1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

Had someone in it? The hell? Do tell. How did AirBnB handle that one?

And yeah, living in the city has been interesting coming up here from a much smaller town down south. What I'll say to the crazies point is this:

I moved to Atlanta pre-Katrina. There really weren't that many crazies or homeless everywhere. I can't blame Katrina definitively. She hit in 2005, about 3 years after I moved here, and we had that huge recession that cooked us from 2007-2009. We also saw a lot of budget slashing that effectively killed virtually all the mental health services thru the mid-2000s, homelessness and mental health are intertwined and coming from a mil family, I find it sad how many veterans make up the large chunk of who lands on the streets because "the risk of helping someone who doesn't need it so bad we shouldn't risk it". But that's another story bordering on politics.

After Katrina, I saw our first big spike in crazies popping up all over Atlanta. I was just starting to get hooked in with our local PD around that time as a community liaison, and per the beat officers I spoke with, the vast majority of that uptick, 3x-4x normal, it was Katrina refugees who got bussed up here, just to get them out of town. Some against their wishes. The recession hit in the 1-2 years following, and I remember that took out a number of boarding houses, a couple of soup kitchens, and the city scaled back on mental health programs, jail deferral, outreach, medication, etc. that ultimately helped address it all; from what I heard, the combo of the incoming glut still persisting 2-3 years post Katrina and downtick was a 1-2 punch KO.

I don't think we ever recovered, even though they tried like hell, passing anti-panhandling laws, drawing anti-panhandling zones. The City has never gotten a grip on it. And the pandemic was a disaster of Katrina scale at national levels, and we've gone from having just mentally ill folks who slav squat while preaching at curbs, or running around swatting the air at imaginary bee swarms attacking to full-on tent farms underneath overpasses. The city has quietly been buying/leasing up hotels to get people off the streets and mental/medical health, and filling them regularly, but there aren't enough programs still in place to help folks get over the hump.

Living in the city is nuts sometimes. But I will say, I never see that stuff in the neighborhoods. I can walk to downtown in about 25 minutes and be in the thick of it. You see it there because that is, realistically, where a lot of the services are, and where those people can panhandle most easily/effectively.

Granted, @Jack McCarthy was here in the years before me so maybe he saw it differently, maybe there were full-on tent farms and crazies galore back in the 90s, I got here at the turn of the millennia Back in the 90s, from what I hear, Midtown and the area around GA Tech was a damn wreck.

 

The eclipse cometh!!

 

I have a friend used to live in downtown Dallas. He used to dig bullets out of his roof. You shoot a gun at the sun, them bullets gotta come down somewhere.

 

We're supposed to be at peak in, I think, about 20 mins. But pretty sure it's only half coverage and we've sadly got a ton of clouds today.

 

I think we're almost out, over here.

 

Eclipse shaped shadows from perfectly round holes

 

Also in a ferd

 

Awesome!

 

Yall enjoy the eclipse. I remember ours from 2017

 

So I remember visiting Atlanta as a Kid in 1995. We watched a doubleheader between the Braves and the Indians, visited the Coca-Cola museum and the aquarium. Then we saw the Carolina Panthers play their first game against the Falcons in the Georgia dome just to lose by three points in overtime (thanks John Kasey).
That night, at the hotel, my parents sent me out to our van to grab something and this asshole tried to pull the “I lost my puppy” on me. I was a 13 year old boy at the time. I had no clue what that motherfucker had in store, but I kicked him in the nuts and ran into the lobby. After that, I have never looked at Atlanta the same.

 

Still one of the coolest things I've seen. Being in the path of totality makes a big difference though. The one next April is supposed to be up to 4 minutes of totality.

 

We’re smack in the middle of the April one. Rented a campsite at the lake and will have our boat so we can see it completely unobstructed. Should be an awesome weekend.

 

I'm jealous. I heard places in Arkansas are already selling out. You'll have an awesome time.

 

My plan is to somehow see the eclipse the same trip as Utah but I'm not sure if that will work out. We'll see. The traffic is going to be unbearable because of people traveling to see it.

 

We had a pretty solid spot in a cove on Lake Hartwell, off Melody Point for 2017. Dragged the kids out for it. It's so much cooler being on/near a body of water. And it's crazy, when things went dark, everything went silent, all breeze stopped, all the birds stopped chirping, you could hear a pin drop.

 

What I noticed here is that the bugs that normally make noise at night started doing that when it went dark and then stopped once the eclipse ended. That had to be a weird day for insects.

 

Aight y'all. I think this is something I'm finally going to tackle, maybe today, right after I finish clearing old grout and silicone out of my shower.

Any suggestions on how to clear out and sort my bulk misc wrench/socket/allen drawer. This is all extras which I rarely ever use, save for the extra large stuff (1"+ / 20mm+) which I'd probably prefer to keep in the drawer. There is a gaggle of rando ass sockets under those though, probably 150 or more.

I'll probably attack the pliers/cutters/strippers/etc. drawer above it later, but 40-something years of accumulating random ass tools, I've already given away a bunch, I just need to organize what's left and decide if there's another batch or two of stuff to hand out.

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Moving some things today, huh??? Congrats!!!!

 

That's a good lookin truck. But 15k?....ouch.

 

"All original", if true, with only 113k miles on the clock, that's unicorn level find right there. And highly optioned w/4WD. That pretty much qualifies as a collector's wet dream. I personally wouldn't pay it, but ...

 

I had an 82 back in the day. No way would I pay that much now

 

"Some" things Yah

 

Well, speed limit is 75 on 287 to Dallas, so when I went 140 for a minute I was in Mexico where it's legal.

 

When we pulled up the neighbor was out and we chatted with him. He said there was people in there. Lights and TV were on. We rang the doorbell and a dude and chick were in there saying they booked it as well. They called and got the door code earlier. We got ahold of the dude and he said they weren't supposed to be there till next weekend. POS assbags probably knew that and checked in anyways. We just went up the street and checked in at a quality inn. Saved almost $300 but it's a hotel room. Whatever. Dude gave us a full refund and apologized.

Funny part, the neighbor was in an airbnb as well. When I turned to go confront the intruders, I heard him say to his gf/wife, "oh shit, he's packing heat", as I had my Sig on me since we were just in Dallas proper.

Also, right when we went parked in downtown Dallas to get my daughter a tattoo, as we were figuring out the parking meter, some fiend dropped something right behind my daughter and was maybe a foot from her picking it up. Yeah, I was on high alert and was untucked and on the gun, ready to draw. My daughter said he dropped a "blue". Something drug related. Shoulda shot him. Fucking crackhead.

 

Holy shit. I was working on my mower deck and noticed a strange patterned shadow similar to this from the tree next to my storage shed. I didn't put it together. I completely forgot about the eclipse today! Dammit.

 

Went to look at the WRX today.



It's on a car lot in a less than reputable part of town. A "fuck you lot" if you will. So we said fuck it and went to the stockyards. When we got there the lighting looked off. Forgot the solar eclipse was today. The shadows from the trees looked cool.

Wandered around there a bit then went to the botanical gardens. Nature and shit. Gawd damn that place is big. My dogs are barking. We're back in the hotel room chilling. We're gonna meet my sister in Arlington or Irving for dinner then my daughter wants another tattoo, and my sister and gf want more piercings.

 

Maybe some peg board with labeled spots for all the wrenches?or those plastic wrench keepers? I think the wrench rolls are awesome too. Looks super military mechanic style.

 

I tried the pegboard thing. I can't use single-pin hangers because only some of them are box-end. I can't use two-pin hangers because if the wrench barely rotates, they fall out. Kinda sucks like that. Spacing between pegs also sucks, I'd basically have a row going across the entire pegboard with just 12-15 diff't sizes. I haven't found anyone with a wrench holder for pegboard that seems like it'll work.

Beyond this which sticks out too far:

$20 Pegboard Screwdriver and Wrench Holder Set Pegboard Accessories, Organize Wrenches and Screwdrivers on Pegboard. Heavy Duty Black Pegboard Accessories for Hanging Tools, Pegboard Organizing

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088Q1M4ZL/

Actually maybe this could work...

$23 Olsa Tools Wall Mount Wrench Organizer | Red Anodized Aluminum + Black Clips | Holds 14 Wrenches

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073QMQN8L

Eyeballing something like this for sockets:

$20 Reniteco Socket Organizer Drive ABS Tools-Socket Holder, Premium Quality 9 Pieces Holders Kit 1/4" x 48 Clips, 3/8" x 45 Clips, 1/2" x 36 Clips

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VXP8R7L/