appliances there for the last 2 houses, and will again. With the card, the warranty is extended to 3 years...which applies to ALL Electronics and the prices are lower than anywhere else I can find. Plus free delivery.

Costco Citi is our office spending card. We usually pull about a $1400 check every year, plus the Costco rebate check which is usually $150 or so.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

Fun times up here in Hoth. We had a water main break maybe 2 months ago that left us without water and meant that the road on our block was torn up for about a week while they fixed it, leaving us without access to the driveway for that time and our road as half shitty gravel since then...

Apparently their fix at the time was merely a band-aid and they are now installing an entirely new water line via tearing up the remaining half of the asphalt on our road. Our whole block has been closed all week and will be closed for another 2-3 weeks minimum with random unannounced water shutoffs as well. Loud ass construction all fucking day right outside our front door, starting at 6AM about 50 feet from our bedroom window, which is open at night because no AC. We normally get up at 8.

Oh yeah and we now get to hunt for street parking a few blocks away and because Corning is Corning we have to move both cars to alternate sides of the street every single day lest we get stacks of parking tickets.

Hopefully(?) at some point after this is done they will close everything again to repave the road. I'm guessing not this year though.

Tell me again why I'm supposed to be happy here?

That's...terrible. Hard to be happy with that.

What ever happened to that badass house in the country?

[CorvetteWaxer]

I don't think I've ever been in a store you have to be a member of. Is it really worth it? Aren't the quantities kind of large for a family of two?

There are certain things at Costco that are stone cold deals, and some that are just ok At Costco it's not really the quantity that drives the interest level, it is the QUALITY of the merchandise for the price paid. They had 5000 lb Quickjacks for a while for $999. You can buy a 1.75 liter bottle of Herradura Reposado for 54 bucks. That's how much they charge for a fifth at the grocery store. Wine deals, by and large, cannot be beaten. TV's are always competitive with Best Buy and have a 2 year no questions asked return policy. And if you get a business membership the cashback typically AT LEAST pays for the cost of membership so that's not really an issue.

Booze too.. some of the Kirkland branded stuff is supposedly much more expensive stuff sold in their bottle.

Yesterday I got two bottles of lagavulin 16 for $54 each where the local liquor stores sell it for $75-$99 a bottle.

[troyguitar]

Fun times up here in Hoth. We had a water main break maybe 2 months ago that left us without water and meant that the road on our block was torn up for about a week while they fixed it, leaving us without access to the driveway for that time and our road as half shitty gravel since then...

Apparently their fix at the time was merely a band-aid and they are now installing an entirely new water line via tearing up the remaining half of the asphalt on our road. Our whole block has been closed all week and will be closed for another 2-3 weeks minimum with random unannounced water shutoffs as well. Loud ass construction all fucking day right outside our front door, starting at 6AM about 50 feet from our bedroom window, which is open at night because no AC. We normally get up at 8.

Oh yeah and we now get to hunt for street parking a few blocks away and because Corning is Corning we have to move both cars to alternate sides of the street every single day lest we get stacks of parking tickets.

Hopefully(?) at some point after this is done they will close everything again to repave the road. I'm guessing not this year though.

Tell me again why I'm supposed to be happy here?

That's...terrible. Hard to be happy with that.

What ever happened to that badass house in the country?

Dunno if it sold or not but it's no longer listed for sale. Buying here is anyway unless you just love being cold and paying crazy taxes to live in the woods.

We don't have friends or family to go rent a house from for a month, sadly.

[Melon]

Baton Rouge crew - Safe & sound.

Didn't do much here, there's a bunch of leaves in the yard, but never lost power.

Good to hear man, glad you're safe.

Thanks man,
Haven't heard from Barrett yet however.
Not all airboaters are accounted for.

[Desertbreh]

Good to hear man, glad you're safe.

Thanks man,
Haven't heard from Barrett yet however.
Not all airboaters are accounted for.

Pretty sure if things got dicey he could just JB Weld a boat together and float to safety. Good news, Alan. You DO NOT need a repeat flood. That should be about once a lifetime max.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

That's...terrible. Hard to be happy with that.

What ever happened to that badass house in the country?

Dunno if it sold or not but it's no longer listed for sale. Buying here is anyway unless you just love being cold and paying crazy taxes to live in the woods.

We don't have friends or family to go rent a house from for a month, sadly.

Yea, good point. I'm so with high property taxes ever again.

What you're dealing with is your landlord's high taxes at work...really great use of resources.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

There are certain things at Costco that are stone cold deals, and some that are just ok At Costco it's not really the quantity that drives the interest level, it is the QUALITY of the merchandise for the price paid. They had 5000 lb Quickjacks for a while for $999. You can buy a 1.75 liter bottle of Herradura Reposado for 54 bucks. That's how much they charge for a fifth at the grocery store. Wine deals, by and large, cannot be beaten. TV's are always competitive with Best Buy and have a 2 year no questions asked return policy. And if you get a business membership the cashback typically AT LEAST pays for the cost of membership so that's not really an issue.

Booze too.. some of the Kirkland branded stuff is supposedly much more expensive stuff sold in their bottle.

Yesterday I got two bottles of lagavulin 16 for $54 each where the local liquor stores sell it for $75-$99 a bottle.

Kirkland dry gin is some of my favorite ever. and It's cheap. Their "expensive" vodka is absolutely outstanding too, and IIRC Under $30 for 1.75 liters

[Melon]

Thanks man,
Haven't heard from Barrett yet however.
Not all airboaters are accounted for.

Pretty sure if things got dicey he could just JB Weld a boat together and float to safety. Good news, Alan. You DO NOT need a repeat flood. That should be about once a lifetime max.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

Pretty sure if things got dicey he could just JB Weld a boat together and float to safety. Good news, Alan. You DO NOT need a repeat flood. That should be about once a lifetime max.

[troyguitar]

Dunno if it sold or not but it's no longer listed for sale. Buying here is anyway unless you just love being cold and paying crazy taxes to live in the woods.

We don't have friends or family to go rent a house from for a month, sadly.

Yea, good point. I'm so with high property taxes ever again.

What you're dealing with is your landlord's high taxes at work...really great use of resources.

I mean infrastructure work in and of itself is a good idea, but they are of course going about it in the worst way possible.

This section of road was newly paved 2 years ago. The water lines under it had already been problematic for years. The water people fucking told the city to replace the water lines before the road. Instead the city said "Yeah, nah" and slapped down new pavement NFG.

So they waste a huge pile of money on the road, then waste a huge pile of money tearing it up to repair the shitty old lines to last another 2 months so that they can do what they knew should have been done in the first place... and oh yeah instead of having the project take place during the summer while school is out (our block is the main access point for an elementary school) it is now going to overlap with the first couple weeks of school, leading to a massive clusterfuck.

In the end it's going to cost more than double what it should have cost and have been a massive headache for tons of people.

[D Griff]

Sadly we have communist liquor laws here and have to purchase through state run establishments. Crossing the border to SC Freedumb land saves a lot of money, I wonder if there's a Costco down there.

I forgot about the mandated liquor laws, guess there are 3 negative things about NC.

I buy maybe 3-5 bottles annually, so whatever. It certainly beats the hoth downsides you've just outlined

[Apex]

Yea, good point. I'm so with high property taxes ever again.

What you're dealing with is your landlord's high taxes at work...really great use of resources.

I mean infrastructure work in and of itself is a good idea, but they are of course going about it in the worst way possible.

This section of road was newly paved 2 years ago. The water lines under it had already been problematic for years. The water people fucking told the city to replace the water lines before the road. Instead the city said "Yeah, nah" and slapped down new pavement NFG.

So they waste a huge pile of money on the road, then waste a huge pile of money tearing it up to repair the shitty old lines to last another 2 months so that they can do what they knew should have been done in the first place... and oh yeah instead of having the project take place during the summer while school is out (our block is the main access point for an elementary school) it is now going to overlap with the first couple weeks of school, leading to a massive clusterfuck.

In the end it's going to cost more than double what it should have cost and have been a massive headache for tons of people.

.gov gonna .gov

[ChrisoftheNorth]

I forgot about the mandated liquor laws, guess there are 3 negative things about NC.

I buy maybe 3-5 bottles annually, so whatever. It certainly beats the hoth downsides you've just outlined

[ChrisoftheNorth]

I mean infrastructure work in and of itself is a good idea, but they are of course going about it in the worst way possible.

This section of road was newly paved 2 years ago. The water lines under it had already been problematic for years. The water people fucking told the city to replace the water lines before the road. Instead the city said "Yeah, nah" and slapped down new pavement NFG.

So they waste a huge pile of money on the road, then waste a huge pile of money tearing it up to repair the shitty old lines to last another 2 months so that they can do what they knew should have been done in the first place... and oh yeah instead of having the project take place during the summer while school is out (our block is the main access point for an elementary school) it is now going to overlap with the first couple weeks of school, leading to a massive clusterfuck.

In the end it's going to cost more than double what it should have cost and have been a massive headache for tons of people.

.gov gonna .gov

But it makes me to think about high tax dollars just supporting that kind of waste. That should NOT be ok.

[troyguitar]

Local governments seem like a pretty awesome place to work if you just don't want to care about anything. Too bad getting those jobs is pretty much a popularity contest. Like put me on the city council, I can't be worse than anyone else on there... can I?

[ChrisoftheNorth]

Local governments seem like a pretty awesome place to work if you just don't want to care about anything. Too bad getting those jobs is pretty much a popularity contest. Like put me on the city council, I can't be worse than anyone else on there... can I?

You just need to land a job that isn't a popularity contest...there's plenty of local .gov jobs that are just direct hire. Pay is usually so/so, but it has to be easy IDGAF work.

[Apex]

Local governments seem like a pretty awesome place to work if you just don't want to care about anything. Too bad getting those jobs is pretty much a popularity contest. Like put me on the city council, I can't be worse than anyone else on there... can I?

Local gov is super easy. And a lot of them work for multiple municipalities so they end up with 3 or 4 pensions.
I knew of one fire marshall who worked for 8 different townships.

Those jobs are all who you know, and are super rare to open up.

[wap]

Baton Rouge crew - Safe & sound.

Didn't do much here, there's a bunch of leaves in the yard, but never lost power.

Good to hear.

[wap]

Interesting. It sounds like T-Dog is corporate center of the universe for UP.

TC is the largest city in northern Michigan(North of Midland in the center of the lower peninsula), and possibly the UP.

Population 15k.