They’ve even got a homemade tank and set up roadblocks in an attempt to stop the gunmen, who are said to be responsible for a rise in homicides locally.

Holy homemade tank batman!!

Society as a whole reducing or no longer tipping would make a big impact. My current State requires wait staff to be paid at the same standard state minimum all other positions have to. The employer has to make up wages to at least State minimum in one’s that don’t. Which is what the majority of the kitchen and bussers make. If servers are not getting Far better than minimum (at least at the dozens of chain restaurants I’ve worked at) they quit.

Boy though, would the transition (were it to occur) suuuuck for a lot of folks. So I don’t even pretend to know the best way to start.

Should servers make more on average than cooks (who are responsiblefor both the taste and cleanliness of your food)? Probably an entirely different discussion.

Should a restaurant pay all workers a fair wage or go out of business because they rely on patrons to make up for their shiity pay hierarchy? I say yes.

I will also say, there is a difference between a chain restaurant and a local owned establishment. (Insert chain restaurant here) wants me to tip their servers 20% for a subpar service, just because it’s expected? … they can go suck socks. They can much better afford to pay each server that extra 20% than I. Aunt Margie’s diner, who always has good food and what appears to be genuinely attentive and kind staff? Absofuckinglutely.

Side note. This is also why I always bring cash for tips, that way the server can opt to disclose what they wish. A real tip, in a fair world, imho, should be just for them. No taxes, no payroll accountancy.

…that got… long. Uhhh thanks for coming to my Ted talk?

We had an old manual Ford Escort that we had drilled the ignition out of and put a switch in instead. No one figured it out without us telling them (friends family borrowing). Ours wasn’t even really hidden, just unexpected… thieves rarely want to spend extra time and effort on unexpecteds.

Kindnessskills makes some great points. Bet they smell fresh as a daisy out camping!

We used to do outdoor music festivals and would camp for days so we could have a safe place to walk “home” to drunk and stoned. I learned some tricks from those party folks on staying fresh while young n sweaty and tent swapping. Just being able to get a lil fresh water with soap and/or wipes to the stinky triangle (pits to crotch) helps a ton.

You mentioned you already use a tub. How do you feel about taking a bath to get all soapy and sudsy and then just doing a shower rinse off? Even a quick soak ensures it soapy wayer gets in all the crevices.

Other folks mentioned wipes… might want to look into nursing home hospital stuff. Many things made for people who cannot shower or take a proper bath and still want to be clean (found lots of useful things for camping!) As said elsewhere, daily showering (especially hot water) is very rough on the skin.

Not quite the same but, near me there is an on-ramp for a highway that they added a turn lane onto. They used an existing straight lane and added lines and arrows to denote the change. No one heeded these new lane rules so they added a row of standing, plastic, reflective Ballard like lane dividers to separate the turn lanes from the others. They were quickly driven over by all the traffic and no longer exist.

We used to live near an intersection that, at night, the red turn arrow would just never change. There would be 0 other traffic, cycle after cycle, so… yeah. In some rare cases I’d rather safely go on red rather than wait hours for morning traffic to arrive.

Sweetwater will also slip in a lil bag of candy with the order 😋

Phew! I hoped that had come off as snarky and fun. Hard to tell with text.

I’m fairly crafty but I may need some tips from that uncle of yours.

Not where I live. All those charges for the use of their electricity here. I definitely do not have space to set up my own personal nuclear reactor on my patio. Not even sure I could scavenge enough free materials to build it, even if I found free designs/blueprints.

Our girl missed a jump from the toilet seat to the sink today. There is about a 5" gap between the two. Gravity must be heavy today!

You made me curious since we have one that is trying to devour our other plants from its bucket on our patio. Looks like I don’t have to replant!

https://cultivatedelight.com/grow-tomatoes-in-balcony-pots/

They got their base last year to deride everyone who mentioned US democracy with “We’Re a rEpUbLiC!” I imagined it was for making the lack of any democracy the new normal.

Someone above replied to a comment with a clip from the Daily Show. Noem’s husband made the news.

Would fit but it’s actually Wimp Lo.

Ooo, I have a few left from the grocery hike, time to go dig 'em out.

That’s not paraphrasing, thats an entirely different question.

As I go to type it, boy it sounds nerdy. Doin’ it anyway.

Our library has different meetup groups, DND, board game, gardening, book clubs of course, etc. They also separate kids, teens adults; might be a place to at least poke around to find out where/what other locals are doing.

Soo many of us are total fucking idiots. I’ve known people who were proud to have never, ever left their home county (no r, smaller than the state). Education has been extremely watered down and NEVER included anything that wasn’t in someway tied to or implied to involve the u.s. The teeeensy bit of world history is glossed over quickly with dry dates and facts to memorize until that class is finally over.

Higher education for the rich is for socializing and pretending you learned things other than that.
For a lot of the poor, higher education isn’t even possible, many of those poor folk that are rural even scoff at the idea it’s needed or think it’s the devil’s knowledge or some shit. A local, near my current area, said “I don’t believe in science”. …Like, at all??? I was part of a group that split off right then, wasn’t able to question about it. …But, like at all gravity, chemical reactions… nothing?

People are both proud of being and, think you called them something else, now hella angry, ignorant.

Now, they are more worried about being in good christian, republican (white) private schools than funding public education (California, by law, will not allow any textbook that Texas approves for their schools, in use for their public schools. That’s how useless the bible belt education has become). I have now met more than a few children who don’t “see the point in learning to read”. Various ages. And I dont have kids or close young family around. It fucking kills me to hear that shit.

Movies, tv, YouTube, anything mindless is way more approved for discussion in mixed random social gatherings than anything historical, higher arts related, scientific, god forbid global not involving the u.s.! Instantly labeled libruhl, demoncrat, fanatical left… ugh.

Anyway, yeah, it’s hard to get a world/outside view for so many over here, to the point that I think most have nooo idea a view other than a us-ian one even exists. I wish exchange programs were more of a thing and more available to ‘lower class’ folks. Just getting out of the fucking bubble of constant, subconscious propaganda, from everything one encounters, might really help a number of folk.

Sorry, I love learning, reading, cultures, etc., it has hurt my soul all my life to feel this country smothering learning and curiosity! Even seeking it, it has been hard to come by, especially pre-internet. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

One complaint. Not happy they chose Andy Dick to be in it, but at least they made him the bad guy so little kids who watched could dislike him! Watched it more than once and would again.

Still my favorite ‘jacked up’/caffeinated squirrel scene, with Over the Hedge being a close 2nd.