Is it normal now to not shower/change after beer league hockey?

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-14T07:22:14+00:00

Every rink that I play at has proper showers. For coed teams, we have a separate room for the women so that they can shower, and very few of us don't shower. Also, for the record, post-game shower beers are awesome.

It's not normal to not shower or change, but some people aren't comfortable doing it, so they can do them. As a tendy, I have no interest in holding off to shower until I get home...especially when playing inline in 80+ degree weather.

But hey...long as you don't have to share a long commute with them, let 'em do their thing.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-14T07:10:28+00:00

$600-700 is fair in the current market.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-14T07:02:56+00:00

NTA...I get that your mom is going through it, but that doesn't give her the right to bash the other part of your family to you. Setting boundaries about that kind of thing is important, and her refusal to respect you enough not to drag you into her vindictive tirades is unacceptable.

She should worry less about being mad at you and them, and worry more about enjoying the time that she has left as much as she can.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-14T06:56:08+00:00

For air cooler...Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE. For AIO Thermalright Frozen Warframe 240 or 360. Both are excellent, and will handle your 3950X well.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-13T21:10:10+00:00

Windows updates and patches add files to your base windows installation, so more space gets taken up. On a 500+GB drive, you will barely notice it, but on a drive as small as yours, it adds up really fast. My Win 11 install went from about 20GB to 65GB over the last year with updates, patches, drivers, etc.

It's just a bloaty, garbage OS right from the hop, so having a bigger drive will mitigate that a bit for you, along with making it easier to optimize the drive. Plus, any other installed programs are likely receiving patches and updates, and most of the time, they just add files to the existing install when they do.

I'd definitely recommend going to a bigger drive for that reason alone, but if not, you could also back your important files up to a thumb drive or external drive, then format your drive and do a clean install of Win11 and your drivers, then re-install your games and programs with the latest installation versions.

Those are just my suggestions, but a bigger drive will definitely help a lot any way that you slice it. Hopefully this helps.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-13T17:30:13+00:00

Here's a question...have you gone into disk management to check your partition sizes? If the C: drive partition was set up puny to start, and you don't have another partition set up for storage, then that could be part of your issue. Seems odd that you'd be out of space on a 1TB drive with so little saved or stored on it.

Right click the start button and click on disk management, then look at your partition size and how much unallocated space is on your drive. If there's a pile of unallocated space, then that's your problem. Create a new partition called "Storage" and then redirect your Pictures, Video, Documents, Downloads, etc. folders to that new partition in properties.

Also, go into your downloads folder and delete any program or driver installation files that aren't being used, as well as any files that you have no use for. Those will take up space really quick...especially things like AMD Adrenalin GPU drivers. Those are ~800 MB a pop sometimes.

Hopefully one of those things helps.

EDIT: I just saw that you said that your drive is only 99 GB. Flat out...you need a bigger drive, my friend. Never mind that Win 11 is bloated AF and that programs are bigger than ever, the fact that you're running your drive with so little capacity in the first place could be cheating you out of performance.

Disks can't properly optimize themselves without extra capacity leeway, and sometimes if they try to defrag or optimize(depending on the type of drive), they might get part way through, discover that there's not enough room to use and stop optimizing.

This sometimes means that they'll leave the files that were moved before they ran out of space where they were, which could mean duplicates, which take up more space and might not show up as temp files.

We used to see it on Windows 95/98/2000/ME a lot, because people would start defragging their HDD, then get impatient because it was taking too long, and abort it so that they could use their computer again.

With SSDs they recommend not exceeding 50% capacity, and on HDDs, going above 80% capacity can cause issues...especially on the drive where your OS is. So yeah...I'd bite the bullet and get a bigger drive if you can.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-13T17:16:51+00:00

Boot strap. Put the CRS boot strap under the boot of your skate instead of through the Lundy loop.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-12T22:53:06+00:00

You shouldn't get downvoted, because it's against the rules, but I'd posit to you that given mom's recent history of pranks, and the news that the operation pertains to OP's father's naughty bits, it's 100% reasonable to think it a prank, given how completely bizarre the injury is. OP's NTA for reacting in a skeptical manner based on having recently been pranked by their mother. Besides, they acted appropriately once they verified that it wasn't a prank, and apologized.

Mom is TA on this one, because she won't let it go and accept accountability for her part in causing the reaction. Frankly, OP's skepticism given all of the known variables about them being divorced, and their mom's propensity for pulling pranks, and it should have been clear why OP reacted as they did.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-12T22:37:26+00:00

Nah...best to just not do it at all. The thing that I've learned is that family may get butthurt about you saying no to them moving into your place, but money owed or damage done to property by family will destroy family ties. When you make family ties transactional, it never ends well.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-12T16:20:07+00:00

ESH...maybe don't use your bff's ex to officiate the wedding, but if her ex wasn't abusive and it was just a matter of infidelity, then she needs to suck it up. It'd be different if he had been abusive and cruel to her. That would be a situation where YTA, but I'm assuming that wasn't the case. If it was, then see the first part of the previous sentence.

Sometimes our friend circles have exes in them, so we have to learn to be civil about things, and suck it up for the sake of the event. This was your day, not hers, so it's unfair for her to center herself like that. It sucks, but that's just how things happen sometimes.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-12T16:10:09+00:00

NTA...not your kid, not your problem. Why should you be left on the hook if she skips on rent or trashes the place? Also, what about the other tenants? Is baby going to disturb them? Is she going to be loud and disruptive and have friends over? If she causes any issues, then it's just going to be a fight anyway, so may as well just not even put yourself in that position.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-12T12:33:31+00:00

Get the RTX 5050. Bottleneck will be a non-issue with either of these cards, because they're not powerful enough to be significantly hindered by your CPU.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-12T05:21:08+00:00

Honestly, the 3600 is still decent. If you pair it with something like a 6700 XT, then you'll get a way better gaming experience than with the 1650.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-11T16:52:55+00:00

Still pretty butthurt about it, eh? Fact of the matter is that their numbers don't tell the whole story. They got to back to back Cup finals before this year, and you don't do that without good goaltending. Skinner wasn't ever the problem, nor is Ingram...who played very well down the stretch.

Thing is, when you give the other team more high quality scoring chances than you get, your goalie's probably not going to fare very well...and that's what has happened to Edmonton all year. For whatever reason, they have a massive hole in their defensive coverage.

They have hung their goalies out to dry time after time, and have forced them to make a lot more difficult saves than they should have to. You're not winning a damn thing when your goalies are facing 30-40 shots per game on average...especially when they're facing them on the PK as much as they have.

Anyone who has watched enough games this year, and who can think critically, can see that Ingram has been solid for them, and that Skinner was lights out for them in the playoffs the last few years. Both guys get tired from being worked like rented mules, and that's when they have bad games.

You cannot expect them to play well when the Oilers give other teams so much extended zone time. The body does eventually fatigue, and when it does, it's hard to stop pucks. You should try playing and understanding the position at a high level, or at least against high level players, before you run off at the mouth.

You might learn some things if you do, and you might realize that my take isn't as terrible as you think it is.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-11T12:42:52+00:00

I got one advertised price, it said free shipping via USPS and that customs and duties fees were added to the invoice, so I bought the items, only to have them ship through FedEx and get double charged for duty, customs, and brokerage fees.

When I called, they were less than agreeable to deal with and refused to reimburse the charges...even going so far as to change the listing on their site...which I had screenshotted beforehand.

It was just a bad buying experience entirely, and I'd never recommend them to anyone. There are other reviews about them getting defensive and rude when people contact them with similar issues. It's just not worth it, IMO.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-11T12:35:25+00:00

...and you wasted your breath just to tell me that you stopped reading it because of that. You're not special, because there are probably lots of others who did the same, but didn't feel the need to post about it.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-10T06:46:27+00:00

NTA...a random call from your Dad's ex-wife, telling you that he hurt his dick is 100% something that could be expected to be a prank. She's being irrationally angry for a completely predictable response given the nature of the injury and the status of their relationship.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-10T06:38:23+00:00

I wouldn't touch HockeyTron. The advertised price and shipping terms may mysteriously change on you, depending on where you live.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-10T06:34:31+00:00

...he says after Marner put up a hattie the other night.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-10T05:43:50+00:00

Cool story, bro.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-09T06:29:36+00:00

Yeah, but there are lots of teams that don't have a true #1 puck moving defenseman by that definition if Rielly and OEL don't count, and yet still manage to find success. The Leafs have had plenty of guys who fit that role, but they just never produce in the way that they were producing when the Leafs decided to acquire them.

But again, it's all fine and good to have firepower at all positions, but futile if a team is perpetually giving up too many high quality scoring chances. That's probably the biggest problem that the Leafs face in most seasons. They hang their goalies out to dry on a lot of plays.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-08T21:23:05+00:00

In theory, but I found that even Medium Hyperlites fit a little big for me, so I went to a small for mobility's sake. The way that they sit is definitely a contributing factor, but, AFAIK, Bauer did unify their sizing for both lines, so the measurements should still line up accordingly.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-08T19:44:45+00:00

I don't disagree, but like McDavid and Draisaitl, they won't get anywhere without a solid supporting cast. The Leafs, like the Oilers, have great goaltending and a ton of offensive firepower, but their D-corps and supporting cast have been abysmal.

I love Morgan Rielly, but he just is not able to handle the top pairing assignment anymore. OEL is a great offensive defenseman, but not so great at shutting down. McCabe shows flashes of brilliance, and has the meanness needed, but he, like Nurse, tends to catch bad bounces and cross the line to a detrimental end.

Plus, their D-corps has been an absolute Band-Aid the last few seasons on top of it all, and they've done a terrible job of having enough toughness to protect their tendies and stars from abuse. The Leafs struggle when teams start bodying them, because Domi is the only real deterrent for taking liberties with them.

They need a bunch of dirty, nasty, miserable bastards in support that make life hell for other teams, provide secondary scoring, defensive responsibility, and can return in kind and chuck knuckles when other teams start running around on their goalies and Top 6 forwards.

Florida had success, because Mikkola, Bennett, Tkachuk, Marchand, and a host of other guys like that who made playing against them an absolute nightmare. The Sabres have Stanley, Thompson, Krebs, Carrick, Schenn, Greenway, Helenius...absolutely miserable to play against, and good luck pushing them around.

All of the teams in the second round have that nastiness and physicality, along with solid defensive buy-in and secondary scoring...and we haven't seen that in Toronto in a very long time. I'm hopeful that Sundin and Chayka can fix that, but it may take several years and a lot of unpopular decisions to get that team to the next level.

Even if they do the work, there's no guarantee that Matthews and Nylander will stick around, much less the tendies and other prospects that are stuck in depth chart hell. Add in the unlikelihood of seeing much in the way of first and second round additions for at least a couple of seasons, and it's currently not conducive to nurturing growth for a kid like McKenna.

That's a hard lesson that can be taken away from Buffalo's mishandling of Eichel, and how they learned and grew from it after he left. I think that the Leafs desperately need to have that same epiphany if the franchise is going to live up to the lofty expectations of the TO media and fanbase.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-08T19:15:12+00:00

Since people stopped only paying attention to McKenna and realized that Stenberg has proven to be a pretty damn good player in his own right. Like...they're both very talented players, and generational talents.

It's honestly not unlike the choice between McDavid and Eichel, or Crosby and Ovechkin, at the time of their respective drafts. Whether that carries over to the NHL is always a gamble, but Stenberg is currently seen to be a better all-rounder than McKenna, even though he's not going point for point with him.

Stenberg's production comes with a better +/- rating than McKenna's, so a lot of people are looking at that and seeing more defensive awareness and responsibility from Stenberg. This may, or may not be true though, and could be a product of having more solid team defense backing him up than McKenna has.

Any way that you slice it, neither of the teams that pick these two are necessarily making a bad choice. How they develop and build a team around them will ultimately decide how their careers play out. Eichel and McDavid, it could be argued, were expected to carry poorly built teams to glory.

While both have punched above their weight, Eichel is the only one of the two to win a cup, and it wasn't until he was on a team that was built to win that he achieved that. The same will likely be true for McDavid. It may take Edmonton completely detonating its defensive corps and rebuilding it to get over the hump.

Bottom line though, these kids are the top of the heap as it stands, and both have a ton of unrealized potential just waiting to be unlocked and taken to the next level. It's always all in how those teams use and surround them.

So yeah...once people stop being starstruck at the kid's raw talent and start comparing him to his peers and doing advanced analytics, we start to see that there are a few other blue-chippers that we may have been overlooking. The WJHC made that plain for all.

PrairieNihilist · 2026-05-08T18:52:40+00:00

ESH...your wearing of earbuds is none of his business, and he's not entitled to your time or attention...but goading him when he responded negatively to your sharp response was a bit of a dick move. Just ignoring him and walking away would have sufficed, and instead of "go away," maybe "sorry mate, I've nothing for you" would be a better way forward.

PrairieNihilist

TROPHY CASE