I grew up in a place where pretty much no one smoked. I went to grad school in a place where a lot of people smoked. I’ve never really adjusted to the smell and I’m afraid that, now that the weather is nice outside, I’ll be getting a lot more whiffs of smoke. Blech.
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The wife was going to go out and work on planting the garden, now that it is Memorial Day weekend, and the threat of frost is (likely) over.
She pushed the button to open the garage door, and it went up about a foot and stopped. Tried it again, same thing. She finally pulled the opener disconnect thingy, and the door wouldn’t go up manually for her. Took both of us to get it open. Called for service (emergency service fee incoming!) and it was the spring. They had to convert the thing to a torsion spring, but three and a half hours after I first called, the guy is pulling out of the driveway having fixed it.
Not sure what the total cost will be, but the parts were only a couple hundred bucks.
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Ah, gotcha. My folks smoked, but they gave that up in time, thank goodness.
I hear ya on that, too. Even having been around smoke, I never got used to that. I don’t suppose that I ever will.
Glad you had a smoke-free environment growing up, aye! And here’s hoping that even with the weather getting better, that you won’t have that smoke to contend with.
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Same here: parents both smoked until I was in junior high or nearly so, as well as my mom’s mom. I always hated it and can still smell the stale smoke at my grandmother’s place if I think about it for a minute. As an adult, I played WAY too many gigs for way too long in smoky bars … used to have to strip down to nothing as soon as I got in the house and throw it all into the laundry. So nasty. Now I can’t even stand when somebody in another car at a stoplight is smoking. How can you stand that when I can smell it two cars away?
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OH GOD, THIS WAS SUCH A THING FOR ME, TOO.
[solidarity fistbump]
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My father smoked until I was in my late teens. He actually had one of those stand-up ashtrays he would carry with him from room to room.
Then he switched to a pipe, which smelled better but probably wasn’t much healthier.
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I smoked until I didn’t and I don’t miss it, but I’ll tell you whut, smokers smell great. If I stand near them and chug black coffee, I feel like I’m 30 again.
I’m only kidding a little, they smell bad, but I still like it.
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I’m with you there, it can smell good sometimes. Someone correct me if I’m wrong here, but I think pipe smoke smells so much better because it’s somewhere between tobacco and incense. Tobacco infused with all sorts of additional smell-good ingredients. My understanding is that it’s inhaled only to the mouth, not the lungs, like cigars, so one can get by with all those other ingredients.
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Well, I smoke like a chimney,
BUT I find the smell of cigarette smoke when one is not smoking disgusting.
Switched back to cigarettes after I started driving to commute from primarily being a pipe smoker for a number of years (before that, it was cigarettes).
I always thought it was funny the random people who’d come up in public and say “I love the smell of that pipe tobacco!” Often followed by “It reminds me of my grandfather!” Or whatever.
Yeah, pipe tobaccos … there are some nasty ones, but I think a nice vanilla blend smells and tastes pretty good. Of course, until they have to remove your tongue and lower jaw, but details!
As a bit of a caution, pipe tobacco does seem to really do a number on staining your teeth…it seems to kind of cling to the teeth and makes it a real PITA for the hygienist to do the job.
But my small private library is safe from “borrowers”! Every book is coated in a thin layer of tobacco smoke!
It’s a foolproof defense against purloiners of my letters!
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I would imagine as a smoker, your sense of smell is rather impacted. I knew a guy who quit and as his olfactory recovered he was pleasantly surprised he could smell that “spring smell” in the air again in May.
Oh, uh, gripe… Oh yeah, long holiday weekend and rain. Crap.
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Gripe?
Yes, I have basically no sense of smell. Actually, I’m fine with that. I also have bad seasonal allergies as well as year-round allergies due to dust and other particulates inside my place, so it’s just as well. I also don’t like the smell of flowers or babies, so I’m good with that!
But fortunately I’m also half-deaf from repeated exposure to low-level noise, even music played at moderate volumes.
So, it kind of balances out!
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Oh, and there’s a bunch of bird droppings on my car! I should have that washed. Where’s Lucille from Cool Hand Luke? She owes me a favor from that time about the thing and that place.
Somebody did that on purpose! I know it! A neighbor, or someone from work. This is not the work of ordinary birds! They wouldn’t dare! I am their king! They owe me fealty!
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Back before the smoking ban came in we used to go to a weekly pub quiz with some friends, and there were some nights I’d come home and need a shower before bed to get the smoke out of my hair. Thankfully I’m not around smoke much since then, but even a whiff from someone outside is enough to make me feel sick now. I cannot grasp how anyone starts smoking in this day and age, but people be stupid, I suppose.
Vaping’s nearly as bad, with overprivileged hipsters who still think anti-smoking rules don’t apply to them leaving massive clouds of foul-flavored stank everywhere they go. And then they start vaping!
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Been going back and forth with a vendor this morning for the last couple of hours that apparently sent me the wrong product…
I was sent an ultrasonic rodent repellent 3 days ago. The one I was supposed to receive was green in color, I was sent a burgundy color one instead. I proceeded with the product review video, uploaded and linked it to the provided product page.
The vendor apparently finally watched the video and then sent me a tracking number that shows it was delivered to someone in San Diego, CA. He then asks me if I received it? Uh, no… I live some 2500 miles away from there! Then he replies: No, it is sent from the warehouse in San Diego, California. Not the shipping address. I reply: It doesn’t matter! I do not live in San Diego California… It was NOT delivered to me.
He finally realizes he sent me the wrong tracking number, then continues to ask If I received this product from anyone else? No. Do I still have the box with the tracking number? No. Again, a burgundy color one was delivered to me, not a green color. So again, it’s quite apparent that your logistics company sent me the wrong one!
It’s a holiday weekend! How about badgering your logistics company about why they sent me the wrong color product? Root cause analysis to me seems pretty obvious here…
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Memorial Day electric oven coil burnout, replacement ordered, now attempting air fryer cinnamon rolls. Coffeeeeee
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I bet your house smells amazing, at least.
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The house is a heady blend of coffee, cinnamon, some sort of cedarish wax melty thing, cats, and wet dog. Soon it will have other smells too. Grilling steaks and asparagus later.
Gripe: Lowe’s doesnt keep electric oven replacement coils in stock, no sorry 2-day delivery is not why I’m on the damn phone with you, Justin. Do. You. Have. Them?
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This is a big gripe for me as well, these suggestions at the store to order stuff online. If I wanted to order something online, would I have burned time and fuel to bring myself here to this store today? No I would not. I understand when something’s out of stock, that’s just bad luck. But more and more I’m seeing stuff like, say, a pipe fitting or a paintbrush: there’s a dozen variations of each, only one of which is sold in the store, the rest are online.
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Received an Orico dual M.2 NVMe external enclosure and one of the inputs is defective. Keeps throwing USB power surge errors on my laptop. Double checked the NVMe in another external enclosure and it worked fine. Filed a return with Amazon to get it exchanged for another one. Drat! 
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What is up with the potatoes?
We planned to grill steaks today and went to two different stores Friday and Saturday looking for baking potatoes.
Nada.
The russets the stores have now are maybe a couple of inches long and tiny. They are barely big enough to try and mash, much less bake. I don’t need Jason’s Deli-sized potatoes but something bigger than my finger would be nice.
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As a Portlander, I can tell you that the way to get lightning speed from a tow truck is to park in a fancy neighborhood in a legal space which some rich jerk (probably from N.Y. or L.A.) nonetheless believes is reserved for them alone.
(This hasn’t happened recently, thankfully.) 
Also, we have 50 posts in a row about potatoes. Shouldn’t a mod stop eating sheet cake by the pool long enough to just make an all-potatoes thread already?!
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