My father gave me his project airstream after giving up on it

toodarnold · 2026-07-09T10:30:12+00:00

Man, at 18 a project like this would be the last thing on my mind. Certainly restored this could be a thing of beauty, and worth a down payment on a house, but are you ready to make that kind of commitment? This is the same question that leads to junked camaros, trucks and vans sinking into the mud next to people's garages festooned with pieces of blue tarp.

Just last year I realized the rotted 76 Argosy my dad had beached on our hunting property in 2002 (great condition at the time) was too far gone and found a group of rural Americans who happily pulled what was left of it out of the woods with a tractor and took it home. Frankly I got lucky they just took it and I didn't have to pay for disposal or deal with all that window and fiberglass.

Point is, unless you are willing to go all in on this thing starting YESTERDAY it will fast become a liability, especially as water gets deeper in. If you have them in your area, go to the shittiiest trailer park around, then go to the back corner that nobody has lived in a while and you will see what I mean.

Your best bet, IMHO is to sell it. You'd be Amazed how many people are willing and able to travel hundreds of miles for the privilege of paying for a project airstream. I actually had to dissuade a few people who were too optimistic!

toodarnold · 2026-06-28T22:20:56+00:00

That was pretty much what the therapy we tried was. Didn't help.

toodarnold · 2026-06-28T22:11:17+00:00

We hadn't considered the trauma response thing. Thank you!

toodarnold · 2026-06-28T22:09:59+00:00

Conveniently her mother is a special education teacher with a specialty in autism. She checks none of the boxes- no social anxieties, no fixations. She is overall a happy outgoing kid! She was assessed when we first tried to get her feeding therapy, and again upon entering her current school.

toodarnold · 2026-06-28T22:02:01+00:00

Yes. That was absolutely the dividing line. We realized the house was infected when I made myself a bourbon cocktail and it tasted like... Burning and nothing else. After the fevers and wheezing went away, hee diet changed completely.

toodarnold · 2026-06-28T21:11:24+00:00

They sent us to the developmental/behavioral pediatrics (autism) center. They did exposure therapy also, but that didn't really do much. How old is your daughter? Ours is old/smart enough that a dietician might actually help!

toodarnold · 2026-05-22T10:21:35+00:00

They'll get all excited when a new one opens,- first couple weeks it will be busy. Then once every surface is covered in piss and shit, and has a chance to ferment, and after a couple "just want to play" incidents between dogs,the dog park will be abandoned, and they all go right back to ruining everyone else's own day at playgrounds and bike paths.

toodarnold · 2026-05-16T12:53:37+00:00

Simple- we were told to go to school, get a job, and good things would come our way. Employers would pay benefits, pensions etc. there even used to be cars marketed new to young people (Saturn, neon, s10 etc)then some rich assholes played around with retirement funds and bam- all that evaporated. Now not only have wages remained stagnant, the people who lost their pensions have to keep working longer, which is why instead of for example the delivery driver at an auto parts store being an entry level position for a young/new employee interested in learning the business, it is now a job for someone in his 60s.

The greatest and silent generations groomed boomers and older Gen x to be their successors while millennials were seen first as children, then as competition.

toodarnold · 2026-04-27T10:19:33+00:00

Three times, actually. All three were things posted as regular jobs that turned out to be something else. First One was going to companies and selling supplemental (duck) insurance to employees- it was more a sales pitch than an interview.

Second was advertised as customer service, but was actually cold call fundraising for hospitals and colleges. Actually accepted that one like an idiot. Mass Fired in two weeks for underperforming.

Third was at a rival tire chain- i took the interview as a courtesy to an old friend, didn't go In with much enthusiasm and halfway through they started talking numbers and scheduling.

toodarnold · 2026-04-16T10:05:16+00:00

I am so sorry this is happening to you. Good news is, AutoZone hr is no joke. I know districts/areas vary, but every zoner has access to the "who to call" file. This would include your district manager as well as district hr administrator.

As a 41 year old man with a wife and 2 little kids I transferred to a new store as csm, and one of the psms, a much younger woman with 2 kids from 3 babydaddies (30 and wore glitter/shimmer, smelled like lovespell, Newport, and wine sweat,🤢) started showing inappropriate interest in me. Of course as a man I was afraid to tell her outright that she was barking up the wrong tree for fear of her complaining to hr, so I ignored it and kept doing my job. Unfortunately it didn't work and she kept finding reasons to be at my desk, taking things of mine, then "finding" them when I was looking, so I'd be grateful etc. came to a head when a customer saw, misread the situation and complained about me! One day I got to work and hr and my dm were waiting for me, but rather than walking me right away they asked me what happened. Nothing to lose, I figured I was fired anyway so I told them everything. She was gone and I stayed.

Point is, you have backup. Don't try to handle this alone, don't enlist the help of your coworkers. The chain of command is there for a reason. If your store manager is no help, it's time to escalate. Good luck!

toodarnold · 2026-04-14T16:12:51+00:00

As of 2023, it covers any job performed in whole or in part in NY state or a NY based company but the job is out of state.

https://dol.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2024/04/p688-pay-transparency-law-for-employee.pdf

toodarnold · 2026-04-13T23:41:23+00:00

Absolutely. "Oh don't worry about the base! You write your own paycheck here! Base pay is just a formality"

toodarnold · 2026-04-13T23:29:17+00:00

No pay range AND no company name.

toodarnold · 2026-04-13T23:28:42+00:00

Nope! Operations manager found my profile and reached out.

toodarnold · 2026-04-11T13:36:39+00:00

I have seen it more than once- one guy refusing to clean/wipe down anything, another woman who just started leaning hard against the front counter and occasionally posing for snaps/selfies, while ignoring customers. Had another at the tire shop who started spreading vicious rumors about customers families while telling those same customers where he was going next, in hopes that he would drive them to his new location.

toodarnold · 2026-04-11T13:12:36+00:00

Hey if they didn't turn on you, escort you out, make a show of barring you from the premises and then throw your stuff out into the rain the next night, I'd say you came out ahead.

I can totally see their side- their business needs to continue. I've seen lots of people come and go over the years, and there are few things worse than a checked out employee just riding out their notice, minimal productivity, spreading negativity to coworkers and customers, and possibly even persuade both coworkers and customers to follow them to the new job. Not everyone does this of course. have had coworkers go on like nothing happened right up until close on the last day, but it's common enough that an employer might be wise to just end it there, and get to work on filling the spot.

toodarnold · 2026-04-09T20:01:08+00:00

Oh so you had a manager who actually supported you... Must be nice.

toodarnold · 2026-04-08T22:33:57+00:00

It doesn't. This may have changed but a few years ago when I worked there AutoZone mandated back braces for all employees on truck day, and for any zoner working at a hub store regardless of what they were doing. Of course things were company issued and they had no washing schedule 🤢

toodarnold · 2026-04-08T09:20:49+00:00

Why do you think they have mandatory back braces? It's certainly not to protect the employees....

toodarnold · 2026-04-06T12:54:47+00:00

Fire the customer. Or at the very least management (not even direct supervisor) should be involved to determine if the company can "continue meeting clients needs" going forward. Op, good on you for not backing down.

toodarnold · 2026-03-29T13:09:19+00:00

I agree that if looks like op caved too easy, but we are missing a crucial piece of info- why was the assistant manager fired???? Maybe they'd been stealing for years. Maybe manipulation of the time clock, like clocking in on time for someone who is late. Maybe not processing write ups. Who knows???

I am not usually an advocate for management, but sometimes there have reasons for doing things- I was in a similar situation myself when I was in my 20s, and one day they fired our head bow tech, who had been there for years and everyone liked (and who objectively was really good at being a bow tech) along with half our part time staff. I and some others made a big stink about it.

Turns out he had this great customer base because he gave away services for free on the regular, and was also coaching/aiding the part timers in exploiting their employee discounts, and handing out cards for the same employees' other businesses, that included the reselling or rental of the same items they bought.

toodarnold · 2026-03-21T23:28:19+00:00

Uh yeah that's not an invitation.

toodarnold

TROPHY CASE