I wouldn’t even bother. He’s probably a bill collector.

I’m not sure that red tape is what killed it for me, to be honest.

Up until about 5 years ago, there were state and federal programs (IIRC mostly in the form of tax rebates) where I live such that panels and installation were essentially 50% off. In addition, the power company paid 1-to-1 for the excess energy. The folks who were lucky enough to be able to buy solar in those days were breaking even in the 5 to 7 year range and they get grandfathered in to the power company’s 1-to-1 buy back basically forever from what I understand.

Now, there’s only the federal incentives, the power company buyback is some ridiculously low amount that it makes you wonder why they bother at all, state incentives are gone, and the cost of panels + installation has sky rocketed. We looked into it several years ago, and with all the recent changes, it was going to take 15+ years for us to break even under fairly optimal conditions. A lot can happen in 15 years and we just weren’t comfortable enough financially for it to make sense.

That’s me. It takes me awhile to get to the point of saying I’m hungry, but once I’m there everything gets foggy, extremities start going numb, I get tingly sensation in my face. My brain will not work, the only thing it will actively think about is food, and even that’s kinda shaky. If I can do something completely mindless, that’s okay, but if you expect me to answer questions, make decisions, or do anything mentally taxing then that’s not going to work out very well for either of us. Yes, diabetes 1 & 2 run in my family.

Boss: I know your dad just died, but can you login and submit your September time sheet before noon? Otherwise I have to email HR and ask them for help and they’re honestly so much to have to deal with.

This morning I drove to the post office going 38 mph when the speed limit is 35. Last week I checked my phone at the social security office when the guard was distracted. Next week, who knows what depravity I may commit.

I bet he’s got a magnificent, luxurious bush or maybe he’s a torso fuzzball like moi.

I blame Stephen King. This Maine place sounds like a miserable monster, vampire, rabies, ghost, and alien infested shit hole with 3 weeks of spring, summer, and fall combined.

I’m here, so keep that in mind, but as far as I’m concerned and objectively speaking, Lemmy does not offer what most casual users / general public want nor does it really operate the way people expect. Whether or not that’s a good thing or bad thing or something in between is more subjective, so I’ll leave it at that.

For example, if I want to scrap my account and start new, fine. But with Lemmy, it’s been forced on me at least 4 times, and several other times I have done it because the instance I was on was unstable, had unacceptable technical issues, or just too much outage. Reddit definitely has outages and other issues like that, but those are generally addressed in minutes to hours, not days/weeks/months.

I’ve long given up on finding a place here for my main hobbies. There are communities, but I don’t enjoy talking to nobody, posting to myself. If I wanted to do that, I’d just get a Twitter account and tweet into the wind. So, honestly, I can see the appeal of going to Reddit so you can actually discuss things and share with other people.

Those are just two examples of things that might keep the average person away. Of course, there are plenty of issues and concerns with Reddit and other social media platforms, but as long as they continue to work in a manner that people understand and expect and offer what folks want, most people aren’t going to go seeking out alternatives that have many more downsides, relatively speaking.

What was the recovery from that surgery like? Any pain / discomfort / concerns?

I am considering getting lens replacement for my dog if I can come up with the money, but financial concerns aside, my other biggest concern is how stressful / painful / risky that kind of procedure might be for her.

I’ll probably butcher this fact, but 20/20 vision does not mean you have perfect vision. It means you have average / normal vision.

I’ve always had 20/20 (or perhaps better) vision. But now that I’m on the downhill side of ancient, I’m noticing that my vision is blurry. Especially while watching TV, reading, etc.

Yet, at both my primary care provider and at the optometrist, I’m able to accurately see all the letters on the vision charts and based on that I have 20/20 vision.

The optometrist (or maybe it was an assistant) explained that it’s pretty common and that 20/20 is just average vision. It doesn’t mean your vision isn’t blurry and it doesn’t mean you won’t benefit from glasses.

The more you know!

You wouldn’t believe how many people go postal once they see my tramp stamp.

PC LOAD LETTER YOU SON OF AN INKJET

Gray squirrels in my area will raid bird nests to feed on the eggs and young chicks. They also hunt and eat cicadas. They sometimes scavenge from animal carcasses and are known to gnaw on mammal bones (like from a dead deer) or even turtle shells for the calcium.

Chipmunks will catch and eat crickets, worms, and beetles as well as small reptiles or even frogs. Although I’ve not witnessed it, I bet they’d at least gnaw on animal bones for calcium.

However, I think hunting voles is kind of a bit more advanced / unique.

I’m unemployed thanks to the president!

Honestly, almost everyone I know has had layoffs (voluntary or otherwise) at their jobs, with discussions of more to come. This is across many industries – research, medical, technology, communication, manufacturing, etc. A lot of places are also on hiring freezes or restrictions at a minimum.

For the time being, I’m alright. I have lived frugally and saved. I’ve cut back on expenses significantly to conserve what reserves I have. My needs are met for now.

I’m largely perplexed at where things are going.

On the one hand, a lot of the economic indicators seem optimistic. Somehow unemployment numbers are not completely terrible (yes I know the numbers are cooked, but they always have been). Stock market is back up to record highs again. Official inflation numbers are up, but only marginally so. Lots of people are looking around and saying “This is fine. Things are alright.”

Stock market and official numbers aside, though, almost everything is noticeably more expensive at the grocery store than it was even 6 months ago. I’ve cut back to generic brands of almost everything, but I’m paying almost the same prices that I was paying for name brand stuff at the beginning of the year. Coffee, produce, dairy products, and meat are especially more costly. Ironically, egg prices have gone down. People are very nervous about their jobs, cutting back on spending now just in case they get laid off soon. Yet, lots of people are stressed out because all the layoffs that have happened mean more work for the ones left behind, delays due to not having enough help, and ironically, projects going over budget because they have to get new folks ramped up on projects after the ones with that knowledge were let go, lots of stories like that. I’m not even working now and hearing that stuff stresses me out.

Emotionally, I’m definitely fighting demons. There’s just this ingrained aspect of American culture that if you’re not working when you’re working age and otherwise healthy, then you’re less worthy, lazy, mooching, etc. Plus, there’s still so much stigma around getting laid off, and ultimately people tend to presume it was performance related and/or a reflection of poor work ethic. And to top it off, there’s just a certain political segment of the population that has trouble just being empathetic, so when they find out I’m unemployed there’s no sympathy, it’s always some variation of victim blaming and victim shaming (ex: you deserved it because the agencies funding you were rotten, I pay too much in taxes and can’t afford to pay your salary anymore, you should have gotten a real job, etc).

For unknown reasons, this song has been a brain worm for me for like the past month or so. I cannot explain why. Like sometimes oldies will play in a show or movie I watched, so it makes sense why I’m suddenly thinking about it. But this one? I think it just popped up on its own. And now to see it in a random comment on Lemmy — WILD.

Does grunge / alternative rock still exist as a genre in any significant way? It never even occurred to me to look if there’s still new stuff coming out in that style.

I like to listen to oldies from time to time, when I’m in the mood. However, it’s usually just a temporary phase from time to time. Though I find it funny that someone mentioned “Semi-charmed life” in another comment because that song has popped in my head a number of times in the past month or so for no discernible reason at all. Sometimes when that happens it’s because I heard a song in a movie or TV show, so that makes sense, but I don’t believe that applies to that song.

No. I’d tell you mine but I grew up too poor to afford one.

Yes! And I’m honestly very thankful for it. The federal grants are the main reason I have affordable gigabit-speed fiber internet way out in here in my rural county. Without it, I’d be stuck with 10mb DSL, crumby and expensive satellite based options, or very limited 4G/5G based hotspot internet.

The great thing about content aggregators is that you don’t have to wait for anybody, you can just trauma dump whenever that shit strikes your fancy.

Last year, there was not a single conservative person in my “circle” that wasn’t constantly griping about the cost of eggs and “Bidenflation”. Poor souls could not afford to eat anymore, the only protein they supposedly lived on was eggs, but the price of those was so high they were just going without.

The moment that Trump took office, egg prices spiked again and suddenly these people understood that the president doesn’t control the price of eggs and besides eggs cost so much due to the effects of bird flu. Suddenly these people who couldn’t previously afford anything but eggs to eat are telling me that they’re having roast beef for dinner, then pork chops, and so on. Literally nothing has changed in their lives except there’s a different president and nearly everything is far more expensive, and yet all the financial woes they were complaining about this time last year no longer seem to exist.

I even mentioned the price of coffee, milk, and beef in a recent conversation. Supposedly these things were higher when Biden was president (not true), and when I refused to budge on that, suddenly it’s back to “well the prices are determined by complex market conditions” and “the president has brought down the price of many other things like eggs”.

It’s literally impossible to have a logical and factual conversation with these types of people.