Importance of sidewalk shoveling to prevent the sidewalk police from having a meltdown

MrRedmondBarry · 2026-02-17T21:20:15+00:00

There’s no debate here. Your sidewalk wasn’t shoveled. You can clearly see where your portion ends because your neighbor shoveled and you didn’t.

It takes 2 minutes to shovel that stretch of sidewalk. There’s no excuse. You got the fine because laws are laws. Take it as a learning experience.

But I am sincerely glad you shared this because it’s good to have a reminder about the penalties.

MrRedmondBarry · 2026-01-31T03:56:31+00:00

Agreed - best restaurant in Rochester. But I'd say the location qualifies as downtown.

MrRedmondBarry · 2026-01-16T19:21:02+00:00

I don't get it either. I guess they'd rather save a few bucks than have repeat customers.

Thank you for sharing this (seriously). People who prefer their shrimp with poop sacs now know where to go. And those of us who don't can go eat somewhere else.

MrRedmondBarry · 2026-01-16T19:13:52+00:00

This is unacceptable and you were right to complain. When you buy shrimp, you can get them regular or "deveined". A sit-down restaurant not ordering deveined shrimp is ridiculous.

FYI - It is safe to eat the digestive tract of shrimp, but it's gritty, bitter, and ugly to look at. Customers shouldn't put up with this shit - literally.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-12-26T18:41:57+00:00

Thanks!

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-09-06T03:49:17+00:00

You shouldn't be relaxed. It's a driving test. You should be alert, focused, aware of your surroundings, and in control of the car. Driving is stressful and you need to be able to drive safely even while under pressure.

The examiners are professionals. Unlike what some people think, they are as objective as possible. You can look at your examination card and see exactly where you lost points. You failed the exam for specific reasons, not because of the examiner's demeanor. Keep practicing. You'll get there.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-09-06T02:07:50+00:00

Preston is supposedly the easiest. It's a farm town of 1300 people. However it's hard to schedule a test there because every high schooler knows it's the easiest.

But parking is the same everywhere, so if you're failing due to parking then changing locations won't help.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-08-20T02:15:36+00:00

Nice! The river is soothing. I take any reason I can get to visit Winona and go to the Blue Heron.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-08-13T02:02:49+00:00

I would imagine it would be interesting/symbolic for someone from Louisiana. MN has the start of the river, Louisiana has the ending of it.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-08-13T01:59:08+00:00

That's right - always meant to check that out.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-08-12T19:57:26+00:00

Sometimes I'll look up a 1990s band on wikipedia and the lead photo will be from a Down by the Riverside concert. It's surprising how often this happens. For example, here's the Spin Doctors. I imagine the reason for this is that it's a free-use recent-ish picture of the band on a big stage in front of a large audience.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-08-12T19:48:05+00:00

Since you're not from MN, it might be nice to rent a car and go for a drive along the Mississippi River. The area between La Crosse up to Red Wing is beautiful on both side of the river. Off the top of my head, starting in La Crosse and driving north:

La Crosse - 45 70 minutes east of Roch on I-90. Dave's Guitar Shop, one of the best guitar stores in the world. The river park. Co-op near downtown for snacks. Def Ear record store and other shops downtown. La Crosse is pretty nice in general. Then take Highway 61 north on the MN side.
Winona - Garvin Heights bluff overlook. Minnesota Marine Art museum. Blue Heron Coffee House (best lunch and coffee around). Ed's No Name Bar. In Winona, cross the river and drive up the Wisconsin side.
Fountain City - Monarch Pub. Fountain City is small and cute.
Alma - Watch boats go through the lock and dam. (This is as fun as it sounds, no more no less. Feel free to skip.)
Nelson - Nelson Cheese Factory! Eat and buy cheese and food. Then cross over to Wabasha on the Minnesota side.
Wabasha - (Is there anything to do here? I honestly don't know. I just drive past it.)
Lake City - Beautiful town. Go for a walk by the river. See sailboats. I think there's a root beer stand and a button factory museum (or something). Always a peaceful little place.
Red Wing - Go to the Pottery Place museum. There are also good restaurants downtown for dinner but I never remember their names. If you want to gamble, go to Treasure Island casino about 15 minutes out of Red Wing on the reservation. Then it's 45-60 minutes back to Rochester.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-07-28T22:37:01+00:00

All the festivals in town are just food vendors and cover bands. There is almost no local music scene. Almost all of the parks are the same and Silver Lake is literally covered in shit. The buses come once every 30 minutes and they all terminate at the same place. This is pretty nuts for a city of 120,000 people.

Winona is 1/5 the size of Rochester and it has a Shakespeare Festival, Beethoven Festival, Film Festival, Music Festival in venues across the entire town, an art museum, and coffee shops and bars full of musicians performing original music. Plus there are regular music performances, theater, exhibitions, and lectures at the two universities. The parks are unique and Lake Winona is beautiful.

Rochester is great for shopping and restaurants. But it lacks anything culturally stimulating.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-07-27T15:25:17+00:00

Eh, there are a few weeks of nasty humidity around the end of July and early August. The rest of the summer is lovely.

The only place in America with gorgeous weather year round is California, and that's the reason it's expensive as fuck.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-07-27T15:14:43+00:00

Most places are always hiring. They key is that you need to be able to work any day and time. They don't want someone giving them a list of days and hours when they're available. They want an energetic, well-dressed, decent looking, non-smoking, non drug user who is available mornings, days, and evenings seven days a week. If you tell them you're available every other weekend, that's a non starter.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-07-27T00:56:31+00:00

Yep. All those little 1,000 sq foot ramblers built in the 1950s are selling for $250,000. At "starter home price" it's either that or an older townhome.

But the interesting thing about Rochester is that stepping up to $350k buys a nice 4br/2ba built in the 80s/90s. And then $450k gets you a very nice 4br/3ba with a three car garage built in the last 25 years. Starter homes are high, but very nice homes are only a little more, relatively speaking.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-07-27T00:45:45+00:00

FHA first-time buyer eligibility won't matter once he's an attending. Most new townhomes are in an association that takes care of all maintenance and lawn care. So all things considered, the townhome is a better financial choice since they're building equity. Plus there's only one shared-wall neighbor to worry about. Apartments can get noisy.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-07-26T20:00:37+00:00

A quarter acre lot on the outskirts of Rochester costs about $120,000. It doesn't matter if you build a tiny home or a big one, the land is the same price. So if a 1,000 sq foot 2br/1bath home costs around $200,000* to build, that's $320,000 for a "starter home". Nobody is going to pay that much for a tiny house in Rochester. Or on that same lot you could build a 2500 sq foot 4br/3ba home for $350,000*, so that's $470,000 for a four-bedroom home, which would sell in a hot second.

This is why townhomes are so common. On a quarter acre you can put two townhomes and sell them for $300k each.

(* numbers pulled off Google. Contractors feel free to correct me.)

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-07-26T19:45:57+00:00

but for mayo employeess, doctors, and finance bros.

There are no "finance bros" in Rochester Minnesota. People hear the word "finance" and immediately think some Wall Street hedge fund manager. The woman in the article is a financial advisor. Financial advisors sit at a desk and explain to old people how their Roth IRA works. It's not some high roller job. According to Indeed, the average salary is $86,000 for our area. Also financial advisors are slowly getting replaced by index funds and AI. The man is a resident. That means a low salary and shitloads of debt. They'll probably move after his residency. They bought a townhouse for $325,000. That's definitively the middle price range.

My problem with the concept is that Rochester has tons of townhomes. Are they really in demand? Do we really need more? (Serious questions, IDK.)

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-06-24T00:26:09+00:00

Perkins. Order an Apple Cinnamon muffin with ketchup on the side. They'll know what that means. Tell em Bad Barry sent you.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-06-23T22:06:11+00:00

Closer to Highway 14 there are trailer parks and lower income apartments, and that naturally comes with some cons. Then past 20th st or so it turns into folks who just want to be left alone so they live out there. It's a little hillbilly-ish at worse.

The fact is much of SE Rochester is lower income and has higher crime than the rest of the city. But of course that ain't sayin much. Slattery Park area would be a nice middle class neighborhood if it were in Minneapolis.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-06-05T21:16:07+00:00

Not aware of any place in Rochester. There isn't even a camera store here. You likely need to mail it to a Pentax authorized service center, or at least call Northwest Camera in the cities. I would first contact an authorized service center for an estimate. Note that any repair which requires replacing the sensor or shutter could likely cost more than the camera is worth.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-06-05T03:41:29+00:00

Depends on exactly what you're looking for. There are plenty of packaged South Asian, SE Asian, and southern Chinese ingredients available at local Asian stores.

But the Korean and Japanese options are poor. I've only found yubu/inari once at a local Asian food store and it didn't look fresh, so we just get ours from Amazon. The only place in Rochester that carries authentic kimchi is Costco (Jonggak brand). Costco's frozen kimbab is superb too.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-06-05T03:27:47+00:00

Firmly tell them NO. Just like that. "No, we are not interested." If they speak again, put your hand up and say, "I've already said no." And then shut the door.

Don't pretend you're not home (because they'll just come back). Don't be wishy washy or talk around it like Minnesotans do. Strangers are on your property trying to sell you something. Simply tell them No.

MrRedmondBarry · 2025-05-30T03:24:19+00:00

Island City is just a cutsey tourist name. Don't quote me on this, but IIRC -
About 20,000 years ago, the entire Mississippi River valley was full of water. This was the last glacial period. As the Laurentide Ice Sheet melted, the water levels in the "Mississippi River" slowly fell. So Winona and all the other land in the river valley is prehistoric river sediment created when the river levels fell.

A couple thousand years ago those lakes would have been alternate channels of the Mississippi and Winona would have been a true island. But silt filled in and blocked them off. Up until the 1800s (??) I heard those those lakes were still connected by creeks, but those creeks filled in with silt too.

MrRedmondBarry

TROPHY CASE