Minor things that bother you

[JayhawkCO]

Friends of mine who were police officers had issues with some split scheduling. Some weeks they worked nights; others they worked days. And some weeks they worked nights some days and days on others. It really messed with their sleep habits.

Lots of years in the restaurant industry was hard on me too.  Closing the restaurant and not getting home until 1:30 and then having to be back at 8:00 to open the restaurant wasn't ever fun.  Once I was a GM and I created the schedule, I tried to never schedule anyone other than myself a "clopen" which is what we called that.

Chris

[kurumi]

House numbers in old-fashioned cursive words instead of numerals.

What's easier to read: 12018 or 𝒯𝓌𝑒𝓁𝓋𝑒 𝑜𝒽 𝐸𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝑒𝑒��?

[hotdogPi]

House numbers in old-fashioned cursive words instead of numerals.

What's easier to read: 12018 or 𝒯𝓌𝑒𝓁𝓋𝑒 𝑜𝒽 𝐸𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝑒𝑒��?

The idea might be so that they're not misread; 12018 could be 12010 or 12818 in bad lighting.

Side note: I've noticed that my computer no longer copies the actual bytes for a replacement character. Trying to copy and paste gives me the Unicode replacement character; it used to copy the invalid UTF-8 bytes as-is.

[Bruce]

Address numbers should be standardized nationally, if only to improve emergency response times.

And especially in apartment complexes, where the letters on buildings can be entirely invisible at night.

[jeffandnicole]

House numbers in old-fashioned cursive words instead of numerals.

What's easier to read: 12018 or 𝒯𝓌𝑒𝓁𝓋𝑒 𝑜𝒽 𝐸𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝑒𝑒��?

Anything is better than:

[zachary_amaryllis]

House numbers in old-fashioned cursive words instead of numerals.

What's easier to read: 12018 or 𝒯𝓌𝑒𝓁𝓋𝑒 𝑜𝒽 𝐸𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝑒𝑒��?

pizza driver here, says 12018. i also have a nuclear powered flashlight that makes my high beams look like kerosene lamps, to find address... and change traffic lights.

[zachary_amaryllis]

Address numbers should be standardized nationally, if only to improve emergency response times.

And especially in apartment complexes, where the letters on buildings can be entirely invisible at night.

same pizza driver. apt buildings are the bane of my existence. no standard place to find buildings/units. i use an app on my phone that does a decent job of locating buildings/units though.

remember when the numbers were on the curb? how cool was that?

[GaryV]

Address numbers should be standardized nationally, if only to improve emergency response times.

I'm picturing a number grid starting in Indy ("Crossroads") and going upward into 7 or maybe 8 digits by the time it reaches the Aleutians.

[kkt]

I don't know why we have to change clocks? Yes I am aware the history, but both Arizona and Hawaii are exempt yet Florida has to do the change despite voters wanted one consistent time year round.

State governments can opt out of changing for DST.  I don't know what Florida's process was but apparently it didn't end up as the government deciding to opt out.  Speculating, maybe due to the large tourism business in Florida it was decided to keep the same time as in the rest of the east coast states.

[J N Winkler]

State governments can opt out of changing for DST.  I don't know what Florida's process was but apparently it didn't end up as the government deciding to opt out.  Speculating, maybe due to the large tourism business in Florida it was decided to keep the same time as in the rest of the east coast states.

My understanding is that Florida wanted "permanent DST" (i.e., UTC-4:00 year-round), which is not allowed under federal law since a state may choose only whether it observes DST; its time zones and the national schedule for DST changes are set by USDOT.

[Scott5114]

remember when the numbers were on the curb? how cool was that?

When did they stop doing that? We had it in the 90s in Del City, Oklahoma; I remember the neighborhood watch association going through and redoing the curb numbers and joking around with my parents that they had to buy a whole second set of stencils because they only came with two of each number and our house number was 3333. Then I moved somewhere with no curbs, and by the time I got back to civilization there were no curb numbers anymore.

[CoreySamson]

In my neighborhood someone was going around offering to paint numbers on the curb for a fee. Most people have done it, and I think it's a great idea. Some people even have a rudimentary logo for their favorite sports team painted right beside it. I've seen A&M, UT, UH, the Texans, and the Astros.

[J N Winkler]

When did they stop doing that? We had it in the 90s in Del City, Oklahoma; I remember the neighborhood watch association going through and redoing the curb numbers and joking around with my parents that they had to buy a whole second set of stencils because they only came with two of each number and our house number was 3333. Then I moved somewhere with no curbs, and by the time I got back to civilization there were no curb numbers anymore.

I think painting house numbers on curbs goes in and out of fashion.  In the Wichita area it has always been offered by private contractors--there is no requirement that it be done.  I also speculate that the market for it has shrunk due to widespread adoption of GPS.

[Scott5114]

I would think GPS would make having clearly-marked house numbers would be of more importance. Among my generation, an invitation to someone's house or place of business is accompanied with just a street address, with the expectation that the visitor will use whichever mapping service they like to plot their own course. Traditional direction-giving (with identifiers like "it's the fifth house on the right, with the flagpole out front") is generally only done when the host knows from experience that the location is not easily findable on popular mapping services, usually because it is newly constructed or in a rural area with poor coverage (or both).

I have a stencil cutter, so I could do it myself, but I'm a little unsure of whether there's any permits needed to do so. Additionally, the way it was done in my old neighborhood, the number was painted right next to the driveway. My driveway doesn't let out onto the street my address is on, so I'd need to figure out how to handle that. (My first inclination is to paint it next to the driveway along with the full street name, then also paint just the numbers in front of the mailbox.)

Then again, my house is pretty clearly marked (address is on both the mailbox, which is right by the street, and on the siding right next to the front door). I've never seen why someone wouldn't ensure their house is marked properly; it seems like it would just cause difficulties for deliveries or people coming over. One of the first things I did upon moving into the last house I rented was install house numbers at my expense, since the house lacked them previously.

[zachary_amaryllis]

When did they stop doing that? We had it in the 90s in Del City, Oklahoma; I remember the neighborhood watch association going through and redoing the curb numbers and joking around with my parents that they had to buy a whole second set of stencils because they only came with two of each number and our house number was 3333. Then I moved somewhere with no curbs, and by the time I got back to civilization there were no curb numbers anymore.

I think painting house numbers on curbs goes in and out of fashion.  In the Wichita area it has always been offered by private contractors--there is no requirement that it be done.  I also speculate that the market for it has shrunk due to widespread adoption of GPS.

i really feel like there should be some 'standard' way to indicate address -- i liked the curb myself, but there's more than one way to accomplish this. myself being a delivery driver, it'd definitely make my life easier, but more importantly, for first responders and such.

[hotdogPi]

Addresses on the curb won't work here because of snow. In addition, many streets don't even have a curb.

[zachary_amaryllis]

Addresses on the curb won't work here because of snow. In addition, many streets don't even have a curb.

curb probably isn't the end-all for this problem, but there's other 'standard' places one could put it  --- highest point of the house, directly over front door.. million ways to do it, we just need to pick one.

[J N Winkler]

We have our house number indicated in these ways:

*  Carved (using FHWA Series D Modified) on a limestone block set into the brickwork next to the front door

*  Set out in brass letters fastened to the post that supports our curbside mailbox

*  Shown (barely legibly) in the surviving remnants of the last curb painting

None of these is especially helpful to people arriving at night.  We turn on the porch light and give directions to invited visitors, but this doesn't help UPS or FedEx drivers.

I've been intrigued by Wisconsin's approach of putting the house number (big digits) and street name (small letters) on a double-sided retroreflectorized white-on-red placard that is mounted knee-high next to the driveway and positioned to face traffic in the road.  However, AFAIK this is done only in rural areas.

[Scott5114]

When did they stop doing that? We had it in the 90s in Del City, Oklahoma; I remember the neighborhood watch association going through and redoing the curb numbers and joking around with my parents that they had to buy a whole second set of stencils because they only came with two of each number and our house number was 3333. Then I moved somewhere with no curbs, and by the time I got back to civilization there were no curb numbers anymore.

I think painting house numbers on curbs goes in and out of fashion.  In the Wichita area it has always been offered by private contractors--there is no requirement that it be done.  I also speculate that the market for it has shrunk due to widespread adoption of GPS.

i really feel like there should be some 'standard' way to indicate address -- i liked the curb myself, but there's more than one way to accomplish this. myself being a delivery driver, it'd definitely make my life easier, but more importantly, for first responders and such.

In some rural areas around here, there is a small standard signpost installed by the town or county that accompanies every property.

Slaughterville
Seminole County

[US 89]

Addresses on the curb won't work here because of snow.

Eh, painted address numbers on curbs are pretty common in the Salt Lake area which gets plenty of snow in winter. Sure, they get blocked when it snows and you'll have to find the actual numbers on the house somewhere, but they're pretty useful as a supplemental marker 90% of the time when there isn't any snow cover.

[GaryV]

What happens when someone is parked on the street next to the painted number?

[JayhawkCO]

What happens when someone is parked on the street next to the painted number?

You look at the two houses next to it, and if the number you're looking for is the same even/oddness and in between the other two, you win!

Chris

[zachary_amaryllis]

What happens when someone is parked on the street next to the painted number?

You look at the two houses next to it, and if the number you're looking for is the same even/oddness and in between the other two, you win!

Chris

i use google maps frequently in my job to find addresses, and almost all the time, when it tells me 'i've arrived', i'm usually 1-2 houses short of the address in question.

also, in this area, the numerical distance between houses varies, sometimes widely. where i actually live, i'm at 160. my neighbor to one side is 140, my neighbor to the other side is 164. the houses are all roughly the same physical difference apart.

in town, it's anywhere from 2 to 6 between houses depending on the neighborhood.

[1995hoo]

I have a colleague who for some reason single-spaces everything and doesn't include blank lines between paragraphs. It makes written work product borderline illegible. I don't understand why he doesn't just format his work the same way the rest of us do. Plus he manually formats everything in Word's "Normal" style, making it impossible just to correct it quickly by applying the proper style. I'm going to have to get IT to put the correct default document template on his PC instead of whatever weird one he's using now. I have no idea why some idiot at Microsoft thinks Calibri is a remotely acceptable default typeface for software intended for business use.

[1995hoo]

What happens when someone is parked on the street next to the painted number?

You look at the two houses next to it, and if the number you're looking for is the same even/oddness and in between the other two, you win!

Chris

i use google maps frequently in my job to find addresses, and almost all the time, when it tells me 'i've arrived', i'm usually 1-2 houses short of the address in question.

also, in this area, the numerical distance between houses varies, sometimes widely. where i actually live, i'm at 160. my neighbor to one side is 140, my neighbor to the other side is 164. the houses are all roughly the same physical difference apart.

in town, it's anywhere from 2 to 6 between houses depending on the neighborhood.

I think a lot of navigation software must be programmed using a standard lot size that may have no correlation to a particular neighborhood. The sat-nav in my car shows my mom's house as being halfway up the block from where it actually is, for example. She lives in a neighborhood of large single-family houses set on large lots (not like new single-family neighborhoods where the houses are very close together). If it were a townhouse neighborhood, the location my sat-nav gives would probably be accurate. But it's not a townhouse neighborhood. Google Maps gets it right (I just tried).