Minor things that please you

[vdeane]

It turns out that my camera does actually know what 2026 is.  I just can't tell it that it's 2026.  So as long as the date and time never need to be set, I'm good.

I do have a plan B for if/when I do someday need to set the date and time again (most likely if the battery voltage gets too low and it loses power for too long), but I'm really hoping to stretch that as long as possible.  exiftool isn't exactly fast, even if I figured out the exact command I need to bump the date by 20 years (since before I figured this out I assumed the camera would think it was 2006).

Might I inquire the name of your camera?

It's a Kodak EasyShare C653 that was bought back in 2007.

[Sapphuby]

people going the actual speed limit on unmarked roads instead of 10-15 under

[formulanone]

It turns out that my camera does actually know what 2026 is.  I just can't tell it that it's 2026.  So as long as the date and time never need to be set, I'm good.

I do have a plan B for if/when I do someday need to set the date and time again (most likely if the battery voltage gets too low and it loses power for too long), but I'm really hoping to stretch that as long as possible.  exiftool isn't exactly fast, even if I figured out the exact command I need to bump the date by 20 years (since before I figured this out I assumed the camera would think it was 2006).

Might I inquire the name of your camera?

It's a Kodak EasyShare C653 that was bought back in 2007.

I use FastStone Viewer to batch out time stamps which are incorrect; I frequently forget to change out camera time zones when travelling. There's an easy +/- feature for hours and similar for dates (I don't think I've used that though).

[vdeane]

I use FastStone Viewer to batch out time stamps which are incorrect; I frequently forget to change out camera time zones when travelling. There's an easy +/- feature for hours and similar for dates (I don't think I've used that though).

Looks like that's just Windows.  I've done test runs with exiftool, so I know it works (and I've used it when downloading photos from Facebook that I accidentally deleted on my laptop and for that one time I copied a piece of an image for my website only to realize the date issue later), including in batch.  Just takes a long time because, rather than simply editing the date/time stamp, it insists on copying the file, editing that, and then copying it onto the original (if I don't want to have two files for each image when I'm done).

[1995hoo]

I went to put gas in the car late yesterday afternoon. There are three stations nearby—a Liberty, a Sunoco, and a Shell. Usually the Liberty is the cheapest and I was going to go there, but it was mobbed and I couldn't make the left turn, so I went to Sunoco because it was a lot less crowded. I found out why when I pulled up to the pump: There was a sign taped over the buttons for 87 and 89 saying "93 octane only." My car specifies 91 or higher, so that was fine with me. No line! While I was pumping gas, multiple people drove in and saw the sign (there was one on every pump). Some left immediately. One guy drove around checking every pump and then left. By the time I was done, there was a line at the Liberty spilling out into the street. I was mildly surprised none of them just went ahead and got 93 octane rather than waiting on line (wasting gas while doing so) for the other stations. Yes, it costs more, but it won't cause any problems for your car and you'd save yourself a lot of time.

I wouldn't mind if they always ran out of low-grade gas, except if that happened the station wouldn't survive for long. But being able to pull right up with no wait on a busy afternoon is always a nice surprise.

[Rothman]

The late 1970s came back?

[Max Rockatansky]

Or the summer of 2002 in Phoenix when the main gasoline pipeline burst?

[kphoger]

I was mildly surprised none of them just went ahead and got 93 octane rather than waiting on line (wasting gas while doing so) for the other stations.

The teeniest-tiniest amount of gas.  Idling for 20 minutes probably consumes less than one-tenth of a gallon of gas per car.

If you think it's silly to spend 30 cents in order to save 12 bucks, then allow me send you my mailing address, and I'll expect a check for $11.70 soon.

[Scott5114]

I don't think I've ever actually waited at a gas station longer than it takes for one car ahead of me to fill up. Certainly not long enough to be in a line. I usually start thinking about filling up at a quarter of a tank, so if the station is busy I just don't fill up that day.

[Max Rockatansky]

Finding out that Gribblenation is only two days younger than Wikipedia:

Ugh! I just found out I missed the chance to register for the 25th Anniversary Wikipedia NYC event. It was scheduled for tomorrow and postponed, but they didn't change the registration date.

[1995hoo]

I was mildly surprised none of them just went ahead and got 93 octane rather than waiting on line (wasting gas while doing so) for the other stations.

The teeniest-tiniest amount of gas.  Idling for 20 minutes probably consumes less than one-tenth of a gallon of gas per car.

If you think it's silly to spend 30 cents in order to save 12 bucks, then allow me send you my mailing address, and I'll expect a check for $11.70 soon.

I certainly wouldn't wait on line for 20 minutes if I could go next door and avoid waiting altogether. Wasting 20 minutes would bug me far more than spending a few dollars extra would.

[Rothman]

I don't think I've ever actually waited at a gas station longer than it takes for one car ahead of me to fill up. Certainly not long enough to be in a line. I usually start thinking about filling up at a quarter of a tank, so if the station is busy I just don't fill up that day.

Ditto.

When I lived in the North Country, a rumor spread through Superior, WI like wildfire that the Murphy Oil refinery was going to shut down temporarily due to some national situation (can't remember).  Have a video tape somewhere my wife and I took of us driving around gawking at the panic lines at the gas stations.

The shutdown never happened.

[Rothman]

In terms of a minor thing that pleases me:  A good loaf of bread.  Was driving through Freeville, NY this past week and a little bakery there had a sandwich board touting their fresh Italian bread.  I stopped and got their last loaf of the day.  Been toasting it and using it for what I call "Tongan donuts" -- Worked with Tongans long ago in California that would dip italian or french bread coated with butter into hot chocolate.  Good stuff.

...

Also reminds me of that wonderful smell of the sourdough bakery on Geary Boulevard out in the Richmond District.  Didn't smell it when I was there last year, but might not have been close enough.  Then again, it was almost 30 years ago the first time around...

[Max Rockatansky]

I don't think I've ever actually waited at a gas station longer than it takes for one car ahead of me to fill up. Certainly not long enough to be in a line. I usually start thinking about filling up at a quarter of a tank, so if the station is busy I just don't fill up that day.

Ditto.

When I lived in the North Country, a rumor spread through Superior, WI like wildfire that the Murphy Oil refinery was going to shut down temporarily due to some national situation (can't remember).  Have a video tape somewhere my wife and I took of us driving around gawking at the panic lines at the gas stations.

The shutdown never happened.

That pipeline burst I referenced in Phoenix back in 2002 had people panicking over gas.  The pipeline was out of commission for over a week, and gas prices climbed above $2 for a gallon of 87 octane (quaint to think of those prices now).  People were hogging gas and there was usually at least a dozen or so cars in line at the cheaper stations.  My brother and I chased off a couple guys trying to syphon the tanks of our trucks one night.

[vdeane]

I was mildly surprised none of them just went ahead and got 93 octane rather than waiting on line (wasting gas while doing so) for the other stations.

The teeniest-tiniest amount of gas.  Idling for 20 minutes probably consumes less than one-tenth of a gallon of gas per car.

If you think it's silly to spend 30 cents in order to save 12 bucks, then allow me send you my mailing address, and I'll expect a check for $11.70 soon.

I mean, I once had the car idling through a turn count (two hours for the AM peak and two for the PM peak, four total) so I could run the AC, listen to the radio, plug the count board into my car rather than rely on its battery, and sit comfortably in the car rather than stand next to the intersection for four hours (it also saved me from having to have my vest and hard hat on), and it chewed up enough gas that I had to get gas after I was done - right there at the nearby Stewart's, I was low enough I wasn't comfortable driving home (and it wasn't like I was far, this was just Rotterdam).  I don't remember what I was at when I started (I think it was somewhere between a quarter and half a tank) exactly, but I do remember the E light was on when I was done!

Also, to save that much on gas, I'd have to have an empty tank and the difference in price would have to be a full dollar per gallon.  And if I'm just commuting to/from work and doing my usual local errands, that tank will last me a whole month.  Hence why I don't understand why most people obsess over gas prices to the extent they do.  Sure, I'm not interested in throwing money away, but convenience trumps price for me.

[1995hoo]

Regarding vdeane's last point, I won't drive excessively far out of the way to save money on gas. But near where I live, there are the three stations I mentioned above about a mile in one direction. There are about five other stations roughly a mile and a half in the other direction. The latter group are always more expensive by as much as 50¢ a gallon (other than one off-brand station), and because it's only about a mile down the road to the cheaper ones, that's a situation where I will drive a bit further if I'm coming from that direction.

[Max Rockatansky]

I have an Arco down the street from me which usually runs twenty cents more expensive than the Walmart about two miles down the road.  Trouble is that two miles of Kings Canyon Road requires crossing Clovis Avenue and passing a high school.  More often than not it is just not worth the hassle of dealing with a store, traffic and a school rush.

[Rothman]

I have an Arco down the street from me which usually runs twenty cents more expensive than the Walmart about two miles down the road.  Trouble is that two miles of Kings Canyon Road requires crossing Clovis Avenue and passing a high school.  More often than not it is just not worth the hassle of dealing with a store, traffic and a school rush.

Butbutbut, that's like $3 dollars per tank!

[kkt]

I don't think I've ever actually waited at a gas station longer than it takes for one car ahead of me to fill up. Certainly not long enough to be in a line. I usually start thinking about filling up at a quarter of a tank, so if the station is busy I just don't fill up that day.

It's been a while.  In 2012, on the Mackenzie Highway north of High Level gas stations are few and 150-200 miles between so everybody fills up, there were lines of 3-4 cars a couple of places.  (And don't go asking for premium or midgrade:  we gotcha Unleaded, and we gotcha Diesel, don't ask for anything else.  Don't ask for windshield washer fluid either.)

Then there was a time about 2017 in the Sacramento Valley when one of the big stations at an exit off I-5 must have been almost out of gas and pumping extremely slowly.  There was a line, I saw it wasn't moving very fast and drove on to another station.

[kphoger]

so I could run the AC

Yes, running the a/c significantly decreases your fuel economy while idling.  I assumed that people this week weren't running the a/c.

[ModernDayWarrior]

I think I've waited around 10 minutes or so for gas. Sometimes that happens when you live in a town with only one gas station.    Technically I guess there is a second place in town where it is possible to purchase gasoline, but it's a solitary pump attached to a car repair shop, and thus keeps very limited hours. It's also much more expensive. Come to think of it, it may be premium only; I can't actually remember the last time I bought gas there.

I do have memories of getting out of school on September 11th and having to take a detour on my way home because the main road through town was blocked in both directions by people waiting in line at the one open gas station. The line didn't quite make it to my house, about a third of a mile down the road. For reference, this is a town that had about 800 people at the time and even fewer today.

[wxfree]

It seems to me that people started putting more effort into getting a slightly lower price after it started to matter less, although I can't say this is as true in the last few years.  Decades ago it seemed no one worried about paying 5 or 10 cents per gallon more.  Paying 90 or 95 cents rather than 85 bothered me, but the stations with the higher price were just as busy.  More recently, fewer years ago, people got much more sensitive about every nickel, even though it's a much smaller difference when the price is $3.  Viewing it in a purely mathematical way, I got less sensitive about a difference of 2 or 3 percent than I was when the same number of cents was a difference of 10 or 15 percent.  In the past few years I haven't noticed that as much.  People seem to have gone back to not caring.

I've never waited in line for gas, longer than waiting for the vehicle at the pump, and that's been rare, but I've had a hard time finding it.  In a winter storm years ago, trucks could barely move for days, and store shelves and gas stations were going empty.  Also, after a hurricane shut down the nearest refineries, trucks had to drive further to fill up and drive further to haul the fuel here, and everyone freaked out and bought all on the same day, and stations ran dry.  It was unfortunate that I had to buy that day.  I just got two gallons because that was more than I needed for the day and because the price had doubled.  The trucks took longer, but they came in the next day and all of the station tanks were full again, so I went out and filled up.

[1995hoo]

My mother said one of her neighbors who has a snowblower cleared her driveway for her yesterday, although she's going to have to go out with a shovel today. While my mom is a very independent do-it-yourself type person, she's also 80 years old and really should not have been out there shoveling yesterday, so I'm glad there are still people in the world who are aware of their elderly neighbors and help them out.

[kphoger]

My mother said one of her neighbors who has a snowblower cleared her driveway for her yesterday, although she's going to have to go out with a shovel today. While my mom is a very independent do-it-yourself type person, she's also 80 years old and really should not have been out there shoveling yesterday, so I'm glad there are still people in the world who are aware of their elderly neighbors and help them out.

I usually shovel the driveway across the street after I'm done doing ours.  But yesterday, her next door neighbor got to it before I could.

[1995hoo]

My mother said one of her neighbors who has a snowblower cleared her driveway for her yesterday, although she's going to have to go out with a shovel today. While my mom is a very independent do-it-yourself type person, she's also 80 years old and really should not have been out there shoveling yesterday, so I'm glad there are still people in the world who are aware of their elderly neighbors and help them out.

I usually shovel the driveway across the street after I'm done doing ours.  But yesterday, her next door neighbor got to it before I could.

I cleared the lady next door's driveway yesterday morning while I was out there. She's not elderly—I think she's a few years older than I am—but it just seemed like the nice thing to do. Of course it's covered again. Whether I tackle it today depends on how bad the ice is.