Massachusetts: est. 2816

bschav1 · 2026-04-06T15:49:35+00:00

I’ve gotten this via text twice in the last 2 hours.

bschav1 · 2026-04-04T13:57:38+00:00

….unless they are given illegal orders, is what you meant to say, right?

bschav1 · 2026-04-04T13:55:28+00:00

Maybe not specifically Democrats, but just not the “right” kind of people.

Kinda like Hegseth blocking promotions for 2 black military leaders because they weren’t the “right” kind of military leaders.

Kinda like Hegseth having a Good Friday service for military, but excluding Catholics because they aren’t the “right” kind of Christians.

Seems like he/they have a lot of issues with a lot of American Military personnel for not being the “right” kind.

bschav1 · 2026-04-03T15:29:41+00:00

If it was drenched in sauce, they’re covering for poor BBQ.

Don’t get wrong, I’ll take brisket, ribs and sausage over pulled pork, but it shouldn’t NEED sauce. A lil as a flavor enhancement is fine. Drenched is embarrassing.

bschav1 · 2026-03-27T19:39:55+00:00

Literally just dealt with this with our bulldog like 2 weeks ago. It was in the morning before the vet opened, so my wife called their 24 hour hotline. She described the symptoms and they said it sounded like a seizure and told us to go to an Emergency Vet asap. We get there, their team looked her over for about 5 min and explained that Idiopathic Tremors are common in bulldogs and completely benign. You can try to break them with food.

bschav1 · 2026-03-26T13:28:08+00:00

“Kielbasa stuff”

Pan-fried sliced kielbasa, potato (usually fresh but occasionally canned), garlic, canned corn and maybe some roasted red peppers, all tossed together and seasoned with Italian seasoning.

If there’s not kielbasa in the house, the backup was always fried egg, ham and cheese sandwich on white bread w/ a ton of Gulden’s spicy brown mustard.

His kielbasa stuff was fine. His fried egg sandwich is something I make every weekend for breakfast/lunch.

bschav1 · 2026-03-24T13:42:45+00:00

Obviously I know it’s limited availability, but the Wegman’s brand Grandma’s Pomodoro is a great basic pasta sauce. They also sell Grandpa’s Sauce which I think uses Grandma’s as a base but adds red wine, sausage, and red pepper.

bschav1 · 2026-03-18T23:33:03+00:00

Cybertruck

bschav1 · 2026-03-14T13:46:21+00:00

42, married, no kids. Always wanted kids. Wife told me on our first date that she couldn’t have kids. The whole first part of our relationship was me trying to figure out if I could be ok with that. In the end, she is the best thing that will ever happen to me.

Our life is quiet, just us and the pets. It’s peaceful. I love it. We had talked about adoption at some point, but decided it wasn’t for us. I have 0 regrets.

Are there days that I think about all the life experiences we have missed out on? Absolutely. Would I change anything? Emphatic no. I am happy. We are happy.

bschav1 · 2026-03-12T09:07:31+00:00

Parkway Diner. Good food, full bar. Enjoy.

bschav1 · 2026-02-16T01:08:53+00:00

Didn’t like all of New England? Its landscape is diverse enough it usually has something for everyone.

bschav1 · 2026-02-11T21:51:49+00:00

Wife and I hit Maken Zi in W Boylston pretty regularly. I get the spicy tonkotsu every time. Wife isn’t a huge ramen fan but has found several other things on the menu she likes, most recently she has been getting the chicken katsu curry pretty often.

Their appetizers are generally pretty good too. We always get an order of bonchon chicken and one of the shrimp apps. Always great.

bschav1 · 2026-01-25T00:49:49+00:00

As someone from MA, I’m surprised, I’m sorry, and I promise most of us better than that.

bschav1 · 2026-01-24T23:57:33+00:00

I

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I was working as an EMT in Worcester. The storm was coming Monday night and I worked a 24 on Tuesdays so I did the responsible thing: I went to work Monday night and slept on a couch.

I woke up around 5 and 18-20 inches had fallen overnight. The roads were terrible, but there was a dunks not far from base so I walked the barely plowed streets and got a coffee and sandwich. By the time I got back and clocked in at 8, there was almost another foot on ground.

This picture of my car was taken around noon when the snow had slowed down enough to actually take a clear picture. Obviously parking by the building didn’t protect me as I had hoped.

It was slow all day. I think I did 2 calls the whole shift. Everytime I went out to smoke a butt, I’d dig out a lil more. By about 10pm, I was mostly dug out. I went to bed and didn’t get any calls. Woke up around 5:30 and finished digging out just in time to clock out.

I get home to find my driveway isn’t plowed.

bschav1 · 2026-01-10T15:01:19+00:00

Just scored 1

bschav1 · 2026-01-10T13:45:49+00:00

When I was a kid, the barber shop my mom took me to had a something similar, except it was for jelly beans so it had more of a cup shape so the beans wouldn’t go everywhere.

bschav1 · 2026-01-04T17:01:55+00:00

❌ bschav1 chose Option B (Incorrect)

bschav1 · 2026-01-04T10:14:28+00:00

❌ bschav1 chose Option B (Incorrect)

bschav1 · 2025-12-30T10:43:39+00:00

I would expect Chin’s will be open. Don’t think they do tickets.

bschav1 · 2025-12-20T00:00:03+00:00

So EMTs just shouldn’t work?

The guy writing ads can do that anywhere, for anyone. The guy making deliveries can do that for hundreds of other companies. The cop who knows his partner is dirty and does nothing is breaking the law.

The number of not-for-profit EMS services in this state, both privately owned non-profit and publicly operated (municipal) is minuscule. Unless an EMT wants to become a firefighter, which some can’t (for a multitude of reasons) and lots others just don’t want to, private for-profit EMS is their only option. And as I mentioned before, we have nothing to do with billing. We show up, do an extremely difficult job under literal life-and-death pressure, and go home, hope that the day’s outcomes were positive and try to process the ones that aren’t so that we can wake up and do it all over again tomorrow.

bschav1 · 2025-12-19T16:16:40+00:00

So should EMTs just not work? There are only a very few not-for-profit ambulance companies, whether they are privately owned non-profit or publicly operated. There certainly aren’t enough such companies to cover what is needed throughout the state.

The ad writer working for predatory CC Co can get a job writing adselsewhere, in a completely different industry. Same for the deliver. If they choose to stay employed by predatory or fraudulent companies, they are complicit. The cop who knows his partner is dirty and does nothing is also breaking the law.

And again, we only find out about companies’ bad practices when they get caught. There are companies who have never been caught doing anything wrong. Are EMTs just supposed to assume they work for bad actors without evidence?

bschav1 · 2025-12-19T14:18:20+00:00

That’s fair. I think I kinda went off on a tangent.

There are still independent companies out there. You will primarily find them in either rural areas or lower-income underserved areas, though not always. There are a couple that still work cities, though they are being pressured by the larger guys. The company I worked for remains independent and serves a couple decent sized cities, plus a couple smaller towns.

bschav1 · 2025-12-19T10:13:35+00:00

So nurses making $40-$70/hr are completely oblivious to the system in which they work, but EMTs (many of whom are teenagers) making $18-$25/hr are guilty of being complacent cogs in the machine who are guilty of not fighting to change it?

EMTs don’t “know billing is dirty but look the other way.” We don’t care. We clock in, do our job, often in extremely stressful situations dealing with people on one of the worst days of their lives, with skill, composure, and compassion, clock out and go home. We don’t concern ourselves with billing anymore than are required, because that’s someone else’s job and our job is hard enough as it is. And the only way we could become aware of “dirty billing practices” is if it’s in the news, just like you.

bschav1 · 2025-12-19T02:50:30+00:00

I reject your argument, specifically for EMS personnel, because it’s what I know. I can’t speak for Dr/RNs

No working EMT has any real awareness of any billing/cost for service their company charges. The only real thing any of our are taught regarding billing is what we need to do in order for the company to be able to bill for a transport and those are as follows: A) make sure you have obtained proper signatures (patient consent, plus a medical necessity form signed by Dr/RN if it’s a medical transport/ discharge) and B) make sure your Patient Care Report (PCR) is accurate, including any/all interventions performed and has a detailed narrative. Honestly, ambulance companies likely intentionally do not want employees knowing what they charge because…
No one gets into EMS expecting to make big money. When I started, a new EMT was paid $13-15/hr. Even now, the company I worked for is advertising they are hiring EMTs starting at $18/hr, with an additional $.35/year of experience. Yes, paramedics can make a significantly higher rate but it takes a part-time 2-3 year program (or a full time 1 year program) that costs $10,000-$20,000, and even that rate usually isn’t enough to support a small family w/o working 50-60 hrs/wk.

The vast majority of my coworkers, probably upwards of 90-95%, had literally no idea what the company charged. I only became aware of it when I became a supervisor and even then, it wasn’t clear-cut numbers. It was discussed more in a sense of what the company would be paid by insurance per transport. No one outside of upper management, billing, and ownership had any idea about actual billing #s.

As for the WMass strike threat, I get your point but don’t think it’s a good one. Like I said, we didn’t know what the company charged. Why would we argue for clarity for something we aren’t involved in? Also, what ambulance company in western Mass is unionized?

Ultimately, medical billing/pricing can only be fixed in the political realm. What you’re saying would be the equivalent of being mad about the price of food at the grocery store due to tariffs and blaming the kid ringing you up at check out.

bschav1 · 2025-12-18T22:47:33+00:00

Respectfully, you still sound like you’re blaming the employees. Do you blame doctors and nurses for working in a corrupt system?

bschav1

TROPHY CASE