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Trivial things that make you surly


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2 minutes ago, Jameslaw121 said:

That would piss me off. When we travel on vacation, we often borrow my MIL's CRV since its bigger than my wife's car, but gets alot better gas millage than my Durango. When we bring it back, I get it detailed, fill up the gas and if it's close to time to do it, change the oil. 

Done right. 

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7 hours ago, PvilleStang said:

I do love having only the two bins, personally.  Trash and recycle.  And recycle has the list of items they won't take on the lid, but still doesn't stop the wife from putting things in there that aren't approved.  I can only imagine how bad it would be with the three-bin system in Austin.

Most people in Austin don't use the compost bin. 

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11 hours ago, Jameslaw121 said:

That would piss me off. When we travel on vacation, we often borrow my MIL's CRV since its bigger than my wife's car, but gets alot better gas millage than my Durango. When we bring it back, I get it detailed, fill up the gas and if it's close to time to do it, change the oil. 

Do you fart in it?

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Shit, going to HEB is one of my few highlights of any given week. Not that it's that great, but everything else that once brought any interest has either died or turned to suck.  
 

Seriously. Love my HEB time. Get to pick out my own steaks, check out the hot moms in yoga pants. It’s one of the good moments of my week.
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The eastern border of New Mexico and Oklahoma is not lined up with the eastern border of New Mexico and Texas.  You can drive north from Texas into New Mexico, take a right, and still be in New Mexico.

Seems like someone screwed up and they just decided to live with it.

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2 hours ago, Texas Jeff said:

The eastern border of New Mexico and Oklahoma is not lined up with the eastern border of New Mexico and Texas.  You can drive north from Texas into New Mexico, take a right, and still be in New Mexico.

Seems like someone screwed up and they just decided to live with it.

Upon which road?

The better example is US HWY 64 from Clayton, NM to Boise City, OK, upon which one can travel NE from Clayton across the NW corner of TX, back into NM, and finally OK.

 

image.thumb.png.be25bf53f12c61c5703e2385bfc8713a.png

Edited by slorch
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24 minutes ago, slorch said:

Upon which road?

The better example is US HWY 64 from Clayton, NM to Boise City, OK, upon which one can travel NE from Clayton across the NW corner of TX, back into NM, and finally OK.

 

image.thumb.png.be25bf53f12c61c5703e2385bfc8713a.png

Zoom in.

There's a little road that goes north from Texline all the way to the state line (Shamburger) then you can turn right onto Texas State Ln road, which appears to be just over the actual state line.  It's on that map but that map is not showing it going all the way to the state line ... Google Maps shows it going all the way.

Or, just ignore the roads and drive where you want, it's west Texas and it's really flat.

Edited by Texas Jeff
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5 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

Zoom in.

There's a little road that goes north from Texline all the way to the state line (Shamburger) then you can turn right onto Texas State Ln road, which appears to be just over the actual state line.  It's on that map but that map is not showing it going all the way to the state line ... Google Maps shows it going all the way.

Or, just ignore the roads and drive where you want, it's west Texas and it's really flat.

Well, technically it’s WTX, NNM, and Methlahoma. But it’s still all really flat. 
 

Just came back from officiating a burial service straight down that state line road a couple of hundred miles, in the family cemetery in our family ranch in SENM. Buried the ashes of mom, uncle, aunt, and cousin, all of whom have passed the last 6 months. 

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On 6/23/2023 at 5:34 PM, Superhero said:

I bought 2 small burritos from Del Taco. I only needed 4 little packs of hot sauce, but now I’m looking at the 12 leftover.

Fast food workers are stupid. 

yes but now you have plenty for next time when they give you nothing.

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5 hours ago, Texas Jeff said:

The eastern border of New Mexico and Oklahoma is not lined up with the eastern border of New Mexico and Texas.  You can drive north from Texas into New Mexico, take a right, and still be in New Mexico.

Seems like someone screwed up and they just decided to live with it.

There's a reason for that.  As it was told to me, when the boundary between New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle was surveyed, Texas got to hire the surveyors.  They "somehow" got 13 miles off, to the west, of course, from the line that they were supposed to survey.  It was supposed  to line up with the western border of Oklahoma.  The current line was used for a while before New Mexico figured it out and took the dispute to the Supreme Court.  The Court was persuaded that it would cause too much difficulty to sort out private land boundaries, county lines, and back taxes, so they let it stand.  At least, that what I've been told.  Now I'm going to have to look up the real story.

TL,DR: A state that wouldn't cheat for land don't want it enough.

ETA - According to the Texas Historical Association online handbook entry on borders, the western border of the Texas Panhandle is supposed to be the 103rd meridian.  The surveying "error" was two miles west of the actual 103rd meridian.  Congress confirmed that boundary as surveyed in a joint resolution on February 16, 1911.

Edited by Scheiss Meister
Scheiße!
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Take time out, 2 to 3 minutes, to write thank you notes for graduation gifts. Hell, it can even be an email. If you get a paper weight or something useless, it's one thing. But a $50 gift card to the 3-houses-over neighbor's kid warrants a simple gesture of appreciation. But it's becoming less common by the day, the more I think of it. 

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1 hour ago, Wally Pryor said:

Take time out, 2 to 3 minutes, to write thank you notes for graduation gifts. Hell, it can even be an email. If you get a paper weight or something useless, it's one thing. But a $50 gift card to the 3-houses-over neighbor's kid warrants a simple gesture of appreciation. But it's becoming less common by the day, the more I think of it. 

I have a handful of hand written notes from people saying thank you for certain things over the years (not so much for gifts, but for help/encouragement/support/etc.) and I cherish them like gold. Write a letter, people. 

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2 hours ago, Wally Pryor said:

Take time out, 2 to 3 minutes, to write thank you notes for graduation gifts. Hell, it can even be an email. If you get a paper weight or something useless, it's one thing. But a $50 gift card to the 3-houses-over neighbor's kid warrants a simple gesture of appreciation. But it's becoming less common by the day, the more I think of it. 

You're not wrong, but 2-3 minutes? I really struggle with stuff like this.

I can write a generic thank you in a couple of minutes, which to me comes across as low effort. Or I have to sit there and think about something genuine to say about a $50 gift card to Chili's from the three houses over neighbor. Then it turns into an entire thing where I have to get up, think about it, consider what to write... hell at this point I would have rather not had the gift.

Same thing with birthday cards.

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On 6/28/2023 at 11:12 AM, Wally Pryor said:

Low effort is infinitely better than no effort at all. Just an acknowledgement via a simple thank you is all it takes.  

A thank you haiku:

Just a few minutes of time 

Counting syllables 

Pro tip: change the second two lines as applicable. 

Edited by Prepuce of Doom
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On 6/28/2023 at 10:18 AM, Cheeseweasel said:

"People will never remember the words you say, but the way you made them feel". 

Doesn't matter what you write.

True...this is the note we got recently. It made me warm and fuzzy.

Dear Boomer Neighbors,

Thanks so much for the gift card. What am I gonna do with that? Buy half a tank of gas to pollute the world some more? Fascists.

Whatever. I'm off to throw paint on some stupid museum art.

Sincerely,

Gen Z Bruh

 

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3 minutes ago, gofuckyourself said:

True...this is the note we got recently. It made me warm and fuzzy.

Dear Boomer Neighbors,

Thanks so much for the gift card. What am I gonna do with that? Buy half a tank of gas to pollute the world some more? Fascists.

Whatever. I'm off to throw paint on some stupid museum art.

Sincerely,

Gen Z Bruh

 

People who conflate Boomers with Gen Xers...  Sure we get fucked over by the boomers and the echo boomers, but we're doing with more style and grace than either of them.

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1 hour ago, gofuckyourself said:

True...this is the note we got recently. It made me warm and fuzzy.

Dear Boomer Neighbors,

Thanks so much for the gift card. What am I gonna do with that? Buy half a tank of gas to pollute the world some more? Fascists.

Whatever. I'm off to throw paint on some stupid museum art.

Sincerely,

Gen Z Bruh

 

Glad you liked it

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On 6/25/2023 at 11:17 PM, Scheiss Meister said:

There's a reason for that.  As it was told to me, when the boundary between New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle was surveyed, Texas got to hire the surveyors.  They "somehow" got 13 miles off, to the west, of course, from the line that they were supposed to survey.  It was supposed  to line up with the western border of Oklahoma.  The current line was used for a while before New Mexico figured it out and took the dispute to the Supreme Court.  The Court was persuaded that it would cause too much difficulty to sort out private land boundaries, county lines, and back taxes, so they let it stand.  At least, that what I've been told.  Now I'm going to have to look up the real story.

TL,DR: A state that wouldn't cheat for land don't want it enough.

ETA - According to the Texas Historical Association online handbook entry on borders, the western border of the Texas Panhandle is supposed to be the 103rd meridian.  The surveying "error" was two miles west of the actual 103rd meridian.  Congress confirmed that boundary as surveyed in a joint resolution on February 16, 1911.

I think this may have posted somewhere else on Surly.  Seems like the kind of thing you would find interesting.

Colorado is not a rectangle - it has 697 sides

Quote

AMERICA LOVES ITS STRAIGHT-LINE BORDERS. The only U.S. state without one is Hawaii—for obvious reasons.

West of the Mississippi, states are bigger, emptier, and boxier than back east. From a distance, all seem to be made up of straight lines.

Only when you zoom in do you see their squiggly bits: the northeast corner of Kansas, for instance. Or Montana’s western border with Idaho that looks like a human face. Or Oklahoma’s southern border with Texas, meandering as it follows the Red River.

New Mexico comes tantalizingly close to having only straight-line borders. There’s that short stretch north of El Paso that would have been just 15 miles (24 kilometers) long if it were straight instead of wavy.

No, there are only three states whose borders are entirely made up of straight lines: Utah, which would have been a rectangle if Wyoming hadn’t bitten a chunk out of its northeastern corner; Wyoming itself; and Colorado.

Except that they aren’t. for two distinct reasons: because the earth is round, and because those 19th-century surveyors laying out state borders made mistakes.

Congress defined the borders of Colorado as a geospherical rectangle, stretching from 37°N to 41°N latitude, and from 25°W to 32°W longitude. While lines of latitude run in parallel circles that don’t meet, lines of longitude converge at the poles.

This means that Colorado’s longitudinal borders are slightly farther apart in the south. So if you’d look closely enough, the state resembles an isosceles trapezoid rather than a rectangle. Consequently, the state’s northern borderline is about 22 miles (35 kilometers) shorter than its southern one. The same goes, mutatis mutandis, for Wyoming.

That’s not where the story ends. There’s boundary delimitation: the theoretical description of a border, as described above. But what’s more relevant is boundary demarcation: surveying and marking out the border on the ground. Colorado entered the Union in 1876.

Only in 1879 did the first boundary survey team get around to translating Congress’s abstract into actual boundary markers. The official border would not be the delimited one, but the demarcated one. Unfortunately, 19th-century surveyors lacked satellites and other high-precision measurement tools.

Let’s not be too harsh: considering the size of the task and the limitation of their tools—magnetic compasses and metal chains—they did an incredible job. They had to stake straight lines irrespective of terrain, often through inhospitable land.

But yes, errors were made—and were in fact quite habitual. Take, for example, the 49th parallel, which for more than 1,200 miles forms the international border between the United States and Canada. Rather than being a straight line, it zigzags between the 912 boundary monuments established by successive teams of surveyors (the last ones in 1872–74). The markers deviate by as much as 575 feet north and 784 feet south of the actual parallel line.

The same kind of thing happened when the first surveying teams went out to demarcate the Colorado border. These maps magnify some of the most egregious surveying inaccuracies, where the difference between the boundaries delineated by Congress and the border demarcated by the surveyors is greatest.

Four Corners (and Four More)

Located in a dusty, desolate corner of the desert, the Four Corners monument seems very far from the middle of anything. Yet this is the meeting point of four states: Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. It is the only quadripoint in the United States. The monument’s exact location is at 36°59’56″N, 109°02’43″W.

However, it’s not where Congress had decreed the four states to meet. That point is about 560 feet (170 meters) northwest of the quadripoint’s current location, at 37°N, 109°02’48″W. Did you drive all the way through the desert to miss the actual point by a few hundred feet?

No, you didn’t: In 1925, the Supreme Court ruled that the borders as surveyed were the correct ones. But perhaps the original quadripoint deserves a small marker of its own, if only to provide the site with an extra attraction. Or why not go for three? Some sources say the original point deviates by 1,807 feet (551 meters).

The La Sal/Paradox Deviation

In 1879, a survey party marched north from Four Corners, placing markers at every mile. The surveyors eventually reached the Wyoming border, but not where they thought they’d end up. Later surveys, in 1885 and 1893, found out where the original surveyors had gone wrong, but by that time the border as surveyed had become the official one. Changing it would have required both Colorado and Utah to agree on a solution, and Congress to approve it.

The biggest error occurs just south of the road connecting La Sal, Utah to Paradox, Colorado. Across an eight-mile stretch, the surveyors strayed westward before regaining true north. The resulting deviation is 3860 feet (1.18 kilometers).

Things Go South After Edith

West to east, Colorado’s border with New Mexico starts out fairly straight. However, just east of Edith, the border swerves southeast for about 3,400 feet (1 kilometer) before resuming its course due east, now 2,820 feet (860 meters) farther south than before.

Why? It seems that for once, the surveyors have given in to the dictates of topography: the deviation follows a small valley oriented northwest-southeast.

Panhandling Into Oklahoma

Almost at the end of their surveying mission, it seems the party lost the plot again. In the last 53 miles (85 kilometers) before the border turns north, the stretch where Colorado rubs against Oklahoma, the line again swerves to the south, by as much as 1,770 feet (540 meters).

Don’t blame the terrain: Appropriately for a place so close to the Oklahoma Panhandle, it’s as flat as a pancake. Perhaps the surveyors were confused by the very featurelessness of the place.

Colorado Is a 697-Sider

These are just four of the biggest, most easily spotted surveying errors. In total, Colorado’s borders have hundreds twists and turns—most much smaller than the Big Four.

Accordingly, the state has not just four sides, but a total of 697 sides. So if Colorado is not a rectangle, what is it? Well, not a pentagon, (Greek for 5-sider), hexagon (6-sider), or a heptagon (7-sider), but a—hold on to something—hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon (697-sider).

Don’t Get Your Hopes Up, Wyoming

With Colorado thoroughly disqualified to as one of America’s two truly rectangular states, does that leave Wyoming holding the crown all on its own? Nope. Turns out the surveyors who plotted the Equality State’s outline were just as fallible as the Colorado set. Interestingly, Wyoming’s deviations shown come in pairs, whereby the second ones seem to correct the deviation of the first ones.

So, while Wyoming is just as imperfect as Colorado, it does seem that at least it is better at admitting (and correcting) its mistakes than its southern neighbor.

 

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11 hours ago, Brothahorn said:

I cannot believe how expensive coolers have become. It's ridiculous. You have to spend more than some folks make in a day if you want something decent. Damn.

I refuse to join the Yeti cult. I have two big $10 styrofoam coolers from Walmart that I’ve been able to keep going for about 5 years. They leak a little but that’s ok. When they break I’ll get some more. 
 

Just checked. They’re now $17.97. Still better than a Yeti. 
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lifoam-Envirocooler-Huskee-45-Qt-Hard-Sided-Cooler-White/485438903?athbdg=L1103&from=/search

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On 6/25/2023 at 6:12 PM, Texas Jeff said:

The eastern border of New Mexico and Oklahoma is not lined up with the eastern border of New Mexico and Texas.  You can drive north from Texas into New Mexico, take a right, and still be in New Mexico.

Seems like someone screwed up and they just decided to live with it.

Sorry you’re having a difficult time in our kill zone. 
 

-Comanches

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1 hour ago, nnm said:

I refuse to join the Yeti cult. I have two big $10 styrofoam coolers from Walmart that I’ve been able to keep going for about 5 years. They leak a little but that’s ok. When they break I’ll get some more. 
 

Just checked. They’re now $17.97. Still better than a Yeti. 
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lifoam-Envirocooler-Huskee-45-Qt-Hard-Sided-Cooler-White/485438903?athbdg=L1103&from=/search

Same.  I'm also a lightweight camper, so Yeti is anathema to my needs.

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Liars and thieves. Kenny Rogers lied to me. Next time I'm counting money at the table. I had a woman contact me about playing bagpipes at her mothers funeral. I told her it was $200 and confirmed the time/location. When I arrived this morning she handed me a sealed envelope thank you note, I opened it and saw money in it, but didn't take it out to count it. When I got home, I discovered that she only paid me half. I sent her a text and said "if you lost half of it, I'll repay you later". There is no way I lost half of it because I never took it out of the envelope. I've done this for years and never had anyone pull this shit. She knows I caught her in a lie and I know she has no intention of paying.

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1 hour ago, Crapinon said:

Liars and thieves. Kenny Rogers lied to me. Next time I'm counting money at the table. I had a woman contact me about playing bagpipes at her mothers funeral. I told her it was $200 and confirmed the time/location. When I arrived this morning she handed me a sealed envelope thank you note, I opened it and saw money in it, but didn't take it out to count it. When I got home, I discovered that she only paid me half. I sent her a text and said "if you lost half of it, I'll repay you later". There is no way I lost half of it because I never took it out of the envelope. I've done this for years and never had anyone pull this shit. She knows I caught her in a lie and I know she has no intention of paying.

Why would you send her a text saying you’d repay her?

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6 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Why would you send her a text saying you’d repay her

I sent her one telling her the envelope only had 1/2 the money. She replied that she would pay me the 1/2 that I "lost". I didnt lose it and she knows it. She cheated me and she's not going to pay. 

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1 minute ago, Crapinon said:

I sent her one telling her the envelope only had 1/2 the money. She replied that she would pay me the 1/2 that I "lost". I didnt lose it and she knows it. She cheated me and she's not going to pay. 

You left out a good chunk of that. Perhaps you’re prone to losing things. Payments, stories about getting paid, etc.  :)

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Liars and thieves. Kenny Rogers lied to me. Next time I'm counting money at the table. I had a woman contact me about playing bagpipes at her mothers funeral. I told her it was $200 and confirmed the time/location. When I arrived this morning she handed me a sealed envelope thank you note, I opened it and saw money in it, but didn't take it out to count it. When I got home, I discovered that she only paid me half. I sent her a text and said "if you lost half of it, I'll repay you later". There is no way I lost half of it because I never took it out of the envelope. I've done this for years and never had anyone pull this shit. She knows I caught her in a lie and I know she has no intention of paying.
Did you eat/drink half of your wages?
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Desecrate the gravestone. 
Or at least leave a fake turd on it. 

Yep her she has until noon tomorrow to pay up, or you’ll dox her on every website known to man. Nextdoor, Facebook, customer reviews of socks on Walmart.com, outing her as a woman WHO DEFRAUDS PEOPLE WHO PUT ON FUNERALS.
Clock’s ticking, bitch. Tick tock.
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2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


Yep her she has until noon tomorrow to pay up, or you’ll dox her on every website known to man. Nextdoor, Facebook, customer reviews of socks on Walmart.com, outing her as a woman WHO DEFRAUDS PEOPLE WHO PUT ON FUNERALS.
Clock’s ticking, bitch. Tick tock.

To be fair, most of the people involved in the funeral business defraud people on a regular basis.  The bagpipe player is the exception here.  He just agreed to show up and play Amazing Grace for $200.

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To be fair, most of the people involved in the funeral business defraud people on a regular basis.  The bagpipe player is the exception here.  He just agreed to show up and play Amazing Grace for $200.

I’d pay him $250 to show up to my funeral and play Baby Got Back on the bagpipes. $300 if he shows up unannounced.
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On 6/29/2023 at 7:35 PM, Okie State said:
On 6/29/2023 at 7:33 PM, Brothahorn said:
I cannot believe how expensive coolers have become. It's ridiculous. You have to spend more than some folks make in a day if you want something decent. Damn.

Well Yeti has a $150 beer bucket and $50 ice scoop that apparently people buy. I blame them.

 

I thought you were bullshitting, then I googled it. Fucking white people !

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