The Random Thoughts Thread

[Merkin]

so I bought a pack of Charmin and the rolls were uncut - very interesting never had this happen before.

I generally buy Charmin at Costco (only brand I will buy), but saw it for sale at FoodMaxx, so picked up a large package of it.

Just a huge difference in quality. Won't buy it anyplace else from now on besides Costco.

It was like the TP they get at work.

[EastCoastCat]

Chi - I’d like to say it gets better but it doesn’t. My parents lasted into their mid-90’s and the last 10 years of their lives really meant I had 2 families to take care of.

I don’t even want to hint what you go through when they pass away.

As a famous sage one said…“my advice to you is to start drinking heavily.”

[Chicat]

As a famous sage one said…“my advice to you is to start drinking heavily.”

That was my natural response.

[dovecanyoncat]

Chi - I’d like to say it gets better but it doesn’t. My parents lasted into their mid-90’s and the last 10 years of their lives really meant I had 2 families to take care of.

I don’t even want to hint what you go through when they pass away.

As a famous sage one said…“my advice to you is to start drinking heavily.”

It really helps to have siblings. My brother gets to suffer our father, while I do duty with our mother. There is a deserved (in our case) but asymmetrical devotion that binds family in this moment. Truly, the parenting inverts buts displays opposite historical tail risk attributes: we were cared for as our abilities increased while now we care for others as they diminish. It's hard to treat as a child the person who raised you especially if you (I in my case) are childless.

Drinking is indispensable.

[EastCoastCat]

Chi - I’d like to say it gets better but it doesn’t. My parents lasted into their mid-90’s and the last 10 years of their lives really meant I had 2 families to take care of.

I don’t even want to hint what you go through when they pass away.

As a famous sage one said…“my advice to you is to start drinking heavily.”

It really helps to have siblings. My brother gets to suffer our father, while I do duty with our mother. There is a deserved (in our case) but asymmetrical devotion that binds family in this moment. Truly, the parenting inverts buts displays opposite historical tail risk attributes: we were cared for as our abilities increased while now we care for others as they diminish. It's hard to treat as a child the person who raised you especially if you (I in my case) are childless.

Drinking is indispensable.

True Dove. Unfortunately my brother passed and my spoiled and fortunate sister lives in Bermuda. Guess who had to handle everything? Sometimes life dumps shit on you even if you are not even ready and you have to figure all of it out on your own.

[Merkin]

Chi - I’d like to say it gets better but it doesn’t. My parents lasted into their mid-90’s and the last 10 years of their lives really meant I had 2 families to take care of.

I don’t even want to hint what you go through when they pass away.

As a famous sage one said…“my advice to you is to start drinking heavily.”

It really helps to have siblings. My brother gets to suffer our father, while I do duty with our mother. There is a deserved (in our case) but asymmetrical devotion that binds family in this moment. Truly, the parenting inverts buts displays opposite historical tail risk attributes: we were cared for as our abilities increased while now we care for others as they diminish. It's hard to treat as a child the person who raised you especially if you (I in my case) are childless.

Drinking is indispensable.

As I found out, along with one of my brothers, is that daughters always and I mean always take care of elderly parents. I had my destitute mother in law move in with us, same with my youngest brother and his mother in law.

My wife's brothers were no help, same with my brother's in-law brothers.

Good thing I enjoy drinking.

[dovecanyoncat]

Chi - I’d like to say it gets better but it doesn’t. My parents lasted into their mid-90’s and the last 10 years of their lives really meant I had 2 families to take care of.

I don’t even want to hint what you go through when they pass away.

As a famous sage one said…“my advice to you is to start drinking heavily.”

It really helps to have siblings. My brother gets to suffer our father, while I do duty with our mother. There is a deserved (in our case) but asymmetrical devotion that binds family in this moment. Truly, the parenting inverts buts displays opposite historical tail risk attributes: we were cared for as our abilities increased while now we care for others as they diminish. It's hard to treat as a child the person who raised you especially if you (I in my case) are childless.

Drinking is indispensable.

True Dove. Unfortunately my brother passed and my spoiled and fortunate sister lives in Bermuda. Guess who had to handle everything? Sometimes life dumps shit on you even if you are not even ready and you have to figure all of it out on your own.

That sounds like fucking hell, especially when you find yourself deep in personal doubt or pondering disparate duty, which is the building block and proving ground of adulthood. I hope your sister finds the maturity to become a true friend to you, one who shares the agony of family love. I know I can call my brother when I need to be talked off the ledge. What's hard is when our outrage cycles sync up and neither of us can be the better man. Jesus, if I had to do this alone I'd either become a tyrant or an alcoholic. Best of luck brother, I'm rooting for you.

[dovecanyoncat]

Chi - I’d like to say it gets better but it doesn’t. My parents lasted into their mid-90’s and the last 10 years of their lives really meant I had 2 families to take care of.

I don’t even want to hint what you go through when they pass away.

As a famous sage one said…“my advice to you is to start drinking heavily.”

It really helps to have siblings. My brother gets to suffer our father, while I do duty with our mother. There is a deserved (in our case) but asymmetrical devotion that binds family in this moment. Truly, the parenting inverts buts displays opposite historical tail risk attributes: we were cared for as our abilities increased while now we care for others as they diminish. It's hard to treat as a child the person who raised you especially if you (I in my case) are childless.

Drinking is indispensable.

As I found out, along with one of my brothers, is that daughters always and I mean always take care of elderly parents. I had my destitute mother in law move in with us, same with my youngest brother and his mother in law.

My wife's brothers were no help, same with my brother's in-law brothers.

Good thing I enjoy drinking.

This was absolutely the case with my southern family, well, west Texas: the sons are revered for their advice, but they do no hard labor while their sisters carry water. My mother's mother expected my mother to quit her job as County Recorder/Treasurer, move back to Amarillo, and live with her. My father would have let her. What an asshole. But he was never called upon to care for his mother, that duty fell to a sister who essentially had no choice. And they call the south a Matriarchy. Ha!

[Longhorned]

I've always told my mom she's doing assisted living. I'll visit!

[dovecanyoncat]

I've always told my mom she's doing assisted living. I'll visit!

Unfortunately, that's just the first branch in the decision tree.

[UAEebs86]

I've always told my mom she's doing assisted living. I'll visit!

I got lucky with my parents. My dad was a lot older, and my mom was a nurse so she took care of him at the end. Now she's remarried to a man 5 years younger and they moved into senior living that goes from unassisted living all the way through assisted and memory care. A smaller inheritance most likely but worth it.

And my micro-managing sister-in-law handled almost everything (poorly I might add) with my in-laws at the end. Plenty of bad decisions / feelings to go around.

[dovecanyoncat]

My mother lives in the same set-up, and the battle to move her to assisted or memory care living will make trench warfare of attrition look like a frat party. But I plan to do it when the wait-list catches up to us. I've found hospice nurses and supplemental care to fill in the gaps until then.

Pater familias lives on 40 off-the-grid acres up near the Montana-Canadian border and employs an entire fucking village to keep his empire from going off the wheels.

The fucking money my family expends to succor vanity and convenience makes me feel morally culpable, but it's their fucking money spent through my power of attorney. If there is one single lesson I've learned from all this: simplify your life; less is more; possessions are a vessel of memory and history but no one other than you wants them, and in the end they will be auctioned off for a song to people who think, not unlike you, they are worth more than they are.

[scumdevils86]

Yea I'm not looking forward to my parents aging like that

[CatsbyAZ]

Oak trees grow slow and strong.

Oaks mature to adulthood faster than it takes G R R Martin to write his next GoT novel

[UAEebs86]

Oak trees grow slow and strong.

Oaks mature to adulthood faster than it takes G R R Martin to write his next GoT novel

The Oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light

[wyo-cat]

True. Oaks generally like more sun than Maples.

The Trees is

[Merkin]

Can't make tri-tip the Santa Maria way without red oak.

Oak trees grow slow and strong.

Oaks mature to adulthood faster than it takes G R R Martin to write his next GoT novel

Do any GoT fans even care anymore? Don't think I can read another 500-700 page book on descriptions of clothing and food.

[CatsbyAZ]

Do any GoT fans even care anymore? Don't think I can read another 500-700 page book on descriptions of clothing and food.

[ASUHATER!]

It's crazy how something as massive of a cultural phenomenon that swept across the world and internet and had a huge following like GoT just died instantly. It was arguably the singular cultural phenomenon of the 2010s but that last season just murdered it.

[Chicat]

I still love it and rewatch.

[TucsonClip]

It's crazy how something as massive of a cultural phenomenon that swept across the world and internet and had a huge following like GoT just died instantly. It was arguably the singular cultural phenomenon of the 2010s but that last season just murdered it.

I believe I did four rewatches leading up to the final two seasons. I havent even considered watching it again, mainly because of that garbage ending. Still some of the most amazing television moments, such as the Hardhome episode, where they absolutely shit on the entire Walking Dead series in about 40 minutes.

[azgreg]

I still love it and rewatch.

[azgreg]

[UAEebs86]

[Merkin]

It wasn't that along ago Chicago was known as Second City, hence the landmark comedy group.

Now they are over a million behind LA.

But then again, I can remember when NY was the most populous state. Yes I am that old.

NOW GET OFF MY LAWN.

[wyo-cat]

I still call it The Second City.

[Chicat]

It was called the Second City because it had to be rebuilt after the fire.

It was called the Windy City because it’s most prominent citizens were windbags about how great it was.

That wasn’t an unreasonable prediction at that time since Chicago was THE American hub for transportation, logistics, food processing, and steel production. Hard to predict the drastic shift our economy would make from actually creating goods to providing services and selling each other stuff we don’t need.

[azgreg]

[gronk4heisman]

She should get some leniency for fucking over Betsy Devos in my opinion.

[dovecanyoncat]

A bar of soap seemed to last longer when I was a kid. Any Boomers out there remember the same?

[Longhorned]

Imagine if you were about to be interviewed for a job, and the interviewer was about to get the interview started, and they were about to speak but then they looked at you and stopped themselves, smiled, then half un-smiled, and said, "Your confidence projects your glow."

[Chicat]

Any of you Old Heads remember when being a millionaire meant you had fuck you money? Now I feel like that’s $5-10M and would still depend on where you lived.

[dovecanyoncat]

Yup and yup and never forget you can't ever insulate yourself from self-destruction. No amount of capital is immune to stupidity.

[Merkin]

Any of you Old Heads remember when being a millionaire meant you had fuck you money? Now I feel like that’s $5-10M and would still depend on where you lived.

The number of people who live in million dollar homes in California with just a middle class income is staggering. Not for me, but for the early baby boomers, who kept buying and selling here and reinvesting in their home.

OK BOOMER!!!

Just that the tail end of the baby boomer generation didn't get the good jobs and good houses the beginning and middle of the baby boomers did.

But yes, I have a house in California (with a mortgage) and a great pension plan.

[Chicat]

What bugs me is that being a millionaire is no longer a flex, but as a kid it was my main goal.

[azgreg]

I remember when I was in high school you wanted to make your age. Then it was your age plus $10,000. After I got out of the Army is was twice your age. Now you have to make the GDP of S Dakota.

[Carcassdragger]

Right at twice my age.

[scumdevils86]

Lol yea even twice your age barely allows you to have an apartment and food as an adult even in Tucson

[Longhorned]

Conversation I Just Had with My 5 Year-Old

Kid: Daddy, can people marry animals?

Me: Yes! It's called 'animal husbandry'.

Kid: Can I see a video?

[RichardCranium]

Any of you Old Heads remember when being a millionaire meant you had fuck you money? Now I feel like that’s $5-10M and would still depend on where you lived.

The number of people who live in million dollar homes in California with just a middle class income is staggering. Not for me, but for the early baby boomers, who kept buying and selling here and reinvesting in their home.

OK BOOMER!!!

Just that the tail end of the baby boomer generation didn't get the good jobs and good houses the beginning and middle of the baby boomers did.

But yes, I have a house in California (with a mortgage) and a great pension plan.

I'm in an "inner east" suburb of Melbourne.

Our house is a 1950's 3bed/study/2lounge weatherboard on a medium sized block with low maintenance native garden.

We bought in 1986 for $85k. In 2007, we added a $200k extension paid for with a $250k 'equity loan' which was about a quarter of the amount the bank was willing to lend. So the bank was valuing the house at close to a million in 2007 (I don't know how much they were figuring in the value of the extension which had not been built yet). We paid off the extension in less than 10 years but we kept the equity loan at a minimum balance so we can actually do damn near anything we want whenever we want. So far the house has paid for 2 cars and a couple of overseas trips and is basically still in the pay the mortgage off anytime we want range. We actually use the account as our everyday expenses account - bills, groceries, etc.

Median prices for Melbourne Metro are $1.2M. Median prices for my suburb are $1.8M. Recent sales in my street are between $1.3M (for a 3yo 2bed bland post modernish shoe box) to $2.5 mil (for a well restored brick stucco 1950's California Bungalow with a second story addition).

Our place would probably be under $2mil at the moment, but not for long the way prices are going.

We probably need to put some money into the garage before considering a sale though. Removal of the neighbors giant fig tree about 20 years ago has resulted in a lot of subsidence at the back of the garage that wasn't helped by a new sewer connection installed with the extension.

[scumdevils86]

Jesus. Must be nice to have that level of comfort and privilege, boomer.

[RichardCranium]

Jesus. Must be nice to have that level of comfort and privilege, boomer.

Yes it is.

I bought the right house, in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.

So shoot me.

[Longhorned]

I'm so rich, I can't even pull up my pants because them pockets are so filled with change.

[Chicat]

Please confine all unnecessary bragging to the Why I Own The World thread. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

[EastCoastCat]

First time ever I neg repped someone.

Now, I'm not even sure why I did it. Maybe I expect better off the wall quips from LH.

[Longhorned]

How many women do you think you could get a second date with if you told them, "I like how when you start talking it's kind of weird but then it just kind of falls off into the deep end"?

It might not be a very popular approach but it would effectively eliminate all the ones who aren't really into you, no?

[Chicat]

My friend went on a first date a few years ago and the guy told her that she was very hot but pretty weird and he didn’t think it would work out so he left the date early and wished her luck.

She still talks about that guy all the time and has tried repeatedly to get him to go out again. I always say, “But he thought you were a weirdo.” To which she responds… “No, he thought I was a HOT weirdo.”

[Longhorned]

So, maybe just tell them, "You're a hot weirdo," and leave it at that.

[dovecanyoncat]

What do I know, but from my experience:

1. Women prefer indirect communication but appreciate a man's direct communication if it is the communication that they want.
Subpart: this is true for feelings as well: she wants him to have feelings, but mostly just the feelings she wants him to have.

2. Women are attracted to men whose absence they cannot readily influence. Part B: her attraction develops in his absence.

[Longhorned]

Is there a way for us to know what the communication they want is?