What in the everliving fuck…

AH THE FUCK IS ALIVE KILL IT!

Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to come across aggressively. I get a little fired up at the thought of crossing a huge, fast road, and it doesn’t help that cars are way bigger and drivers seem way worse these days.

No question bikes are the best way to get around in a densely populated area. My wife and I stayed in a condo in a building that housed a Target (Newmark Tower) when we vacationed in Seattle a couple months ago. If I could afford it, I’d buy that condo and live that way. We rented a car while we were there, but we barely drove it. It was genuinely liberating not needing it. We rode the monorail. We took the bus from time to time. We climbed a stupidly steep hill to get dinner one night. It was awesome.

But man, I live about a mile and a half from the grocery store and I refuse to bike there for the simple fact that there are way too many fast, wide roads to have to cross to get there, and there are zero bike lanes along the way. Unless you’re on the college campus, everything here is built for the convenience of the car at the detriment of literally everyone else.

And if OP also lives in the burbs, I reckon their situation is pretty similar.

Again, sorry that I came across aggressively. I didn’t intend to get so riled up about it.

Big talk Unfortunately, that’s a huge ask if you’ve never crossed a six lane stroad on foot. The American transit system is often downright hostile to anyone not in a car. It can be goddamn terrifying. Adding: If OP can get around safely and feasibly on a bike, this is great advice.

Otherwise, there are ways to cut down on car costs if you need one. What car you own matters. Get something extremely common that never breaks. A 1998 Camry or Corolla are probably two of the most solid cars money can buy and junkyards are full of them. Parts are cheap and available.

Learning to do your own basic maintenance will also save you lots of money.

• A dealer might charge sixty bucks to swap a cabin air filter. It takes one minute and a replacement for my Honda Civic is eight dollars on Amazon. Same story with the engine air filter.
• Check your oil and transmission dipsticks every once in a while for level and condition.
• Check your brake fluid level and clarity.
• Tire pressures are on the inside of the driver door jamb. Learn how to properly inflate your tires, including the spare.
• If your car came with a scissor jack, a tire iron, and a compact spare, you can rotate your own tires in 30 minutes without buying any tools.
• On an inline four cylinder engine, spark plugs are often on the top of the head, below a cover, and are insanely easy to replace. Just be aware of torque specs, especially on an aluminum head. A torque wrench can be yours for ten bucks at Harbor Freight.
• Check your lights and blinkers every once in a while and learn how to replace bulbs. This is important on older cars that use halogen and incandescent lamps. A tail light is a few bucks, takes 15 minutes to replace, and will probably save you from a ticket.

Learning how to replace some parts is also a big plus and parts stores will often lend you small tools for some jobs free of charge.

Many states also offer discounted rates on yearly registration for older cars. In Oklahoma, it costs me $26 a year to tag my '97 Honda.

Finally, get a dash cam and the cheapest insurance you can, and drive like you’re on probation and on thin ice with your parole officer.

My granddad won’t set it any lower than 78°F.

It doesn’t snow much in Oklahoma lmao

The short days are the worst part of winter. That, and stupid daylight savings takes an hour away from us in the evening. So I get off work, and there’s maybe 45 minutes of daylight to take my dogs to the park.

And I say that as a winter enjoyer. I love the cold weather. I wear shorts when it’s freezing. It’s 17.5°C in my house right now. You’d be lucky to catch me setting the heat past 20.

I did consider the risk I’d lose this crowd by oversharing, but being succint was never my strong suit lol

Some relatively unknown French microbiologist is rolling in his grave right now.

Fedora issue. I restart my Debian machines maybe once every 4-6 weeks.

Hell, when I was a little boy in 2001, you could still accept a ride from strangers. I mean, sure, you could end up in the car with a wannabe John Wayne Gacy, but more often than not, it was a kind stranger offering a ride to a kid walking home in the 105 degree Texas heat.

He is always getting into trouble. He’s 11 years old, and while age has slowed him down some, it’s not made him less curious.

Tbf, most people pose no threat to the average cat. Like razor blades welded to a flying angle grinder that always knows which way is down.

It’s not that simple when most people actively choose the cruelty.

Another layer: Zilwaukee is in MI and Milwaukee is in WI.

cat@feline:~ wigglebutt
wigglebutt: Denied. Root access required for launch calibration.
cat@feline:~ sudo wigglebutt
[sudo] password for cat:
cat is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.

Later, I go home, look in the mirror, and exclaim:

When I did it, you could opt out electronically for 5 years, but a lifetime opt out requires you to mail a printed form. I’m guessing the lenders have something to do with that and are banking on most people not having a printer.

Edit: Or having to deal with paying for a stamp and putting something in the mail.

But yes, I love their 90s clip art.

In my experience, it’s here.

After I graduated college and got my first place on my own, I had my desk set up in the corner of the living room with a long HDMI cable strung around along the baseboards and into the TV. It was clean. It was a Vizio 37" panel from 2011 so it had no smart features. I kept a Logitech keyboard/trackpad combo on the coffee table and that’s essentially how I had a smart TV running full blown Windows 8 Pro in 2013. Tired of desk gaming? I got a DualShock 4 and a Bluetooth adapter so all I had to do was turn the controller on and walk to the couch. Sometimes, switching my sound device did mean saving and restarting my game. Some games handled the Alt + Tab to the Control Panel just fine. I put a Blu Ray drive in my computer too so with some software, I used it as a Blu Ray player.

These days, I have 10 TB on board so I keep my movies stored on my disk, and I stream them over my local network. I’d like to build a proper always on NAS one day, but for now, my gaming PC is also my network share.

If we’re sharing our dogs, here’s mine.

It wasn’t a successful day at the park if he doesn’t sprinkle 15 molecules of pee on every tree at least a few times. He also marks the benches, despite my efforts to stop him. He’s very rude like that.

He just turned 2 years old a few weeks ago.