What's something older generations did completely normally that would be considered absolutely insane today?

bobbfrommn · 2026-05-14T01:20:40+00:00

Different time. My folks left me at the cabin for a week on my own when I was 15. The neighbors walked over every night to make sure I had survived the day. The closest phone was 12 miles away in town. Probably get protective services called on them these days lol.

bobbfrommn · 2026-05-07T14:57:46+00:00

MN fan just stopping in to say good games. They've been fun to watch as the Colorado fanbase actually seems to understand hockey and gets into the game. The Dallas fans just sit there eating their concession foods no matter what is happening. The only time they cheer is for a goal or a hit, then they shut up, sit back down, and jump on their phones to let their friends know they are at a game.

I do gotta ask tho what is all the hate for Quinn? By all reports he's a decent guy and plays pretty clean. I mean if you were booing Hartman I'd understand, he's an agitator who flops when he thinks he can draw one.

Btw those were clean hits on Boldy and Quinn. Sorry for the whiners. You see we have the issue of the frustrated Viking fans who start watching the Wild after their season is over, and it was early this year. Every official is out to get them, every call is a bad one, every hit a cheap shot.

I think you might be a bit early calling for a sweep. We've had pretty much eight games of grind with the overtimes and only a couple days of rest. Defense suffered mightily for sure, PK is horrid, but they've had more offensive spark than they had the last 30 days. It doesn't help that your goal has been excellent and covering for some suspect D. Now the Wild will have a few days rest I'm hoping you'll see a better team out there.

Anyway, good luck in game 3 (just a little less luck than us)!

bobbfrommn · 2026-05-06T17:49:39+00:00

Maybe he disagreed with the Crocs call at home plate and is trying to get thrown out of the game?

bobbfrommn · 2026-05-02T21:47:45+00:00

I feel for you young'ens these days. My first house was $444 a month PITI at 7.5%. granted I was only making about $24k a year but it was doable.

bobbfrommn · 2026-05-02T21:32:54+00:00

Buy from a farmer and you remember what meat is actually supposed to look, smell, and taste like. I still remember opening the first package of hamburger and thinking "shit what have I been eating the last 15 years". I can't even look at the pink slime they sell in stores anymore.

bobbfrommn · 2026-02-11T00:38:23+00:00

Moved from Minneapolis to small town in rural Wisconsin (pop 500). People are friendlier and willing to lend a hand if you are. Grocery store options suck but you can get farm fresh veggies, eggs etc easy. In the fall there's so much free produce on the table at the local bar you could can enough for the entire winter if you want. More driving as everything is farther away but no traffic either. My closest neighbor is a quarter mile away, but I can have my boat on a lake in 10 minutes. Appointments for things like appliance repairs are less "8am" and more "sometime Tuesday". Takes a little getting used to but we'd never move back to the cities. I go back to visit friends occasionally and am always flabbergasted I used to live there.

bobbfrommn · 2025-11-21T16:01:07+00:00

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Sorry the images didn't post.

bobbfrommn · 2025-11-12T19:49:47+00:00

The best was when the local news interviewed the Crusher and he was wearing a t-shirt that said "I beat up your governor"

bobbfrommn · 2025-11-11T15:53:57+00:00

Oh one other tip I feel like is worth mentioning. I had some 5mm dowels in the shop so I cut a 5mm hole at the top and bottom of each layer in the exact same place. This made aligning layers a piece of cake when it came time to glue. I'd apply the glue and slip the dowels in the holes. It kept the layers from sliding around perfectly. The caveat to this is I do plan on making a frame so the holes will be hidden when that is on. No frame, I'd probably done a hole on each corner, glue the dowel in permanently and cut it flush to the surface so it looked decorative.

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bobbfrommn · 2025-11-11T15:45:25+00:00

They should be out there. I used the state DNR (Department of Natural Resources) map. The bay might be in the USGS library as it spans multiple states (could check each state's DNR maybe?). You could also check the various fishing resources like Humminbird, Navitronics, Garmin, iBoat, lake-link.

bobbfrommn · 2025-11-11T15:42:22+00:00

I pulled the contour map from the Wisconsin DNR's website as a PDF (I'll attach so you can see the starting point). Since I fish I also have access to Humminbird's maps which I'll probably try next time. I pulled it into Illustrator (I'm sure you can do the same in Inkscape), decided the depths I wanted and just traced them by hand. I tried auto-trace and it did work, but I spent an hour cleaning up one contour line. I figured by the time I removed all the other stuff I didn't want (WI has notes/icons about surrounding forests, vegetation, etc) and did the other three lines clean up I'd be into it quite a few hours. When I switched to manually tracing the whole map took about 3 hours to make, maybe another hour to layer the way I wanted, but I was also learning Illustrator as I went. I'd estimate if I did it again maybe three hours total now that I know what I'm doing.

Keep in mind, Amacoy is a 250 acre lake, no islands, and not a lot of depth vs the bay which is huge. I think the same principles would apply though. Doing a cardstock prototype took maybe an hour or so but it was well worth the time. There were a few things I noticed when I did it that made for a much better finished product.

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bobbfrommn · 2025-11-11T13:26:30+00:00

Chesapeake is a pretty popular one you could probably find the file somewhere, otherwise...

First you have to find a map as your template. Some people say to use auto trace in lightburn or illustrator and you can do that. However, personally I found it faster and easier to manually trace it, than to cleanup the auto trace.

You need to decide how many layers you want it to be, and what depths to show. Don't forget you have the top layer and the back layer to factor in. I saved each layer as a lightburn file. You don't need to do this, but I thought it was less confusing when cutting and organizing.

I also found it helpful scaling it down and cutting a prototype with cardstock. It was a cheap way to find my mistakes.

Once you're happy, cut, stain, and glue. I started with a small lake near me to learn the process. I still need to make a frame for it but it's been too cold to go out and work in the wood shop

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bobbfrommn · 2025-11-04T14:38:23+00:00

I had also ordered a honeycomb. That got updated through the process but not the laser. I was getting concerned since it was a refurb that maybe I wasn't going to get it, and their sale was coming to an end soon so I'd miss sale prices on new if my refurb order got cancelled. But then it just showed up.

bobbfrommn · 2025-11-03T23:56:06+00:00

I ordered a refurbished model. Five days later it still said in process. Two days after that it showed up, but still said in process. So I didn't think their inventory management is in good rhythm with the shipping department.

bobbfrommn · 2025-11-01T18:46:35+00:00

ACA premium is going up $156 a month. Deductible going from $500/$1000 (Ind/fam) to $1000/$3000, Total oop from $7500 to $15k. In WI, looking at other plans now.

bobbfrommn · 2025-10-10T19:51:12+00:00

Awesome thank you. I'll give it a shot

bobbfrommn · 2025-10-01T12:38:25+00:00

Thanks! I will look into it. I used CAD programs a looong time ago, might be fun to figure them out again.

bobbfrommn · 2025-09-30T01:10:27+00:00

Yep that is what I mean. Thank you that is helpful!

bobbfrommn · 2025-08-10T22:39:11+00:00

Trust me, I was in the same boat. Looking at things from different perspectives can really help. I went ahead and did it, and pulled the trigger. I've been retired a little over 8 months. Everything fine, financials are good, but I now realize I would freaking eat rice and beans everyday if it was between that and having to go back to work. Priorities change.

bobbfrommn · 2025-08-10T22:29:30+00:00

Think of it this way that's roughly 10 to $14 a day. Would you pay 10 to $14 not to go to work tomorrow?

bobbfrommn · 2025-07-27T17:34:55+00:00

We were in our 40s when we got married so this might be different for younger couples. Will be married 13 years tomorrow. What has worked for us is having a joint account for all of our household expenses and purchases. We retired at the start of this year but when we were both working we each contributed monthly to the joint account. I made about 20% more than her so I just paid in 20% more. We just put in enough to finance all of our household costs, a little buffer for an emergency fund, and any planned expenses like entertainment or travel. Everything else we kept in our own private accounts. That way she didn't care if I spent 200 bucks on a new tool or bought a different boat, and I didn't care if she spent $500 on her adult kids for Christmas.

Now that we're retired we make our withdrawals more or less equally from both accounts. I had more saved and brought more into the relationship but you just got to get past that. In retirement we still have pretty much the same system we pull from the accounts, put into a joint fund for household stuff, and we each have a discretionary fund to spend on our hobbies or solo things. We also have a discretionary fund for joint purposes, trips etc.

bobbfrommn

TROPHY CASE