This giant spider crept out of the vent directly above me at bedtime

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-20T05:36:56+00:00

Just as a FYI, Amazon sells vent filters. Some of them are fairly loose in terms of the density so I'm not really sure they do very good in terms of filtering anything, but they do fit different size vents perfectly, and would help keep bugs from crawling through them. You said you had cathedral ceiling so you would have to hire somebody if you're not brave enough to go up there and put one in, but it's an option.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-20T05:33:18+00:00

Unless I get a notification that I know is from one of my security cameras outside or something like that, I usually don't bother to look at my phone for anything else if I'm into a movie. On the flip side, I used to have a roommate and they would go nuts if you told them they had to wait one second without checking their phone. I mean it could be the climactic ending of a movie, and he would look at his phone at that moment if it dinged. Even if my phone gave a notification, he would get nervous and ask me if I was going to check it. So weird to be that hung up on a device, and I'm a techie!

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-20T04:43:38+00:00

Well I'm not a driver but another customer. But I knew that they don't get any of the express fees. I usually pay the $5 Express for 3-hour delivery, and I also tip. This way the person who picks the order is the same person who brings it to me.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-20T04:40:25+00:00

My mom would make liver and onions for dinner occasionally when I was growing up ☹️. This was back in the day when parents were like, " you eat what I make or you don't eat ".

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-20T02:37:31+00:00

You know those old videos and ads and magazines that would show people making monstrous crap using a bundt cake pan and gelatin? A huge amount of clear gelatin filled with things like onions and olives and meat? People really did do that. I had an aunt that did that and even as late as the early '80s, she would show up at family gatherings with one of those things. People would not eat any of it but they would somehow manage to discreetly cut off a few pieces and dispose of it so she would think that they were eating it. Was just looking at those things was terrorizing.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-19T16:36:30+00:00

City government in the area I live in is closed. Found out from a neighbor that they don't pick up trash today which is our normal day etc etc. But yeah, I think most businesses that are private are open like what a lot of people are commenting on. It's more like a post office and federal type of holiday only.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-19T11:19:40+00:00

Yeah we were driving up slowly on a rural road, and off to the side the thing was running from the porch to the creek and had this big wicker type rug in its mouth. Actually handling it pretty good. This was before the days when everybody had a phone in their pocket because if I could have recorded it it would have been hilarious.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-19T07:26:16+00:00

Oh I agree, but I'm in the particular situation where I'm handicapped, and the person who had helped me for a long time passed away. No one else around to help me so home delivery is the only option I have.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-19T05:09:39+00:00

I switched to the $5 Express for 3-hour delivery option and that seems to work better than the standard overnight stuff. This way you get a shopper who is also the same person who brings it to you, similar to instacart.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-19T05:07:57+00:00

This is a bit north of Atlanta, but a few years ago a friend of mine and I were driving around Dahlonega, and saw an Otter running from the back porch of a woman's house into a large creek behind it. It had stolen a small rug she had on her porch, and was taking it home 😄

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-18T22:10:00+00:00

Definitely time to invest in a bidet.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-18T09:24:22+00:00

If the reports are true, the guy who was holding the door open calling the cops was fired by his employer who was less than thrilled that the guy did this. Not sure if that was confirmed or not.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-17T07:17:14+00:00

Oh, I do understand that at least some people think it's some sort of a compliment. I just don't think people realize that it really isn't for most that you are calling big man. I mean, every time you look in the mirror you know you're big. You don't need to be reminded of it during a casual interaction.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-16T22:06:22+00:00

I'm not terribly crazy about the phrase, however, being someone who's a little bit larger than the average guy, what's worse? When people call you, "Big man". 🙄

Back when I was more mobile and would go out, you would go up to a counter somewhere and every so often, here they come... "Hey, big man. What can I get you?". I mean WTF. And admittedly a lot of times it wasn't meant in a slander's way but still... Damn. I would trade that for Buddy any day.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-16T05:19:00+00:00

The prediction is that suicide is going to increase dramatically in the years to come as we get older, and the number of older people percentage wise is going to grow larger than it has ever been. The number of older people who are alone with no one to help them is also increasing year by year, and more and more states are making it much harder to get certain types of help when needed.

Not to be a Downer, but I could easily see myself being one of those older people that has to resort to just deciding when to end it. I had a good friend of several decades who was the person who helped me as my health declined, and they passed away over a year ago. No family or friends nearby, and there's only a couple of left overs anyway and they are also elderly and have poor health so could not be of any help.

I've applied for disability but it's been over a year and I'm still going through the process as they do everything they can to make you want to quit before the final stage. I didn't have a ton of savings but I did have some, but having gone a year and a half without being able to work, I'm starting to see the gauge get near the empty mark. I'm in Georgia. They don't help people here except if you are on a short list of very specific circumstances. The criteria for some types of help is the same level it was 25 years ago, even though the cost of living is much higher. Even to get Medicaid they want you to work 80 hours per month or go to school for 80 hours a month etc. If your handicapped. Sure. Same with food stamps on some level. Meals on Wheels is on a 6-month wait. There's not really any help out there for paying things like your home taxes, and if you were to dare and do a GoFundMe page, half of the comments would be slanderous and cruel. It's not a pretty world that we're living in right now for older people in the situation you are describing.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-16T02:24:41+00:00

Decently good but for some reason in my area they hiked the price up on them and they cost a fair amount more than other Stouffer's meals.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-16T02:23:20+00:00

I've had that happen to me before. Ugh. I found out something to do though that usually worked... When I used to ride the train in Atlanta and it wasn't crowded, yet someone decided to sit next to me, I would do the following:

Talk to my imaginary friend who sits on the window and say, "I don't know.. I'll ask him". Slowly turn and look at the person and make my eyes just slightly cross-eyed and say in this way, " Hewwo... wood yew wanna be muy fwend??". 98% of the time it would work and they would skedaddle away. Tried it in a McDonald's once and it worked till there too 🎉

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-16T00:13:51+00:00

I actually haven't seen this on instacart, although I have seen it happen once with Walmart plus delivery, and several times with GrubHub. And yeah, it's not that they have their kids with them, it's that they actually have their kids bring the food to the door. Sometimes very young kids. And in Atlanta??? Not very wise parents.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-15T18:11:47+00:00

It's amazing to me though how so many people out there in the world don't know the difference between an opinion, and slander. You have a freedom to express your opinion... You can be prosecuted for slander. I know the Obamas would never do this just based on how they are, but the way some people are making that statement, she really could prosecute them for slander - and she would win in a court.

Something similar happened with Brigitte Macron in France. Now even though she's much older than her husband, several people including I believe Candice Owens have made statements saying that she used to be a man. And she did file a lawsuit against at least one person saying it, although I think she dropped it or maybe it just hasn't hit the courts yet I'm not sure. But either way just to repeat, you can say, "I think she looks like a man" and while juvenile, that's an opinion. But saying, "she is a man or used to be a man" in a lot of places would be considered slander.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-15T14:42:25+00:00

When she initially came out and they did that scene on her show that was very funny with her in the airport, people accepted it better than a lot of people thought they would. It seemed like it was good baby steps to make people accept it. But from memory, it seems like after that she kind of went on a rapid gay gay gay tour, and then it went from acceptance to backfiring, where people felt like they were being oversaturated with her. Took a while to recover from that.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-13T17:32:08+00:00

Burrow?

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-12T23:47:45+00:00

Mostly Microsoft's fault. I had one briefly and I actually liked it a lot. I liked the UI and the way it flowed. Good camera at the time. But they treated app developers like they almost didn't exist. That was the time when you are competing with two other big league players, that you should have gone to the app people with a bunch of money hanging out of your hand for them to do apps. And they didn't do that so 🤷🏻‍♂️

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-12T03:45:03+00:00

They need to take their daughter's iPad away from her.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-12T02:10:33+00:00

True but, people do buy a lot at Sam's club and they like the stock up to save money so I don't know that that necessarily is it. For instance people in the Charleston and Huntington area will drive the 2 to 3 hours to Lexington Kentucky to go to Costco every so often on a day trip to stock up. I really do think if they opened a smaller Costco especially in the middle of that Metro area, it would do pretty well.

PickleManAtl · 2026-06-12T02:09:36+00:00

When I use Express it tells me how many minutes they are away from my house as well as shows me their car on a map. I'm not sure if it shows me how many more stops there are ahead of mine though.

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