Minor things that bother you

[roadman65]

Animated click bait on FB passing off as Ripley Believe it or Not.  One today of a truck carrying a locomotive across a stream with the road washed out you can tell is fake, but how many will believe it's authentic.


Then the one where a video clip shows a plane landing in the Philippines flying at low altitude for several minutes before final approach where the plane bounces off the runway several times. In reality a pilot don't fly low several miles before the runway approach especially in populated areas. They drop down gradually from just below descending from cruise altitude is how they fly. 

Yet people like to believe these edited or computer generated reels.

[hbelkins]

Laugh tracks on TV sitcoms.

[tmoore952]

Calling this "minor" as I am in good health and can handle it. Might be "major" if I was physically compromised in some way.

Living in a cul-de-sac. getting a several-inch snowfall (as occurred twice last week), and having the snowplow put a lot of snow right in front of my mailbox. The mailpeople won't deliver mail if they can't drive to your mailbox, reach out and stick the mail in -- so it all had to be moved.

I realize that the plow has limited options in a cul-de-sac, but there was 15 feet to the right of where they put the snow, which would have worked fine. Yes, I know I should be happy they plowed, and I am.

[mgk920]

Calling this "minor" as I am in good health and can handle it. Might be "major" if I was physically compromised in some way.

Living in a cul-de-sac. getting a several-inch snowfall (as occurred twice last week), and having the snowplow put a lot of snow right in front of my mailbox. The mailpeople won't deliver mail if they can't drive to your mailbox, reach out and stick the mail in -- so it all had to be moved.

I realize that the plow has limited options in a cul-de-sac, but there was 15 feet to the right of where they put the snow, which would have worked fine. Yes, I know I should be happy they plowed, and eventually I am when I am/was.

Snow removal is a big reason why most cities really do not like developing Culs de sac, even though many suburbs do.

Mike

[tmoore952]

Calling this "minor" as I am in good health and can handle it. Might be "major" if I was physically compromised in some way.

Living in a cul-de-sac. getting a several-inch snowfall (as occurred twice last week), and having the snowplow put a lot of snow right in front of my mailbox. The mailpeople won't deliver mail if they can't drive to your mailbox, reach out and stick the mail in -- so it all had to be moved.

I realize that the plow has limited options in a cul-de-sac, but there was 15 feet to the right of where they put the snow, which would have worked fine. Yes, I know I should be happy they plowed, and I am.

Snow removal is a big reason why most cities really do not like developing Culs de sac, even though many suburbs do.

Mike

In my particular case, there is a road behind me, but I think the houses on it already existed when they built my neighborhood (1994), and so they put in a cul-de-sac rather than waste that land.

My neighborhood is a former farm. They left the farmhouse standing. It is someone's residence, and it obviously is much older -- e.g., there is a tree in front of it which is easily over a century old.

They put in seven cul-de-sacs in my neighborhood, and all of them are similar to mine in that older roads/residences are behind the end of the cul-de-sacs.

[J N Winkler]

I've never personally had to deal with this, since my city doesn't plow residential streets, but I've read it is wise to shovel out an area just upstream of the driveway so snow moved by the plow doesn't block the apron.  I also typically try to shovel out an area around the mailbox, not just to ensure delivery but also to avoid having to stand in a puddle of icy water to pick up my mail.

[tmoore952]

I've never personally had to deal with this, since my city doesn't plow residential streets, but I've read it is wise to shovel out an area just upstream of the driveway so snow moved by the plow doesn't block the apron.  I also typically try to shovel out an area around the mailbox, not just to ensure delivery but also to avoid having to stand in a puddle of icy water to pick up my mail.

Some details:

I am at the end of the cul-de-sac. and it is not always clear which way the plow will go around it. Upstream in one direction is my neighbor's driveway which is very close to mine, and I'm not going to do his work. Upstream in the other direction would work since it's in front of my property.

I'm lucky that my house faces southeast and so I get the morning and early afternoon sun at my mailbox area. I try to shovel down to ice here so that the sun can do its work, melt and (if lucky) completely dry out the area (and I remove what I can if it only partially melts). The sun will do this even if the temp does not get over 20 degrees, as was the case Saturday. As long as I can keep the water drainage at the curb flowing to the large storm drain without obstruction, I don't have the water puddle problem at the mailbox.

Another thing is that --- for the first storm last week, I shoveled out by the mailbox ahead of time, and the plow put the snow there. For the second storm I didn't (to save myself some work, and also to see what would happen), but the plow still put the snow there. So there's no good solution.

[Hobart]

It bothers me more than it should when people switch the words "Defiantly" and "Definitely". More people than I'd expect consistently have this issue, and I don't know how to politely correct it.

[AABattery]

Mine's pretty specific to around where I am, but my town can not for the life of them build a proper driveway.

I swear at least 90% of driveways here are built so if you have anything lower to the ground than an SUV, you're gonna scrape on the pavement unless you go in at a specific angle or if you go in extremely so or both. Which is a problem because I drive a compact sedan. (For any car people reading, it's an 8th gen civic)

It's so bad that in my neighborhood, the realtor will show people what we did with our driveway, which was to basically fight the town for them to fix it so it wouldn't be as bad of a problem. The worst example I've seen is actually my neighbor's driveway. When they were first moving in, I remember their Toyota Camry getting stuck trying to go up it to the point where one of the wheels went a foot or two in the air 

And it's not just residential driveways either, it's basically every entrance in town that's like that, which could also be dangerous considering you have to go in very slow (think under 5mph) off of a 4 lane road where people are coming at you at 35-40 mph, and also we have college kids who drive like they have no clue what they are doing 80% of the time and don't pay attention. I'm surprised there's not more wrecks here because of that

Anyways rant over (for now)

[GaryV]

It bothers me more than it should when people switch the words "Defiantly" and "Definitely". More people than I'd expect consistently have this issue, and I don't know how to politely correct it.

You can't be polite. You have to be defiant about it.   

[Big John]

It bothers me more than it should when people switch the words "Defiantly" and "Definitely". More people than I'd expect consistently have this issue, and I don't know how to politely correct it.

You can't be polite. You have to be defiant about it.   

and don't go part way, you have to be definite about it.

[webny99]

I've never personally had to deal with this, since my city doesn't plow residential streets, but I've read it is wise to shovel out an area just upstream of the driveway so snow moved by the plow doesn't block the apron.  I also typically try to shovel out an area around the mailbox, not just to ensure delivery but also to avoid having to stand in a puddle of icy water to pick up my mail.

I've been aware for some time that this is the case in much of the country, but it still hits me every time. Plows doing their work are just such a normal and integral part of winter in the Great Lakes that I just can't wrap my head around not plowing being acceptable in any place that gets snow more than once or twice a season.

[1995hoo]

I've never personally had to deal with this, since my city doesn't plow residential streets, but I've read it is wise to shovel out an area just upstream of the driveway so snow moved by the plow doesn't block the apron.  I also typically try to shovel out an area around the mailbox, not just to ensure delivery but also to avoid having to stand in a puddle of icy water to pick up my mail.

I've been aware for some time that this is the case in much of the country, but it still hits me every time. Plows doing their work are just such a normal and integral part of winter in the Great Lakes that I just can't wrap my head around not plowing being acceptable in any place that gets snow more than once or twice a season.

Around here, VDOT plows all streets for which VDOT is responsible, which includes some residential streets, but VDOT does not plow privately owned streets, and there are a lot of those because any street owned by an HOA is privately owned. It sometimes leads to weird results. I live on an HOA street and the HOA plow often comes through before VDOT's does, so our street will be plowed but the VDOT street to which it connects may not yet be plowed because they quite rightly focus on arterials before moving into the neighborhoods. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to what neighborhood streets belong to VDOT and what ones don't. My mom's neighborhood is all residential streets, no arterials, but they're all VDOT streets, whereas my neighborhood is primarily HOA streets except for some of the streets connecting the residential streets to the arterials. It may have something to do with when a neighborhood was built.

[kkt]

It bothers me more than it should when people switch the words "Defiantly" and "Definitely". More people than I'd expect consistently have this issue, and I don't know how to politely correct it.

There is no way polite way to correct another adult, unless it's part of your job (editor, teacher, discussion on a bulletin board).  Either leave it be, or decide it's important enough to be impolite.

[JayhawkCO]

I've never personally had to deal with this, since my city doesn't plow residential streets, but I've read it is wise to shovel out an area just upstream of the driveway so snow moved by the plow doesn't block the apron.  I also typically try to shovel out an area around the mailbox, not just to ensure delivery but also to avoid having to stand in a puddle of icy water to pick up my mail.

I've been aware for some time that this is the case in much of the country, but it still hits me every time. Plows doing their work are just such a normal and integral part of winter in the Great Lakes that I just can't wrap my head around not plowing being acceptable in any place that gets snow more than once or twice a season.

Yep. No residential in Denver either.

[kphoger]

When someone greets you as if they know you, but you have no idea who they are.

Then they tell you your life story while you are trying to figure out who they are.

How about when someone recognizes you, says hi, but you can't remember who they are because the encounter is totally out of the usual context?

I once heard someone shout out, "Kyle!" at the Freddy's fast food restaurant in El Dorado, Kansas.  I knew I knew him, but couldn't for the life of me figure out why.  It turns out he was my section leader in orchestral band at the suburban Chicago college I had attended fifteen years earlier.

[AABattery]

I've never personally had to deal with this, since my city doesn't plow residential streets, but I've read it is wise to shovel out an area just upstream of the driveway so snow moved by the plow doesn't block the apron.  I also typically try to shovel out an area around the mailbox, not just to ensure delivery but also to avoid having to stand in a puddle of icy water to pick up my mail.

I've been aware for some time that this is the case in much of the country, but it still hits me every time. Plows doing their work are just such a normal and integral part of winter in the Great Lakes that I just can't wrap my head around not plowing being acceptable in any place that gets snow more than once or twice a season.

Around here, VDOT plows all streets for which VDOT is responsible, which includes some residential streets, but VDOT does not plow privately owned streets, and there are a lot of those because any street owned by an HOA is privately owned. It sometimes leads to weird results. I live on an HOA street and the HOA plow often comes through before VDOT's does, so our street will be plowed but the VDOT street to which it connects may not yet be plowed because they quite rightly focus on arterials before moving into the neighborhoods. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to what neighborhood streets belong to VDOT and what ones don't. My mom's neighborhood is all residential streets, no arterials, but they're all VDOT streets, whereas my neighborhood is primarily HOA streets except for some of the streets connecting the residential streets to the arterials. It may have something to do with when a neighborhood was built.

In Blacksburg, the town does residential streets, and I think VDOT does state roads but I ain't too sure about that in this part of VA. So it may also depend on if your town/city does their streets or not or if the state does it at all.

[1995hoo]

I've never personally had to deal with this, since my city doesn't plow residential streets, but I've read it is wise to shovel out an area just upstream of the driveway so snow moved by the plow doesn't block the apron.  I also typically try to shovel out an area around the mailbox, not just to ensure delivery but also to avoid having to stand in a puddle of icy water to pick up my mail.

I've been aware for some time that this is the case in much of the country, but it still hits me every time. Plows doing their work are just such a normal and integral part of winter in the Great Lakes that I just can't wrap my head around not plowing being acceptable in any place that gets snow more than once or twice a season.

Around here, VDOT plows all streets for which VDOT is responsible, which includes some residential streets, but VDOT does not plow privately owned streets, and there are a lot of those because any street owned by an HOA is privately owned. It sometimes leads to weird results. I live on an HOA street and the HOA plow often comes through before VDOT's does, so our street will be plowed but the VDOT street to which it connects may not yet be plowed because they quite rightly focus on arterials before moving into the neighborhoods. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to what neighborhood streets belong to VDOT and what ones don't. My mom's neighborhood is all residential streets, no arterials, but they're all VDOT streets, whereas my neighborhood is primarily HOA streets except for some of the streets connecting the residential streets to the arterials. It may have something to do with when a neighborhood was built.

In Blacksburg, the town does residential streets, and I think VDOT does state roads but I ain't too sure about that in this part of VA. So it may also depend on if your town/city does their streets or not or if the state does it at all.

That's largely a function of Virginia's somewhat unique governmental structure. I live in Fairfax County, so any public roads—primary or secondary—are VDOT's responsibility. Independent cities are responsible for maintaining their own secondary roads; some of them maintain primary roads as well. You mention Blacksburg, which is an incorporated town and is therefore not independent from the surrounding county the way a city is. In most of Virginia's incorporated towns, VDOT maintains both the primary and secondary streets, but Blacksburg is one of several exceptions to that. Towns were given the option of doing it themselves or having VDOT do it and apparently Blacksburg chose the former. (I have no idea what motivated any particular town to choose one way or the other.)

[Dirt Roads]

When someone greets you as if they know you, but you have no idea who they are.

Then they tell you your life story while you are trying to figure out who they are.

How about when someone recognizes you, says hi, but you can't remember who they are because the encounter is totally out of the usual context?

I once heard someone shout out, "Kyle!" at the Freddy's fast food restaurant in El Dorado, Kansas.  I knew I knew him, but couldn't for the life of me figure out why.  It turns out he was my section leader in orchestral band at the suburban Chicago college I had attended fifteen years earlier.

Could be worse.  I was attending a national conference when someone with a Caribbean accent shouted my name, came running across the room and gave me a huge man-hug.  I was completely out of my environment, as this was a rail transit conference and I was usually attending railroad conferences.  I was certain that this fellow wasn't from one of the big transit agencies (like NYCT, SEPTA or WMATA) where someone might recognize me.  After a few awkward moments, he admitted that he didn't expect me to recognize him.  He also admitted that he had been an engineering intern at a transit agency where he was following me around on a project for several years.  And that he was [now, in the past tense] the Chief Engineer at that same agency, and thus was one my firm's major clients.  The accent started to ring a bell, and I figured out who he was.  In hindsight, I should have anticipated seeing someone from this particular agency, but alas, I was the one who thought I was "out of context".

Later in life when I was working for another firm on a marketing expedition at this transit agency, I'm pretty sure that this same fellow tipped off someone at my old employer and I got a call the next day with a competing job offer.  Everybody involved swears that this was all a coincidence.  But to this day, I would have no clue who he is and can't even remember his name (but I do remember his predecessor, who was a great mentor for both of us).

[AABattery]

When someone greets you as if they know you, but you have no idea who they are.

Then they tell you your life story while you are trying to figure out who they are.

How about when someone recognizes you, says hi, but you can't remember who they are because the encounter is totally out of the usual context?

I once heard someone shout out, "Kyle!" at the Freddy's fast food restaurant in El Dorado, Kansas.  I knew I knew him, but couldn't for the life of me figure out why.  It turns out he was my section leader in orchestral band at the suburban Chicago college I had attended fifteen years earlier.

One of the weirdest interactions I remember from when I was younger was one time I was in uptown Charlotte with my dad when some random beggar came up to my dad to ask him for money. However, the weirdest part was he was like "Hey, what's up!" like he somehow personally knew my dad and had for some time even though he was just some random guy in Charlotte, and where we're from is 3 hours away. My dad just gave the guy a dollar coin and as we walked off he looked like he never saw such a thing, looking at it almost as if it couldn't be real.

[GaryV]

When I moved to the Detroit area, a guy at work said, "Hey I know your dad. I worked with him." I don't think so, my dad was still in Grand Rapids and had never worked in Detroit.

One that got me: I would see the same guy in two different places (at the soccer field watching his daughter and at the robotics team with his son) and it took me several months to figure out he was the same guy in two different places.

[formulanone]

One that got me: I would see the same guy in two different places (at the soccer field watching his daughter and at the robotics team with his son) and it took me several months to figure out he was the same guy in two different places.

Maybe the director ran out of extras in the movie of your life.

[thspfc]

I've never personally had to deal with this, since my city doesn't plow residential streets, but I've read it is wise to shovel out an area just upstream of the driveway so snow moved by the plow doesn't block the apron.  I also typically try to shovel out an area around the mailbox, not just to ensure delivery but also to avoid having to stand in a puddle of icy water to pick up my mail.

I've been aware for some time that this is the case in much of the country, but it still hits me every time. Plows doing their work are just such a normal and integral part of winter in the Great Lakes that I just can't wrap my head around not plowing being acceptable in any place that gets snow more than once or twice a season.

Madison does not plow most of its streets. After a big snowfall it's an absolute zoo in the busier areas until it gets warm enough to melt the snow off the roads.

[GaryV]

https://www.gocomics.com/moderately-confused/2024/01/24

[Billy F 1988]

Is it really worth going to jail over some stupid ass beef in a grocery store parking lot all because Idiot A in the blue hatchback didn't see Idiot B in the dark red Subaru pull out of his parking space, nearly clip the guy only for Idiot A to slap Idiot B's door and Idiot B jumping out as if to go psuedo Super Saiyan, all the while the dark red Subaru sits directly in the line of travel towards the the fuel station - like, seriously? It was 9:00 AM this morning and the first thing I told them was "Hey, hey, hey! Separate! It's too early in the morning for that garbage!" Why did I say that? Yeah, I've seen hundreds of road rage clips on YouTube from Dashcam Lessons, Mr. Winningfun, DDSTV2, A&E's "Road Wars" among others to know just how foolish this is. Grow up, bruh! It's 20-frickin'-24! Not some cock ass backwards schoolyard push-n-shove situation. They should be lucky I split them apart because at any point, had I not done that, a lawsuit would have ensued and I'd probably be on the short end of that stick.

Sometimes, you gotta put your foot down when shit like that happens. You can't just wait up till all ragnarok breaks then get popos involved after the fact only to waste their time they need for other important calls by their dispatcher.