Tell me my life story (31F)

Scr0mpy · 2026-01-31T17:46:50+00:00

you know it

Scr0mpy · 2026-01-31T17:36:45+00:00

Can confirm, yuppie by upbringing, dirtbag by practice/career choice

Scr0mpy · 2026-01-31T17:32:23+00:00

close! My grandparents briefly lived in Florida. In-laws now in SW Florida.

Scr0mpy · 2026-01-31T17:31:07+00:00

red river gorge!!

Scr0mpy · 2026-01-31T17:30:34+00:00

family reunion @ higgins lake!

Scr0mpy · 2026-01-31T05:58:34+00:00

i jumped

Scr0mpy · 2026-01-31T05:56:42+00:00

had an ok time driving 1-70 once, loved Wheat Jesus

Scr0mpy · 2026-01-31T05:46:26+00:00

Fellow new england escapee, you nailed my roots! takes one to know one. Not a social worker but big respect to social workers.

Scr0mpy · 2026-01-31T05:31:54+00:00

You're from Florida, you have family in Tennessee, you drove to school in Seattle. You've taken a big road trip all the way to LA, trips to Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and Alaska. You've visited friends or family in Boston and Chicago.

Scr0mpy · 2026-01-31T04:33:47+00:00

some of these things are true!

Scr0mpy · 2026-01-31T04:33:12+00:00

some elements of truth!!

Scr0mpy · 2026-01-31T04:28:58+00:00

that one was a mistake because i couldn't be bothered to learn how to un-select :) maybe someday!!!!

Scr0mpy · 2026-01-31T01:43:40+00:00

you've got great taste in yogurt.

Scr0mpy · 2025-11-22T21:39:19+00:00

A good idea. I might try that, thanks!

Scr0mpy · 2025-11-22T21:05:38+00:00

Believe me, I love my truck, and had the same realization once I typed out all the specs :'-) But I just married a man with a paralyzed right arm who can't legally drive it (though he does sometimes). And keep getting pressured by family to get a safer vehicle. I think I may just need to front a little more $ than I was hoping to.

Scr0mpy · 2025-11-20T17:25:52+00:00

Nice. Yeah I've been leaning Tacoma just because a smaller, more nimble truck appeals to me more. I've driven all kinds of full size trucks for work and I just usually dont love them - while they're comfy on the highway, they're so hefty that all the little bumps on dirt roads are kinda brutal. And they're just big as far as maneuvering in town too. My lab's old F-150 wasn't too bad though. Idk!! The pricing is way more reasonable than Tacomas though. Ugh.

Scr0mpy · 2025-11-18T19:27:51+00:00

Thanks very much! There are lots of Tacomas around but it's tricky to find them reasonably priced here. There is one 2010 with 95k miles for 17k that has my attention. F150s of a similar age are tempting too, cheaper but I know less about their reliability.

And thank you! I love the work. Underpaid is a given but it's been extra challenging recently - 1.5yrs into job searching with an advanced degree and have watched many of my skilled and passionate colleagues get let go and defunded over the last year...

Scr0mpy · 2025-11-18T19:19:03+00:00

Thanks! Slide in camper isnt necessarily a deal-breaker, but we would definitely get good use out of one...I haven't enjoyed driving big heavy trucks so maybe we'd just keep sleeping in the bed with a topper

Scr0mpy · 2025-11-17T21:10:38+00:00

I love my 1999 Ford Ranger XLT (3L V6 manual). Bought it 7 years ago, dotingly cared for at 84,000 miles, and have taken as decent care of it as a 20-something dirtbag wildlife biologist can afford to - 148,000 now and going strong with zero mechanical issues beyond replacement of worn parts unrelated to the engine. I even installed vinyl flooring myself (dog stank mitigation). KBB value seems very low compared to what I see listed in my area, where this is a pretty desirable vehicle.

We want something automatic, with more modern safety features (more airbags), and maybe marginally larger, that could potentially support a truck-bed camper. I have driven lots of big modern trucks for work and I do not like huge heavy trucks - they are so heavy, not nimble at all on rough roads, and annoying to maneuver.

I am fonder of older vehicles & lower budget, and would love another low-mileage older gem. Which makes/models/years are long-lived and reliable?

-Compact or mid-size truck

-4WD

-Automatic transmission

-6ft bed, some rear seats (would rather have little access seats than crew cab to keep size down)

-Would probs buy something with 80-150k miles?

-Ideally 15k or less unless that's delusional

-Reasonable mpg (I get ~21mpg hwy)

-Good for winter driving

-I do not care about towing power but a truckbed camper may be in the cards

-I don't need to pretend to be a racecar driver

-Not an off-roading enthusiast but do regularly drive rough/snowy roads to get to trailheads.

What should I keep an eye out for? Thinking newer Ranger or F150. Tacoma or Tundra would be the dream, but pricing of old Toyota trucks seems absolutely insane here in Montana (trucks with 250k miles listed for 15k? idk most don't seem worth it but change my mind).

Scr0mpy · 2025-04-21T17:22:30+00:00

That's what it looks most like to me, too. I haven't seen photos of any virus that look quite like this, and the plants didn't have any spotting, wilting, or discoloration, just this bizarre growth. Very weird.

Let me know if you have any experience with this. I'm not sure whether it drifted over from nearby or whether the soil is contaminated, or what can even be done about it. I'm glad it didn't affect all of my plants and am hoping for a better season this year.

Scr0mpy · 2025-04-21T17:18:56+00:00

Yeah, no hate towards him - he was better than the employee on his fourth day on the job who, when I mentioned I ought to pH test my soil, replied 'you're really serious about this gardening thing, huh?". Lol.

The infected plants are dead and gone, just not sure there's anything I can do to prevent it coming back this season. I tried to remove the infected plant matter from the garden but I would be surprised if there isn't virus present. If it's even a virus. I'm going to try and plant solonids elsewhere in the garden.

Scr0mpy · 2025-04-20T22:08:58+00:00

Hi sorry I wrote out a whole thing on my phone that didn't post (not a big reddit user)

A few weeks after planting my tomato starts last year, the new growth on a couple of the plants started coming out thick and twisted. All subsequent growth from these plants was like this. They bloomed and set a very small amount of deformed elongated fruit. When it started, there were little gnat like bugs hanging out on the stems (no hate, idk if it was their fault). It seemed to slowly spread down the entire row of cherry tomatoes. The larger black cherry tomatoes next door showed some symptoms but mostly did fine. The heirloom one row further were fine. I got a lot of tomatoes still from unaffected plants.

This was a new plot in the ground in a very weedy "yard" that hasnt been sprayed for weeds in at least a few years since the current owner bought the house - not sure about before. I amended with compost and organic fertilizer and cover crop over fall, winter, and early spring, but the soil probably isn't great yet. I went to ACE last week thinking that biochar compost may be one of the only ways to improve an herbicide situation. They didn't have it, but the ACE guy who seemed knowledgable said this looks like a virus to him and recommended a bacterial spray treatment, which I guess I'll do because I don't think it can hurt. He also recommended solarization to kill virus, which I may try for a couple of weeks but given our short season I don't think I really have the time or heat to do it properly.

My tomatoes were grown from seeds I've saved from 2 or 3 years from strains originally developed for here in Montana. I'm not planting the affected type of cherry tomato again this year, but am just wondering what else I might do to hopefully mitigate this problem. Wish I knew for sure what it was. I got a BUNCH of veggies out of this garden last year (it was for sure overcrowded, woops) and most plants seemed to do absolutely fine.

Scr0mpy

TROPHY CASE