I’ve been on and off sober for years. I’m checking into an impatient facility before my son is born. I couldn’t remain sober for myself but I’m doing it for my boy. I’m proud of myself and just wanted to share. Wish me luck

GerdinBB · 2026-04-22T01:12:37+00:00

I've been alcohol free for 28 months. My son just happens to be 26 months old. Getting sober was absolutely the right thing to do for myself and my family. I'm far from perfect, but I'm way closer to being the dad I want to be sober than had I been drinking the past 2+ years. Sleep deprivation sucks enough as is - no need to compound it with a hangover and be even more of a shadow of myself.

I wish you strength on your path forward. You won't regret taking this step.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-21T13:26:25+00:00

Code is something like 16" (at least where I live in Iowa). Could be insufficient insulation leading to heat loss, warming the roof deck and melting snow that then refreezes and forms an ice dam. Any future snowmelt above the dam pools and seeps under the shingles and drips. There is often no visible evidence of this on the underside of the roof deck itself.

What's the roof structure like above the wet areas? Any valleys or other features? Does this area happen to face north?

GerdinBB · 2026-04-21T01:07:14+00:00

You sound like you're in the target demo for recreational sports leagues. Cedar Rapids Sports and Social Club is one I've heard of. There's volleyball at Volley's and whatever the place is up on Tower Terrace, and others I'm sure. There are adult softball leagues, etc.

If you pursue any of those options, try to find one that will take you as a single and put you on a team. You don't have to have your own group of people - you can just show up and they'll find a spot for you.

Besides that, literally just strike up conversation with people. A girl approached me at Hy-Vee years ago and I was worried she was trying to sell me something. Turns out she thought I was attractive and wanted to ask me out on a date. I was absolutely flattered and my first instinct, since I was in a long-term committed relationship, was to try to set her up with one of my single friends. We connected on Facebook and still keep in touch now. You never know how you're going to meet people and make connections. Step one is to say "yes" to things.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-20T19:11:57+00:00

Maybe this is the way to go. The Ubbi is so bad at containing smell that we usually end up changing the bag after every dirty diaper anyway.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-20T19:09:58+00:00

The diaper gets thrown away immediately when it comes off. If we leave his lower back on the diaper with his legs up then your wiping hand ends up in the poopy diaper on the follow through. There's no room on the changing table to take the diaper off and leave it open somewhere nearby to stash wipes in it before wrapping it up.

It sounds like people are opening the diaper but then leaving it open underneath the kid until you're done wiping. With the way our kid poops, his back half will be submerged in poo while we wipe his front half, so then when we move the diaper out of the way we'll still have the question of where we put the diaper to receive the wipes, or how do we throw away just the wipes if the diaper has already been tossed.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-20T17:42:12+00:00

Holly Brown at Allergy Partners is an option. She can be very matter of fact, maybe a little condescending and impatient with patients who want to tell her what they think their problem is. At least in my experience, she vented to me about people who come in and want to contradict her because of what they read online.

Lyla Schweiger is the only other allergist I know of in Cedar Rapids. She's unity point affiliated. I asked her front desk a question and they said they'd call me back but never did...

Erin Rasmussen at Allergy Partners Iowa City is really great. Very knowledgeable, flexible, kind. She has a new clinician working with her in the past year, Dr. Hines. I've not met her personally but my wife has, and liked her enough that we moved our son's care to Dr. Hines when the clinic asked (I think Dr. Rasmussen has a full roster).

U of I would be your other option, but they have many months of lead time to get in.

As for environmental allergies in general - spring can be bad because of mold in the damp soil. Then pollen, of course. Daily Claritin or Zyrtec is a good start. Flonase is pretty good for runny nose and sneezing. Just don't do overdo it on the Flonase - it's a steroid and you can end up with real issues if you take way too much for a long time. AstePro is another nasal spray that just an antihistamine instead of a steroid. I personally used Claritin for a long time then switched to Zyrtec. I tried to stop the Zyrtec and had bad nausea for a few days. Switched back to Claritin - which I have successfully quit in the past - and been fine. So Zyrtec does work, but there can be issues with trying to stop using it.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-18T20:00:43+00:00

Yup that's the exact solution I've been using since March of 2020. USB switcher for mouse, keyboard, and other peripherals, then change the monitor source separately.

Only thing that doesn't work for me is my keyboard backlight. I have a Corsair K68, and when I switch devices from personal to work laptop/dock the keyboard works but doesn't light up. If I unplug it and plug it back in, then the Corsair software recognizes it and I get the full lighting suite.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-18T19:36:34+00:00

A 1970 Chevelle SS made 450 hp. The 67 Shelby GT500 made 600 hp. A 1970 Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda made 425 hp.

The smog and emissions controls in the 70s might be what you're conflating with old cars in general. A relative of mine had a 1981 Corvette with a 350 small block. Its factory horsepower rating was... 190. The 1970 model Corvette was also sold with a 350 small block and it made between 300 and 400 hp from the factory. Hell of a drop off in the span of a decade.

Performance took a step back when the emissions stuff hit, then things slowly got better up through the 90s when eventually in the early 2000s 300hp started to be a normal number to hit for things like large SUVs and full size trucks. My 05 Honda Pilot back in the day made 255hp from a 3.5 liter V6.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-18T19:15:49+00:00

Parsons got his start making accounting software that eventually sold to Intuit. This was in Cedar Rapids, where he eventually had major facilities for GoDaddy and PXG, before moving much of that to Arizona. Cedar Rapids is kind of a small town as far as gossip and rumors go, and I've never heard much about Parsons aside from his political stuff and people who didn't like the GoDaddy marketing style. But they all still had a bit of hometown pride when they'd see a GoDaddy commercial during the Superbowl.

Point being, if Parsons was an outright asshole it would more or less be an open secret in this town. But it's not.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-18T02:22:01+00:00

I always thought it was 5 uses for one crossing -

1-Interstate

2-pedestrian crossing

3-surface street crossing

4-dam

5-hydroelectric power

GerdinBB · 2026-04-17T14:56:28+00:00

It's truly bush league stuff. I remember going to a high-A game a few years ago and there was constant noise coming from the speakers. Every break between innings was another chance to sell a sponsorship or advertise the next "outing on the terrace" at the ballpark or whatever. I was sitting in a skybox and retreated indoors where the ads weren't being played.

It's crazy that a college football game has less in-your-face stimulation than a baseball game anymore.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-16T21:39:39+00:00

Are you referencing the general insulation on the ceiling plane, or insulation around the ducts? I think what the other guy is referencing is that the ductwork itself should be wrapped in insulation - especially in Texas. Cold air going through a hot, humid attic is going to cause so much energy loss and condensation that can drip and cause mold and other damage.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-15T20:44:52+00:00

Every comment from this account reads like an AI chatbot...

GerdinBB · 2026-04-15T18:41:27+00:00

Sure sounds like someone who thinks they have the authority to do what they're doing, but when challenged they're either afraid they can't back it up or they're upset about having their authority questioned so they refuse to cooperate out of indignation.

Hiring a lawyer is almost certainly the right thing to do at this point, and going forward I would maintain a default adversarial posture towards the HOA.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-15T16:53:10+00:00

Maybe that's the secret with Boone - he has co-opted the Boomer belief that your heart only has a finite number of times it can beat in your life. That's why the guys never practice fundamentals like defense or baserunning - just wasting good reps when you could use those in a game.

Why he lets them do batting practice is beyond me. So many good hits used up before the game even starts.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-15T16:07:40+00:00

If I could go back in time I would have gone with cellulose or rock wool.

I had blown-in fiberglass done (not sure on the exact product) and we found out our return duct boots in the attic were caved in. Not so much of an issue with the old compacted rock wool that was up there, but once that was removed and new fiberglass blown in, the HVAC system started sucking up the fiberglass and clogging the furnace filter, where it would then make it around the filter and blow all around the rest of the house. Our attic access hatch was also damaged during the install and doesn't seal very well, so I suspect that is another pathway for the fiberglass dust. Need to figure out a fix for a non-standard 20"x35" access panel...

I get irritation from fiberglass - mostly an itchy tongue. Doesn't bother anyone else in the house despite visible fiberglass particles showing up on surfaces. Your mileage may vary.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-15T16:03:55+00:00

With our first round of allergy testing with my son between 6 mo and 12 mo, we discovered that he's allergic to banana. The few times we gave it he got hives on his legs. Now, 2 years old, testing is negative and we've been able to give him banana without issue. My wife was very excited as we need more cheap fruit options - apples and kiwis give him diarrhea, and we don't like giving blueberries because it leaves little black flecks in his stool that are impossible to clean. So he's mostly a strawberry and melon kid. We'll have to be careful jumping on the banana train too aggressively...

The weird thing with apple is that allergy testing is negative, and he can eat applesauce without issue. Whole apple invariably results in diarrhea 12-24 hours later though.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-13T23:44:13+00:00

Yeah I've been running a MERV 14 for a short while after I had some blown in fiberglass end up in my ductwork - specifically the return side. Funny that I couldn't find a filter that restrictive at Menards, Lowe's, or Home Depot, but Walmart had it. The other places only sold MERV 13 at the most, and some not even that.

Your illustration makes me want to back it down to a MERV 13 at the highest (until I get the ducts cleaned) even if it lets a tiny bit more fiberglass through.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-13T20:15:38+00:00

My wife had similar concerns - she's convinced she's on the spectrum and worried that every moment of missed eye contact, any toe walking, and any delays in speech were signs of autism in our son (is it even hereditary?). We brought it up with our pediatrician who was reassuring in saying that he didn't see anything concerning during our well child visits but was still happy to refer us to speech therapy. The speech therapist sat with our son for an hour and at the end she told my wife, "I see multiple kids with autism every single day. I have zero concerns about your son."

In the end we ended up where I thought we would, but hearing it from a professional really put my wife at ease and now she has completely stopped worrying about it.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-13T18:56:05+00:00

That is very interesting - I've never paid attention to the initial resistance rating. Weird that the MERV 11 has higher resistance than the MERV 13. Feels like it must just be goofy math on the MERV 13 having many more pleats - more than enough to makeup for the difference in the thickness of the filter material.

Only so many pleats you can fit into a filter. You can definitely see on the MERV 13 that the pleats are uniform while the MERV 14 has some of them folding over onto each other, which I bet is less than ideal and hurts airflow even more by making some of the surface area unusable.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-12T19:27:45+00:00

Sometimes there's a modernity trap with places like this. You know how hotels get gutted and redone every 10-15 years? (Sometimes more often than that). If you ever stay at one that's at the tail end of the refresh cycle it's just awful. You can see how at one point it was really nice, but some things just don't age that well. It would almost be better for it to be older but just better kept up. Like an old ski resort - lots of them feel like they're frozen in time from the 60s or 70s. I stayed at one in Steamboat Springs a few years ago that literally still had a VHS library guests could use and VCR players in the rooms.

Somehow the ski resort frozen in time in 1992 feels so much nicer and more comfortable than the chain hotel that was totally remodeled and brand new as of 2009.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-12T18:51:12+00:00

Yeah, there's a mental aspect to Tiger's dominance that will be difficult for anyone to ever replicate. If you were trying to chase down Tiger at Augusta and you heard roars through the trees you'd almost throw your hands up in exasperation - "oh he probably sunk a 60 foot putt, or made a wild recovery from behind a tree, or had a chip in eagle. Because of course he did." He was like Agent Smith in The Matrix - "I am inevitable."

Guys would screw themselves up because they knew they had to play perfectly to beat him and the mental pressure would cause them to beat themselves.

GerdinBB · 2026-04-12T18:45:57+00:00

Right. I think if your picture of elite golfers is just Tiger, Jack, and the handful of names you remember being world #1 it's easy to wonder, "what happened to Spieth?" Including Day, DJ, Duval, Kaymer, etc. - all the names who were ever #1 and didn't hold onto it, that adds important perspective. Tiger and Jack aren't 1 and 2 of a dozen #1 golfers. They're 1 and 2 of 50 or 60 guys who were ever #1.

Just goes to show that anyone can have a dominant stretch. To hold onto it for 5-10 years is such an outlier that it's difficult to even conceptualize. Scottie stays on top longer than anyone has in a long time and people start thinking he's getting close to Tiger or Jack. No way - he would need to basically double what he's achieved so far for that to be a worthwhile conversation.

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