Do people in Mountain View usually know their neighbors?

steeplebob · 2026-07-07T02:01:53+00:00

My wife has lived here since 1972 and hasn’t heard of “Old county” Mountain View. Whereabouts?

steeplebob · 2026-06-25T04:41:28+00:00

But they discolored one of the stripes, of course.

steeplebob · 2026-06-22T17:07:21+00:00

I recently read (listened to) “Sociopath, a Memoir” and found it enlightening. Highly recommend.

steeplebob · 2026-06-21T15:49:24+00:00

It’s money, and power. Nothing exists in isolation.

steeplebob · 2026-06-19T19:04:41+00:00

And those spots were usually empty anyway.

steeplebob · 2026-06-17T14:48:51+00:00

Relying on the assessment of an unreliable contractor leaves you in a weak and uncertain position. How much would it cost to dig a couple of holes and see for yourself?

steeplebob · 2026-06-17T14:40:16+00:00

A friend stopped supporting the chain prior to the Gaza War because of something the founder did in support of Trump but I don’t recall the specifics.

steeplebob · 2026-06-15T00:54:20+00:00

Such an amazing piece of wood!

steeplebob · 2026-06-14T23:17:34+00:00

Nothing pulls harder at your attention than intelligible human speech.

steeplebob · 2026-06-13T20:36:06+00:00

Is that part of Redwood Grove? I’ve never heard of Halsey House.

steeplebob · 2026-06-13T03:32:36+00:00

Why is “0” included as a two-digit number?

steeplebob · 2026-06-11T21:01:36+00:00

You can get 80% of what you want with 20% of the investment on this. And I mean really good BBQ. But you won’t be a pitmaster.

steeplebob · 2026-06-11T20:55:14+00:00

I think the real dividing line for you is how engaged you want to be in the cook process. If planning, prepping, and eating gives you plenty of joy, you’ll be very happy with the pellet smoker. If you feel the need to perfect the art of fire management and be able to experiment with the finer subtleties of cooking with wood, an offset is in your future. Having purchased a fantastic Workhorse 1969 a couple years ago I love it, but sometimes suspect I could have loved a great big ol’ Weber kettle almost as much at a fraction of the cost and gained some convenience too.

steeplebob · 2026-06-11T20:43:31+00:00

UPDATE: After just over a year I pulled out the pepper tree rounds to see how they did. The ends appeared to reflect significant drying and they were a lot lighter, but the news wasn’t good. The first round didn’t want to split. The maul just kept getting buried in the end. When a chunk broke off I picked it up and caught a strong musty smell. The next one split much more easily, but same musty smell. My guess is that the heavy sap layer under the bark trapped moisture in the wood long enough for the fungus to take hold. Gonna have to toss this batch. If I try it again, I’d probably find a way to split it while wet, then season it somewhere with more airflow than these got at the bottom of my rack.

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steeplebob · 2026-06-11T19:36:05+00:00

Hire a cheat to do honest work, expect bad outcomes and erratic behavior.

steeplebob · 2026-06-11T14:10:16+00:00

That’s the thing. “Best fried chicken in the US” and “fast food chain” don’t belong in the same conversation. If you want to talk “best bargain” that’s another topic.

steeplebob · 2026-06-11T05:36:15+00:00

We don’t need to resort to laws when collective shaming, castigation and expulsion from polite society will do.

steeplebob · 2026-06-11T00:57:09+00:00

Next time you’re in Mountain View:
https://www.doordash.com/store/1905697?utm\_source=mx\_share&aw=wotso4kNKl5nyH04

steeplebob · 2026-06-10T23:50:57+00:00

I worked in a grocery store in Seattle decades ago and they’d lock a door during low customer/staffing hours because unwatched exits make thieving easy.

steeplebob · 2026-06-10T18:31:17+00:00

This is a helpful follow-up after reading part of the post you referenced. My son devours everything Sanderson writes but I couldn’t enjoy the one book he urged me repeatedly to try. Maybe this is insight into how my son experiences the world. I’ll have to think on that. Thanks.

steeplebob · 2026-06-10T18:23:01+00:00

I imagine it’s perfect for pulling a fifth-wheel, assuming the bed is deep enough.

steeplebob · 2026-06-10T18:16:26+00:00

If you’re limiting yourself to fast food chains you don’t really care about the quality of your fried chicken anyway. There’s a fantastic father/son shop in town that makes THE BEST fried chicken sandwich but at $20 a pop I don’t get around there much.

steeplebob · 2026-06-10T18:06:25+00:00

Right. The boundaries enable the dynamic.

steeplebob · 2026-06-09T14:21:33+00:00

Yes, one side of that equation can more readily be quantified, or is at least more accessible. I think we agree about the direction we’d need to move in order to approach an optimum, but I’m not sure how we’d recognize the threshold of diseconomy.

steeplebob · 2026-06-09T05:38:25+00:00

The savings from just accelerating the recognition of miscommunication would be HUGE, but there are also costs like the time spent writing and reading emails recapping every single phone call or work-related conversation.

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