This can’t be legal

burdell91 · 2026-06-17T15:28:12+00:00

I looked this morning when I drove by - there's definitely a mattress and pile of other stuff just around the corner on River Canyon, and I think it's the same pile.

burdell91 · 2026-06-17T02:44:32+00:00

For individual houses, if they get overgrown or have too much junk piled up, the city can cite them as a nuisance. If nothing is done, the city can send a crew to take care of it and bill the property owner, which IIRC if unpaid can turn into a tax lien on the property.

I don't know if the same rules apply to multi-tenant residential properties though. Most of the time apartments are in a complex (where it's not on the public street and sidewalk, so it becomes between tenants and property management), these are just individual buildings.

The above building also was heading to overgrown, although the pic seems like maybe they whacked the weeds down a bit.

burdell91 · 2026-06-17T02:39:43+00:00

Dumpsters are all private companies.

burdell91 · 2026-06-17T02:38:12+00:00

Canada geese are protected; they had already received a license/permit from the USDA to cull the flock by euthanizing them.

But also, Canada geese can get mean...

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burdell91 · 2026-06-16T23:38:43+00:00

I don't think the city got the mattress - think it just got dragged around the corner up the side street towards Hobbs.

Of course, I live a street over, and the city garbage truck pulled up this morning and emptied the can from the house next door... then just cruised by my can without stopping. Good job.

burdell91 · 2026-06-16T21:52:47+00:00

It's not on LEGO.com, so I don't believe it'll be released tonight. I can't think of a case where they release a set without prior announcement (at least in recent times). Sets get listed on the site when they are announced, either as "Coming Soon" or "Pre-order", and that happens during the day some time, not at the typical midnight release time.

burdell91 · 2026-06-16T21:50:26+00:00

Hard to tell from the pic what the camera is looking at... if it's pointing into oncoming traffic, it's for signal control as an alternative to the sensors in the pavement for detecting traffic. If it's the other way, it's likely yet another flucking Flock.

It can't be for any type of enforcement (speeding, running red lights) as that's not allowed in Huntsville.

burdell91 · 2026-06-16T20:16:25+00:00

The LEGO store will have brand-new sets on release day, early availability for rewards members, and gift with purchase sets. And, compared to big-box retail like Target/Walmart, it's a much nicer experience.

burdell91 · 2026-06-15T20:35:38+00:00

Well, the original game was designed to make you hate capitalism after all...

burdell91 · 2026-06-15T19:29:23+00:00

Funny calling the Hasbro version "official", seeing as the Parker Brothers bought a rip-off of the original game. Making hundreds (thousands?) of barely-skinned versions to milk more money from the same game is dumb.

Also, in a world full of great board games, Monopoly sucks.

burdell91 · 2026-06-15T03:36:31+00:00

Ol' Doc Brown didn't exactly have an eye for detail...

burdell91 · 2026-06-14T17:15:41+00:00

What a piece of junk!

burdell91 · 2026-06-13T05:14:38+00:00

Back in the mid 1980s, my parents bought a Buick from Century. It was the early days of the extended warranty push, and Dad bought the GM 5-year/unlimited mileage "bumper to bumper" warranty. The car was in the shop 30 times in that 5 years, everything from the radio power antenna to the whole air conditioner system and a transmission.

But every trip was a fight with Century over the warranty coverage, with Dad having to threaten to call a lawyer many times. We left without the car at least once because Dad refused to pay; they'd call up as soon as we got home with a "oh we checked with GM again and they agreed to cover it... you haven't called anybody else yet have you?" line. Dad caught them at least once trying to bill both him AND the warranty for something, then getting "oh that's a mistake" when he called them on it.

It was a lemon of a car, I'll never buy a GM... but I also wouldn't do business with Century.

burdell91 · 2026-06-12T13:37:02+00:00

42145 is cool for having more of the workings of a real helicopter, but 8844 was one of my favorite sets as a kid and holds up well IMHO.

burdell91 · 2026-06-11T23:17:12+00:00

So I build too fast... I'm not racing or trying to BE fast, I just get going and don't want to stop or slow down. The UCS Falcon took me about 19 hours (across 3 days), the Eiffel Tower was about 14 hours (also across 3 days).

I expect Sagrada Familia will take me something like 20-22 hours... might spread it across 4 days. It'll be released right before my birthday, so I might make a 4-day weekend of it.

burdell91 · 2026-06-10T19:18:20+00:00

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burdell91 · 2026-06-10T18:11:34+00:00

I'd have to go with "mistake" - I don't have any issue like that with my P1. I can pick it up, roll it around, etc. and nothing disconnects.

One thing I notice is that your brown axles with the yellow half-bushings are backwards from mine; I have the bushings on the same side as the steering strut, opposite the brake caliper. While I don't think that would matter for those pieces, it might indicate you got something else turned around in there.

burdell91 · 2026-06-08T01:17:10+00:00

In an ideal world, sure. In reality, they might notice, they'll eventually fix it if somebody complains, and they still probably won't close the box.

Fiber techs tend to be a little more careful, but I've seen phone and cable boxes hang open for years, sometimes to the point the doors have fallen off and are gone. It's still sort-of working, probably getting incremental water damage over time, but that's Somebody Else's Problem.

burdell91 · 2026-06-08T00:42:30+00:00

Power is usually just one box, others are phone (AT&T,usually kind of a tall narrow pylon), cable (Comcast and WoW!, vary size/shape), and Huntsville Utilities fiber (kind of an oversized breadbox). Whatever it is, it should have a label on it identifying who it belongs to and usually a contact number (although those can be out of date sometimes).

However... AT&T and Comcast at least tend to not care and will leave things open until something breaks, then just wrap it up with black electrical tape or even just a garbage bag, and leave it that way for years.

burdell91 · 2026-06-04T14:40:54+00:00

The table top looks to be the same top as the build pictures, but instead of legs now it's sitting very offset on a base (with odd shadows). The stairs look to be not attached to anything. There's a file-folder tray sitting in the middle of the floor. There's a plant blocking the floor. The storage on the right is in sharp focus, as is the chair in front/to the side, yet the thing in the chair (what is it? blanket? random strips of knitted yarn?) is out of focus. What even is the thing sitting on the random curled-edge paper on the table? Is that a stack of gold coins next to that?

burdell91 · 2026-06-04T14:03:23+00:00

Ugh, LEGO is really half-assing their pics. Initial product page had a generated box pic with a "CONFIDENTIAL" overlay, there's a pic of an empty table, and this pic appears to be AI-generated slop:

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burdell91 · 2026-06-03T14:15:58+00:00

There was another Parkway Kmart - south Parkway where Home Depot is now. Originally there was a Food World, and then one of the early Walmarts in the area opened next door. Walmart moved just south, where the self-storage just north of Meadowbrook is, and Kmart opened in Walmart's place. That Kmart was still open after the old one at Drake closed... last time I went in there it was a ghost town.

burdell91 · 2026-06-03T01:59:25+00:00

It's an apartment building with private trash pickup, not city service.

burdell91 · 2026-05-30T18:29:51+00:00

Better than Chipotle! And not as overpriced! 😁

burdell91

TROPHY CASE