Everything posted by Brew
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Yes: Pools are worth it....
Landscaper put down a little over 30 rolls of sod last week after fucking around the last couple months during our cool, rainy spring. His timing was much appreciated since it was right on the front end of 2 weeks of the hottest temperatures on record in June around here. If I can keep this grass remotely alive it will be a miracle and one hell of a water bill. He’s supposed to be another 20 or so next week as well.
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Other States BBQ
Jalapeño cornbread at Jack Stack’s is worth the trip. Other primary difference in Memphis when looking at TX is everyone in Memphis is on electric smokers now for the most part. They are just throwing butts, ribs, chicken, and Turkey in an electric smoker and you have “BBQ” at the end.
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Other States BBQ
Memphis has a long BBQ history around pork, but they have jumped the shark on going chain style rather than what it was. They have all opened new restaurants as 2nd/3rd stores and are just getting food in and out. I would rather have Martin’s in Nashville for pork at this point. I eat at Central pretty regularly, but I eat their Turkey which is really good.
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The New Car Fanatic Thread
Trading up every two years probably helps although there are clearly still plenty of issues on Range Rovers of all ages. I'd probably argue that any $100K+ vehicle should have no serious issues within two years, but maybe that's asking too much. At this point owning any newer model SUV/truck outside of a warranty is a crap shoot with all the electronics involved. My last 3 Ford trucks have been in for more warranty related issues than the Range Rover ever was. I’m a month into a 2022 F250 and it’s been in twice for a trailer brake controller issue and now the backup camera is shot. Those are different than getting stranded on the side of the road, but we never had that issue in the RR either.
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The New Car Fanatic Thread
We liked ours. Outside of a DEF issue (Sport Diesel) in the first 5,000 miles, ours never was in the shop. She hit a deer in it which turned into a $20k+ repair because of where the idiots mount the electrical components, but it got repaired and was fine. She traded after 2 years and 55k miles or so without any issues. She’ll probably go back to one when she’s 2 years into the Escalade because both kids will be driving at that point and we can downsize some.
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The Boat Fanatic Thread
Most boat people hate on pontoons, but they are great all around choices for lakes for someone not looking for anything specific. They ride well, haul plenty of people, run shallow if you want to drop a line somewhere, can pull a tube around without issues, etc. I always keep a cheap pontoon because we use it as our base on the water. It’s typically where everyone hangs out and rides the jet ski’s off of, we throw out the large lily pads for the adults to sit on, tie the wakeboard boats up to it, eat on it, etc. I wouldn’t have it as my only boat right now, because we still wakeboard, surf, tube, etc. When the kids are gone, I’ll probably just have a pontoon at the lake and a bay boat at the beach and be done with the rest of them.
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Time for another ‘my dog is awesome’ thread
Forgot this one earlier, Toby has not been pleased with Milo moving in on his spots. He’s finally eased up on him some today and is starting to play with him while still trying to keep him in line.
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Time for another ‘my dog is awesome’ thread
What’s better than one dog, two dogs of course. Picked up our new puppy after originally getting on the list last October. I think I had forgotten how much trouble puppies are especially when our older dog has been super easy. Anyways, here’s Milo the Labradoodle laying in Toby’s food bowl spot apparently waiting on supper.
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The Airplane Fanatic Thread
Management company we use has a number of pilots on staff that are either retired or under the minimum hour requirement for commercial airlines. They fly with these guys for a few years and then move up to commercial at some point. They fly when they want to and also live pretty well during that period. Most of the guys they manage for really take care of the pilots.
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The Airplane Fanatic Thread
Nice ride, we finally picked up our C90 with the Blackhawk upgrade. Flew it for the first time this week. It is a significant upgrade over the Baron in size and speed. Getting the interior done in September and avionics in the spring. We have a back log of trips we have to get out of the way first with us being without a plane for a few months.
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[Discussion] Mass Shooting at Uvalde Elementary School
I meant that more in the randomness of timing, not in blame.
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Active shooter thread
This whole situation is completely fucked. The updates out today of there being close to 60 magazines on the school campus and 1600+ rounds of ammunition in his possession are key points in how fucked up our gun culture is. There is no reasonable explanation as to why an 18 year old or really anyone has that in his possession. This whole phenomenon is new and government action is the only way to get it under control. Stop the sale of military look weapons, limit the sale of long rifle ammunition, everything goes through a federal database, and on and on the decisions should go. Grow a fucking pair and legislate the issues. Let’s dump a whole bunch of money into the mental health care system and as far as I’m concerned we can also limit the sale of violent games and certain internet access to. This culture is out of control. My parents had a dealer’s license and you just didn’t see this level of hoarding and buying 30 years ago. People had long rifles, multiple shotguns, etc. but there was not widespread ownership of the arsenals you see today. That combined with the culture we are currently in is just going to lead to more posts in this thread going forward.
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[Discussion] Mass Shooting at Uvalde Elementary School
Man, reading through the timelines that are coming out just add to what a clusterfuck this whole thing was. From the teacher leaving the outside door propped open, to the shooter shooting into the school as he walked up, to officer’s not breaching the door, to the first on scene guys driving right past the suspect, etc. It is just a stack of issues one on top of the next. It will be more interesting to see what the timeline of shots fired is as everything gets pieced together. The cops on scene first could have likely prevented at least some of what happened and the school district police chief’s response to treat it as a barricaded suspect situation led to more death. It’s fucked up.
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IRS Raids Houston Tax Biz that Feuded with UT
We have several clients that use them for R&D studies. They are a massive credit company with a ton of employees.
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Yes: Pools are worth it....
Markets are different, but just the pool including 1800 sq ft of travertine and gas heat was about $125k. That was also locked in preCovid supply problems. The travertine coming in now is significantly more expensive than it was then. Builder called me yesterday and told me the fittings came in wrong for the gas for the heater and supply line for the grille. Vendor told him it would be 18 months to get what we need. Working on a different connection layout now with the plumbers. We had to run 2 inch supply lines for the heater so those connections and the connections that regulate the 2 inch flow down to what we need at the other connections are unavailable. Shit’s stupid.
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Yes: Pools are worth it....
Around here if you just want them to take a pallet of square sod pieces and lay it, you’re looking at $400-$600 per pallet in total. That is up quite a bit from a couple of years ago. That doesn’t include any dirt and minimal leveling, no equipment usage at all. We are using all rolled sod to have a smoother more consistent look and to cover large areas. It’s not cheap.
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Yes: Pools are worth it....
The never ending project rolls on. Travertine came in the wrong color back in February, so we are still waiting on the replacement batch with no expected delivery timeframe yet. Brick masons dropped a brick on the gas regulator a while back, so we’re still waiting on a replacement for it so we can use the grill and pool heater. Did go ahead and get get some sod put down and will get the fence in this week because I’m tired of finding stuff in the pool (someone’s dog yesterday.) Furniture came in last week after about 20 weeks, so it’s all stacked up in the garage. Maybe by the end of summer and almost two years after digging the hole it will all be done. For reference the building is right at 38x18.
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Truck Nuts
King’s are much more of a race shock setup similar to the detached reservoir Fox setups and if my memory is correct have very short rebuild schedules. The cover is a tri fold setup and will fold up flat against the back window out of the way. It limits visibility to the bed in that setup, but it is out of the way of the gooseneck.
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I've decided to dig a hole
That picture reminds me of one of my many stupid exploits as a teenager. I was running farm roads with a buddy in my lifted 79 Blazer. He told me to cut across a field to head back and failed to mention the irrigation ditch that ran across it. We dropped into it and almost stood the truck up on it’s nose it was so deep. It has been raining and we ended up having to get his dad and grandad to daisy chain three tractors together to get it out the next day. They completely destroyed a field in the process and were beyond pissed, I busted a drive shaft and rear end. We never ran farm roads on his property again. I also learned valuable lessons about taking directions from dumbasses and knowing what I was driving off into before just going for it.
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Truck Nuts
I’m going to go with the Undercover Ultra Flex. I’ve used it on my last three trucks and have zero complaints with it. I set them up the same options / same color, tint, LineX, ultra flex bedcover, Fox Stage 1 kit, and Cooper tires. The Fox’s have been a problem every time, so I need a better option on them.
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Truck Nuts
I prefer leveled, I just haven’t found an option I’m comfortable with short of going to bags which I don’t want to mess with. Thinking about going with an Icon Stage 4 kit but the rebuild schedules worry me. My last set of Fox’s didn’t make it 30k miles before they needed a rebuild so you either have to have spare shocks or you’re down the rebuild time frame.
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Truck Nuts
Didn’t like that idea, went with the original plan of buying a 250. Windows, bed liner and cover are lined up for this week. Still trying to decide whether to level it or not.
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Truck Nuts
It’s amazing what people will pay to be first. The First Edition Bronco’s were going for stupid numbers. F250 was delivered last night. I’ll be interested to see what he throws out on my 2 year old F150. Based on what I see, it should be right at what I paid for it.
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Tell me about New York City
Stayed on the Brooklyn side of the river this week with a great view of the city. It was a nice change of pace bouncing back and forth between the City and Brooklyn on the ferry every day. There were a lot of really good places to eat through the Williamsburg area that you could get in and out of without any waiting on anything. Ate at Reserve Cut down from the NYSE building one night as well and it was well worth the price. Taking the kids back in October and staying at the Lotte NY Palace to have a good base to see the things they want to see.
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Musk: American workers are lazy. Chinese workers are awesome.
I love a good “back in my day” and “everybody is lazy” discussion. People change, times change, things change, and successful companies figure out how to navigate it. Navigating the employee/employer relationship is different today than it was even 3 years ago. I think the biggest issue is the mindset of treating everyone equally based on job function. We are moving closer to everyone having their own work requirements and paying for what they are willing to give. We still have x amount of work to do, but we’ll pay you for exactly what you do and not just what we expect you to do because of the job title you are in. It requires more management/oversight, but it provides each person with their own personalized job function. The biggest negative in all of this is companies have gotten desperate and are overselling talent which is resetting a lot of industry baselines. They are operating irrationally with short term vision and not looking at the future downsides. People are capitalizing right now, but it will ultimately be problematic for individuals that company jump without the requisite base knowledge and eventually run out of jumps. We have doubled down on new hires and interns to over staff at lower levels to hopefully provide a cushion long-term. My biggest fear is that we stay work from home as an industry and NE companies keep paying NE rates to small town south employees. It’s really screwing our pay scales up and that is what keeps me up long-term.