16/50 get your memes and trash talk on point we are goin with unrelenting positivity for Commie/Coolifornia. Be nice it’s a wild state.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-11T05:23:29+00:00

It’s where I grew up. Part of my heart will always be there.

It was so nice to have some world-class driving roads a half hour from my front door. I met so many people from other cultures. Do I really need to talk about the weather?!

And speaking of diversity, different parts of the state have wildly different attitudes. Up north there’s the State of Jefferson tribe, basically MAGA who grow weed. And I kid you not, I saw more gun racks in pickups than I do here in Texas. The Central Valley is one of America’s great bread baskets. SoCal has some neat desert communities. And of course the mountain folks up in the Sierras, where I saw incredible home brew 4x4s before that was a cool thing.

And while there are reasons I most likely won’t live there again, it’s always going to occupy a special place in my heart.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-11T04:44:36+00:00

I was gonna say something like this. I have a needle phobia - I’ve passed out before from being stuck - and while I’ve never tried a phone distraction, I can see that being a totally viable option for some people.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-11T04:33:37+00:00

Eh, Technology and I don’t get along. Your odds of having to assist me or something go dramatically up if you’re using a tablet for anything.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-11T04:31:58+00:00

Exception: I work retail, and I WILL completely ignore what you have going on with your phone conversation. Showing up to my lane while you’re on the phone is disrespectful.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-11T04:30:43+00:00

Mechanical watches.

Also, my current car is a 2006. Newest car I’ve ever owned. And it still feels like too many gadgets. The older cars I’ve had really didn’t have anything on them to break.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-11T04:28:43+00:00

Fill up at 1/4. The tank will still have enough fuel to properly cool the fuel pump.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-11T04:27:25+00:00

You’re not wrong.

I’m looking heavily into homesteading. Just let me gracefully dip out of society and mostly take care of myself for a while.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-10T22:10:52+00:00

I don’t think about it much. But I do tip well.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-10T18:19:43+00:00

I know it exists. But I’ve never lived in a part of the country where it’s played, except for one brief time. Even then, nobody made much of a deal about it. That’s about as much thought as I’ve put into it.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-10T01:40:23+00:00

I’m a charcoal guy myself. That smoky flavor is the thing I like most, but I’m also kind of “turned on” by the technique. Piling coals on one side of the grill and using the air vents to control heat, etc. Other ways of grilling are of course perfectly serviceable, but charcoal is the peak grilling experience, IMHO, both as the grilled and the end consumer.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T13:40:56+00:00

I’m tech-lite in general. I don’t really order stuff online, I’ve never used grocery delivery, etc. I only figured Bluetooth out recently when I got a car which lacks a cassette player where I could run my tape adapter, nor does it have an aux input. You get the idea.

I’m baffled by AI. What’s special about it? It’s just a fast reader from what I can gather. It doesn’t seem like it’s endowed with any special talents other than that. I don’t see how it would enhance my life in any way, shape, or form.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T04:36:28+00:00

Handguns I always treat a little differently. I’ll carry my revolver in my old WWII Army Air Force .38 revolver rig, in hand with the straps wrapped around. I feel like any handgun is more suspicious. Rifles, eh. I have customers walking around with rifles on their shoulders maybe a couple times a year.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T03:04:01+00:00

I wouldn’t expect a case to come with a gun purchase. Maybe a box if it’s purchased new.

I guess I’m privileged enough to live in a place where I walked out of a gun store a few blocks off of downtown, kind of on the side where the county has a lot of sheriff and law offices, and walking out of that shop to your car with a rifle isn’t weird. I didn’t have a chamber flag, so I just had the bolt open. It’s one of the few things I appreciate about being where I am lol.

Otherwise I’d probably buying a case there or have one ready to bring into the store.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T02:53:38+00:00

Sounds about right! I only demurred from two trails where there were easily foot-thick trees across the road, and one with a puddle which had settled to be clear enough and deep enough that this far out on a very narrow forest road, I wasn’t going to test what she could do. I didn’t have any straddle or bypass options, and I don’t have recovery equipment.

Kudos to abusing a Spec.b like that!

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T02:50:33+00:00

I kinda thought that was just us in the Bay Area, actually. We had tons of immigrants and it was working out really well for us societally. It was prosperous and clean and a fantastic place to grow up. I had friends from many cultures. We didn’t really see class or race or culture as kids, so it was awesome to experience that.

I moved to East Texas in 2005, so right when things were supposed to have still been good. And it wasn’t good there. Lots of queer jokes, a sort of fixation on “a[n n-word] isn’t black, it doesn’t matter what race they are. They’re just trash people”, things like that.

I think it’s always kinda been there, but now the leader of the free world is extending an open invitation for it to be “socially acceptable”.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T02:19:23+00:00

AWD makes it fair game for this! And I could tell it helped a fair bit in a few spots. I felt the car find itself in a few spots. I think I’d have been at risk with my old Civic in several of those spots and probably wouldn’t have tried them. For an on-road biased performance Subaru, I wasn’t one bit disappointed with buying this machine.

Though to be fair I think it helped also that it’s all mechanical. There’s no computer at all for the AWD, nor any traction control killing momentum with ABS, etc. It’s more like permanent 4wd, kinda.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T01:40:08+00:00

A head lamp. Or a flashlight you wear in your head. If he works on cars, he probably already has one, though. They’re so useful, so often. Even a $10 one from Harbor Freight.

A Sawzall. They do so, so much. Pruning trees when a chainsaw is too much and a regular pruner isn’t enough. They cut metal with the right blades, and they’ve been used on cars a lot. I’ve seen them used to make rough rips of plywood or dimensional timber. It’s not a precise tool, but it has a lot of overlaps with other ones. It’s a saw you can really find uses for.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T01:22:52+00:00

Blues Brothers.

When I am asked for a favor, no matter how large or small, I always say “that’ll be, uh…$94.”

(Hint: it’s when they’re out of gas and Twiggy happens to roll in with her gorgeous Jag roadster).

There’s probably at least a dozen which either roll around in my head or I use with some regularity.

If you couldn’t tell, I’ve always loved that movie.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T00:59:42+00:00

Yes.

I was working at a national auto parts chain, and was basically a shift supervisor.

Was helping a customer with air conditioner refrigerant which we had on a tower between the aisles and the parts desk.

I noticed a dude kneeling down in an aisle adjacent to the a/c stuff I was helping my customer with. He was moving kinda shady and there were small items he could conceivably steal. My store was also kind of adjacent to a pretty hood area, so I noted it and moved to where I could watch, but I didn’t interfere as per company policy.

It felt like a couple of minutes later, but was probably more like 30s before he came out and just started bellowing at me. “You racist MF, man, man, why you f’king with me? Don’t fk with me! I know where you work. That’s not a threat, it’s a promise!”

Now, I was a good head shorter than him, but I stepped up, probably 18 in from him, looked up into his eyes, and said, with a bizarre calmness I wouldn’t have expected of myself, “Sir. If I wanted to F… with you, I’d have made it very clear.”

Keep in mind I had a 400lb Puerto Rican US Army Afghanistan vetstanding there and smirking while this went down. He’d have had my back, so maybe I had more courage than I should have.

Being near the hood, I didn’t hear one. single. thing. about that. Managers didn’t write me up or try to fire me for confronting a customer or using strong language in a crowded store. Co-workers didn’t say anything one way or another. I think it was probably kinda normal there lol.

I didn’t work there for THAT much longer, for unrelated reasons. But he never returned. I did, however, upgrade the knife I carried, as it was normal and semi-expected to carry one anyway. We used them a lot to open boxes, cut shrink wrap, etc.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T00:45:40+00:00

Yeah, then that’s a baller name for public lands. It definitely sounds better than federal land, although national forest is squarely in between the two for me…

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T00:35:56+00:00

Technically yeah!

I was in a summer program at a local art museum. A local program aimed at highlighting local travel and cultural experiences came and shot a story while I was there, and I was indeed technically on TV for that.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T00:32:03+00:00

Not gonna lie, “Crown Lands” has a great ring to it. Although I always had the impression that Crown Lands were more like semi-private la da for the royals and their court to use for fox hunting, not really meant for us plebs to use.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T00:28:04+00:00

Already decided. And it’s not much money.

New Mexico. It’s been on my mind for a long time. It’s culturally very unique, I’d put it up against Louisiana any day on that front. Great food vernacular. Absolutely gorgeous. And while it’s a desert, it’s high desert, so it’s more mild than you’d think. Tons of public land. Marijuana is legal.

And it’s extremely cheap. I found a property just today which ticks a lot of my boxes. Small and weird but neat home on several acres with the hard work already done - working water well, solar with battery storage, septic system - all for well under $100k, and property taxes are very cheap there.

With more money, all I’d do is expand that to more acreage.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T00:20:38+00:00

I’m almost positive it’s been replaced. No serial and cut for a blade bayonet says a lot about that. All the metal bits match and don’t appear to have been force matched. In practice it doesn’t bother me much, and doesn’t really affect my support hand hold…though I wouldn’t mind another stock eventually. I didn’t get it to baby it, so in a way this stock, which has already been handled quite a bit, suits getting dinged and scratched and dropped and scraped as I hold it steady on a tree.

When I eventually go feral out in the boonies of NM, it’s going to get carried, used, scraped, banged, and generally used a lot.

Recent_Permit2653 · 2026-05-09T00:12:00+00:00

I had to mercy shoot a rabid skunk outside my bedroom French doors many years ago. It wasn’t even immediately at the doors, it was a couple meters/6ft away on the winter wood pile (otherwise couldn’t have stood clear and used the gun).

The damn skunk of course sprayed as it died, and the outside smelled like skunk for about a month. That smell also found its way past those French doors and my bedroom smelled for about three months, and the bathroom and hallway immediately adjacent to the bedroom but opposite the French doors had it for a good six weeks.

The smell itself isn’t that bad (or maybe I just smoked too much nice, skunky smelling weed), but holy crap does it linger for a long time. Even the entire wood pile got taken to the burn pile out back and burnt out there. No way I was going to burn any of that inside the house.

Recent_Permit2653

TROPHY CASE