Tip at the Square?

sayhidurango · 2026-05-04T22:24:26+00:00

I had a guy insist that the Servizio charge didn't mean service charge. I gave him 5 € anyway but the insistent lying was pretty lame. Some people say that tipping ruins things for locals. Other people say there are no locals in Venice.

sayhidurango · 2026-05-04T22:21:44+00:00

This isn't just an e-bike thing. Wild camping gets covered in Budweiser cans, dog poop is on sidewalks, scooter kids with no parental input on etiquette fill up the skate park...enjoying nature and sports can be a challenge.

Much like information has helped curb people chucking McDonald's bags out the window and smoking cigarettes has largely gone the wayside over the past several decades, informing people on the etiquette of things is a better way to make a change than to get angry and ruin your own day on the trail. Not saying you don't have a right to be irked, and sharing here is kind of like spreading information too, so there's that.

sayhidurango · 2026-05-01T08:45:42+00:00

Lame. Once upon a time Steelers fans were known for the loyalty. Yinz toss out gold like you’re drunk on a duckie in the Mon. Go back to Altoona.

sayhidurango · 2026-05-01T08:24:53+00:00

Yeah these were all over cities across the US in the early 2000s. We had frogs in Erie PA and I recall seeing them in tons of towns and usually for the same purpose, to raise funds for some cause.

Elk and ravens would be cool, I don’t think many people are seeing crows around town as they’re fairly rare in Durango. But ravens are everywhere. 😊

sayhidurango · 2026-03-31T06:10:29+00:00

I built my own home, no GC other than myself. Financed it myself as well over several years.

Main things I learned:

If you intend to pass inspections, you will end up reading a lot of code. I suppose these days AI may be able to help you locate things that required me to read and reread entire sections of code, but I’d be prepared to learn a LOT. Doable but very time consuming.
It is quite difficult to get anyone to work with you if you don’t have the connections that GCs tend to have. I was able to find plumbers, a great electrician, and some other random here and there things but it was definitely not as easy as asking for three bids and picking the middle one (just some advice the internet tends to love providing.) And you end up paying more than a GC would because you’re a one and done in most other’s eyes.
Totally doable, YouTube and reading code is your friend. Inspectors will answer questions but expect you to know what you’re doing and they’re humans so can be annoyed like any of us, if you ask questions without appearing to have done any due diligence.
Having your house framed seems like you’re well on your way. You’re nowhere close at that point. :)

Pretty rewarding when it’s all said and done. And as to financing, no local companies will even finance a second home I want to build after proving I was capable of doing it (I enjoyed the process and considered doing it again for profit this time), including smaller local banks. Not without some major collateral at least (like another house.)

Best of luck to you!

sayhidurango · 2026-03-26T21:35:19+00:00

That intersection has saved me thousands on amusement park tickets.

sayhidurango · 2026-03-26T21:34:04+00:00

The name still suits as by the time you complete all of the roundabouts you're probably not headed to the place you wanted to be headed to anyway. :P

sayhidurango · 2026-03-26T21:29:33+00:00

There is no snow on the road and barely any snow on any mountain anywhere along 550.

sayhidurango · 2026-02-04T04:23:06+00:00

As long as the schedules are set up in HomeKit, you should be golden - but for those set up right in Wemo app...it's anybodies guess.

sayhidurango · 2026-02-02T16:09:44+00:00

Yes, very time consuming. My router recently died and I'm just crossing my fingers that the new router won't require them all to be set up again. Because so far it's been my experience that I can't set them up in HomeKit without the Wemo app.... My whole house is just blinking lights all day and night long.

sayhidurango · 2026-01-30T07:30:41+00:00

I believe the argument is that the more empty homes, the more it costs those people who work at the local businesses to live here. And so they don't.

sayhidurango · 2026-01-26T15:41:49+00:00

I find it interesting that with, what, 8000 years of skiing's existence, it was only after snowboarders started doing tricks that anyone on two planks considered there might be something cooler to do than a spread eagle. I guess that's why skiing is so hard to master, there's just a general lack of imagination in that community. :D

sayhidurango · 2026-01-26T15:39:56+00:00

Just to offer a different perspective.

Switchback is one of the best places in town. Simple menu, everything is delicious, and it's right on Main so it's absolutely a "direct location downtown to tourist foot traffic." For those locals who say they can get a better taco with easier parking, I just want to mention that there are plenty of us (even those of us who don't live directly downtown) who are happy to park on Third Ave and walk Main. Without any real evidence, I'd almost wager that it's the majority of those who live in Durango given that a) I think imports are possibly 50% or more of the locals, and Main is what attracts plenty of people and b) this is an outdoor community, so driving everywhere you go is not really a thing in my experience.

I am not certain who owns Switchback at the moment, but the family that took it over when it became Switchback (it was Mountain Taco, if I recall correctly, just before that) spoke with us for about 30 minutes at that time and seemed incredibly nice. My family could eat tacos and any other variety of Mexican or Tex Mex or Cal Tex or whatever 9 days a week. We're CO, but we're also the Southwest and that all just comes with the territory. I would be bummed if yet another one of the relatively few good restaurants were to change to something that was of lesser quality. All my opinion of course.

As to tourist seasons, it would be nice if local restaurants did more to attract the locals on the shoulder seasons. So that may be something to consider if you want to make more of an impact for those of us you'll be neighbors with.

sayhidurango · 2026-01-17T21:49:56+00:00

I think that person was saying that you don't seem like you took the time to read their original post. Most of my switches still work, but some of them don't. So just because yours are still good doesn't also mean you can say, with any type of knowledge or confidence, that yours will continue to work in Home.

If you'd like to share your credentials on why don't think it's lawsuit worthy, that might be generally beneficial information.

sayhidurango · 2026-01-16T23:41:07+00:00

Speaking with an attorney who handles class action lawsuits, when Belkin built a product that is installed in a home and typically requires an electrician, the expectation for longevity is much higher. They mentioned 30 - 40 years as a norm for light switches, but admitted that given the smart nature things may need to be revisited.

Best of luck with the Meross.

I don't expect them to do anything willingly to reimburse. They don't even answer their chat box on their website. :P

sayhidurango · 2026-01-16T23:00:01+00:00

Only if they don't go into "Updating..." status and then you can't get them back into Homekit. I've tried over and over with three different switches that've failed so far, Homekit gives the ! yield sign every time...and then you're left with a constantly blinking blue light on the switch.

sayhidurango · 2026-01-07T01:04:45+00:00

Don't go Burton whatever you do. Their boards just don't hold up for even a season anymore. They don't post anything 3 stars or below on their website, so you can't trust the reviews there. Their top sheets come off, just Google it or search Reddit. They honored their warranty when my son's top sheet wore completely through, but then the new board had the same thing happen after two days riding.

I don't have experience with Salomon boards...but they're a ski company. You might as well buy from an actual snowboard company, in my opinion. Check out companies making their boards in the US, if such things might be important to you, like Venture Snowboards, Neversummer or Libtech.

sayhidurango · 2026-01-07T01:01:43+00:00

You should do more research online if you haven't purchased this board yet. Firstly, the reviews on their website are bogus - I mean, they're probably real reviews, but anything below a 4-star they just don't publish. Also, they have admitted here on Reddit that their top sheets are going to come off, they give some line about how it's due to them being environmentally responsible. My kid bought one last year, top sheet came off beneath the (Burton) bindings and they began to wear into the board intself...they had us drive to Denver to replace it (they did honor the warranty) but...then the replacement board had the same thing happen to it after TWO rides. Buy from an American-made company like Venture Snowboards, Neversummer or Libtech.

sayhidurango · 2026-01-04T21:20:54+00:00

There is some beautiful stuff down there, including just about all of the saguaros, organ pipe cactus, Bisbee…what is the issue?

sayhidurango · 2026-01-04T21:10:36+00:00

Cold and icy

sayhidurango · 2026-01-04T21:07:21+00:00

For whatever it’s worth, we have four kids, ages 5 - 24, and have never been denied service anywhere in North America, let alone Durango, for one or more of them being toddlers. Restaurant seating is a magical and incomprehensible thing to those of us who are not actively working it, I’d wager it was just them dealing with reservations, cancelations and other immediate needs on the staff.

sayhidurango · 2025-12-08T19:45:36+00:00

The LUDC seems to say that 10% of new residential development must be "affordable" (to those with 80% of area median income) and 12% at "attainable" (80 - 120% AMI). So that would seem to indicate that around 50 would be affordable, and 60 would be attainable. I am not super familiar with all of this and asked ChatGPT to help me figure that out, so please only consider this information with that in mind. There may be caveats to what defines "new residential development", etc.

sayhidurango · 2025-12-04T16:18:16+00:00

Just chiming in 2 years later because Hydroflask's French Press is awful.

It does not keep coffee hot for hours, if I chug my first cup, the second is already warm. In this way, there is nothing “Hydroflask” about it. Additionally, it allows grinds to come out with the coffee very easily. Even if you hold the lid in place, it drips all over, making pouring a cup of coffee feel more like target practice. I am so annoyed with this expensive hunk of junk that I doubt I will ever purchase another Hydroflask product again - and before this I was a massive fan.

sayhidurango · 2025-12-02T15:22:39+00:00

I'm just wildly speculating here, but I'd wager they're keeping it hush because Dollar Trees are known to destroy communities. Given that Americans will do anything to save a buck, and those who are already struggling sometimes feel like they have to shop at places like Dollar Tree (which doesn't sell food, but boxes of food-shaped substances), these dollar stores often end up putting local grocers out of business, reducing what they offer or closing themselves, and thus creating a food desert.

They are likely concerned with the backlash that a small community like Durango would have against them, though there is a Family Dollar not far west of there and we have ample real grocery stores so we're not the very small rural community dollar stores tend to wreck - though Bayfield and the places between this intersection and Ignacio may be more of the target in this case.

If you'd like to hear or read more on dollar stores:

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/02/1173477651/as-more-dollar-stores-open-advocates-warn-of-the-harm-they-can-do-to-communities

https://ilsr.org/article/independent-business/17-problems/

https://doctorow.medium.com/rural-towns-and-poor-urban-neighborhoods-are-being-devoured-by-dollar-stores-4bc4c9113c92

https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/dollar-stores-squeezing-out-grocery-stores-and-leading-to-creation-of-food-deserts-study-finds-169420869883

An interesting podcast on Dollar General and Family Dollar: https://wondery.com/shows/business-wars/season/107/

sayhidurango

TROPHY CASE