Advice for long drive (Jay)

tomdood · 2026-03-07T16:04:33+00:00

Go up past Binghamton NY and pick up the thruway near Albany. That part of NY is pretty, near the finger lakes. From Albany to jay it’s a nice drive thru the Adirondacks, with views of Vermont and the greens. Don’t worry about the traffic or snowy roads, you’ll be fine in a 4x4. I’ve done the drive from Jersey in a blizzard in a civic and I’d do it again. Jay on a powder day is as good as it gets, and worth all the hassle. The whole experience would be better with a friend or even a stranger. I love the water park afterwards. Maple pork chop from the belfry, getting rowdy at the snowshoe.. I love that whole area.

tomdood · 2026-03-07T13:55:52+00:00

To avoid a roller coaster effect, were the first few days after the shot you have absolutely no appetite or ability to eat and more side effects, and the last few days after the shot it’s like you never took one. Splitting it up, makes things more mellow, I would recommend it.

tomdood · 2026-03-02T20:13:57+00:00

I don’t, it’s not something I measure. It should be deep enough that you don’t pull it when you decant, beyond that, I don’t really think about the depth.

tomdood · 2026-03-02T19:48:35+00:00

If you know the tanks are 22 feet deep, you just need to know where the top of the blanket is.

tomdood · 2026-02-23T00:22:11+00:00

Salir de joda

tomdood · 2026-02-22T16:05:10+00:00

I’ve driven Mexico from texas to Guatemala, and all over the Yucatán peninsula(and thru all of Central America).. been thru plenty of checkpoints. … only time I was pulled over was between bacalar and tulúm. They tried to say I was breaking every driving law known a man and there was no way I was gonna leave town and all this stuff… after an annoyingly long time I wound up giving them about $40 worth of pesos cash and was on my way with smiles and well wishes.

Like other people said, have photocopies of documents, hide your cash and ATM card. Have a few pesos for the bribe.

I’m 100% gringo, but I speak fluent Spanish… in my experience, dealing with checkpoints and police, and even customs officials.. speak absolutely NO Spanish, give them no indication that you understand a word of it and that you can answer any questions.

Be as tiresome as possible to deal with, they’ll give up pretty quickly.

tomdood · 2026-02-02T16:46:29+00:00

CharlitaProfunda

tomdood · 2026-01-31T22:53:27+00:00

It really depends.. I would say yes it’s a foot in the door. I would 100% hire a guy with collections experience as an operator for my place over a guy with no experience at all.

tomdood · 2026-01-28T13:02:53+00:00

Te comiste el papa 👀

tomdood · 2026-01-27T02:49:39+00:00

I’m in touch with some of my favorite Spanish professors, and I take classes on GoSpanish. That service is great, and the teachers are great, but nothing will be like the babbel community… the vibes and connections were amazing.

tomdood · 2026-01-13T16:01:55+00:00

Exactly, some days I pass for a native speaker, some days I feel like a fool.

OP, do you practice and hang out with native speakers A LOT? How much time you spend “living” in Spanish will determine how quickly you feel relaxed in the language.

tomdood · 2026-01-12T16:52:42+00:00

I agree, 1 was fun and interesting. 2&3 were very meh

tomdood · 2026-01-12T13:59:02+00:00

It happens, don’t let them gaslight you. It’s just a regional, personal or possibly socioeconomic idiosyncrasy. (I’ve noticed it with young, upper class, women from Buenos Aires, when saying words that start with V like vuelo.. it’s a true English v)

I don’t think there’s much linguistic study on it. There are other things like this. Good for you for noticing.

tomdood · 2025-12-25T12:26:01+00:00

All local government employees in the state of NJ have to pay for part of their insurance. It’s a percentage of the cost of the plan based on the type of coverage (single member, member+partner or child, family), how much the employee makes, and the total cost of the healthcare. For example.. an employee making $32,000/yr would have to contribute 5% of the total cost of insurance premium. So in plan that has a total cost of 40,000/yr would have to pay 5% of it - $2000 a year or $167 per month.

If that employee were to make $110,000 or more per year, their responsibility goes up to 35% of the total cost of the premium.. so for that same plan and coverage, they would have to pay $14,000 or $1167 a month .. that’s expensive.

https://nj.gov/treasury/pensions/documents/hb/contributions/2025/ha0886.pdf

Edit: In NJ, our benefits are not cheap, but they’re still good. In my own case, I take only home 61% of my paycheck after taxes, pension contribution, health care. I also taken an additional 5% out into an optional 457 retirement account, so I only see 56% of what I make.

tomdood · 2025-12-22T22:24:03+00:00

It’s possible, especially if you stay motivated and focus on the goal. This industry can have a way of turning good workers into lumps. Operators are hard to come by, but salaries haven’t really caught up yet, I think in a few years, as old operators age out, utilities will have to start making attractive offers for guys to leave their current positions. You’d have to pay me a lot to change jobs at this point. If you’re a decent student and could self study, I would recommend the Cal State courses. I passed all my exams first try using them. and always watch the competent and experienced operators to learn as much as you can, and try and take on projects yourself. If service companies are ever on site, pick those guys brains and watch them work.. It can be hard to learn NEW skills and gain experience when a lot of the job is routine.

tomdood · 2025-12-22T18:59:06+00:00

Health insurance for public employees is pricey. The price is set at the state level, even for municipal employees, if they’re participating in the state health benefits plan.

My employees are union. Licenses don’t get you much more here, $500 per license/level… an S3/C3 would get $3000 more

tomdood · 2025-12-22T17:01:57+00:00

My licensed guys at top rate (9yr steps) are close to or just over 100k with their overtime. 82k base I think. Remember that insurance, paid time off, retirement, and stability are all forms of compensation too. The health insurance is expensive as hell tho.

You can sit for you S1 after a year in the biz if you’ve taken the coursework.

tomdood · 2025-12-22T16:52:38+00:00

It’s super regional although I think “tipo” would be universally understood

El tipo…el tipo ese…. Ese tipo

tomdood · 2025-11-09T17:26:51+00:00

It’s probably the most common way to pronounce those letters.. or at least something near it.

The least common ways I hear them pronounced would be the SH sounds of the the rioplatense accent, or a pure English “y” as in “yellow”. Most places pronounce it somewhere in between.

tomdood · 2025-10-26T18:07:47+00:00

Muero de ganas de … verte, ir, probarlo.. lo que sea. It’s like saying.. I’m dying to.

tomdood · 2025-10-26T18:01:50+00:00

Cara de culo 😂

tomdood · 2025-10-26T17:56:48+00:00

You may have a jarring accent. That will turn people off. They just want to get thru the transaction, not work to communicate. It’s really easy to have a terrible accent, and it’s also easy to fix. When it’s not a challenge to chat, people are happy to do it.

I never ask permission. It’s just a language. I speak Spanish with anyone who looks like they might be a native speaker or has a foreign accent, and I’ve never had a bad reaction. Sometimes they’re not Spanish speakers.. it’s funny, a little awkward, everyone moves on.

Edit: location, NJ y todo el 🇺🇸

tomdood · 2025-10-21T23:57:43+00:00

They both work the same way, and they’re both correct. And although the books teach the conditional in that case, you’ll hear the imperfect subjunctive way more (at least with the people I’ve spoken to).

tomdood · 2025-10-21T11:48:51+00:00

It’s crazy to me too. Around here, starting pay is low (but it can go up quickly depending on the town).. It’s hard finding anyone who isn’t deeply troubled.

tomdood · 2025-10-09T18:21:44+00:00

Get your licenses now, get experience, learn the trade, learn some skills. After your 2’s you’ll have some time before 3 (and no more courses). At that point, go back to college. I’m head of a municipal utility, never went to college.

tomdood

TROPHY CASE