Damor

No help there, but a couple suggestions for when she does graduate to a smart phone: 1) Phone contract. It's somewhere in this thread. Make one, everybody sign it, and adhere to it. 2) Do not give her the phone as a gift. It's not hers, it's yours and you're allowing her to use it as a tool. Dad lendeth, and dad can taketh away. Those things served us well with our boys, and we treated cars the same way.

Add me to the Llano fan club. I'd never fished it, but my younger son and I went out with an awesome guide from Living Waters (KC) and had an absolute blast smacking around a bunch of guads and flinging little sunfish everywhere. Too windy for dries, unfortunately, so mostly streamers and some poppers. Just an amazing place. Sometimes it felt like fishing pocket water on the Arkansas, and other places felt otherworldly as you stepped across channels and pools carved deep into limestone and granite. Well worth the trip, the hell on the ankles, and falling on my ass multiple times. And we got the last of the brisket from Cooper's in Mason.

What are you putting that tape on your nose for?

Oh yeah! Check out all his majesty!

There's what's right and there's what right, and never the twain shall meet.

I find your lack of Surly Dickbutt stickers disturbing. I have Yetis and various bus stop enclosures in need of festooning.

Well, I'll be damned. ...and 10m later it was eaten by a lily pad.

@wd40 Yes, it's the basic intro kit from Cabela's/Bass Pro. I can see that it's good enough to get started, but like my other hobbies, I'll soon go stupid with it. At least I'm under no pretense that I'm trying to save money by tying. And it looks like Regals are as much or more than the Renzetti Travelers these days. I think I'd get a lot of use out of the rotary function on the Traveler, but man, the Regals are just beautiful. @troph, as a dorky kid who had half-dried Testor's bottles scattered about his room, the same thought occurred to me. We're just big kids, after all. It's a little early for me to enter my "puttering" phase, but why not? My younger son suggested I'll need a tying station with a pipe rest before long. My older one is off at school in Colorado, so I wrote him a little note and slipped that first ugly fly in the envelope for him to fish when it thaws out. That was a pretty cool misty-eyed dad moment. I'll bet it'll look great stuck in a tree.

Stupid, aggressive sunfish on the fiberglass 3wt is the cure for a shitty day at work. Finally got some time to tie my first one, which will test the premise of "ugly flies catch fish." Here we go down the rabbithole. Already have a Youtube watchlist a mile long, and shopping for a Renzetti. Any overall favorite sites for fly patterns? I followed several Youtube channels, but the problem with that is I get distracted and wander off from my intended purpose...

Dumb question amnesty, please. For presales, is there a preferred option between Amex, artist, and platinum presale? I'd assume I have to designate one when I log in to evil Ticketmaster, and Amex and Platinum start an hour before Artist. I'm assuming that those are better seats, but obviously, I'm not a golfer. Just saw an announcement for Lord Huron (for me) with Kasey Musgraves (for my wife) in Austin the week of Thanksgiving, so this is relevant to my interests.

"They'll never catch me, man... 'cause I'm fuckin' innocent!"

Damn, I sure wish I was a Salida guy. I'm actually pretty close to Living Waters (that's my closest shop), but I never thought to check out any videos from them. I know they often do tying nights, so maybe if I can learn the basics and ever get time I'll try going down there. In case there are any other neophytes out there, I did find this series which is pretty good so far. It starts at the level I needed (this pointy thing is called a "bodkin").

I was planning to put off learning to tie until retirement, since I still suck at fly fishing, but my wife got me a tying setup and I have no idea where to start. Any recommended youtube follows or other good resources for starting out?

Yeah, I don't really get out much beyond listening to KUTX, but I kinda felt like I got hit by a WTF truck. Wasn't sure if it belonged in this thread or the one about "shit your kid is listening to that actually doesn't suck."

So I don't keep up very well, and my 18yo son and I have decidedly disparate musical tastes... but he sent me something by Stephen Wilson Jr. and I've been listening to his stuff all day. Holy shit. Even his stuff that toes the line with bro country is pretty damn clever, and skews a bit dark. And "Son of Dad" is a great name for an album.

Best of the Coens' "underrated/underappreciated" tier, IMO, amd one of my favorites regardless. "What's the rumpus," "just speculatin' about a hypothesis," and "up is down, black is white" are in my regular vernacular rotation. And the theme's riff on "Limerick's Lament" is fantastic. What a gem of a film.

Duh, would have helped to have mentioned that we're north of Austin. While I'd like someone we could meet face-to-face at least a few times, I'm not completely against remote stuff, especially for followup. Right now he thinks he wants to do medical school, which is something I should know about but I've completely lost the thread on how that drama works these days. Mostly I'd like him to get some goals set for the remainder of HS and start thinking about schools he might want to target. He's pretty good about getting after it once he has direction.

It sounds like a few people on this thread have hired independent college advisors -- would anyone be willing to share either someone you worked with who you liked, a good company, or where/how you looked to find someone? Our current sophomore will likely be on the border of getting into Texas, but probably has some interest in out of state programs. I'd like to get him connected with someone who can help him explore his options, and frankly, the guidance experience he has access to in public school has been unimpressive.

Thanks. Insight from a local is gold, especially knowing the tractor-trailer volume on Monarch.

OK, I feel ashamed to ask this question, because I know the area like the back of my hand... but only during the summer. I'm not a skiier, but we're leaving tomorrow to drive up to CB to take our boys (and meet/bring home the one in school up there). Any insight on winter driving Monarch (US 50) vs. Cochetopa pass (CO 114) to get to Gunnison? I know a lot depends on current weather (plug for the COtrip site/app), but it seems like a tradeoff between Cochetopa being an easier and lower elevation pass vs. Monarch being more likely to be plowed/maintained due to more traffic. (and 4WD SUV with tread meeting traction laws on Michelin M/S tires)

Looks like I'm getting a visit from a Cutco rep tomorrow (good kid, graduated, etc.). What should I be looking at? I've heard good things about shears (I could use a better pair) and steak knives (don't really need them, but whatever). I have a chef's knife and cleaver I'm fine with. Might look at the chef's knife anyway to keep people from using mine. Bread knife maybe?

Just got tickets to see Lord Huron at Red Rocks again, rooms at the Eddy in Golden. Had such an awesome experience last time that I'm taking the whole family, even those who aren't super huge on LH. I'm so pumped.

Shameless self-quoting. My favorite holiday. This year with our older one home from college for the first time. Another year, another brew, another screening of PTA, and for just a little while, all is right with the world. And again, "To the wives."

That sounds really awesome, Troph. I hope it works out for him, and it sounds like a hell of an adventure. I will say that while a brush guard can end up causing additional damage in an accident, it's probably no worse than the mess we encountered hitting a deer without one. And if someone on here knows a reputable off-road shop in your area, that might be a good place to take it for another opinion. While they might have an incentive to upsell you on something else, they might have better insight into the current one, how it's attached, and how it might affect sensors/suspension etc. than the dealer. Who will probably try to upsell you on something else. 😛

Earlier in this thread, I asked about grill guards, and while I managed to escape the experience without getting much smarter (and a few thousand bucks lighter), I'd just advise that you look up the model and see what people with experience with it have to say on places like Tacoma World. My kid's was a 2017, so I didn't have to worry about sensors, but I think that the dynamic cruise sensor was one of the more likely to be affected by guards. And yes, a lot of guards can get pushed back into the bumper/hood/fenders in a wreck, but read up on how it's attached. The one I ended up going with was a bumper replacement and had all kinds of heavy duty attachments such that yes, he should be able to bulldoze a rhinoceros. This was part of the point for him, since we sent him off to school in Colorado and my fear was him meeting a mule deer on a mountain pass. At night. Alone. In the rain. One other thing he needs to be aware of is that with that guard on there, if he pulls into his parking space just a little too quickly and taps the front end of the cute car the junior girl parks in the space across from him, it will fucking obliterate it in very expensive fashion. Ask me how I know. Here's the ARB we ended up going with: