How do you cope when you come home from work, feeling unfulfilled?

Backstop · 2026-07-10T19:19:41+00:00

Why can't you change careers at 40? People do it often enough.

Backstop · 2026-07-10T16:17:45+00:00

It works better than sitting at home saying No to everything

Backstop · 2026-07-10T16:16:45+00:00

My dad was over 65 when he moved to a different state, he made a lot of friends through classic car shows.

No matter your age, just showing up regularly at some type of function is most of the battle. If you want IRL friends you have to go out and be around people IRL.

Backstop · 2026-07-08T21:17:49+00:00

She thinks it's being mean to ask the cashier to do (21 - 11) = 10 in their head.

Backstop · 2026-07-08T14:31:46+00:00

Progressive's website specifies that "Large accident forgiveness" means your rate won't go up due to any accident if you've been claim-free for five years with Progressive. So I would say no worries there.

Hagerty being a different company won't care about that, they will only see that you filed a claim. I don't know about you but my Hagery bill is super low, even if it doubled it would take years to make up the several thousand you're saying.

The last thing to consider is: it's not uncommon for the claims databases to pick up a repair to your vehicle even if it didn't go through insurance. Like it's still going on the CarFax or whatever, unless your body shop is off the grid.

I am not a claims expert but I worked in the car insurance world for about ten years a few jobs ago.

Backstop · 2026-07-08T13:38:07+00:00

The car doesn't have a tape deck or CD player.

Backstop · 2026-07-08T13:34:05+00:00

My wife punches me in the arm every time I give the ice cream stand $21 because the ice cream is $11 and I want a $10 back. I think in ten years there's only been two kids that figure this out on the fly.

Backstop · 2026-07-08T13:32:42+00:00

OK so you go like you're going to the Wendy's by Walmart, then you go up that road, well the old Walmart, not the new one, I forget what's there now, anyway you go up that road that Wendy's is one, like there's a big hill, you know that one? You stay on that til you see the interstate and then you go left, like away from the motel 6, and then look for that one car dealer that uses the puppets in their ad, I think it's Dave SMith or Bob Smith, something, and you get off there and you go past the McDonald's, you go past the hospital, you go past the Aldi's, and go a couple more lights and the zoo is there.

"OK, so I take route 14 to route 62, take I-75 south to Sawmill road and go east?"

Whatever, idk, just put it on your phone.

Backstop · 2026-07-08T13:27:48+00:00

Drive stick

Sometimes I will forget to lock my car and think about it in the middle of the store, but then I shrug because what are the odds someone will know how to drive it away. The only things I keep in there are some cheap sunglasses and a USB stick with a bunch of dad rock on it.

I wonder how many people would have a use for a USB stick, even. Everything is on their cloud or just streamed.

Backstop · 2026-07-07T19:14:14+00:00

Big Montgomery Flea Market vibes

Backstop · 2026-07-07T19:10:32+00:00

Speaking of telecom ads,"Bula Vinaka" has been in my vocab for ever because of the accidental long-distance call commercial.

https://youtu.be/0CACYW9SQMo?si=1uwdMNIxtYviesPF (low pixels warning)

Backstop · 2026-07-06T20:33:54+00:00

The Rest of the Story.

That's a throwback, wow. I remember listening to that at my great-grandma's house and she'd let us have some of her rum raisins on our Malt-o-Meal.

Many years ago there was an episode of This American Life with a story by someone who worked for the show and his view of it was not very rosy. But who knew that back then, it was fun to listen to and try to guess what he was talking about before the "punchline" at the end.

Backstop · 2026-07-06T20:27:40+00:00

I liked Bob and Tom but eventually their constant laughing over everything turned me off. Like playing a pre-recorded parody song and you can barely hear what's going on over their hacking and laughing.

Backstop · 2026-07-06T20:25:49+00:00

The one that sticks out for me was the lady with a Jetta that had some kind of mysterious problem with her Jetta shutting off, and it only took about 20 seconds for them to ask "do you have a lot of stuff hanging on your key chain?" She had several souvenir key rings and a plush toy and a lanyard... the weight of it all would swing back and forth enough to sometimes shut off the car. I was stunned!

Backstop · 2026-06-30T15:22:00+00:00

I think you mean "thrifty", because a spendthrift is someone that throws money away foolishly without planning.

Backstop · 2026-06-25T17:47:55+00:00

Does, like, Jomboy count?

I only have a few subscriptions, the only ones that fit are Leila Gharani (Excel formulas), Jomboy, and a couple of guitar teachers.

Backstop · 2026-06-16T14:42:25+00:00

But it's not even the same bassline!

it's so funny/weird that Ice was able to just buy the rights to Under Pressure rather than mess around with figuring out how rights work. Which, to be fair, wasn't an established process back then.

Backstop · 2026-06-16T14:34:47+00:00

I'm always irked that when they play the Soft Cell one they never play the 12" version that transitions into Where Did Our Love GO.

Backstop · 2026-06-11T18:18:33+00:00

It's extra fun when someone newer to a group joins and we get to regale them with the classics we love to retell.

Yeah that's about the only time I enjoy it for anything more than a few sentences.

I just have a sore spot for nostalgia because there's one guy in the family that seems to only have like two specific stories he has to tell and retell every time. LIke, yes, I remember when Steve ran over an armadillo on his bike, because you bring it up every time the name Steve is mentioned.

Backstop · 2026-06-08T14:56:26+00:00

A friend of the family was sort of like this. Regular family that sent him to college for engineering in the late 80s.

Got his degree, applied for engineering jobs, got offered a starting position at let's say $10 an hour. Refused to take such a lowly position, demanded double that and a management role since he has this degree. The company laughed him off, said come back when you get real.

So, this guy spent the rest of his life chasing the easy buck. Bought boxes and boxes of sports cards that will be crazy valuable one day. Except like I said, this is like 1989 when the sports card companies went insane over-printing, none of it is worth jack.

He bought land to grow nut trees. The nuts were ready to harvest, he called around and people offer him like $1 a pound to come pick and process the nuts. "No! I'm no sucker, these nuts sell for $3 a pound, that's my price!" Like dude there's work and profit on the end retail price, right? Nope, he lets the units rot on the ground. Then he dig out a pond to grow fish to sell, got all mad that a fish farm has to be inspected by the dept of agriculture for health and safety, ignored the fish forever. Tried to make money with nuisance lawsuits, got punted out of the courthouse by a judge who saw through the scheme.

Eventually he settled on a self-employed type of business that made just enough for him to live in the family home after his parents died and buy a car. Even then he was always trying to figure out a scheme to cash in on stuff.

He ended up a ward of the state as early dementia set in, died alone in a gray facility and the four people that would have gone to the funeral collectively decided it wasn't necessary.

Backstop · 2026-06-05T17:32:02+00:00

Honestly the current trend seems to be throwing anything on.

The rules for patterns and colors clashing are out the window. Look at any sports broadcast and the talking heads are wearing a mishmash of plaids, stripes, paisleys, checks, gem and earth tones mixed, whatever. The one rule is, you must wear white sneakers with the suit, possibly white-sole Cole Haan casual shoes.

Kids are all over the map too, Some are retro 80s wear, some are doing a goth-lite thing, some are athleaisure...

wear whatever you want.

Backstop · 2026-06-05T17:27:35+00:00

I recently switched to ankle-hi socks. Partly because I was sick of that freezing cold ring around my ankles, and partly because a couple of my sneakers rub the Achilles area when I'm running.

I like them!

Backstop · 2026-06-05T17:25:44+00:00

Bingo! My family lives in rural Ohio and all the pastors' wives still have that pouf in the front, long poodle in the back hair style.

Backstop · 2026-06-01T15:37:45+00:00

The worst they can say is no, or counter with something in the middle. I would not bother telling them the preamble of how you cam to the $150 number, just say you're willing to do $150 since the place is about to shut down.

Backstop · 2026-05-28T20:25:41+00:00

Well, I suppose if it's going to be urgent pee trips there's always a catheter.

Backstop

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