The Official Useless Post Thread

[A. Spruce]

I always liked Ron White ... partly cause he performed with a glass of scotch all the time (I think he did this before Julien from trailer park boys !), but he really has alot of character

I liked Ron when he was part of the BCT, but the stuff I've seen since of his solo career, centers around crass "humor", vulgar references to lady parts, racist remarks and references, etc. That kind of crap isn't funny me.

BTW, According to interviews with Jeff Foxworthy, Ron doesn't drink, or at least doesn't drink on stage, that tumbler has soda in it. Don't know, don't care.

I do like LTCG in his solo career, he's basically the same country bumpkin on his own as he was with BCT. He can get a bit risque/blue/crass, but for the most part, stays pretty clean and generally funny with his perspective.

[Aaron]

I always liked Ron White ... partly cause he performed with a glass of scotch all the time (I think he did this before Julien from trailer park boys !), but he really has alot of character

The TPBs are hilarious!!!! I loved that show. The best ones were the earlier seasons. After Trevor left the show it got a little long in the tooth, though it still had its moments.

Julian carrying the whisky glass everywhere is the greatest gag ever. There was a shooting scene in the trailer park and Ricky and Julian both ran and quickly dove for cover behind a parked car and Julian didn't spill a drop. He took a sip to calm down.

My favorite actor is the guy who played Mr Lahey. He definitely was the only professional actor on the set, the rest of them seemed to just be improvising. But they did it VERY well.

[emtnut]

I'm gettin' to old for this crap

I did some grocery shopping for my daughter since she was sick.

Get there, and you need a dollar (loonie) to get a cart. Who the **** carries change anymore ???
OK, not getting much, so just grabbed a basket inside. Nope, filled one up. Oh, well, get another one.
Look like a (you know what) walking around with 2 baskets.

Done, get to cash. Do you need bags ? (like NO !!! I'm going to make 23 trips to the car )
Yes please ....

She asks 'how many ?'
I give her my look of death ... didn't work. How many do YOU think I'll need, I'd like everything in a bag.

4? she says.

Give her the look again ... she's not buying it.
OK, 4 bags please.

I start filling the bags, not enough ... I'm gonna need one more bag (major issue, cause I already paid!!!)

Um, Excuse me !! ... I need one more bag.
SHE GIVES ME THE DEATH LOOK BACK !!!!!!! Then the extra bag.

There's always something when I go into town .... If my kids didn't live there, I'D NEVER GO INTO THE CITY EVER !!!

Well, maybe once in awhile to watch people try to park

[A. Spruce]

Yeah, a year or two ago they wrote legislation here that stores could charge for bags now, supposedly in an effort to get people to use reusable bags and cut down on littering/pollution. More bureaucratic BS to justify the existence of politicians.

[Aaron]

It's a change of habit to be sure.

I sort of like the choice, honestly... Because I often grab only enough stuff to just fill one bag per trip. At a place like Aldi, I don't mind spending 7 cents for a brown paper bag. But sometimes I may only buy like 3 items, in which case I don't need any bag, the stuff just gets tossed in the front seat and I carry it to the house when I get home. Sometimes if I'm getting a whole bunch of stuff, I'll grab a heavy duty box with side handles that produce comes in. That holds like 3 bag's worth, and all their case boxes are free because it would go into their compactor to get baled for recycling anyway. It's sometimes inconvenient to break it down big case boxes in order for them to fit in my blue bin for recycling, but I love slashing boxes with a utility knife—it's an outlet for aggression.

The cart deposit is good and bad, but mostly good. The bad thing is you need a coin to unlock and use one and if you don't have a coin then it's a PITA. The good thing is it entices people to return the cart so they can get their coin back, and maintains lower overhead for the store. I must say a dollar is a pretty stiff deposit. Down here at Aldi it's 25 cents (quarter). I just keep my "Aldi quarter" sitting in the cup holder at all times... After I return the cart I just toss that quarter into that cupholder for next time so I always have it. We'd probably have the dollar deposit down here, too, but VERY few Americans use dollar coins. I'd wager at least 85% of the population is so stupid they don't even know dollar coins even exist. Vending machines give them out as change, but that's not enough for mass circulation of the coin here, especially since the stupid treasury is still printing dollar bills.

Sometimes a person who has just parked right next to me after I've unloaded my haul will happily accept my cart and hand me their quarter, and they'll walk the cart back to the store since they're going in anyway. I've sometimes given people my cart if they have 25 cents in two dimes and a nickel. Or I just give them the cart for karma if they need one and would otherwise have to change a dollar.

Also, I'm in a fairly large metro area with a percentage of homeless people. Even if I were lazy and didn't care about the quarter and left the cart in the parking lot, it's common for homeless people to grab and return it so they can collect a quarter for doing so.

So I'm an advocate of stores with lower overhead like that because I'm pretty cheap and practical, and it doesn't impact my quality of life in any material way. I do see carts in the wild here in the city, and it's a blight in the neighborhoods... (think of Bubbles in TPB). The cart deposit really curtails this adverse urban phenomenon.

[emtnut]

I think all stores charge for the bags now. It does encourage people to either bring cloth bags, or reuse the plastic. Good to keep the plastic out of land fills and the ocean.

What P'ed me off was asking how many I wanted to buy.... in advance, with my items sitting on the conveyor belt !! I figured 4 or 5 , but if I said 7, I'd have 2 bags not needed. If I said 4, then I wouldn't have had enough. (well, I DID say 4, but got the look of death when I asked for a fifth one )

Loblaws up here started with the coin carts. They stopped after about a year because of customer complaints. This store is the only one I'm aware of that still does this.
If you ask me, it doesn't stop theft of carts, it's more for lazy people that leave them in their parking spot ... AND, it takes a job away from the kid that brings them back to the store.
I''m sure the savings are not passed to the consumer, but put in the owners pocket

[Aaron]

What P'ed me off was asking how many I wanted to buy.... in advance, with my items sitting on the conveyor belt !! I figured 4 or 5 , but if I said 7, I'd have 2 bags not needed. If I said 4, then I wouldn't have had enough. (well, I DID say 4, but got the look of death when I asked for a fifth one )

Yeah I've gotten fairly adept at estimating the number the bags I need. If you've played Tetris and have OCD like me, you can efficiently pack a LOT of items in one bag. Of course you risk a bag being too heavy and ripping open, that's happened to me once or twice.

Loblaws up here started with the coin carts. They stopped after about a year because of customer complaints. This store is the only one I'm aware of that still does this.

Aldi is the only store that has the coin deposit for carts here and people accept it because it's Aldi. It's not a typical grocery store.

I know there would be huge complaints and outright boycotts of the mainstream grocery stores if they had a cart deposit.

If you ask me, it doesn't stop theft of carts, it's more for lazy people that leave them in their parking spot ... AND, it takes a job away from the kid that brings them back to the store.

Well the Aldi employees are still responsible for ensuring all the carts are returned at the end of the day. I've never seen an Aldi cart in the wild, but that's only because it's easier to steal a cart from the other stores.

All the other stores put RF-activated brakes on the front wheels of the cart so it cannot leave the perimeter of the parking lot. That seems to have been fairly effective. The few carts that I've seen in the wild probably escaped because the batteries were dead in the wheels of those carts or something.

I''m sure the savings are not passed to the consumer, but put in the owners pocket

Yeah, I'm sure there's truth to that. But there is natural pressure for any business to keep its overhead as low as possible to remain competitive. That balance always has to be struck with consumers.

One thing very common here in Minnesota that doesn't happen in other states is we have always bagged our own groceries at checkout. Some stores have baggers but it's considered somewhat of a strange luxury here to have someone else bag your groceries.

Of course we're also the "duck-duck-gray duck" state whereas all other states are "duck-duck-goose". Lol

[DanM]

I can't stand paying for grocery bags, it drives me nuts. The government enacted that a few years ago and IMHO it's just stupid. They say it's for environmental reasons but that doesn't make any sense. I get it that plastic bags are bad because they don't break down and end up all over the place, but how about just bringing back good old paper bags. Trees are a renewable resource as long as you harvest them sustainably, and paper is biodegradable so they won't wind up in some giant garbage blob in the ocean like plastic bags will. That would make too much sense though so it'll never happen.

It's like the stupid carbon tax we have to pay now in Ontario thanks to Justina Trudeau. Instead of actually focusing on dealing with the problem we'll just make people give us money. The government could do something smart like say convert their massive fleets of 10s of thousands of vehicles to hybrid or electric, or they can just tax people. One actually deals with the problem via leading by example, one generates revenue but doesn't solve anything.

[A. Spruce]

Looking for leads to good quality car care products. What are you guys using that you like?

Exterior:
1 - Body wash
2 - Plastic restoration
3 - Plastic protection - non-greasy
4 - Aluminum wheel care - cleaners and polish
5 - Body wax

Interior:
1 - Plastic restoration and protection. I'm in a sun belt, so UV protection a must.
2 - Upholstery cleaning, products, methods
3 - lubricants for seat mechanisms

[Aaron]

I noticed guys in the sunny states often put carpet on the top of the dash. Besides putting a sun-blocking shade on the windshield when you park, I think that's a pretty good idea. It's absolutely what I'd do.

For fabric upholstery I would think anything that cleans upholstery of house furniture is fine. I've used Resolve with a brush with success for minor surface stains. I don't have a Bissel wet-vac but I know those are good for deeper cleaning.

Lubricants for seat mechanisms; I would go with a dry lube probably? Tri-Flow is my lube of choice for just about anything but they do make a dry lube product. Don't know if it's any better or worse than any other brand, like WD-40 (the brand, not the product).

I use Mother's for chrome polish. For soap I used Palmolive dish detergent. For body wax I just used NuFinish, I believe.

Honestly since I retired the old GMC with its dual exhaust pipes I sort of lost interest in having a flashy/clean vehicle.

[A. Spruce]

I've heard from more than one source that you shouldn't use dish soap to wash your car, I always have and don't generally worry about it. I also find it hard to believe that dish soap is more caustic and problem causing than whatever the environment can throw at it, hence why I've never worried about it.

I don't have a window shade yet, it's on the list to have before summer hits with a vengeance. The previous owner had all the side and back windows tinted, deeper around the passenger/cargo compartment than the cockpit, to cut the UV and heat for his kids, and I think it has made a big difference, judging from the factory tint of the Sierra vs the aftermarket tint on the Burb.

[Aaron]

I've heard from more than one source that you shouldn't use dish soap to wash your car, I always have and don't generally worry about it.

Yeah I've heard that too and I don't believe it. Dish soap is cheap, gentle, and effective. I would use standard Palmolive or Dawn; I would stay away from any weird ones with "bleach alternative" or Oxy additives.

I also find it hard to believe that dish soap is more caustic and problem causing than whatever the environment can throw at it, hence why I've never worried about it.

Yeah exactly. It's just a misinformation campaign by soap companies to sell expensive "car wash" soap. I've always used dish soap.

I don't have a window shade yet, it's on the list to have before summer hits with a vengeance.

Best cheap investment ever.

The previous owner had all the side and back windows tinted, deeper around the passenger/cargo compartment than the cockpit, to cut the UV and heat for his kids, and I think it has made a big difference, judging from the factory tint of the Sierra vs the aftermarket tint on the Burb.

Yeah, here in MN it's legal for trucks and SUVs to have the same max tint % for every window except the windshield. (Whatever that max % happens to be, I'm not sure.)

[emtnut]

Just go thru the car wash again, and open your windows ... not the door like you did last time

I don't have much to add ... It rains often enough here that I rarely wash my car. Snow actually REALLY cleans it off !! ... I just use dishsoap in a bucket with a soft cloth.

In my younger day, I had a sports car that I would turtle wax regularly. I had that car for 14 yrs (bought it when it was 2yrs). The body was in excellent shape at the end, and the paint still had the shine.

I armouralled the pirelli's too ... although I have heard that the armour all can be hard on the rubber ??? I never had a set last longer than 2 years anyways, so not an issue.

[Admin]

Typical dish soap strips off wax and polishes, that's why it's not recommended for washing your car. If you never wax or polish your car you probably don't need to worry about it but if you wax your car to help protect the clearcoat and make it easier to clean in the future then you are working against yourself by stripping that off every time (using dish soap).

[Aaron]

I don't have much to add ... It rains often enough here that I rarely wash my car. Snow actually REALLY cleans it off !! ... I just use dishsoap in a bucket with a soft cloth.

The winters here are very hard on cars. The salt just murders cars.

In my younger day, I had a sports car that I would turtle wax regularly. I had that car for 14 yrs (bought it when it was 2yrs). The body was in excellent shape at the end, and the paint still had the shine.

Ah yes, when there was more time and energy. These days I just run it through the car wash.

I armouralled the pirelli's too ... although I have heard that the armour all can be hard on the rubber ??? I never had a set last longer than 2 years anyways, so not an issue.

Armour-All makes black tires turn brown.

The product I always used for tires is TireWet. Smells like cherry if IIRC.

How about car washes: touch-less versus brushes? (Well not really brushes, but those flappy felt strips that spin around?

I think both are fine... Maybe run it through touchless every week, and the "non-touchless" every month.

[Aaron]

Typical dish soap strips off wax and polishes, that's why it's not recommended for washing your car. If you never wax or polish your car you probably don't need to worry about it but if you wax your car to help protect the clearcoat and make it easier to clean in the future then you are working against yourself by stripping that off every time (using dish soap).

Yeah I guess that makes sense... I don't wax/polish my truck. lol

I doubt the dish soap adversely affects its clear-coat any worse than the salt or elements of a Minnesota winter. Though I do agree that copious wax layers builds up a much greater shield above the clear coat.

[A. Spruce]

Well, when the body work is finished, the Burb's gonna get a good waxing. After that, then all the plastics are getting refinished to get rid of the dirt and weathering. On the back corners, on either side of the hatch window are big plastic louvers, I had time and inclination to buff one out the other day and what a huge difference it made! This thing is gonna look almost new by the time I'm done! It's mostly going to go through the car wash, I expect, $20 a month for unlimited washes that take 5 minutes, as opposed to a hose and bucket in the driveway that takes an hour. I don't mind hand washing, I just don't have a shady place to do it, so water spots are a big problem.

[Aaron]

I think Armour-All is pretty good for interior plastics. I would wipe them down with a dish-soapy water, rinse wipe, and allow time to let them get bone dry. Then spray Armour-All liberally on a clean cloth and wipe it evenly around. Let it really sit there for a while to restore the plasticizers, then wipe it all off. I like a very dull shine; I don't care for dashes that look greasy and slick (some people apparently do).

[A. Spruce]

Slimy with shiny shine product is a major pet peeve of mine. I hate getting a handful of that stuff every time you pull the door closed or open the console, etc. When I did the carpets, I went over most of the plastic I pulled out with Meguire's cleaner, just want to give things a spiffing up, it just a touch of shine/luster.

In other news, I got the brakes and front shocks done this afternoon. It took longer than expected, as everything seems to do these days, but it all went smoothly. Found two more failures of the mechanic, or, I should say, former mechanic.

I probably mentioned that when I bought the Burb, it went in to have EVERY fluid changed so that the truck was on my maintenance schedule. IF they changed the brake fluid, all they did was siphon a bit out of the reservoir and refill it. All of the brake bleeders were completely dry, the rear bleeders were completely plugged. When I bled the system, I flushed with clean fluid and all manner of gunk shot out, all corners, but the rears were the worst. That was fail 1 for the day, fail 2 is that ALL of the grease zerks under the front end are completely caked with old gunk and debris, indicating that the chassis never got lubed, something that should have been done with the oil change.

There's probably at least a dozen things the mechanic failed on. After 25 years using this shop, I'm on the hunt for a new place.

[Admin]

Don't you have a 'burb thread already? Man you are restoring that thing to better than new (because, you know, GM build "quality" LOL).

[Admin]

$20/mo for unlimited washes? Wow, cheapest I've found around here is $199 for a 90 day pass (max one wash per day).

[Admin]

In the last ~5 months or so I've started using NuFinish once-a-year car polish because I really don't do car care like I did in my younger years... so far I'm happy with it. It makes the car easier to clean because I hand wash my vehicles 99% of the time.

In my opinion the boutique (expensive) detailing brands aren't worth the extra $$. Stick with a well known brand like Meguiars or Mothers and you will be happy. Typically I'd stay away from the real cheap brand stuff, although NuFinish is a bit of an exception there.

For tires, 303 Aerospace Protectant is the best IMHO. It gives UV protection which is important for rubber (you can use it on all rubber & vinyl, I even use it on some plastics to make them black again), and it leaves a nice sheen, not too shiny. The tire sidewalls also stay black longer than using regular tire shine products, in my experience.

[Aaron]

Don't you have a 'burb thread already!

Yeah but that thread is full of us prodding him for a pic of him standing proudly next to his ride. He doesn't want to remind us to heckle him about that again. Lol

[Aaron]

$20/mo for unlimited washes? Wow, cheapest I've found around here is $199 for a 90 day pass (max one wash per day).

There's a place by my house that has $5 washes. Just basic wash and rinse, no wheels or undercarriage. But you get a dry. It's one of those conveyor washes that wheels your car in neutral through a tunnel of spinning felt brushes and that overhead thing. You drive slowly out the door at the end while high pressure air "dries" your car.

If I had a nice car I'd run it through there every week.

[A. Spruce]

Are you saying that I'm over-sharing? This is the Official Uselss Post thread, after all, and my former mechanic has proven his shop is useless, so I'd say I've shared appropriately.

As for making it like new, yeah, I'm going a little overboard on the aesthetics a bit. I wanted the body work because there were several scratches that were down into the primer and I didn't want paint failure. My neighbor is VERY inexpensive, he's charging me around $400, and overall he's doing a lot of body dings, a light crease, a few deep scratches, and a few chips, then cut and buff the whole thing, ending with waxing the whole thing. I'll continue to refurbish the plastics on my own. The interior needed the deep cleaning I gave it, which was a rabbit hole unto itself.

We've got a chain car wash here called Quick Quack, and for $20 a month auto-debit ($24 if you pay cash), you get as many washes in 30 days as you like. That's for a basic, no frills wash, if you start adding wax, tire shine, super bubbles, Polynesian dancers, French massage, etc., the price goes up. Oh, you also get free use of the vacuums.

Isn't NuFinish the stuff they light on fire in the infomercial? I've been using a product called Bleach White for cleaning the tires, followed up with a generic tire shine spray. The BW does a really really good job of stripping the tires clean, I've even used it on rubber floor mats on occasion too and will probably try it on the exterior plastics. Mother's and Meguire's are the two most recommended brands, I'm ok using them, I'm just not sold that their interior finishes don't leave a heavy slime residue. The neighbor uses pro grade wax, so I'll see what he's got/recommends.

[A. Spruce]

Don't you have a 'burb thread already!

Yeah but that thread is full of us prodding him for a pic of him standing proudly next to his ride. He doesn't want to remind us to heckle him about that again. Lol

You're so impatient!

Since I did the carpet/interior, I've either been working or it's been raining, so haven't had a chance to update the pix and progress. I had some time this afternoon, so I jumped on the brakes and front shocks. Looks like I'll be working the rest of the week, then it hopefully goes back to the neighbor to finish up the exterior work.

[Aaron]

You're so impatient!

Oh I know... Pics just take FOREVER, don't they, in this twenty-first century... I mean there's that whole POSING thing, and then tapping a button. Then the uploading!!! It's insufferable.

How do millennials do it, anyway, with their Instagrams?

[A. Spruce]

You're so impatient!

Oh I know... Pics just take FOREVER, don't they, in this twenty-first century... I mean there's that whole POSING thing, and then tapping a button. Then the uploading!!! It's insufferable.

How do millennials do it, anyway, with their Instagrams?

You're talking to an old guy with a flip phone, it ain't as easy as you'd think to "just snap a shot", I gotta pull out an actual camera for such things. Being busy and bad weather doesn't help matters.

What is this Instabook or Facegram you speak of?

[Aaron]

You're talking to an old guy with a flip phone, it ain't as easy as you'd think to "just snap a shot", I gotta pull out an actual camera for such things. Being busy and bad weather doesn't help matters.

What is this Instabook or Facegram you speak of?

Does your flip phone have a rotary dial? Lol

Well I guess we'll just have to pretend this guy really is you.

[A. Spruce]

What do you mean, pretend? That's what happens from years of snorting sawdust and paint fumes. A couple more years and Shannon's gonna look like this too, except his shirt will have the HI logo on it!