Gladeite

Played with Blue Star 15 gauge as a kid. Leoina 66 15L gauge by the reel while in college. Prince synthetic 16 gauge as a poor out of college. VS gut in my later competitive days and now 18 gauge Babolat poly, strung in the 40's lb range.

Paige and 511s have been my go to the last 10 years but have recently switched to Lululemon ABC and Commission pants. Very comfortable and good color selection.

I'm sure Maxwell has some slimy sales guys. I called the GM before I went and asked him to give me their best sales guy who would not try to upsell, bait/switch, or any other tactic. They had the best price and it went smoothly. Their service department has been very good. I get free oil changes/tire rotation. Those were the days. $12,000 under sticker for a Platinum F150 and free oil changes/tire rotations. Just before covid.

Whenever I trade in, I always ask for a new set of KO2s as part of the deal. I pay for it one way or the other. Maxwell Ford is where I buy/trade in.

When you have had enough injuries, check out pickle ball. It came to me after shoulder surgery that had a lot of pins and rope to put everything back together. Before that, many years on the USTA circuit. Replaced knee, both hips replaced, neck fusion, hernia repair, lost toenails, etc... Besides the extra metal in my body, I have shelves of USTA balls, plates and glassware which is nice. Now have joined groups of former college tennis players who have fully transitioned to pb. Fast paced, easy to cover the court, all tennis skills transfer over and courts everywhere. Both of the new pro divisions are full of former Division 1 college players and tennis professionals who could not get out of the minor leagues. There are a couple of top 10 pros who are now at the end of their tennis and being drafted to pb teams. Apologies for the brief interruption of tennis talk.

Reminds me of my teenage days. When seatbelt laws were first enacted, got stopped in rural East Texas. Wadded the ticket up and threw it out the window after the stop. Fast forward several years, now out of college and driving a new Vette. In same rural East Texas, but this time parking with the local doc's daughter. In the tricky stage of the evening, removing pantyhose and maneuvering in a Vette. Lights come on behind us. Sheriffs department runs my DL and comes back with a warrant. Take me into custody, have girl drive my car to her parents and her parents come bail me out. Fun times.

I build a few specs around in the upper end neighborhoods. I have one started right now that is $650/ft with no interest carry, selling costs or profit. Lumber prices are dropping but concrete is being sucked up by Samsung. Labor costs are coming down on framing, electric and plumbing.

PRK in 1997. Have to wear readers now for anything up close. Front sight is hard to find so transitioning to RMR for carry. Last test was a few years ago resulted in 20/15. it has been that for many years. I suspect it has tapered off since the last test and now is 20/20 to 20/30. This thread reminds me to schedule an exam.

Had my first kidney stone episode on Christmas Day. Knew it was there from a previous scan, but didn't think too much about it. Woke up with a ridiculous pain on right side and could only dribble out a little pee. Started chugging water, lemon juice, lime juice, pineapple juice and generally laying on the floor in pain. Wife is not so pleased to be interrupted on Christmas morning and starts getting ready to make an ER run. I could feel the pain move from the back to front, then down towards the exit. Kept chugging acidic juices and it passed thru. I felt great after it passed.

Go to 1911addicts.com and classified ads section. A lot of custom 1911 pistols there. I have a few and they are great. I regularly carry LW Commanders in 9mm and .45 and have a government size that shoots one hole groups at 10 yards. All built for me with the features I feel are most important. It can be a great rabbit hole to go down.

My neighbor has a new green RS6. He let me drive it. It is a badass car.

Now up to 70 - 100 Mbps. Everything is working well.

For me, it has been a questionable decision. We had Centurylink DSL. We were getting consistent 10+ Mbps download speeds. We were able to run all devices, stream unlimited shows, never a problem. Maybe should have considered staying. All of my neighbors have cancelled Centurylink so usage is way down which may have resulted in having great(for rural Colorado) service. Also, fiber had been run all the way to our Centurylink trunk. All of my neighbors now have Starlink which may be causing download speeds to decrease. A positive is that we only have to pay for Starlink when we are here. Months that we are not in Colorado, we can suspend service. The price works out about the same as Centurylink.

We got ours in Colorado last week. Max is about 30 mbps download. We are having some buffering issues. Overall, disappointed with it. Called our installer and his response was: lots of new service that is taking up bandwidth, so until new satellites are up, expect slower speeds. With limited internet choices here, everyone is getting Starlink. Every house around us has it.

If you can get your hands on the Remington Ultra Bonded, I highly recommend them. They work perfectly. I have killed a lot of zebras, wildebeest and gemsbok with them while culling in Africa. They penetrate, expand and hold together. I am an avid reloader but I buy every box of Ultra Bonded 30/06 that I find. The Sierra GameKing will also work magic on elk. I have culled cows with that bullet and guided a few hunters who have had success with that bullet. It is a quality product. I load the ProHunter(same thing without the boat tail) 180 grain at 2850 fps. It is my standard load while guiding.

Picking Pagosa Springs as a STR location could prove to be challenging. There is a concentrated effort to eliminate/restrict STRs. One large, popular neighborhood south of 160 just adopted a no STR policy. This was a HOA vote and it passed by a large margin. A large neighborhood north of 160 has an amendment out for vote right now. It is expected to pass and will eliminate STR. If you are in the town limits, voters approved $150/month per bedroom tax for all STR, regardless of occupancy. There is a lawsuit to stop this fee, but you get the idea.

I have had a lot of surgeries. Multiple knee, hips replaced, 3/4 disc replacement, etc... Rotator cuff was by far the worst. Hurt the most and longest recovery. 2 years out last month. Can play golf, tennis(75% serve) and anything I want to do. It is nowhere near as strong as it used to be. No pain but maybe 50% strength.

I have the $500 flight scope what works with ipad/phone. It works OK. I suck at golf but have put some effort into improving. It will tell you club head speed, ball speed, height, spin and carry distance. Biggest problem is the frequency of shots not detected. I have messed with the position of the device, lighting, balls that have reflective sticker, etc... and it works about 75% of the time. OK but nothing to brag about.

In the early 90's, my wife and I were in South Padre for the weekend. We went out Saturday morning to see the boat captain about parasailing. He said it was too windy that morning and come back after lunch. Being young idiots, we showed up at 1 p.m. to see about going. He said the winds were OK and let's go. We cruised out to the floating platform in the bay and we harnessed up. Took off from the bay and about 100 yards from the platform, the wind really starts to blow. Our sail goes nearly straight up and we are swinging about 90 degrees each way. Looked down and the sail was pulling the boat backwards. Water was coming in the back of the boat and captain was screaming something at us, but we could not hear because of the wind. I was looking at my wife's harness and how to detach it and somehow she could slide down the rope to get close to water. It was impossible because of all the swaying back and forth. Luckily the sail pulled the boat back into the platform and it crashed there. He was able to winch us back down. Scared us to death. The captain was white as a ghost and we spent a few minutes bucketing water out of the boat. The hull was cracked but still able to operate. He drove us to the dock and invited us to a bar. Once we got seated, he said no charge, drinks are on him and explained what was about to happen. He was able to see that the boat was going to crash into the platform. If it missed, he was going to cut our rope and had already radioed for 2 jet skis to trail us. The jet ski drivers were to wait until we got closer to shore and tie the rope. Then manage our descent into calmer water with the second driver to be there and help unbuckle as we hit the water. The backup plan was to have guys along the shore to catch the rope and tie off to anything before we hit any building. We have not tried it since that one time.

One of my happiest days was getting rid of the wife's Sport. Loved the supercharged V8 and stable ride. I did a lot drag racing on Bee Caves Road and South Mopac. However, I think my wife was stranded 3 times in the 3 years we owned it. Electrical gremlins twice and once transmission. Got the 3 year, 100,000 mile warranty that covered the major repairs. The consumables, which includes shocks were a beating. Every time I looked around, it was $2500 for this or that. Very disappointing experience coupled with the worst dealership in Texas, the one on 5th.

In our mountain community of Pagosa Springs, there is an all out war to limit STR. Same in Breckenridge, Aspen, Crested Butte. They are a plague to mountain towns in Colorado. There is a radical difference between owning a home for income vs pride of ownership/living there and it being a reflection of your life. As we enter 10 to 15 years into the program, no doubt prices have risen due to demand exceeding supply, but the overall condition of the homes/neighborhoods are in a state of decline. There is no incentive to repaint/stain the exterior, upgrade landscape, make the house look better when that does not increase rent. Rent is increased by putting bunk beds in the recreation room, increasing parking and having as many occupants as allowed by law. Our subdivision does not allow STR and many are moving in that direction. A law just passed in PS that every registered STR has to pay $150 per bedroom tax each month. My neighbor is on a board in Breck and their POA just passed a restriction eliminating any rentals less than 30 days. Investors had purchased most of the inexpensive housing in PS and there is an extreme shortage of homes to rent/buy for the working class. It is a real problem here. There are limited grocery store hours, restaurants closed because can't hire workers.

Has anyone done the pre-procedure cleansing? Done at the Dr. office an hour before? This was offered by my practitioner. Come in, warm water enema bag, then over to the exam table. She said it was very popular with the younger crowd, but not so much in my age demographic. One of my 60 year old friends just tried it and said it was great, it was the only way he would do it from now on.

After reading this thread for a long time and pondering my own sobriety, I made the calculated move to stop eating any processed sugar, flour, et... and eat a lot of vegetables, salads, fresh fish, pasture raised eggs, et... First 2 weeks were pretty rough with my brain craving food that made me feel "good". After 2 weeks, the cravings went away and my mind/body has no interest in processed foods. After that, completely gave up alcohol. No beer after work, no 4 glasses of wine while Netflixing, no bottles during dinner. The amazing difference for me is sleep and how good I feel. During my wine days, I would wake up every night, take ambien frequently and feel sluggish in the morning and tired every afternoon. Now, I sleep hard every night, never wake up and usually sleep for 9 hours. For me, giving up the sugar first certainly helped with giving up wine. Credit goes to many pages of this topic here on Surly.

Spectacularly fun game! As a former tennis player, it is easy to pick up and be competitive. Learning to dink and overall strategy takes a little time. Lots of old college tennis players playing pb tournaments these days. Our neighbor built a court and Friday evenings are doubles and drinks.

I have given them to a family member. Thanks for the interest.