Chit Chat: What's on your mind?
Options
theowlbox
Posts: 912 Member
We are a small group, so I just thought I'd start a chit chat thread for people who are looking for more daily interaction on the forums. Post whatever (within reason) you'd like, and feel free to discuss small stuff. (Larger topics and issues will probably be better organized in their own threads.)
It's Monday, the Eagles won the Superbowl, and it's winter. How's everyone doing?
It's Monday, the Eagles won the Superbowl, and it's winter. How's everyone doing?
0
Replies
-
I’m very bored at work (slooow Monday) so I’m glad you posted this! I am so ready for spring. People aren’t kidding when they say weight loss makes you colder. I have been freezing all winter. Probably has something to do with me being slightly anemic, too (getting that taken care of Friday, hopefully).
I’m not a huge football fan, but I have watched some of the commercials. There were a bunch of good ones this year.0 -
@Mellykay88 i am ready for spring too! I love looking forward to it and enjoying the days getting sunnier. Sorry you're cold! I am pro blanket, scarf and hat whenever possible. I hate being cold! Re commercials: which were your faves? I didn't watch long so I only saw a few like the Jurassic park jeep one. Then the "thank the first responders" one and the Subaru ones made me cry and I gave up on the tv. I am a tear factory about some stuff.0
-
2 -
I thought the Tide Pods commercials were great!1
-
One of my cats has started doing that to my head. It’s the strangest thing
3 -
Great idea! I need to stay more involved so that I can stay focused. I feel like I do worse when I don't keep this at the front of my mind!
I'm also kind of wanting some off-topic advice... maybe this would be an appropriate place to ask! I'm switching jobs soon and it's looking like two of the job applications I put in are possibly panning out.
Job Number One is with my same employer, but at a different location doing different work that I probably won't enjoy as much. It's more of a jack of all trades, master of none situation while my current job is VERY specialized.
The plus side though is that I will get to expand my skills in areas I haven't seen since right out of school AND the real reason I applied for the job... the hours will be almost exactly what I want. I'll only work 3 days a week (on the weekend) in 12 hour shifts which would be perfect for when my fiance and I have a baby in the next few years because we shouldn't need to pay for daycare. I figured it up and with this job I would be gone less than 40 hours a week including commute, but still considered full-time with full-time benefits.
Job Number Two is at a really fantastic place that almost everyone wants to work in... Think Fortune Top 100 places to work. The benefits are fantastic, everyone I know who works there talks about how much they love it and have never looked back, etc. My weekends would be free except maybe 1 weekend day after 6 weeks or so, but I would have to work Monday through Friday during the busiest part of the day, hitting rush hour traffic on my way to and from work. I would also be in a NEW just as specialized area that I may or may not like and I think with this job I would probably be gone more like 50+ hours a week including commute. It pays more (about $1 more per hour,) but we would DEFINITELY have to shell out for daycare... which is something I really don't want to do.
What do y'all think? Anyone want to weigh in and help me decide which is right for me?0 -
@rabidhamster87 : While I am hesitant to suggest one option over another, as ultimately you’re the one who has to live with whatever you decide, I am a big fan of pro/con lists, detailing as much as you can with each job. I would also ask your significant other to weigh in as well since he will be the one most affected by your decision. Regardless, no doubt you will kick butt in whatever you choose!
It’s snowing like crazy here this morning and I am having trouble getting motivated to work. I’ve felt a little down lately because my healthy eating steered off track and I think I pinpointed why. My husband and I want to start a family, but he recently went to Mexico for a bachelor party vacation (don’t ask), and when he returned, his doctor told him we would have to wait 6 months to start trying again, in case he was infected with the Zika virus. He said that even if you are selected to be tested (not everyone is) and it comes back negative, they still suggest you wait. So my biggest weight loss motivator has been put on pause for half a year (in the mean time, I’m not getting any younger!)
This snow is just adding to my feeling of “blah.” I am going to sit here with some Everybody Loves Raymond playing and watch the snow fall and hope this book writes itself. At least for a little while longer...1 -
Sorry! I hope no one feels like I shanghai'd the conversation! I had just gotten back from job interview number 2 and it was weighing heavily on my mind. I think I've decided to go with number 1 though! When I think about working there/that shift I feel happy while option 2 makes me nervous and scared, so I think that's the right choice. (And I also did make a pros & cons list which helped me sort it out!)
@CheezWhiz88 That really sucks about having to wait 6 months.
I guess it's better than risking it though! And on the bright side, that gives you more time to lose weight. I don't know exactly how you feel, but I can sympathize because it's looking like an 8+ month wait for us since I won't be fully transitioned into my new job until sometime around October. They want me to continue working here 3 days a week until then so that they can get my replacement trained.
@theowlbox & @Mellykay88 I'm looking forward to spring (and summer!) too. It doesn't even get that cold down here, but it's still the pits and I hate having to drive to work in the snow and ice!! I need something with 4WD or AWD already... What kind of cars do you guys drive?1 -
@rabidhamster87 I would go with job #1... but I am a BIG fan of not spending my entire life at work. I had an opportunity a few months ago for a job that would pay substantially more than my current job, but I would get hardly any vacation or holiday time, so I declined. I don’t think I’d be happy with no time off even if it meant more money.1
-
rabidhamster87 wrote: »I need something with 4WD or AWD already... What kind of cars do you guys drive?
I'm one of those weird folks who actually doesn't mind winter or even the big snow storms. Then again, I live in WV where heavy winter usually runs from late November to late March. And we have periods of warmer weather mixed in with the cold stuff. I think it might be a totally different story if I lived on the plains or somewhere where the snow started flying in September and didn't melt until May!
I have a 2006 Honda CRV with 178,000 miles on it and I love it. Safety experts have really begun recommending snow tires if you live in a snow-prone area even on 4WD and AWD because they are made specifically for the conditions. All seasonal tires work fine in southern areas, but they are jack-of-all-trades-masters-of-none. I strongly suggest looking up some of the videos on snow tires versus all seasonals - its amazing! A 2WD car with snow tires will have better stopping and control than an AWD with all seasonals!
Sorry - that's must my little safety advert. I do have snow tires on my Honda AWD and I can see a huge difference in how it handles. I feel much more confident on slick roads with them. What stinks, though, is that the car is 12 years old and has some high mileage on it, and the heater doesn't work so well anymore and its gets stinkin' cold in there!
I also have a 4WD Ram 1500 pickup. It's a 2015 model and I love the thing
It's become my main vehicle and the heater is awesome in it 
But I only have all seasonal tires on it, and pickups are notorious for being light in the rear end making them easy to fishtail. I just go slow and steady when I drive it. If I can get the money together, I'll get snow tires for it next year.
In comparing 4WD to AWD, I prefer AWD. 4WD locks your 4 tires together, so to speak, which makes it stubborn to make tight turns, which can be a pain in WV lol I like having the constant AWD and for me, it feels like it handles better. Either one has excellent traction, though, and I have no problems getting out of my mom's icy driveway while my sister's 2WD got stuck
1 -
Mellykay88 wrote: »@rabidhamster87 I would go with job #1... but I am a BIG fan of not spending my entire life at work. I had an opportunity a few months ago for a job that would pay substantially more than my current job, but I would get hardly any vacation or holiday time, so I declined. I don’t think I’d be happy with no time off even if it meant more money.
yep! For me, money isn't everything and usually pretty low behind quality of life. Its fine if you are the type of person who finds fulfillment in your career and I applaud those types of folks, but I'm not that sort of person, so most of the time, my job feels like an interference in my life and not something that provides satisfaction
But I'm single and on my own, so I gotta pay the bills, so to work I go! I've been working for my company for 10 years now, and every time a supervisor's position comes up, I get asked if I'm going to apply. Even though the supervisors get a good salary (6 figures!) which is much more than I make now, I tell everyone the answer is an unequivocal no. I don't have the personality type to make a good supervisor for one-I hate conflict and hate being the responsible one who has to make the heavy decisions - and for two, I do not want my entire life to revolve around my job, which happens with the supervisors here. I don't mind working overtime once in a while, and am usually here a few hours over anyway, but I like coming in, working my 8-9 hours a day, and then going home. My free time is my time and I don't want to be on call 24/7 and having to work at home after I've spent all day in the office.
I crave my own time, and for me, giving that up for more money would never be something I'd want to live with!2 -
@rabidhamster87 no worries and glad you figured it out! I think that the first 5 years are most intensive with kids and a great time for you to work at job 1. (Plus, you disnt sound thrilled about the other option). But 2 things I thought of were 1. that you can always work there later, after your kid is old enough for school. You might find it really rewarsing when youre not worried about the childcare part, and maybe the benefits would be better for your family once you're not in immediate need of nurserycare. Also, 2: there is a real, calculable cost for things that you mentioned, like commute (gas, time, depreciation), weekday unavailability (childcare cost or cost to your spouse to be available) as well as a reduction of free time that you will now require for parenthood. So I'm glad for you that you decided on no. 1 but maybe in the future you can work somewhere else *if you want to*.
I drive a regular car, no 4wd in Portland, OR! Mostly people here who think about that stuff drive subarus. You are so brave to drive in that every day! You'll laugh, but when we have snow, I just stay inside until it's gone, and lots of other people do too. People play in it with their kids, but we have trouble when people think they know what they are doing in the snow. We don't have the infrastructure or the vehicles for it. We had a downpour of snow the other year and people abandoned their vehicles on the freeway. No merci. I will be at home.
What are people doing today? I have book club tonight and I'm taking my dog to the vet. He has a foot that he keeps licking. It looks painful but it can't be too bad because he just jumped from the top of 4 steps to run around the yard for 5 minutes chasing a bird.
0 -
@rabidhamster87 I did the supervisor thing for about 3 years and I hated every minute of it! I was younger than everyone I was supervising and it was so hard to get respect. Towards the end I cried every Sunday thinking about going to work. In my current position I am over no-one! Plus I’m making more money. Quitting that job was the best decision of my life!! I am also terrible with conflict, so having to settle bickering amongst colleagues is not my cup of tea.
@theowlbox Hugs to your dog, hopefully everything will turn out good! I’m counting down the minutes to 5 o’clock. It’s been a super slow day at work. Tonight I’m going to go home and watch last night’s episode of “This is Us”... I hear it’s an emotional one!1 -
@Mellykay88 thanks! Turns out he had a bite between his toes and his constant licking caused an issue. He's good now and is happy...aside from the cone of shame!
2 -
Mellykay88 wrote: »@rabidhamster87 I did the supervisor thing for about 3 years and I hated every minute of it! I was younger than everyone I was supervising and it was so hard to get respect. Towards the end I cried every Sunday thinking about going to work. In my current position I am over no-one! Plus I’m making more money. Quitting that job was the best decision of my life!! I am also terrible with conflict, so having to settle bickering amongst colleagues is not my cup of tea.
yeah, that's me. there's a few supervisor jobs out now, but while of course the money is a little enticing, money ain't everything and I know that I'd be more miserable than I already am Right now, I'm not happy with my current job and am getting to the point where I dread Monday mornings. However, I really, really don't want to move, and until I can get my old house sold, I can't afford a pay cut, not that there's a lot of options in this area now. I've thought about going back to school for years, but I can't figure out what I'd like to do first of all, and secondly, I can't work it around my work schedule. I looked for schools that offered evening classes, but apparently, that isn't done these days - even WVU in Morgantown didn't have evening classes for the degree fields I was interested in! And the options for online school are very narrow and not interesting to me. Problem is I don't know what it is that I'd like to do to make a living...... 0 -
@rabidhamster87 I’d go with job 1 as well, you’ll definitely need all the time you can get when you have your baby so it would make sense, also the other place will still be there in the future so it’s not saying no forever it’s just no for now.
@CheezWhiz88 I’m so sorry to hear of your delay, that’s a really hard thing to deal with when it’s totally out of your control. I’m sure you’re devastated but I guess I’d say maybe try to see it as even longer to get the perfect baby growing body ready?
As far as cars go, I’m in the uk and I drive a Mini Countryman. I’ll try to find a picture as my sister who’s in Canada says they haven’t made it over there yet, but I love it! Total girlie car and we don’t really get much in the way of snow because I’m right on the south coast. I did have a Subaru Impreza before that though, it was awesome in the snow and had 300bhp. The Mini only has 200bhp but it’s a lot more economical to run and I do loads of miles for work.
0 -
Thank you everyone for your input! You really helped me feel like I was making the right decision and I was able to email the recruiter this morning to let him know this isn't the right choice for me at this point in my life. It's still my dream to one day work there, but @fatoldladyonamission is right! "Not right now" doesn't mean "never."
@theowlbox I didn't mean to mislead you! I definitely don't drive in the snow everyday! I live in Mississippi But it did snow here a few times last month and I had to drive in it then which was terrifying. I work in healthcare, so I can't call out for snow I'm terrible at driving in it and lost control of my car twice (terrifying!) So, I'm determined that next year I'll be ready. I'll get a car with AWD AND snow tires like @bmeadows380 recommended! If they even sell snow tires here...
I'm glad your dog is okay though! How long does he have to wear the headgear?
@fatoldladyonamission Is the Mini Countryman the same thing as a Mini Cooper?0 -
@rabidhamster87 I hope you're happy when you began your new position with your company. You can always go to the other company, but, it might be harder to get re-employed with your current company, if you chose to go back (if you moved on). Just a thought.
I'm glad I found this chit chat thread and finally came to it and read all of you all's posts. As for cars, I drive a 1998 Ford Escort, with 151,000 miles on it. I live in Jacksonville, Florida, so the most snow we might get is usually a few flakes in the air, every few years. I never knew that you all had to think and prepare so much for driving in the winter. We really don't hardly have a winter here. I only get out of my shorts for usually about for 1 1/2 weeks, which I have to wear sweat pants. I always try to ride the city buses around Jacksonville. It's much cheaper, more comfortable, and saves my old car.
This group is SO motivating for me. I didn't pick up my laptop for about 3 - 4 days, and thus, didn't come to this group. I slipped up and was eating too much, too often those days. I think I need to be here, around you all, much more often. I just HAVE to lose 9 lbs before March 10th. I've never had my back up against the wall like this before. Maybe I need to feel this way. Maybe it will help.
1 -
@rabidhamster87 according to my husband it’s a standard Mini Cooper on steroids! It’s the extra large one, so it’s huge but looks very similar to the little original ones. I love it. Huge boot and room for four adults easily, and oh so quick in sports mode!
The comparison kinda looks like this...
1 -
I'm glad I found this chit chat thread and finally came to it and read all of you all's posts. As for cars, I drive a 1998 Ford Escort, with 151,000 miles on it. I live in Jacksonville, Florida, so the most snow we might get is usually a few flakes in the air, every few years. I never knew that you all had to think and prepare so much for driving in the winter. We really don't hardly have a winter here. I only get out of my shorts for usually about for 1 1/2 weeks, which I have to wear sweat pants. I always try to ride the city buses around Jacksonville. It's much cheaper, more comfortable, and saves my old car.
This group is SO motivating for me. I didn't pick up my laptop for about 3 - 4 days, and thus, didn't come to this group. I slipped up and was eating too much, too often those days. I think I need to be here, around you all, much more often. I just HAVE to lose 9 lbs before March 10th. I've never had my back up against the wall like this before. Maybe I need to feel this way. Maybe it will help.
Winter driving can be a challenge! For the area I live in, the fact that we don't keep a snow blanket on the ground all winter long, but go through thaws and melts then re-freezes, makes for a challenge at times.
Like this week: we had a good 4" snow fall on Sunday, which was a pretty wet, heavy snow (good packing snow and yes, I made a snowman for my front lawn I've found that being single, I tend to have my childish moments still lol) Monday and Tuesday were warmer, so a lot of that melted. But at night, the temps dropped down below freezing, so all that water that used to be snow re-froze on the roads, leading to a lot of ice. Black ice is so, so dangerous because it just looks like a wet spot on the road, but it isn't - it actually a thin sheet of ice. A lot of folks who are sensible winter drivers will none-the-less get taken by surprise by black ice. It's even worse when we have a period of that and then get snow on top of it like Wednesday night - Thursday morning, I got up to find a covering of more snow on top of all the ice.
I live in WV which has a lot of country and 2 lane roads, and lots of twisty, winding roads in rural areas through tree-covered lanes (not to mention the up and down the hills). This makes us doubly prone to black ice conditions in bad locations - trees shade the roads or even the mountains themselves, so early morning, there will be patches of black ice in various locations where the sun wasn't able to dry the pavement the day before, or in places where water is running off from the hills across the road and froze. Its even worse as these places can be in the curves of the road or at the bottom of a slope. Coming around a curve always has forces pushing against your car; suddenly losing traction can sometimes tip that balance just far enough so that the car's tires slip and you go sliding! (sorry - I'm an engineer, and while I"m a pretty lousy one, I still tend to be a bit of a math geek lol)
However, that sounds bad, but after you get some experience with it and learn what to look for, and DRIVE SENSIBLY such as slowing down, leaving a space between you and the cars around you, driving steady with no sudden movements, brake slowly and steadily, and pay attention to your surroundings and your car, it's not really so bad! I tell folks that its not the road conditions that scare me - driving on snow and ice don't frighten me, though blowing snow that leads to white out conditions will make me nervous. What scares me are the other idiots on the road with me who want to drive likes its a sunny, dry day in the middle of summer, who want to go 70 mph (112 kph) and will whip around you on the interstate and try to pass you when the salt truck hasn't cleared that lane. I'm always holding my breath as they come around me, praying they don't start skidding! Then again, the folks that are driving 10 mph drive me nuts, too.......
And I agree about the motivation of this group! This group has been so much more helpful to me than the other one I was in - I love to chat as long as I'm safely behind a keyboard lol and your stories and chatting really lifts me up!rabidhamster87 wrote: »I definitely don't drive in the snow everyday! I live in Mississippi But it did snow here a few times last month and I had to drive in it then which was terrifying. I work in healthcare, so I can't call out for snow I'm terrible at driving in it and lost control of my car twice (terrifying!) So, I'm determined that next year I'll be ready. I'll get a car with AWD AND snow tires like @bmeadows380 recommended! If they even sell snow tires here...
I better put a disclaimer on my previous rant lol
the thing with the snow tires is really mostly recommended for folks in areas that get a lot of snow in the winter, or icy conditions. Being in Mississippi, it may not actually be needed for you, especially if you only rarely get the ice and snow conditions.
AWD would be fine because AWD is about getting moving and traction, which has benefits all year round - for example, if its been raining a lot, AWD will help you get out of muddy driveways and such.
Snow tires are made with a softer rubber, the benefit of which means it doesn't get hard at the same temperatures as regular rubber tires, which helps it grip ice better. However, that also means that in warmer temperatures or on dry pavement, they wear pretty quickly. this is why if you have snow tires, you really need to wait until snow season hits to put them on and take them off promptly in the spring.
I'd suggest reading these articles; it will explain some things even better than I do!
https://www.goodyear.com/en-US/tire-guide/winter-tires-vs-allseason-tires
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/12/2wd-awd-or-4wd-how-much-traction-do-you-need/index.htm
1
