Random thoughts that are pointless and too dumb to say anywhere else thread: * 2023 *

[hawing]

Random, pointless, dumb, or any combination thereof!

[GAME05]

So an odd vending issue.....

So my soda cooler is maybe 75 lbs. or thereabouts and I've got to lift it on and off the pickup bed to do my vending. My back being what it is, I can lift it, but one of these days I'm going to hurt something. Right now my best solution is truck ramps to make it a bit easier, although my cart being hitched up may get in the way of that. The boss wondered about a furniture dolly. I'm just trying to figure out what might work best to get something moderately heavy on and off the truck.

The second dilemma is that I keep my extra cases of soda in the commissary, which means loading them up one-by-one and again at the end of the day. I have a small hand truck but being open cases, I'll hit a bump in the sidewalk and 10 cans will spill out. And sometimes I have to go down stairs.

Or maybe truck ramps would work off the side of the truck? Right now I'm thinking another cooler for the extra soda, truck ramps to get them on/off, and then just wheel the cooler into the commissary.

edit: ooh, just found this manual hydraulic lift which I really like. And not super expensive, either.

edit edit: Cripes, the lift itself is 88 lbs. I'd need a lift for the lift.

[MrTPlush]

I always live for the next installment into the 'hot dog side hustle' story. 

The boring answer is trade in your truck for a sweet van. haha

[nate82]

What about a cooler backpack instead of a cooler?  Should be able to hold 30 or so cans in the backpack.

So something like this: https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/yeti-hopper-m20-soft-backpack-cooler-22yetuhpprm20bpclrec/22yetuhpprm20bpclrec?sku=23244314

[GAME05]

I've had that thought for the spare sodas, just 2-3 containers, so backpacks could work. Need at least the one cooler to sell sodas out of, though.

There's an arm you can bolt onto the bed and it swings out with a crank, so I'm starting to lean that direction. And my maintenance director may be willing to make me one. Bolt a shorter metal post in, a round pole slips inside so it swivels, and then a manual boat crank to lift the cooler up. 

The side hustle I think is going well so far. $180 and $113 net the two times in my new location, which I think bodes well for summer when the town gets busy. Was hoping to vend six days per month but it may end up being four since I'm concerned a nine-day shift at work, then two days vending, then back to another nine-day shift may be a little too much.

Lot of requests for coleslaw on a hot dog here, so I may end up needing another half-hour in the morning to make it every time since I've been told it doesn't freeze well. 

edit: okay maybe I'm starting to ramble, but I'm liking this new solution: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073LR246F/ref=ewc_pr_img_1?smid=A16NOCZFTYEP6M&psc=1     It has a 200lb lift capacity and itself is 40 lbs. Probably add coasters so I can lift the cooler up at my cart to make it more obvious I'm selling sodas. Kinda pricey, though. Would still have to do multiple trips with the spare soda containers, but so be it.

edit edit: Nope, this is better: https://www.discountramps.com/viking-solutions-l-e-vator-deer-lift/p/VKS-VLV001/?gclid=CjwKCAiAqt-dBhBcEiwATw-ggMfZZ40ojpebXYUgTzcqYQvJLj3vEblUUDbwoHCjN92aVH_WMMz4NRoCgP0QAvD_BwE

Hunting supplies are better because I'm looking to lift more like a deer-weight than a motorcycle weight.

[homer]

19 hours ago, GAME05 said:

So an odd vending issue.....

So my soda cooler is maybe 75 lbs. or thereabouts and I've got to lift it on and off the pickup bed to do my vending. My back being what it is, I can lift it, but one of these days I'm going to hurt something. Right now my best solution is truck ramps to make it a bit easier, although my cart being hitched up may get in the way of that. The boss wondered about a furniture dolly. I'm just trying to figure out what might work best to get something moderately heavy on and off the truck.

The second dilemma is that I keep my extra cases of soda in the commissary, which means loading them up one-by-one and again at the end of the day. I have a small hand truck but being open cases, I'll hit a bump in the sidewalk and 10 cans will spill out. And sometimes I have to go down stairs.

Or maybe truck ramps would work off the side of the truck? Right now I'm thinking another cooler for the extra soda, truck ramps to get them on/off, and then just wheel the cooler into the commissary.

edit: ooh, just found this manual hydraulic lift which I really like. And not super expensive, either.

edit edit: Cripes, the lift itself is 88 lbs. I'd need a lift for the lift.

You need a suitbot:

 

[GAME05]

I'd be like a robot hot-dog salesman!

 

Bought the deer lift. I don't have to keep my spare sodas cold so I'll probably just get the plastic crates for those.

[Thurston Fluff]

Sad to see Jeff Beck passed away.

[Jimbo]

Last weekend I watched "A Man Called Otto".  Is this going to be me in eleven years?

 

[Jimbo]

A follow up on my post from the 2020 thread:

"I just discovered a part of the City of Milwaukee proper extends past 124th Street into Waukesha County. Less than one square mile and no one resides there.

On edit: ditto for Washington County."

with this:

Why parts of city of Milwaukee are in Waukesha, Washington counties (jsonline.com)

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, Jimbo said:

A follow up on my post from the 2020 thread:

"I just discovered a part of the City of Milwaukee proper extends past 124th Street into Waukesha County. Less than one square mile and no one resides there.

On edit: ditto for Washington County."

with this:

Why parts of city of Milwaukee are in Waukesha, Washington counties (jsonline.com)

 

I knew about the part that juts into Waukesha County. Didn't know about the Washington County extension. Back in the last century (don't remember when, probably in the post WW2 annexation craze) there was a movement to annex a large corridor of land abutting, IIRC, Hampton Ave that would jut out a few miles into Waukesha County. I'm assuming incorporation efforts by Menomonee Falls put a damper on that.

I've always been a geek about stuff like that. For example, from Good Hope Rd south to Burleigh, and again for about a two mile stretch on the south side, there is no 59th street. It's 60th, then 58th. Never knew the reason for that.

[owbc]

12 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

I knew about the part that juts into Waukesha County. Didn't know about the Washington County extension. Back in the last century (don't remember when, probably in the post WW2 annexation craze) there was a movement to annex a large corridor of land abutting, IIRC, Hampton Ave that would jut out a few miles into Waukesha County. I'm assuming incorporation efforts by Menomonee Falls put a damper on that.

I've always been a geek about stuff like that. For example, from Good Hope Rd south to Burleigh, and again for about a two mile stretch on the south side, there is no 59th street. It's 60th, then 58th. Never knew the reason for that.

I grew up a couple blocks from 124th St in Greenfield. Greenfield probably has the strangest shape of any city in Wisconsin, which is a result of it incorporating all of the leftover land in that area. There is also a square "hole" in Greenfield along 116th St which is a chunk of land that they sold to West Allis back in the 1990s. One part of the southern border of Greenfield is not exactly on Edgerton Ave but instead is a couple hundred feet to the north. I don't know if they ever resolved it, but back in the day the people who lived on the N side of Edgerton owned property in both cities. 

I learned most of the above at some sort of government day that we had in middle school. I also remember that I was the only one who knew that Milwaukee County used to have a third airport called Rainbow Airport close to the farm where my mother grew up. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

46 minutes ago, owbc said:

I grew up a couple blocks from 124th St in Greenfield. Greenfield probably has the strangest shape of any city in Wisconsin, which is a result of it incorporating all of the leftover land in that area. There is also a square "hole" in Greenfield along 116th St which is a chunk of land that they sold to West Allis back in the 1990s. One part of the southern border of Greenfield is not exactly on Edgerton Ave but instead is a couple hundred feet to the north. I don't know if they ever resolved it, but back in the day the people who lived on the N side of Edgerton owned property in both cities. 

I learned most of the above at some sort of government day that we had in middle school. I also remember that I was the only one who knew that Milwaukee County used to have a third airport called Rainbow Airport close to the farm where my mother grew up. 

I lived in the central part of Greenfield (just north of the HS) for about 18 years. Yeah, the borders are crazy as a result of G'field "freezing" the borders by becoming a city in the middle of Milwaukee's annexation grab. It used to be identified by the lack of curbs & sidewalks on the Greenfield side but I think that's starting to change.

You got me on Rainbow Airport. Could it have been in/near the current Rainbow Park?

[owbc]

1 hour ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

I lived in the central part of Greenfield (just north of the HS) for about 18 years. Yeah, the borders are crazy as a result of G'field "freezing" the borders by becoming a city in the middle of Milwaukee's annexation grab. It used to be identified by the lack of curbs & sidewalks on the Greenfield side but I think that's starting to change.

You got me on Rainbow Airport. Could it have been in/near the current Rainbow Park?

You can still see the outline of the old runway on Google Maps. It is near 76th/Ryan Rd in Franklin. 
(42.86425648468093, -88.0061748608468)
 

[Samurai Bucky]

On 1/13/2023 at 2:30 PM, owbc said:

You can still see the outline of the old runway on Google Maps. It is near 76th/Ryan Rd in Franklin. 
(42.86425648468093, -88.0061748608468)
 

This reminds me of the old freeway plan for the Milwaukee area...

http://midwestroads.com/wisconsin/past/reports/m03_1965proposed1990system.jpg

[Jim French Stepstool]

9 hours ago, Samurai Bucky said:

This reminds me of the old freeway plan for the Milwaukee area...

http://midwestroads.com/wisconsin/past/reports/m03_1965proposed1990system.jpg

Quite ambitious. The part that would've made sense is the stretch from I-45 to I-43 going east-west on the north side. Most large metro areas have a freeway "ring" but Milwaukee never did a northern tier. If you travel down Silver Spring Dr there are quite a few underpasses, presumably to try to make up for that. Made travel between Wauwatosa & Port Washington kinda fractured.

 

[NeedMoreFans]

You can see remnants of this highway plan all over the area.  One example is the highway spur that runs north of AmFam Field.  I-794 is also part of it, as there was a freeway that was supposed to run along the lakeshore going north (which if you watch the Blues Brothers, the scene where they are fleeing the Nazis and the highway comes to an abrupt end due to construction is in Milwaukee and they were demolishing that part of the freeway).  The old Park East freeway by the Bradley Center was a part of that as well.  

As someone who grew up in Port Washington, I always wondered why there was no northern bypass.  I think they studied it many years ago and decided it wouldn't significantly reduce traffic through the Marquette Interchange.  

[Jim French Stepstool]

13 hours ago, NeedMoreFans said:

You can see remnants of this highway plan all over the area.  One example is the highway spur that runs north of AmFam Field.  I-794 is also part of it, as there was a freeway that was supposed to run along the lakeshore going north (which if you watch the Blues Brothers, the scene where they are fleeing the Nazis and the highway comes to an abrupt end due to construction is in Milwaukee and they were demolishing that part of the freeway).  The old Park East freeway by the Bradley Center was a part of that as well.  

As someone who grew up in Port Washington, I always wondered why there was no northern bypass.  I think they studied it many years ago and decided it wouldn't significantly reduce traffic through the Marquette Interchange.  

The spur that runs north from the ballpark caused my dad some anxious moments in the 60s. It ended at 47th & Lisbon. Then there was the Fond du Lac Freeway, which originated around 68th & Hampton & proceeded NW. There was talk of connecting the two, and the path would've either run through our home, or very close to it. Fortunately for us it was decided Appleton ave, 60th st & Fond du Lac ave sufficed as a link.

When the southern bypass (I-894) was built it went mainly through undeveloped land. A northern one would've caused quite a bit of uprooting; maybe people b****ed enough to keep it from happening.

[SeaBass]

Colonoscopy. The procedure itself was fine. The prep, as those that go through it know, is the worst part. Anyway, having turned 50 a few months ago, I had my first one yesterday. I was craving real food, wasn't exactly hungry, just the fact that I could not eat made the desire to eat stronger.

Fully aware I would probably regret it after the fact (spoiler alert: I did), I planned on going to a local diner immediately after being released from the procedure. So I had breakfast in the afternoon, scrambled eggs, hash browns (with a copious amount of ketchup), toast and a Belgian waffle. Carb city. It was delicious. Very satisfying after around 36 hours of no solid food.

I want to think the indigestion and stomach discomfort several hours later was worth it. It both was and wasn't. I probably won't do the same thing next time but I'll want to. LOL

[jerichoholicninja]

I had one at 22. Being younger didn't make it any easier. My body does not handle any kind of drugs well so not eating for 24 hours before or whatever it is and then not being able to eat for about another 24 hours after because neither my head nor my stomach was interested or willing to tolerate food made for a horrible couple of days. The day after I had it my boss sent me home from work. I never once complained about how I was feeling but after being there a couple hours they took one look at me and said go home.

[SeaBass]

1 hour ago, jerichoholicninja said:

I had one at 22. Being younger didn't make it any easier. My body does not handle any kind of drugs well so not eating for 24 hours before or whatever it is and then not being able to eat for about another 24 hours after because neither my head nor my stomach was interested or willing to tolerate food made for a horrible couple of days. The day after I had it my boss sent me home from work. I never once complained about how I was feeling but after being there a couple hours they took one look at me and said go home.

Sounds awful. My stomach discomfort lasted around 5 hours, I slept through some of it and watched some TV to try to distract myself the rest of the time. Didn't eat anything else of substance the rest of the night. I think I had a granola bar around midnight. I definitely would have struggled if I had to work while feeling like that but I'm working from home so... I probably could get away with a slacker day on the clock. Fortunately it didn't come to that.

Long story alert: don't waste time reading if you don't want to.

You mentioning your boss telling you to go home brought back a memory of an instance where the exact opposite happened for me. I worked for a fast food chain in my late high school years. One summer weekend I had gone with some friends to Noah's Ark. I had forgotten to bring sunblock and for whatever reason I didn't buy any or borrow any, hard to recall if anyone else even had some. Suffice to say, by the end of the day I had a pretty nasty sunburn. Man I was dumb, I could feel my skin was hot as the day was winding down but it's never as bad in the moment as it's going to be as more time passes. My shoulders and upper arms ended up covered in blisters. Not good times.

Next day I was supposed to work, called them up and begged to have the day off because I was feeling terrible. The assistant manager answered, he was a guy I didn't have much of a rapport with, I was pretty well liked by management otherwise, especially the manager but this assistant manager was newer and for whatever reason he didn't know me well enough or didn't care or maybe he was even jealous that the manager liked me, I don't know, but he decided to be a big tool and express doubt that I was telling the truth or felt like I was exaggerating just to get out of work without finding a replacement. To be fair a lot of high school kids are super flaky with jobs like this and as I said he didn't know me real well. So he tells me if I don't come in I'd be fired. Or at least he implied it convincingly enough for me to believe him so I sucked it up and reported for my shift, half believing that when he saw me he'd realize I wasn't trying to pull a fast one and send me home. Nope, everyone but him, he was one of those guys that would never admit when they're wrong.

I was red like a lobster. Everybody could see it. People were asking me why I was there and I was like, dude told me I better show up or else. The guy didn't make a lot of eye contact with me and I worked for most of my scheduled shift, 5 or 6 hours. Oh, I worked in the back with the grills and fryers and there was no air conditioning so it was like 100 degrees back there (yay 80s!). It really sucked. After the lunch rush the guy comes up to me and says, take out all the garbage and then I guess you can go home.

I thought, "Geez Louise, thanks for being such a swell guy." Anybody could have taken the garbage out and it would have taken 15 minutes but I could barely raise my arms above my head and I'm supposed to throw all the bags of garbage into the trash compactor behind the restaurant which was above shoulder level. It took me about a half hour so I think I got to go home a whole 30 minutes before my shift ended anyway. So kind and thoughtful. He didn't stick around too long, I wasn't sorry to see him go.

[LouisEly]

11 hours ago, SeaBass said:

Colonoscopy. The procedure itself was fine. The prep, as those that go through it know, is the worst part. Anyway, having turned 50 a few months ago, I had my first one yesterday.

Cologuard.  Not sure if you're high risk, but for people who are average risk the American Cancer Society says that either a colonoscopy or a stool-based test (i.e. Cologuard) is fine.  And Cologuard is covered 100% on my health plan, whereas a colonoscopy isn't - and I have a high deductible health plan.

Unfortunately my doctor knows little about Cologuard and fought me on my insistence on Cologuard even though I'm low risk.

[AKCheesehead]

Also unfortunate (for me anyways) is that Cologuard is not yet an option for me due to the lengthy shipping time for the samples from rural Alaska to reach the lab.  So, the prep and scope is going to need to happen sometime in my not too distant future. Unless I can convince my provider and insurer to allow me to do this when I visit Wisconsin this summer...

[LouisEly]

2 hours ago, AKCheesehead said:

Also unfortunate (for me anyways) is that Cologuard is not yet an option for me due to the lengthy shipping time for the samples from rural Alaska to reach the lab.  So, the prep and scope is going to need to happen sometime in my not too distant future. Unless I can convince my provider and insurer to allow me to do this when I visit Wisconsin this summer...

I'm sure you can.  When your doctor orders it, it will be shipped to your home.  After you receive the kit you can take it, poop, and ship from anywhere.  Maybe check the shipping requirements, but I don't see why it has to be shipped from your home.

[GAME05]

I have to qualify every year with day/night pistol and shotgun as well as day/night combat course. I'm a good shot, but once you add that element of "You better pass all six of these courses of fire to keep your job" the anxiety ramps up a little. Mostly because you have to shoot in specific ways and I don't want to forget something like the last two rounds as support-hand only.