Spur08

This is the way. Join me, brother.

Where do you live?

Approaching day 6 and still no stone. Yesterday was a good day with minimal pain but, today, damn.....terrible. Toradol and Norco barely taking the edge off. I'm going to try and see if I can see a urologist tomorrow to expedite this shit. And I'm so sick of drinking water...

Update. The motherfucker has definitely not passed yet. Another 2 am wake up call with massive back/abdominal pain

This is the worst fucking club ever. Was inducted at 2 AM this morning when I woke up with what I thought were gas pains on my left umbilical region. I rolled around for a few minutes to try and get out a fart....nothing. Figured maybe my stomach was wrecked from the red beans and rice and bourbon I had last night. Went and dropped a deuce and, again, nothing. Just a slow and steady climb from a 0 to a 6 over the span of like 30 minutes. Then, I went and drank some water, stretch a bit and, oh shit, the worst pain ever. Adrenaline kicks in and I'm shacking, writhing in pain in bed, and wake up my wife to tell her I need to go to the ER. We have 2 young kids, so the choice was either call an ambulance, call my folks who are about 20 minutes away, or drive myself. I opted for the more immediate solution and drove myself the 15 minutes to hospital. And man, oh man, if there was any cop on the street around 3 AM, I would have gotten pulled over, because I was hitting curbs and swerving like a mofo trying to drive while being double-over. I finally get to the hospital and check in. I'm one of two people in the waiting room. They take my vitals and put in an IV, all while I'm grunting in pain. They asked for a urine sample and I basically just laugh and say not sure that's going to happen. She asks for a few drops, so I hop in the bathroom and, low and behold, I get a few drops...of blood. I hand it to the triage nurse and, fortunately, she takes pitty on me. She says she'll go back to the doc and ask for some Toradol to take the edge off. It takes about 20 minutes, but I finally get it and....I go from like a 9 to a 5 over 10 more minutes. The problem, I'm stuck waiting in the waiting room for like 2 more hours before they bring me back. By that time, I'm back at a 9 and it's shift change. So I wait another fucking 30-45 minutes to talk to a MD, who of course confirms that it's a kidney stone and says he'll send me for a CT and give me morphine. Huge sigh of relief coming. Except, the shift change fuckery delays the drugs by about 30 minutes. I get it...get the CT...kidney stone confirmed (4 mm -- proximal in ureter) and get told, "here are some pain meds and flomax..it will pass in a day or two weeks..good luck". Discharged around 11 AM. And now, I sit..slightly fucked up on norco, peeing through a filter every 30 minutes with no stone. My pain at least is a 4-5-ish and the spasms are gone. So maybe it's passed. Maybe it's not. Maybe I still have some morphine on board. I don't know. This sucks. That is all

Use CarEdge.com and sign up for the month membership (should be like $10). You'll be able to pull historical pricing for a car by searching for its VIN. I started look this time last year and pulled the trigger between XMas and NY and got a killer, killer deal. About $10-15K off MSRP and still got to take advantage of their dealer perks (1% APR + sprain in liner + $300 credit for dealer accessories). Do your research and, if you can be patient, pull the trigger EOY and get a killer deal.

@UTPhil2006 What do you expect HELOC rates to do here in the short term (i.e. 90 days to 6 months)? Roughly speaking, what rates are you currently seeing?

I'm just trying to figure out how I can write this trip off as a business expense to my boss..

So Ford is doing a 25% discount on accessories up to $1K and I happen to have a little over $200 in points through my vehicle purchase. I'm in the market for a tonneau cover and am wondering if anyone has purchased a dealer one and, if so, what feedback do you have? The ones I'm looking at are below. I can get the hard roll up one for like $700 after all my discounts which seems like a great deal compared to the BAK Revolver X4 one for $1200. F-150 2015-2024 Hard Roll Up Tonneau Cover for 5.5 ft Bed | Accessories.Ford.com F-150 2015-2023 Retrax Embark Retractable Tonneau Cover for 5.5' Bed | Accessories.Ford.com BAK Revolver X4s Tonneau Cover | RealTruck

Anyone know if it's best suited that we buy tickets for the zoo beforehand or can we just show up?

Heading Colorado Springs in a few weeks for a little summer trip with the family (2 & 7 year old). Any must dos? Recs for places to eat?

Funny. I don't remember writing that last post, but plans still stand. I'm looking to potentially do a decent remodel of the backyard with the budget of anywhere between $50-100K. Obviously rates are dogshit right now @UTPhil2006, right? I do have a good amount of equity in the house, but don't want to touch my 3ish% note. What would be the best financing approach for something like this?

This might be a stupid question, but are those covers easy to take on and off?

My first purchase on the truck is probably going to be a tonneau cover. I've never had one so is there anything I should be looking out for/avoiding? I do think I want a hard cover tri-fold. Pros/cons? Any preferred vendors?

My USG has been shitting all over itself the past few years as well. Oddly enough, a new power cord ended up fixing the problem...at least until it did it again and I needed another new power cord. I like Ubiquiti Unifi for all the APs throughout the house, but I'm starting to think that managing the system is A. beyond my skillset and B. likely more money than I want to invest over the multiple years. The problem is, I'm not sure what I would pivot too that is both consistent and can provide enough wifi coverage across my house/property.

Picked her up yesterday

If by that you mean how much..? MSRP was something like $78/79 and change. I got them to $68 and change. Side question -- I've got 2 young kids. Obviously this baby isn't gonna stay cherry, but does anyone have a good recommendation for a back seat protector? My daughter has a keen skill for kicking the shit out of the seats. And the 2 year old boy I'm sure will soon have his first truck tantrum any day now...

I just signed papers today on the same. 2023 F150 Platinum. Got almost 12% off MSRP and spray in liner for free. Caredge.com website came in clutch. Everyone seemed pissy, esp the finance guy so I feel pretty good about it. Did it all online and went in to sign papers. No trade in (their offer wasn't competitive enough)

Currently negotiating for a 2023 F150 King Ranch. My goal is to get close to 12% of MSRP and we're currently at around 10-11%. What other things could I try to negotiate in the deal? Spray in bed liner? Not sure how much those typically run. Anything else?

I use a mix of pinned YouTube videos, saved links on my laptops, and a binder with printed recipes. It's pure chaos...my wife hates it

This is the exact sink we're looking at buying, but maybe a different color. We have white granite with black/silver tones. Any feedback/ragrets on the sink? Swapping out faucet too since we're back there, so doing some research on that now

Curious what price you got quote for those

I guess what I'm wondering is if any one of these brands tends to have more problems more so than others? Contextually, I've heard the negative reviews on Ford with all their recalls. Similar with the death wobble on GM trucks. Is it all just the hum drum of folks pimping their own brand?

Let me start with the statement that I really don't have any brand loyalty. I'm looking at getting a light duty truck with one of the higher trim levels around 2023 year (i.e. Ram Longhorn/Limited, F150 King Ranch, or GMC..whichever is on the higher end..Haven't done much research). What is the general Surly opinion on trucks from the leading brands? I'm mainly looking for reliability, comfort, and decent technology..in that order. Coming from a 2013 Tahoe. My current lead option is a 23 Ram Longhorn Limited but, again, still doing some research and haven't driven anything yet

Again, more so the fact that I don't want to cut into my granite and crack it. I'd rather have someone who has done that before