Random thought thread!

In the county in which I live (Loudoun County VA) the house numbering system is based on latitude and longitude to some extent… I’m not exactly sure how, but it’s definitely related. The reason it’s done this way is so that the emergency services can get your house number and know exactly where to go. That also means that if driveways are not spaced equally that neighboring houses will have non-consecutive numbers. That’s why all the house numbers in the county have the five digits. For example in my old house our house number was 36985, and our neighbor on one side was 36989.

What’s strange is that incorporated towns within the county don’t have to follow the system. I guess that’s because in the towns the responders will be town based instead of county-based.

Utah has a fun system where all road names are based on their “grid” distance from the “center” of the county… which is usually defined as the place where the Mormon temple sits.

So if you’re heading to 1400 South 500 West, you are trying to get to a corner 14 blocks south and 5 blocks west of the center of town. If an address is 1432 South 500 West, then the house is on the street that runs North-South and is located five blocks west of the center of town; you can find the house between 14 and 15 blocks to the south of the county center.

Here in Queens (one of the 5 boroughs of NYC) it has a slightly different numbering system that tends to confuse people not used to it.

42-14 82nd Street, for example means entrance is on 82nd street. The number 42 means it’s between 42nd avenue and 43rd avenue. The houses are odd on one side, even on the other. So at the start of the corner they will be 42-01, 42-03, 42-05 on the left side. So 42-14 is 7th house on the right.

The USPS official address form takes out the hyphens thought which makes it more confusing I think.

New York, Connecticut and California interstate mile markers do not match up with the exit numbers. Therefore you may might at mile marker 23, but exit 327. What the fucking fuck?

So glad the Ohio Turnpike realized that was dumb and switched from sequential to mile marker exit numbers.

Actually even the numbering system in California is new. They used to just be street names, no numbers. At least the numbering matches current maps now.

Here in Omaha, the major roads that run north/south are numeric and the east/west are letters/names. The numeric are strictly based on blocks, with 12 blocks per mile. The numbering starts from the river-front on the Eastern border and increases as you move West. So if you are on 132nd and need to get to 180th, your drive is exactly 4 miles West. You always know what direction, East or West, you’re driving or need to drive. Simple enough. If you live on an east/west named street, the first 1 - 3 numbers of your address are the numeric. If you see an address of “7915 Oak St”, you know that the house is on the 79th block, so if you see 84th street, you know you’re 5 blocks too far West.

Where things get weird is if you live on a numeric street. The lettered streets have a pattern; A is 12 blocks North of B which is 12 blocks North of C, etc. Problem is, the lettered streets are the exception. We have Dodge, Pacific, Blondo, Maple and so on for the major streets. The “block” number for the named streets are based on whether you are North or South of Dodge, which is considered the center of town (not Center, believe it or not). Maple, for example, is the 40 - 49 North block. Fort is 50 - 59, etc. If your address is 4915 N 170th street, it means you live on 170th street, 49 blocks North of Dodge.

Since most of our neighborhoods are not in strict blocks, you end up with your house number being 4915 while the person on the corner is 21141 because they face more North than West.

The number-to-name block associations are very well known by anyone here, so if you live on a numeric street you will almost always been asked a question like “what is the closest cross street?” meaning is that near Maple or Blondo?

Then there are cities like Papillion which, because of an ego problem, rename most of the streets while you’re in town. You are on 84th street until you cross the city line which transforms in to Washington until you hit the other side of the city where it turns back in to 84th street. 1st street runs east/west in Papillion, totally against the grain of the other 98% of the Omaha metro. When I used to live in Papillion, I had to talk in landmarks when giving directions most of the time.

Just spent 2 hours trying to provide emergency access to a vendor on our system using a written policy where the primary team that handles most of the tasks had no idea that they were a) part of the process or b) what the policy is. I am thinking we’ll be revisiting this again in the near future with yet another training session.

As crazy as 2016 was it finally saw the release of three games thought to be trapped in eternal development hell in Doom, Final Fantasy XV, and The Last Guardian.

My parents retired earlier this year and I’m soon moving across the country to be closer to them and to be able to spend more time with them. This move has been planned for the last several months but as I approach the day of the move (next weekend), I’m finding it difficult to leave a couple of my friends behind. These are friends that, for the most part, I’ve spent at least two or three days out of the week with for the last 15 years. It will be strange and difficult to think that I may not see them but maybe once or twice a year after this move. And with the results of the election, I now feel as if I’m somewhat abandoning them.

At the same time, I’m very much looking forward to being around my parents and just generally being a part of their lives again. The last thing I want is to look back with regret that we didn’t have as much time together as we would have liked. So it’s been kind of a bittersweet feeling for me lately.

I take solace in our marvelous technological wonders that allow long distance friendships to be maintained but I will miss terribly the personal interactions of going for a walk or preparing a meal together. I’m excited for the opportunity of growth as I experience and learn about new things in a different environment but I’m saddened that I’ll be having these experiences without the company of some dear friends.

So, yeah. Bittersweet.

My step-father is in his late 60’s. For the last few years, he has been doing less and less around the house. He has been hiring people to do all the yard work, only gets deliveries now instead of going out to get things, etc. My mom has been concerned that he may be sick, specifically worrying about dementia because he’s been forgetting a lot of things (mostly things she asked him to do, or directions to places he’s supposed to go).

We finally talked him in to seeing a couple of doctors. After multiple appointments, the results are in. He tested just fine on all the memory drills, his blood-work only found a bit of a cholesterol issue but nothing dangerous. The doctor findings, as told to the family, is: “He’s old and lazy”. Apparently he’s been pretending to forget things he’s been asked to do and uses “I got lost” as an excuse not to run errands. Part of me is impressed.

I have a new hero!

I have done that for years.

Probably a good thing you had your dad tested though. Although the fact you can have stuff ordered in and it shows up right means he knew what he was doing.

Strange how as people age the short term stuff tends to go first. I have had relatives describe many things from 40+ years ago with clarity while they forget what happened yesterday.

It was fake, thankfully, but am I the only one thinking how horrifying it would be to be playing Santa Claus and have some poor tot fall over dead in your lap?

Ah, Christmas memories! Mistletoe, eggnog… that time that kid breathed his last while I was asking him if he’d been naughty or nice…

:) Just listened to that edition of 99% Invisible - I think it was you that recommended it in one of the podcast threads(?).

Frankly Edmonton, Alberta’s system is much better. Downtown is located at 100th Avenue and 100th Street. Going north goes up in Streets and going south goes down. Going west goes up in Avenues. 150th Street and 149th Avenue is northeast of downtown.

Awesome, elegant address system.

Though now mostly out of date since we all have Google Maps and addresses aren’t hard to find. Also Edmonton has grown south past block 0, so now there’s 29th Avenue South, which is 129 blocks south of downtown.

Come and join us on the Qt3 Discord channel for more charming conversations like this!

So, in anticipation of the Christmas podcast episode I’m recording tomorrow, I thought a little about my usual theme music. I found it insufficiently suited to the season, so I spent an hour or so tonight whipping up a Christmas variation, and now I’m inordinately pleased with myself.

So over the last few weeks a couple of things have crossed my eyes that made me think “that’s weird”. But I didn’t act on any of it.

First, I keep a fairly clean car. But the occasional wrapper or something may be in there. So a few weeks ago I noticed a couple small shreds of paper in the cup holder. “that’s weird, where did that come from? Oh well…” and never thought about it again.

New photo by Scott Johnston

Then I was taking out the trash a couple weeks ago and noticed a small hole in the bag (left in the garage overnight). “huh, must have tore it open last night”.

Then a week later I had a small granola bar in the car and it had a tiny triangular, small piece missing:

https://goo.gl/photos/CiKys2TgKtfWguxFA

Holy crap is there a critter in my car? No, couldn’t be. Could there? No I just didn’t notice that before.

Then this morning my wife comes in and says “SOMETHING ATE OUR FREAKING CAR SEATS”.

Her car has been sitting in the garage a full week. Her car was used to transport two kids with snacks for the last year. The car was a disaster of mouse poop, munched-on foam, shreds of paper.

I spent the day cleaning her car. Wore a dust mask and vacuumed as thoroughly as possible. Cleaned the kids’ car seats, washed the covers (with my clothes from vacuuming). Tip from friend was to check the cabin air filter… YUCK. Mess of paper and presumably worse. Brought the car for a full cleaning at $120. Going to do the same for my car starting tomorrow. Didn’t have time to clean the garage but set traps. Will clean tomorrow.

Easier solution: get a car cat.

I know one person who had a mouse in her car, chewed through a piece of the floor and another that had some feisty chipmunks that took out some wires.Within a few weeks of having both nephews in the car with food, I had my car expressed detailed just in case. Sorry to hear the mice found yours!