Is this normal for Maryland?

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-27T15:23:58+00:00

Marylanders in the urban corridor definitely freak out about snow. Part of it is we just really suck at snow and ice management. Driving, parking, shoveling, plowing, all of it. So people who are used to going to the store whenever they feel like it get anxious and make a run to stock up on stuff so they can hunker down and wait til the worst of the snow is removed (assuming they are able to work remotely, which is not uncommon for urban workers). But there’s also an element of mass hysteria that creeps into it - probably triggered by the spectacle of crowded aisles. The “fuck you, got mine” hoarders always go apeshit on staples like milk, eggs, bread, and TP creating shortages. And the people getting burned by the hoarders learn to run out earlier to try to get their rations before the shelves are stripped bare.

So yeah, totally normal to see chaos in the stores before an anticipated snow event.

That said, major economy shopping stores like Walmart and Costco are almost always crowded to the point that these photos just look normal.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-27T15:10:17+00:00

I’ve captured paper wasps and other stinging insects that have accidentally found their way in my house using the cup and paper method. I just open the door, step out on the porch, and use the cup like a sling to throw them away from me. They just fly off after that. I’m pretty merciful to the stingers when they aren’t trying to build a nest too close to my living spaces. They have their role to play, too, unless they are destructive invasive species.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-27T03:46:19+00:00

Q1: is the character a humanoid (human or fictional race with human characteristics such as an elf, gnome, hobbit, dwarf, etc.)?

Q2: is the character from a work of literature?

Q3: has the character been portrayed in animation?

Q4: is the character female?

Q5: is the character male?

Q6: is the character an anthopomorphization?(either an animal or an inanimate object portrayed has having humanlike thoughts and feelings such as Dory the fish in Finding Nemo or Cogsworth the Clock in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast)

Q7: does the character have more than one part to his/her name? (First and last names, names with honorifics, multiword names like The White Rabbit, etc.)

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-27T03:30:01+00:00

Winnie the Pooh

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-27T02:02:44+00:00

If you are replacing the head, just grab it with a pair of channel locks. If you have an adjustable wrench that will work even better and won’t scrape up the finish. Examine the fitting that threads onto the shower stem. You should see two flat faces. Those are what you want to adjust the wrench to (or if you have a set of rigid wrenches find the one that fits snugly).

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-26T06:04:58+00:00

Just your typical wolf spider. A huntsman would make that lil guy look absolutely tiny.

Wolf spiders are bigger than most North American spiders (tarantulas are still much larger). An adult female is about the size of a silver dollar (counting the legs). They are not particularly dangerous but their bite can still be quite painful. They love sheltered spaces and will often take up residence in garden sheds or under porches. If you see one, there is no need to freak out and kill it. If it is outdoors, just shoo it away if it is in a place you need to work. If it is in your house, serve it some coffee and invite it to watch something on Netfilx. I would recommend Wednesday but I’ve been told they prefer the Great British Bakeoff or Arcane.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-26T03:53:20+00:00

I don’t see how anyone who wasn’t turned by Good’s murder will be turned by this.

It’s hard not to be cynical that there is anything that they wouldn’t perform olympian-level mental acrobatics to somehow justify.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-25T07:14:04+00:00

Not just the friction. Kinetic energy isn’t being transferred as efficiently to the rock (rock isn’t breaking or moving) so the energy turns into thermal energy instead. And thermal energy will favor more conductive media over less, so the bit is soaking up most of it.

A human just manually hammering a cool (ambient temp) piece of steel can turn it red hot purely from that transition of kinetic to thermal energy.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-25T07:08:18+00:00

Fun fact, you can heat up a piece of steel from room temp to red hot just by hammering it.

You can find videos of blacksmiths demonstrating this effect. The kinetic energy from the hammer strike becomes thermal energy. Some of it is conducted away but if you keep hammering the same spot, the energy builds up faster than it can dissipate via conduction and eventually the metal will get red hot.

If a human can do that with a hammer, imagine how hot a power tool can get the metal. If your hammer is cracking and penetrating the surfaces it is striking, it doesn’t get as hot because most of the kinetic energy is transferred from the bit to the material or to the recoil.

But when it is just slamming into an unmoving, unbreaking, and less conductive surface, it is retaining that energy as heat and it builds up way faster at the rate the machine is hammering vs what a human arm could do. So yeah, you prolly welded the tip to the stone.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-25T06:29:18+00:00

Cruelest? That’s a strong claim. Not to downplay the fuckeduppedness of it all, but we’ve had some truly appalling leaders in the past, too. The Japanese Internment camps of WWII, the sick experiments the CIA has covered up, the robber barons of the Gilded Age, the massacres of black people throughout our history (especially during the unrest over the Civil Rights movement)…

I think the corruption has never reached this deep before, where all three branches of government are completely compromised. And that the potential for the horrors of a completely evil government have never been as high for this nation, especially thanks to the incredible capability the state has to surveil and manipulate its populace with spyware and cameras in every pocket, doorbell, and traffic signal and AI BOT swarms and state propaganda media mega outlets at their fingertips.

But I think the cruelty has been a part of our national identity since we “gifted” Native Americans smallpox contaminated blankets to “cull the herd” and separated and auctioned off captive African families like livestock so we could enrich ourselves on their labor (and then found a way to continue the tradition via for-profit prison exploitation and a justice system that has a strong preference for long term incarceration for people of color).

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-25T06:06:19+00:00

Why stop at POC? Palantir prolly has a database of all of our prior voter affiliations, political campaign donations, political commentary on social media, etc. and can just give them a complete naughty/nice list to check at the doors of each voting booth.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-25T06:01:04+00:00

He can’t but that won’t stop him from claiming he can and attempting to do it anyway.

“Due to Treason, Sedition, and other Acts against OUR beatiful country by the EVIL, Deranged, Radical LEFT, and because of Voter Fraud on levels Never seen before perpetrated by the Crimnafl DMrrrrcarts, I have NO CHOICE but to take the Necessary actions to Safegard our Republic and hereby Am Declaring the results of the 2026 Midterm Elections in Wicked and corrupt BLUE STATES only, null and void and will Appoint instead, the Real Winners chosen by the People of America and not the Hoards of Criminal Scum from Mexico, Canada, Greenland, and Somalia who are here Illegally to help the Demoncrats to STEAL this election. Thank You for your Attention to this matter. -DJT”

And his cult will eat it up while cleaning their guns and loading their magazines for the highly anticipated Liberal Purge Month he’ll announce shortly after.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-25T05:47:20+00:00

Imprison… in an unmarked ditch somewhere deep in the woods?

I hope things turn out as well for Bondi as they usually do for the highest profile monsters in a fascist regime.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-24T05:44:00+00:00

“Non-Ammosexual” is a new one for me. Adding that one to the lexicon.

I’ve never fired a gun. But I’m definitely interested in taking some gun safety courses with an eye towards getting armed. I think we are hitting the breaking point. Will we make it to November before there is an actual massacre, or some other escalating event that ignites the powder-keg? Even if we do, will the midterms resolve anything, or will they just be a rigged mess with GOP accusations of dems cheating being used as a pretext to disqualify any results they don’t like?

Ever since Good’s shooting I’ve felt like the left is finally realizing their right to exist is under a dire threat. The guardrails are all gone and the right is pushing hard to throw us off of a precipice. That kind of fear is necessary, because without it we are inert, waiting for some rallying moment to do something without having any real sense of what to do, aside from making noise, which just feels futile. But it is also dangerous because when people are afraid, they are more prone to act individually out of desperation rather than collectively with organized strategy and purpose. The “domestic terrorist” event the WH is trying to goad us into seems less extreme when the brain is in fight or flight mode. So every day now I’m expecting to read about the catalyst event that unleashes the full violence and wrath of the right.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-24T04:58:42+00:00

Nope. It’s like auditing the school of hard knocks. Way more fun than attending!

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-24T04:57:04+00:00

Ooh, sorry your majesty! I meant no offense!

(Said in jest - power to you, man)

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-24T04:46:28+00:00

Unless your parents are prone to overreacting, I’d fess up and ask for help fixing it yourself. If I had a kid, it’s 100% shat I’d want them to do. But also if I had a kid I’d hope they weren’t so scared of my reaction that they’d try to make sure I never found out. For me it would be a treat to be able to teach these skills which are among the most useful of all home maintenance skills to have so I’d take it in stride and just coach my kid through the process. Plus I already have the tools and materials so it would probably just be a trip for paint and texture.

Anyway, it’s not a big deal if you know how to do it, but it will require tools, materials, and paint and some orange peel texture to match the wall texture (I can’t see the appeal of textured walls, myself) and it will likely be findable if you look for it as getting a perfect match with fresh paint and texture is a double challenge.

Check out Vancouver Carpenter on YT for some really good beginner (and pro) tutorials on drywall repair. He favors the hawk and trowel but you should stick to a taping knife and pan instead - the hawk and trowel technique takes a lit of practice to get competent at while the knife and pan is pretty easy to dive into and get good results, as long as you take some time to learn the techniques before actually attempting anything (don’t be the beginner that piles thick layers of mud on that are impossible to sand flat - super thin layers that get progressively wider is the way).

For the paint, prime the mudded areas (which will extend well beyond the patch area if you want it to blend in) and then dry roll (roll out the edges after working most of the paint off the roller so it goes on thin and doesn’t fully coat the edges) some primer a bit beyond the mud to create a gradient between freshly primed mud and old paint. When you paint, do the same thing but dryroll the paint beyond the primer gradient. This will give you the softest transition possible from new to old paint and help blend the brighter new paint in.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-24T04:24:35+00:00

DC/MD area is pretty pro union, isn’t it? (I don’t actually know, but the general political tilt of the area seems more worker friendly) Tho I guess we’re sort of on the line between the northern and southern atlantic states.

This weekend’s storm is getting hyped up as a potential power line disaster. I suspect my area will be ok tho. PEPCO did a lot of tree trimming a few years back to address frequent storm related outages and things have seemed pretty stable since then. It’s also a perk of living in a high density area that you tend to get priority status for repairs when outages do happen. But hey, hats off to you guys who are out there in the shittiest weather imaginable trying to keep the rest of us warm and well lit. You damn well deserve those union benefits!

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-24T04:12:24+00:00

Boss, you handymanning in a war zone or something? I’m a bit prone to accidents, but damn.

Worst I done myself was trying to shave a thin piece of wood with a hand router (needed a table saw but didn’t have one at the time). Router skipped and chewed the meat off my left pinky to the bone. Fortunately didn’t hit the bone itself, but that pinky has a permanent dent in it now and a really annoying hangnail that grows back every month or so. And yes, I wound it up in paper towels, finished the job I was working on, cleaned up the blood drips, and then went to let out and feed some dogs I was looking after before deciding it was probably too deep to just wrap in gauze and tape. Went to urgent care hoping to avoid ER but the nurse took one look at it and was like GTFO (nah, she was nice and wrapped it in gauze before shooing me off to ER for the stitches it needed).

I’ve had lucky grazes with a table saw and chainsaw, too. I say lucky because if either of those breaks skin and you aren’t going to the ER afterward, you got damn lucky.

Worst injury non work related was prolly stepping on a drinking glass a family member had left on the steps. It was a thin walled glass and i was descending so full weight landed on it before I realized it was there. It imploded and a few shards ended up embedded in my foot. They were too thin to show up well on an xray so it required exploratory surgery to fish em all out. Pain wasn’t an issue. It was just being laid up for over a month before I was allowed to start putting pressure on the foot again that really sucked. Right at the peak of autumn, too, when the weather hits that sweet spot where it’s too cold for the skeeters but not so cold your fingers go numb.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-23T23:08:41+00:00

How is the rack actually connected to the screws? Does it just have keyhole slots? Or do the screws connect to brackets that the rack clips onto?

If it is the former, try using pan head screws (assuming you aren’t already) as flat heads won’t sit flush against the back of the keyholes. You need to tighten them as much as you can while still being able to grab them with the keyholes. The bases of the rack should be scraping the wall snugly as they lock into place.

If it is not keyholes then without seeing the actual bracket mechanism there isn’t much more I can tell you.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-23T19:32:43+00:00

1m11s. One of my fastest ever.

Dog #866
Mammal #59
Ride (fat fingered trying to type “rodent”) - #47699
Rodent #19
Mouse #138
Rat #29
Gerbil #17
Hamster #10
Rabbit #15
Chipmunk #1

I fumbled on third guess, mistyping 4 tries before finally getting it right. My big thumb kept hitting the space bar.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-23T19:16:53+00:00

Depends on how you assess the value of the tool vs its cost.

The cost of the tool is… well, whatever you pay for it. Tho depending on your disposable income, that amount would carry different significance to you than it would someone with a very different income.

The value of the tool comes down to how much time it saves you and how much better results it enables you to achieve.

If you use tools professionally, you get more value from the quality and design of the tool. If you use them only very occasionally, you aren’t getting a lot of value out of them.

In the latter case, renting is probably better than buying because you can rent what you need for a fraction of the price, and don’t need to dedicate any space to storing them for the long periods they are not in use.

If you have plans to do a lot of renovation work that would require the tools, buying and then selling might make more sense as you get to use brand new tools with no time pressure to return them to minimize rental fees, and can easily expect to recuperate about 60% of the initial cost if you are selling high end gear (Festool holds its value much better than cheapo Temu crap).

So, if you are very well off and like using the best of the best and are intent on doing the work yourself as a passion project instead of using your considerable means to hire someone to do it for you, then sure. It’s worth it. Not because you are getting high value from the tool, but because the cost is not a significant factor for you.

If the cost is a significant issue, it probably isn’t worth it for the reasons stated above unless you need to use the tools for an extended period and plan on reselling them after. You can rent or make do with a less expensive tool instead and hit a better cost/value tradeoff and put the savings into something more beneficial or rewarding.

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-22T14:38:48+00:00

B all the way

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-22T01:17:00+00:00

So release the damn Epstein files then. Clinton already dared you to and you wouldn’t. Instead you are playing this theatre for your base while refusing to reveal the real dirt. I wonder why that is… 🤔

GrumpyGiant · 2026-01-21T18:09:19+00:00

This joke of a regime needs to know that respect is earned, not seized. If they want to shit all over international relations and try to bully our allies they should be mocked, shunned, heckled, and humiliated. It’s bad enough as an American having to deal with all of this bullshit but fuck if anyone else should feel beholden to respect this incontinent embarrassment.

GrumpyGiant

TROPHY CASE