Lord of the Dunes

1 hour ago, Surf and Dune said:

I'm sure we agree about 99% politically, but seems way uncool to start hassling an old lady who is a complete stranger that's minding her own business, no matter what her politics are. (which is none of your business in the first place) 

I wasn't hassling her. Initially I was concerned about her sitting in direct sunlight in that heat. Then I jokingly stated facts about our politicians that should be obvious to anyone with a pulse. At no time did I hassle her, unless stating facts is now some form of harassment. I don't know, maybe facts ARE a form of harassment these days. It seems everything is some form of micro aggression these days.

Yesterday I went to a restaurant in El Cajon to have lunch with a group of people I met through the VFW, all older folks in their late 60s to 90s in age. It was 102* F and as I pulled into the parking lot, there was a woman in her 70s sitting in a beach chair in direct sunlight, right next to shade, in a black asphalt parking lot. I walked over to her and asked if the restaurant was closed. She answered no, it opened 30 minutes ago. I asked her why she was sitting in direct sunlight with no hat or sunglasses in 102* heat. She replied that she was waiting for some friends for lunch. I asked her if she was part lizard and she laughed. I asked why she didn't wait in the air conditioned restaurant and she said she wanted to greet her friends in the parking lot. I was standing in the shade near her as we talked and a truck pulled in. It turns out she was also part of the group from the VFW and we both recognized the people in the truck. I thought to myself, "I bet she voted for Biden" because I saw no logic in sitting in extreme heat in an asphalt parking lot at that age.

Then another member of the group pulled in driving a Tesla and I joked that she must have charged her EV at night since we're being "urged" to buy EVs due to high gas prices and simultaneously being told not to charge them during peak hours due to the over stressed electrical grid. She replied, "We live in challenging times." I said, "Or maybe we elected the biggest morons on the planet to run this state and that's why we have the highest gas prices in the nation, an old and overstressed electrical grid and the highest electricity rates in the country. This state is being run into the ground by Libtards."

She sorta grimaced and repeated herself, "We live in challenging times." I then said, "Yet we don't HAVE to live like this. Dolphins and dogs never invented government, politicians, taxes or socialism. They're far smarter and happier than we are." The blank look on her face indicated the logic was lost on her.

It was then that I realized my initial observation about someone who would sit in a hot parking lot in 102* heat was correct. She DID vote for Biden.

The Yeti coolers are built with extra thick plastic. This makes them heavy and nearly bear proof, but the plastic actually transfers heat, it is not an insulative layer and thus lighter coolers with thinner skins perform slightly better at ice retention. Yeti coolers are made to be rugged, and since we usually don't have problems with bears in Glamis, might be a bit overkill.

I prefer my coolers to be lighter since I'm lazy and don't like lugging 45 lbs of cooler plus ice and drinks. I have a couple of Rugged Road coolers which are about 8 lbs ea and retain ice slightly less than the Lifetime cooler, but close enough for car camping. I've got cheap coolers I bought long ago, before the premium coolers came out, good enough for daytime beach trips. I have 2 12v fridge/freezers for long car camping or overlanding trips and American Outdoors soft sided coolers (4 of them) for boat use. Something for every situation. If I had to get rid of the and only have 1 cooler, I think I'd keep the Lifetime cooler.

2 hours ago, wapawekka said:

The younger generation DOESN'T want to move out. I oversee 18 employees in my division. These are various careers in law enforcement. Far from an entry level job. They make a $100k a year with overtime. Out of 18 employees, 10 live with their parents. Meanwhile, they vacation in the Maldives and spend thousands of dollars in Vegas every other weekend. All between 25 and 30 years old. 5 of them drive vehicles over $75,000. When asked if they're looking for homes, all of them look at me with a blank stare like I'm speaking a foreign language. They don't value owning a own home or living on their own as a benefit. They see it as an inconvenience to their lifestyle. Even looking around my neighborhood in Riverside. Multiple generations living in one house but you see the parties and the new cars all the time. I don't think it's a pay issue. I think it's a generational issue.

One neighbor of mine has both 30 something kids still living at home. The neighbor on the other side has both sons, the daughter in law and soon to be grandkid living with him. It's starting to remind me of HI, where it's typical to have 3 generations living in one house, often with 5 - 8 incomes helping with the mortgage or rent.

7 hours ago, Big_Daddy_Jp said:

I agree that the wages for fast food employees seems outrageous but like said by J Alper, the cost of living is crazy. How do you expect the younger generation to move out of their parents home and start living on their own these days? How do they start their own lives like we did? I moved out at 19 with my then girlfriend. We both had a little better than entry level jobs from working our way up. Neither one of us went to college. Now a days if you want something better than entry level you have to have some kind of degree or years experience equivalent to. Now with so many people looking for work, the odds of getting one of those jobs is slim. Rent for an apartment back in the day was $800 per month and now is like $1700. So yes, if the cost of living is gonna double or triple than wages need to do the same.

When they're young, they get a job, live at home and save their money. Then they get training, or a college degree and find a well paying career. Nobody should expect to buy a house or condo while making min. wage, that's ridiculous. Learn a skill, make serious money, then buy a house.

Or go into the military. They get to live in a tent for free.

7 hours ago, Bansh88 said:

First job was Jack n the Box.  Did it for a few months, then went to work at the mall, then up and up from there.

This is a snowball shetstorm of bad ideas, bad policies and a worthless population segment growing.

This is also another nail in the coffin of "fast food".

Things actually work out differently than you think and I thought. I thought exactly the same, but Seattle tried the $15/hr experiment yrs ago and what actually happened was all of the fast food joints demoted all of the full time 40 hr/week employees to 30 - 35 hrs/week with no benefits. So now they have no medical benefits, sick leave or vacation time. They laid off a couple employees per shift and the remaining crew had to do the same amount of work with fewer people. The bottom line was all of the employees took home less than before, all of them worked fewer hours per week, a few of them got laid off, the companies bought machines to automate some of the jobs (like the payment kiosks in McD's now) and the companies actually lowered cost per unit sold as a reaction to paying more per hour. The food prices stayed the same but working conditions got tighter (higher output per worker per shift) and company profits went up slightly.

If we see $22/hr, you can bet all of the fast food places will be installing more automated equipment, no cashiers or only 1 per store and demanding much higher productivity per hour. No way will they lose any profitability or increase prices to the point of losing sales. Prices will increase due to rising food costs, but they will cut down labor costs in response to rising wages. The big losers will be the workers.

11 minutes ago, Looney Duner said:

Lifetime brand coolers at Walmart. Made in USA. Roto-molded, comes in 28, 50, and 70 qt.

I've been using the 28 at work for about 3 years now. Tough as nails, doesn't leak, and holds ice for days without issues. And much more affordable then other name brands. 

I also vote for the Lifetime 54 qt cooler. Best ice retention you can get for $99. Holds ice longer than a Yeti. One trick to longer ice is use a block of ice in the center, then ice cubes on top of the drinks.

That Pro R held up a lot longer than I expected.

1 hour ago, SLIM said:

https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/banking/zelle-scams-protect-yourself-and-stop-thieves-in-their-tracks/

Thanks for the link to that article.

Unfortunately, it's misleading. All of the scams they listed were all social engineering scams, none of them were specific to Zelle. They didn't point out a single example of any sort of security flaw in Zelle or a unique way to scam someone using Zelle. The person giving the money has to authorize the transaction. There is no way to fake it or get around it. If a person is dumb enough to fall for the scam, the payment method doesn't really matter, whether it's refillable visa cards, or money orders, or Zelle. 

I've sold items in person, accepted Zelle as payment and everything went well. No possibility of accepting counterfeit cash, it can't be faked like a cashier's check, it can't be stopped like a personal check. For purchases of $2,000 or less, that system works great. If a person gets scammed, it's because the item is not as advertised or something similar.

2 hours ago, SLIM said:

Be careful with Zelle, that is a scammers dream

How do they scam with Zelle?

8 minutes ago, Stinky said:

The IRS needs to be expanded.  IRS Auditors pay for their existence many times over.  The people that they look at aren't like you and me.  People like you and me get a letter that says your tax return has been adjusted by $500 and you pay it...and grumble about it.  You recognize a mistake made by somebody....SOMEBODY ELSE

I used to work in the federal building, as a guard.  A lawyer would come in...dressed like he is ready for court/prom/wedding/black-tie affair.  His client comes in, dressed the same, but not so much.  They meet w/an auditor.  I look out the window and see a Maserati SUV parked at the meter (I later watch and see that the lawyer gets in it).  I also see a Porsche ( I later watch and see that the client gets in it).  They come back another 2 or 3 times.  The lawyer gets paid $5K-$10K (just guessing, but that Maserati got paid for somehow).  This gentleman...was willfully defrauding the gubment.  Then his lawyer gets him a break....after the lawyer gets his $10K, he probably still gets away w/$50K (because the Auditor is over worked and has to clean out his cases to get his boss off his a@@).  BTW...that $125K check (below) is cheap as he has done it for years.

Afterwards....The Auditor says, OK, we can settle this for $125K...the client then writes a check ON THE SPOT. .."Chump-Change."  They work several of these cases a year...the best lawyer that money can buy can't get them off for under $100K.  That is $100K of money that the gubment could pay down the debt with, or blow on Obama Phones or some other BS. 

$150K WORTH OF FRAUD, or twice that.

The IRS has Criminal Investigators that put people in prison for criminal stuff (like Al Capone).  Do you think that they have guns?  They are chasing people with guns...you can't arrest somebody w/a gun and not have a gun.  They need to qualify with their guns 4x a year (Thank a lawyer).  That amount of ammo comes out to about 500 rds per year for the average guy/gal (100 rds per training session) and it does not take in to the count of training a newbie how to shoot...several thousand rounds each. 

BTW, Barney Fife only qualified once a year.

BTW, Auditors and "normal" IRS people do not have guns.

All of that is reasonable.  They need more Auditors and they need ammo. 

We also need more CBP/ICE guys....the number of containers/shipments that could be seized because of fraud, because there is nobody to inspect them is staggering.  1,000 containers on a ship....a percentage of them are high-tech gadgets.  But, they are labeled as nails, or some other low-tech gadget.  You have a pretty significant difference in tariff there...like maybe $10K, in one container.  The ship probably/possibly has several more of the same type of fraud.  BTW, our country is supposed to run on tariffs, not on income tax.

I pay my taxes...shouldn't everybody pay their FAIR amount of taxes and not screw the gubment.

Are you serious with this post?

Do you seriously think the best way to collect tax money is to spend a large fortune for more auditors??

Here's a novel idea. Simplify the tax code. Remove all of the deductions, credits, deferrals and loopholes. Just make the tax a percentage of a person's income with a linear increase in tax rate as the income increases. That's it. They currently collect all of the income/interest data directly from the source via computers. All they need to do is track down unreported sources of income, which is far easier to do than verifying all of the current loopholes aren't being abused.

Simplify the tax code, don't build an army of tax collectors.

When the IRS is larger than the military, will the public finally wake up and realize that the gov't considers us the real enemy?

10 hours ago, ANGRYBUTTCRACK said:

If there is intelligent life, why are they just checking us out and not trying to make contact (or destroy)? .. maybe they figure, they can just wait.. maybe it has to do with Skynet!... they wan wait as they see we'll just blow each other up eventually.. nukes brah... 

abc

 

 

Imagine being an intelligent life form and watching several episodes of Jerry Springer or The View being broadcasted from a planet that you think might contain intelligent life.

I picture them rolling up the windows and telling the kids they're driving through the wrong part of town.

11 minutes ago, LegitDuner said:

There's a teacher in Russia with a similar sentence for medical marijuana. Nobody even knew about him until she got arrested. I guess we see where teachers fall on the hierarchy of the woke crowd. 

Half this country is emotionally stunted.. 

I keep telling my wife we need to bring back shaming. There's too many stupid people out there.

 

I think you're being far too kind.

30 minutes ago, Crusty said:

You tie the strap to the wheel and run it forward to an anchor point straight in front of the tire. As the wheel turns, it winds the strap around it and pulls you out, nice and easy. 

1 hour ago, L.R.S. said:

Incorrect. Remember a few seasons ago the guy in the PU truck at the drags that went into the crowd and a lady was killed. What happened to him? Nothing. No alcohol, no fault. He didn't run. 

Are we sure nothing happened to him? Just because no one posted a follow up story on him doesn't mean he wasn't charged with anything. Rarely do we get a follow up on incidents that happen in the dunes. I recall a young guy had his back broken by BLM rangers after they asked for his pass. I remember his family filed a lawsuit over it, but I don't recall ever hearing the outcome of that either.

8 hours ago, L.R.S. said:

So that happened.  

 

For those who keep insisting that off road areas are "no fault", they aren't. Notice the suspect has been charged with Vehicular Manslaughter with Gross negligence for hitting someone with his vehicle and killing them. There didn't need to be alcohol involved, it did not have to be a hit and run. Just hitting and killing someone is vehicular manslaughter, either on or off road, makes no difference.

Since this guy fled the scene and took his sweet time turning himself in, I doubt he's going to tell the absolute truth as to what happened. I wouldn't count on his passenger as being unbiased either. If there weren't impartial witnesses, it might be pretty difficult for forensic people to determine exactly what happened.

I've been traveling through a tall bushy area, slowed down due to poor visibility and suddenly had kids on quads zoom right in front of me, tunnel vision on, completely oblivious to a 16' 4 seat sand rail that slammed to a stop just feet away from them. If it wasn't for my extreme defensive habits in poor visibility terrain, I might not have been able to stop in time and there might have been a collision. Meaning just because there's a collision doesn't mean it's automatically the larger vehicle's fault, as some people seem to think. It's very easy for a small kid on a quad to dart out in front of anyone. That's why I feel it's important to adjust your speed for the conditions, despite wanting to drive at 65 mph everywhere.

I hope they arrive at the truth and justice prevails, whatever it might end up.

8 hours ago, CampfiresNbrews said:

The amount of knowledge here is amazing. Where else can you find this kind of valuable information?? Note to self- PACK EXTRA BEER!!! ✅ 🤪 

The Speed UTV thread?

My dad died when I was 4, so I don't have too many memories, but here is one.

My mom was cooking in the kitchen, dad was sitting in his recliner, with a Hamm's in one hand and me sitting on his lap as we watched TV. He decided to let me take a sip from his beer and I was so small I could barely hang onto the can with both hands. Mom, being Mother Nature, yelled from the kitchen, "Don't you give him any beer!!!"

He replied, "Of course not!" as he smiled and winked at me.   

I once asked my mom if I could get a tattoo. She said, "No! A tattoo announces to the world you were once drunk and stupid, or marked as a slave." After about 5 seconds, my stepdad said, "HEY! I have tattoos!" Mom said, "I rest my case."

I had to leave the room so he wouldn't hear me laughing, causing another month's restriction!

My stepdad wasn't much for funny sayings.

When I was about 9, he said, "The Navy ain't never done me no harm." I replied, "The least they could have done was teach you some grammar." My mom chuckled, I think I got about a month's restriction for that one. She agreed with me, but wouldn't override him.

The rest of these are mom-isms.

"If you hear a baby crying in a dumpster, do NOT rescue the baby. It will ruin your life, like you did mine."

"I can't wait until you have children." "Oh, you want grandchildren?" "No, I just want you to go through what you put me through."

"If you ever have children and expect me to watch them, I'm going to feed each of them 5 lbs of candy bars just before you pick them up."

"I am Mother Nature. I made up all of the laws of nature. I control everything."

"I have eyes in the back of my head. I have RADAR in my forehead. I can hear everything. I own all of the satellites. The CIA asks me what's happening. So don't even try anything."

"Every stupid idea that pops into your head - I thought of and decided against it 25 yrs ago, so don't ever think you've discovered a new trick or something I don't know. I'm 25 yrs wiser than you." 

If all of your friends decided to jump off a bridge, would you follow them? If so, make sure it's a tall bridge and you die, because I'd rather you die than be as stupid as your friends."

She was a lot of things. Judgmental, black/white, opinionated, unforgiving, demanding and relentless were 6 of them.  

The version I've heard was "busier than a two peckered billy goat."

"You gotta be smarter than what you're working with."

"Is it stupid, or are you stupid?"

Mom used to whisper, "They will never find your body."

"Don't hang out with liars or thieves. They can't help but lie and steal from you."

I was wondering whether the Mustang driver was going to blow the engine or the Tesla's battery was going to run down first.

This happened back in the late 80s. My sub was on WestPac and we pulled into Guam for a couple of weeks for beer, titties and minor repairs. The first day there, I was driving the duty van and picked up about 8 guys and was pulling through the parking lot when someone threw a full beer bottle at the van and busted a side window. I punched it and drove the van over the curb and back to base, even though a couple of guys wanted to climb out and beat some ass. The command hadn't seen anything about violence on TV, so guys were still allowed to go out into town. The next afternoon 2 big burly torpedomen and a thin Fire Control Tech (5'9", about 155 lbs) were walking alongside the road when 2 cars stopped behind them and 8 big Guamanians climbed out with baseball bats and pipes.

They attacked the 2 big guys first, who went down immediately. The skinny guy spun around, and much to everyone's surprise, put 5 out of the 8 Guamanians in the hospital, in the next room over from our 2 sailors. It turns out Dwayne was a martial arts expert ever since growing up in the Philippines as a kid. He was very upset he didn't hear them sneaking up on them and that the other 2 guys got hurt. The Chief of the Boat was at the hospital to check on the 2 sailors and talking to the Guam chief of police on behalf of the CO and the crew. He met with him and came back to the base to brief the crew.

Here's what he said, as near as I can recall. "I talked to the effing chief of police and he says the 5 clowns in the hospital aren't telling who the other 3 attackers are. I told him the entire crew is restricted to base effective effing immediately. I told him he has until noon effing tomorrow to find out who the sh1tbags are and arrest them, or I won't be able to control 120 pissed off sailors who want revenge. So as of right now, you're all restricted to the base. If effing chief of police doesn't have them in custody by noon tomorrow, well, I can't effing control you pissed off mother effers. He can explain to the news reporters why this island needs a new police chief." I think I left out a few eff bombs, but that was the basic message. First thing the next morning, the police chief called to say he'd arrested all 8 guys and they would get prosecuted.

I talked to the COB afterward and told him I knew he wasn't going to let anyone off the base, even if the attackers were caught, but I had a solution that everyone could live with. My division was in charge of the recreation committee funds and I had cooked meals for the cooks underway, so they loved it when I got them out of cooking. I told the COB that when he tells the crew that we couldn't leave the base, tell them we would have a non stop kegger at the barracks. We would buy fresh kegs every time we ran out with the rec committee money. Every day, a different guy in my division would BBQ for 1/2 day, then another guy would cook for the other 1/2 day. The cooks would sign the paperwork so my division could requisition the food (hot dogs, burgers, chicken, ribs) every morning from the base galley along with trash cans full of ice for the keg. This way, the crew would stay by the barracks eating BBQ and playing football or baseball all day and drink all the free beer they wanted. They'd stay on base, the cooks would get almost 2 weeks off and everyone would be happy. It worked out great!

He mentioned a 4 pt harness. He should be recommending a 5 pt harness. Hopefully this program will contain a lot of good info, it's a great idea.