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Minor things that bother you

Started by planxtymcgillicuddy, November 27, 2019, 12:15:11 AM

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formulanone

Quote from: texaskdog on January 06, 2020, 03:26:16 PM
Quote from: formulanone on January 06, 2020, 02:27:37 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on January 06, 2020, 10:25:40 AM
the term "brick and mortar"

You have a too many minor things that bother you. Consider dropping twenty of them.

And because we have too many people that take everything literally around here, wear steel-toed shoes before dropping any actual bricks or mortars.

I've got 5 years on you, it gets worse

Then you've had five more years to find wisdom and peace.

Or watched more TV, it's your life.


kphoger

Quote from: GaryV on January 06, 2020, 03:28:49 PM

Quote from: kphoger on January 06, 2020, 03:27:56 PM
Potholes

Come to Michigan.  Then potholes won't be a minor annoyance to you any more.  They'll become a major annoyance.

I once had a page-per-day calendar that had an "on this day" blurb for each day of the year.  Except they were funny ones.  One day had an entry for "archaeologists discover the ruins of an ancient civilization inside a Detroit pothole".
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

texaskdog

Quote from: formulanone on January 06, 2020, 03:31:15 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on January 06, 2020, 03:26:16 PM
Quote from: formulanone on January 06, 2020, 02:27:37 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on January 06, 2020, 10:25:40 AM
the term "brick and mortar"

You have a too many minor things that bother you. Consider dropping twenty of them.

And because we have too many people that take everything literally around here, wear steel-toed shoes before dropping any actual bricks or mortars.

I've got 5 years on you, it gets worse

Then you've had five more years to find wisdom and peace.

Or watched more TV, it's your life.

I'm ISTJ I pretty much hate the world

Rothman

Quote from: DaBigE on January 06, 2020, 01:52:22 PM
Quote from: KEVIN_224 on January 06, 2020, 01:18:00 PM
Name one other holiday where you wish them well several days after the holiday. I'll wait.

Christmas...technically lasts until Epiphany
Only in certain sects.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

kurumi

Quote from: Rothman on January 06, 2020, 08:22:35 PM
Quote from: DaBigE on January 06, 2020, 01:52:22 PM
Quote from: KEVIN_224 on January 06, 2020, 01:18:00 PM
Name one other holiday where you wish them well several days after the holiday. I'll wait.

Christmas...technically lasts until Epiphany
Only in certain sects.

If you're not ready to take down the lights, Orthodox Christmas in Ukraine is January 7.
My first SF/horror short story collection is available: "Young Man, Open Your Winter Eye"

DaBigE

Quote from: kphoger on January 06, 2020, 02:03:24 PM
Quote from: DaBigE on January 06, 2020, 01:52:22 PM
Quote from: KEVIN_224 on January 06, 2020, 01:18:00 PM
Name one other holiday where you wish them well several days after the holiday. I'll wait.
Christmas...technically lasts until Epiphany
Because Christmastide lasts until Epiphany, I don't consider it "late" to wish someone a Merry Christmas on, say, January 2.  And, while it is still a new year on January 6, there does have to be a point at which it stops being appropriate.

My comment was somewhat of a stretch, as I was intending to reference the fact that most calendars/statutory holiday rules only reference Christmas Day, but many still celebrate the 12 days of Christmas/Christmastide...to fit with what KEVIN_224 was looking for.

For many religious sects, what is said about Christmas could also be said about Easter, as there are several weeks to the season.
"We gotta find this road, it's like Bob's road!" - Rabbit, Twister

hbelkins

I don't know if there is anyone left in rural Appalachia who still celebrates "Old Christmas," but at one time it was widely celebrated. (link)


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

kphoger

We just took down the tree and decorations yesterday evening, and I instructed my wife and sons not to turn the lights on before we took it down because Christmastide is over.

For Epiphany (January 6), we always have a fancy family dinner and open the last present of the season.  Our tradition is to cook rouladen, and this year we had them with garlic mashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts with balsamic vinegar and bacon bits, and a rosé wine from La Vieille Ferme (grape juice for the kids).

I had hidden the present and led the boys on a scavenger hunt to find it.  The envelope on the tree had a map of my best guess as to the wise men's route (wherever in Persia they started–assuming you agree with the theory that they came from Persia–they must have passed through Babylon, so that was the first city on the map), plus an Epiphany-themed poem I wrote that included their first clue.  Each step of the scavenger hunt corresponded to a city along the route of the wise men's journey.  At that point, I would teach them something about that city in the time of Christ, connect that something to a bible passage that pertains to wisdom, and explain the bible passage a little bit.  Then they would read another Epiphany-themed poem I had written containing a clue to the next hiding spot.  In some of the hidden envelopes, they also found pieces of Hershey's Gold candy.  By the time they finally reached "Bethlehem" (my teapot), they were told in poem form to return back to the tree (where I had hidden the actual present under the tree skirt, ha!), just as the wise men returned to their country without reporting to Herod.



BABYLON
Home of the temple to Marduk, where people used to take care of his idol, which now lies in ruins.
Jeremiah 10 – "These gods did not make heaven and earth."

RESAFA
Without river or spring, the city collects springtime rainwater in cisterns for the year's water supply.
John 4 – "Whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty."

PALMYRA
This society blends all sorts of contemporary cultures and thereby has all but lost its own cultural identity.
I Corinthians 3 – "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."

DAMASCUS
Our entrance gate's broad and tall center section is not for foot travelers like us, so we go through a narrower section.
Matthew 7 – "The gate is small and the road is narrow that leads to true life."

JERICHO
Home of the egotistical Herod the Great's opulent winter palaces.
I john 2 – "If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you."

JERUSALEM
Home of a new and improved Jewish temple which, little do we know, will be destroyed and looted in 70 years.
Psalm 103 – "Human life is like grass;  we grow like a flower in the field."

BETHLEHEM





Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

1995hoo

Our tree is still up (and decorated) because we won't have time to take it down until Friday, and our outside lights are still up because yesterday's bad weather made last night a bad time to take anything down. But nothing is lit after January 6. We light everything through and including the Epiphany but not afterwards. I suppose, if you wanted to be super-technical, it wouldn't be totally inappropriate to leave things lit through February 2, the 40th day after Christmas and the Feast of the Presentation in the Temple, but from a practical standpoint we will never do that. (We have, on occasion, left the tree up but dark until Lee-Jackson-King weekend simply based on when we had time to take everything down.)

I do find it slightly peculiar how the American way is to celebrate everything in advance and then bam, within 24 hours the holiday is to be forgotten and you're on to the next one. My wife commented last week about how the stores already had Valentine's Day crap prominently displayed. I made multiple trips to Home Depot this weekend and I might have liked the chance to pick up some outdoor Christmas lights had they had a clearance sale going on to move inventory (the squirrels chewed through one strand of lights on our deck), but they had already removed all that stuff. No doubt part of my feeling on this may date back to when we were kids and we always celebrated Christmas at home as a family, then two or three days later we went to New York to visit our relatives and we essentially had another Christmas up there. We never opened anything prior to December 25 except for the one year we went to New York for Christmas Day because my grandmother was in the hospital.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

Max Rockatansky

My wife is insistent on keeping the decor up until the official end of Christmas.  She also serves a bread that has the baby Jesus in a slice.  I'm to understand if you get the baby Jesus you have to throw a feast or something the next year?  I never even heard of that one until I started dating her years ago. 

US 89

Growing up we always kept the tree up until sometime within the first few weeks of January simply out of laziness, because taking it down was a pain in the ass and was almost guaranteed to take multiple hours. In addition to taking down all the ornaments and lights, it was one of those older artificial trees where all the branches came off separately and didn't really fit in the box. Carrying the box out to the garage where it would sit for the next 10.5 months was no small task either.

kphoger

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 08, 2020, 12:31:39 PM
My wife is insistent on keeping the decor up until the official end of Christmas.  She also serves a bread that has the baby Jesus in a slice.  I'm to understand if you get the baby Jesus you have to throw a feast or something the next year?  I never even heard of that one until I started dating her years ago. 

Similar to the King Cake of French-influenced traditions, Latin America has a traditional cake for Epiphany called rosca de reyes.

While Christmastide is generally celebrated in Latin America for the full twelve days, a nine-day celebration (novena) is also common.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: kphoger on January 08, 2020, 01:28:44 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 08, 2020, 12:31:39 PM
My wife is insistent on keeping the decor up until the official end of Christmas.  She also serves a bread that has the baby Jesus in a slice.  I'm to understand if you get the baby Jesus you have to throw a feast or something the next year?  I never even heard of that one until I started dating her years ago. 

Similar to the King Cake of French-influenced traditions, Latin America has a traditional cake for Epiphany called rosca de reyes.

While Christmastide is generally celebrated in Latin America for the full twelve days, a nine-day celebration (novena) is also common.

Yes it's called the "Rosca"  my wife and her family.  I knew it was of Latin American origin I just couldn't remember what she called it. 

formulanone

Quote from: 1995hoo on January 08, 2020, 11:58:36 AM
I do find it slightly peculiar how the American way is to celebrate everything in advance and then bam, within 24 hours the holiday is to be forgotten and you're on to the next one.

That's capitalism for you; but also because Christmas is constantly pushed at everyone from around November 1st (or earlier), so I think a lot of people get weary of it all.

crt08

Quote from: formulanone on January 08, 2020, 01:55:39 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on January 08, 2020, 11:58:36 AM
I do find it slightly peculiar how the American way is to celebrate everything in advance and then bam, within 24 hours the holiday is to be forgotten and you're on to the next one.

That's capitalism for you; but also because Christmas is constantly pushed at everyone from around November 1st (or earlier), so I think a lot of people get weary of it all.

Around here I think I saw decorations going out the beginning of October at Walmart this year. Strangely Taco Bell had decorations up very early (late November) but then they were gone mid December.  :-/

crt08

Quote from: 1995hoo on January 08, 2020, 11:58:36 AM
Our tree is still up (and decorated) because we won't have time to take it down until Friday, and our outside lights are still up because yesterday's bad weather made last night a bad time to take anything down. But nothing is lit after January 6. We light everything through and including the Epiphany but not afterwards. I suppose, if you wanted to be super-technical, it wouldn't be totally inappropriate to leave things lit through February 2, the 40th day after Christmas and the Feast of the Presentation in the Temple, but from a practical standpoint we will never do that. (We have, on occasion, left the tree up but dark until Lee-Jackson-King weekend simply based on when we had time to take everything down.)

I do find it slightly peculiar how the American way is to celebrate everything in advance and then bam, within 24 hours the holiday is to be forgotten and you're on to the next one. My wife commented last week about how the stores already had Valentine's Day crap prominently displayed. I made multiple trips to Home Depot this weekend and I might have liked the chance to pick up some outdoor Christmas lights had they had a clearance sale going on to move inventory (the squirrels chewed through one strand of lights on our deck), but they had already removed all that stuff. No doubt part of my feeling on this may date back to when we were kids and we always celebrated Christmas at home as a family, then two or three days later we went to New York to visit our relatives and we essentially had another Christmas up there. We never opened anything prior to December 25 except for the one year we went to New York for Christmas Day because my grandmother was in the hospital.

It is rather odd, and I never really noticed, but it does seem to be pushed earlier every year. I was seeing decorations as early as the first week of October! Yet, I went on Christmas Eve to Lowes and found they had nearly all of their decorations gone except for two artificial trees and some Christmas light sets which were already on clearance!

Home Depot did have some light sets still out for sale the weekend after though, actually seemed to have quite a bit more left than Lowes.

When I was growing up we usually left the decorations up until the second week of January, mainly because it was such a job to take them down. Although I do remember at times having them already packed up by the end of Christmas break.

DaBigE

Quote from: crt08 on January 09, 2020, 11:00:23 PM
Quote from: formulanone on January 08, 2020, 01:55:39 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on January 08, 2020, 11:58:36 AM
I do find it slightly peculiar how the American way is to celebrate everything in advance and then bam, within 24 hours the holiday is to be forgotten and you're on to the next one.

That's capitalism for you; but also because Christmas is constantly pushed at everyone from around November 1st (or earlier), so I think a lot of people get weary of it all.

Around here I think I saw decorations going out the beginning of October at Walmart this year. Strangely Taco Bell had decorations up very early (late November) but then they were gone mid December.  :-/

The craft stores have stuff out in September already. Part I would assume so people have time to make stuff as gifts/to sell themselves; part is just that they're just batshit crazy.

It's one of the things I hate about retail (the clothing side of retail). Everything is stocked for the next season. But should you need to replace something in-season, you're either screwed or really lucky (by finding it on super clearance markdowns). Given the sizes I need, I typically fall into the former category.

Quote from: crt08 on January 09, 2020, 11:05:24 PM
It is rather odd, and I never really noticed, but it does seem to be pushed earlier every year. I was seeing decorations as early as the first week of October! Yet, I went on Christmas Eve to Lowes and found they had nearly all of their decorations gone except for two artificial trees and some Christmas light sets which were already on clearance!

Home Depot did have some light sets still out for sale the weekend after though, actually seemed to have quite a bit more left than Lowes.

Places like Sams and Costco have their holiday stuff gone by the 26th. We had to stop in for a couple items on the 27th and there was one [small] pallet of holiday stuff left -- tucked back into the farthest corner of the store.
"We gotta find this road, it's like Bob's road!" - Rabbit, Twister

kphoger

When people use the the fast setting for their windshield wipers, but it's barely even sprinkling outside.

This does not reasonably affect me in any way at all, but for some reason it bothers me none the less.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

formulanone

Quote from: kphoger on January 10, 2020, 12:41:56 PM
When people use the the fast setting for their windshield wipers, but it's barely even sprinkling outside.

This does not reasonably affect me in any way at all, but for some reason it bothers me none the less.

I find the fastest wiper setting just sloshes more water around, usually makes more noise, and is even more visually distracting. It really has to rain hard and I have to drive quite slow to even give that setting a second thought.

Though I can think of one time I preferred it: I had a rental VW Jetta last year in which the wipers were very chattery at slow speeds, and mysteriously became about 90% quieter on the fastest setting. Weird.

DaBigE

Quote from: formulanone on January 10, 2020, 12:48:04 PM
Quote from: kphoger on January 10, 2020, 12:41:56 PM
When people use the the fast setting for their windshield wipers, but it's barely even sprinkling outside.

This does not reasonably affect me in any way at all, but for some reason it bothers me none the less.

I find the fastest wiper setting just sloshes more water around, usually makes more noise, and is even more visually distracting. It really has to rain hard and I have to drive quite slow to even give that setting a second thought.

Though I can think of one time I preferred it: I had a rental VW Jetta last year in which the wipers were very chattery at slow speeds, and mysteriously became about 90% quieter on the fastest setting. Weird.

Less friction with the momentum at higher speeds. Slower speeds give the blades more time to catch the glass.
"We gotta find this road, it's like Bob's road!" - Rabbit, Twister

1995hoo

Quote from: kphoger on January 10, 2020, 12:41:56 PM
When people use the the fast setting for their windshield wipers, but it's barely even sprinkling outside.

This does not reasonably affect me in any way at all, but for some reason it bothers me none the less.

Depending on the car, they might be automatic wipers that seem to have a mind of their own. My wife's Acura TLX is like that. The system will often pick a faster speed or more frequent interval than I would prefer. She's had the car since May 2017 and I still haven't completely figured out how to get the wipers not to adjust the intermittent speed on their own.

In our other cars, I almost never use the highest-speed wiper setting unless the rain is so torrential that I'm also slowing down and using my hazard flashers.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

kphoger

Quote from: 1995hoo on January 10, 2020, 01:53:41 PM
Depending on the car, they might be automatic wipers that ... often pick a faster speed or more frequent interval

WTF?  That's a thing?  I would hate that!

Do they only engage when you turn the wipers on, at least?  Or do they come on whenever water hits the car?
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

jeffandnicole

Quote from: kphoger on January 10, 2020, 01:56:53 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on January 10, 2020, 01:53:41 PM
Depending on the car, they might be automatic wipers that ... often pick a faster speed or more frequent interval

WTF?  That's a thing?  I would hate that!

Do they only engage when you turn the wipers on, at least?  Or do they come on whenever water hits the car?

They come on automatically!

But like auto headlights, usually there's a switch to deactivate it.  For the most part, you get used to it.  But as mentioned, I rarely if ever use my fastest setting.  The normal setting is good enough.

kphoger

No, I would not get used to it.  That's because I only turn my wipers on if it's raining really hard.  Anything lighter than that, and I just bat them once as needed.  I use cleaner fluid with Rain-X in it, so rain rarely presents a problem, plus I'm distracted more by the wipers than I am by the raindrops.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

MNHighwayMan

Quote from: formulanone on January 08, 2020, 01:55:39 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on January 08, 2020, 11:58:36 AM
I do find it slightly peculiar how the American way is to celebrate everything in advance and then bam, within 24 hours the holiday is to be forgotten and you're on to the next one.
That's capitalism for you; but also because Christmas is constantly pushed at everyone from around November 1st (or earlier), so I think a lot of people get weary of it all.

This is definitely something that bothers me. Personally, I have a policy of one holiday at a time: no Thanksgiving before Halloween, no Christmas before Thanksgiving, etc.



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