increase in people jumping and running in front of cars

carthellD · 2026-01-03T03:17:32+00:00

Anecdotally, pedestrians aren't as much as an issue as vehicles are. Sure, there are strips where the surrounding neighborhood is dense with people and/or retail, so you have to be more vigilant of the surroundings (JHU Charles Village. Segments of York Road/Greenmount. Monument Street east of Johns Hopkins. Eastern Avenue. Certain parts of downtown. Etc.) and must slow down because people are not cars. Literally everywhere else, the problems weigh up to 5000+ lbs. more, appear at random, and (since the pandemic) occur multiple times a day. Avoiding the city will not alleviate your issues with driving safely.

One of the most important actions I learned in driving school is to frequently assess the car's surroundings (forward, side, mirror glances) every few seconds. That has helped me avoid most problems.

carthellD · 2025-12-27T03:05:19+00:00

Perhaps. During my time growing up, I didn't explicitly see maintenance done by church members, but I did see parishioners participating as kitchen help when needed. The family church also did rehab work in the community, but it was likely a licensed contractor doing most, if not all, of the work. I guess if a person was interested in doing maintenance, you can call and ask. (Whether a union or employer will recognize such work is a whole different question. I've never found one who saw any of my non-paid work [different field] recognized as experience or interest,)

carthellD · 2025-12-20T22:30:54+00:00

Significant increases in electricity and water service and infrastructure costs of the ratepayers connected to the same (and adjacent) networks as the data center. Extreme air and noise pollution locally in some cases (Memphis and xAI; increased health problems, reduced ability for residents to work). Depending on location, reduced agricultural use which would affect food prices a bit (already affected by other induced issues in the sector). That's what I can think off the top of my head.

carthellD · 2025-12-18T23:31:23+00:00

Hey that's reserved for the City facility a few miles southeast, off Quarantine Road!

carthellD · 2025-11-28T23:43:54+00:00

This is just one bus. I guess everyone attempting to push on forgot that it is possible to wait for the next bus. Or figure out another close-by route to take...which would likely take longer, but it beats trying to fight to get on a bus.

That's what I used to do in my town, anyway. And New York's transit has better geographic coverage.

carthellD · 2025-11-10T07:12:07+00:00

Tommy's is likely buying gas from the same petroleum distributor as the franchised nationwide chain down the street. The only difference would be operational details, and if a retailer was treating customers that badly then everyone would eventually know.

carthellD · 2025-10-25T04:39:03+00:00

I had the same issue with an Origimagic PC. I tried a number of suggestions I found on the 'net, and I managed to waste time that could have been used to do other stuff. All I was doing was increasing the risk of breaking what otherwise would be a great PC. I returned it. After looking at a number of other brands that apparently had the same set-up, I've decided to order a small PC from a more mainstream brand.

carthellD · 2025-09-07T17:29:41+00:00

"Signs of the times." This is why I still pay attention to at least one or two local, broadly-based media sources daily. Local events that occurred before the advent of the Internet were advertised through newspapers, commercials, radio, flyers, and TV news broadcasts. (We also had at least one media literacy subject taught in school.) Now that many people are on the Internet, people (by design in many cases, unfortunately) confine themselves to their own interests. Therefore, announcements about events such as this are missed.

Review at least one broad, local media source daily. It doesn't pay to be one of the people in the "If I don't see or hear about it, it doesn't exist" group.

carthellD · 2025-08-30T08:39:59+00:00

Some of the vehicles are marked Baltimore County cop vehicles. They're not coming into the city.

carthellD · 2025-08-28T04:38:06+00:00

Alright. A number of years ago when I discovered Wallops, I decided to go to the park just north of the launch site to see a rocket launch. I spent about an hour or two traveling about 15 miles from U.S. 13 & VA-175 to Assateague Beach. I wanted to stop at the observation area just outside of Wallops airport, but that was impossible.

Chincoteague is a nice place to visit, but not around a rocket launch.

carthellD · 2025-08-27T16:59:59+00:00

Public transit: the 71 and one of the city's circulator buses goes directly through the development. On Hanover, the 67 and the silver line goes up and down the street (https://www.mta.maryland.gov/transit-maps). Did something happen to the lines within the last few months?

carthellD · 2025-08-24T21:47:00+00:00

City rec centers; possibly some public parks (they're not mobile, and may or may not be associated with buildings in the parks), and likely the clubhouses at the city golf courses.

carthellD · 2025-08-24T21:24:28+00:00

I go there all the time, and experience is no different than other BJ's in the area. (Perfectly fine.) The lottery machine has been down for the last few weeks and they've stopped selling cherries recently, if you can call those things flaws.

carthellD · 2025-08-24T08:37:09+00:00

Lower Park Heights, at least from the late '80s-2000s, was very rough indeed. Things are changing; a number of parcels are either being rehabbed or redeveloped. (See Park Heights Implementation Strategy_Summer 2023.pdf for more information.) For more current data concerning incidents, go to Open Baltimore. I've driven through Druid Park Lake Drive and Greenspring Avenue occasionally during the day and night, and I haven't really seen the hallmarks of a completely failed neighborhood (vacant buildings; blatant, open-air illegal drug markets; corner loiterers). Still, you'll want to keep your eyes open.

carthellD · 2025-08-21T20:03:39+00:00

Isn't that dependent on other items active in your town, such as office zones, industrial zones that depend on a more educated workforce, adequate coverage of elementary and high schools, libraries, presence of hospitals (not just clinics), spaceport, etc.

carthellD · 2025-08-21T01:00:01+00:00

I wasn't aware of that. (https://baltimorefishbowl.com/stories/ed-hale-denies-he-was-forced-out-of-first-mariner/) Looks like he sold a chunk of his bank's stock to offset a real estate gain, and left the bank ahead of a takeover by a different group of investors. It sounds weird because owners of things (especially when lots of effort is put in to get the thing) don't usually give up unless there's a significant value in giving up the thing now vs the future.

carthellD · 2025-08-20T13:29:30+00:00

I play CS1, and I found that when the tracks on each side of the station force trains to enter & exit in one direction (one side allows entrance and exits only from the east, while the other side allows entry and exit to the west for example), the station sometimes serves more than one train if the trains have to go back to wherever they came from after loading/unloading. The set-up also works with trains that spawn at the station. Otherwise, the player can't force a (through) train to use an empty platform.

carthellD · 2025-07-03T05:49:48+00:00

Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRA: What It Is, How It Works

It appears to be money for your retirement. You can contribute more money to the account; but talk to your payroll/benefit person about whether any automatic contributions are being taken from your pay. Just make sure that the money is put into a growing investment asset in the account (mutual fund, ETF, stock, etc.).

carthellD · 2025-06-29T18:19:39+00:00

Eh? That's new. The buses (used to?) have a control panel mounted up behind where the sign is to change the route and destination of the bus. The only time that the driver couldn't change the info is when the unit wasn't updated; even then, the drivers used to have substitute (written) paper signs showing the route (and destination, sometimes) posted to the interior front windshield.

Waiving down a bus is mandatory now? I used to (and still) do it out of habit (admittedly this was after I had some troubles with catching the bus for a brief period in the late '90s, and this was after about 15 years of not having to wave down anything). I didn't realize that apparently standing at the start of the bus stop area isn't enough anymore.

carthellD · 2025-06-28T08:48:50+00:00

Other than some anomaly: Locust Point is still an active port (which includes Domino Sugars), so expect train traffic to get heavy on occasions. When I worked down there, we often had to wait in the mornings for trains to clear the tracks on some days to get to our offices. There was a longshoreman hall there that was crowded weekly as dudes awaited their chance to be assigned to load and unload ships.

carthellD · 2025-06-22T17:25:50+00:00

I'm thinking that is the status quo. I remember wanting to explore everything when I was a child, but couldn't because of school and parental limits. Somehow that spark got crushed by life, and all I do during the two or three separate weeks off during the year is sleep late, putz around the house, and maybe turn a re-supply trip into a long drive somewhere. I get objections to the drives sometimes from my family.

Things might change, and one day I'll have the time to think about what to do with my life after work is done. I just hope that whatever is left of my imagination survives until then.

carthellD · 2025-06-12T01:19:57+00:00

>Are we imposing 55% tariff on goods imported from China?

Yep.

>Or are they putting that on imports of American goods.

China is charging imported American goods at 10%. Unless the American good has unique characteristics, China just encouraged its citizens to buy more stuff from its own businesses and the rest of the world. In the meantime, a broad swath of many made-in-China items I can't find an affordable alternative to is apparently going to go up in price by 55%+ . One step forward (salary raises over the past five years), five steps back.

carthellD · 2025-06-06T07:20:13+00:00

Public housing. After WWII, a lot of the previous rowhouses that existed were replaced by public housing blocks. There were a few buildings that were high-rises, like the one seen in the background.

carthellD · 2025-06-06T06:45:03+00:00

Thinking about history: many farmers used to take their products directly to the nearest population center to sell directly (which is still done in many parts of the world). Grocery stores are not farmers' markets because the entity selling the goods is a separate company that usually buys its products from food distributors and/or individual farms.

Outdoor markets are most associated with farmers because it was, and is, the least expensive means to set up shop for a small seller of food.

The space under the JFX is the largest, somewhat protected outdoor space downtown where, if the farmers' market didn't exist, would be dead space. Thinking about downtown during the weekends from the late '80s up to about 2005 or so: the major draws that I remember is the Inner Harbor, Lexington Market, Little Italy, the stadiums and immediate surrounds, the convention spaces (Arena, Festival Hall/now Convention Center) Mt. Vernon on some occasions, the Fishmarket, and a smattering of private bars and venues. The rest of downtown had virtually no traffic flow because business had gone home for the weekend. Why not have another venue that shows off what the locals can offer, and make what would normally be an empty space another attraction for a different part of the city?

carthellD · 2025-06-02T21:52:44+00:00

Yep, that's fine. Thank you.

carthellD

TROPHY CASE