MrGiggles

That is crazy. He's got you figured out.

Found out when I was little that black snakes will not pass up chicken eggs.

The thing with snakes, they don't usually hang around somewhere just to enjoy the view. If you find yourself with a snake problem, you actually have a rodent problem.

It's all fun and games until they build a nest under the shroud of your mower, or eat the wiring in your car. I don't have any sympathy for them, plus they bring around snakes.

You can add pretty much anything that significantly outweighs me to my list of "things not to mess with". Aren't any Steve Irwin genes in me, I'll run for the hills.

Every time I hear that, first thing I think is "sumbitch has teeth don't it?" I feel the same way about pits.. The neighbor has a couple, one is loud and all bark, the other is quiet and flighty, that's the one to watch.

$39.99 at Bass Pro. I've seen them at some Walmarts too, but not many. They mostly carry the casting version, I have one of those too and like it just as much.

I'm kind of a cheap-posterior, and am very partial to the Berkley lightning rod 6'6" medium 1 piece. I think they are a wonderful multi-purpose rod, for throwing 1/16 oz jigs for crappie, to 1/8 oz walleye jigs and cranks. They are a little bit too fast in the tip for things much heavier than that though.

I have a Hawke on my muzzleloader. Good scopes.

There is a reason why the automotive industry is the way it is. Flat rate pay creates a financial incentive to cut corners. Get it in and out as quickly as possible. If the book says a certain job pays 4 hours, the tech gets paid for 4 hours, whether it takes him 6 or 2. Slackers get all the gravy jobs, and the good guys are often left overworked and underpaid, since skilled diagnostic work doesn't pay as well. The good ones don't want to deal with the feast or famine BS, leaving behind the druggies, mickey-mousers, and parts swappers that will do anything they can to bill for 10-14 hours of work in an 8 hour day. Then if you're at a dealer, warranty work is terribly under-estimated time wise, same with tire shops and quick lube type places. Last I knew an oil change paid three tenths. It's next to impossible to pull a car in and do a smoking hot LOF in 20 minutes. Of course it's not always that black and white, and there are exceptions to every rule, but it's a good representation of the industry, and gives some insight into why the ratio of good to bad shops is like 1 in 10.

Unless you want to send it into orbit I'm not sure he'll be much help.

I have a good job, and wouldn't have any trouble finding one in my trade. I'm just not so sure that I want to continue down this road. A lot of that is the "grass is greener" sort of stuff. I'm still trying to figure it out, and learning a lot in the process.

KISS. No belts to mess with.

The king of blown head gaskets, easy fix though. Valve adjustments are super important on those or they won't crank. The compression release only bumps the intake valve open a tiny bit, if the valves are too loose it will spin over too slowly. There's been lots of starters and batteries needlessly replaced on those because of it. Ever seen the transmission on those? It's just a friction drive, with a steel brake rotor looking thing and a rubber drive wheel that runs against it. The "shifter" just moves the rubber wheel further or closer from the drive disk, like the needle on a record, works good unless it gets wet. That is unless they started putting a real transaxle in them at some point.

I used to read through MWT a lot. Came to the conclusion that it was a little too much of a cesspool and a circle jerk for me, like it here a lot better.

Steel is an attractive play right now too. Sitting on 159 shares of CLF.

It's been a couple of years, but I have gotten into them by the shallow water buoys on Martin Flats, and those shallow points just to the south of them on the same side. Anything with flash has done well for me, road runner, rooster tail, spoon, etc. I think it's still a little early yet, I've had better luck in the afternoons towards August.

Nothing, but pulling a wakeboard through them is a good way to become indebted to you.

At least Stockton is big enough that you can get away from the floatilla. I pulled a wakeboard for most of the day yesterday and had no trouble finding quiet coves. It's one of the reasons I don't hit Pomme as much in the summer, it's too small for the amount of pleasure boat traffic. Nowhere to hide there, except the stump fields.

Like I've seen Wrench post, now is about the time of year where it seems like every other fish in the lake disappears and the drum come out in droves.

Money won't buy you happiness, but it will buy you comfort, and it offers mobility should you decide to change careers. Better to be an engineer and decide to be mechanic than the other way around.

The thing is, 17-18 year olds aren't known for exceptional forethought. You get a lot of students that find out partway through a degree that it's not for them, that job prospects are actually garbage instead of what they were told, or will not pay their debt in a reasonable amount of time. The end result is a student debt crisis. I would also venture to guess that a significant percentage of that age group really do not actually have a good idea of what they want to do with their life. I know that a lot of my classmates were really only in school to be doing something productive, that was even a lot of the reason I was there. I should've just went to work for a couple years and got a plan together, instead of wasting time and money, hindsight being what it is. All I was told is "you're smart, go to school", and if you don't go now, you never will. Some are driven enough to have a good plan from the start and stick to it, which is very admirable, but it doesn't seem to be the majority in reality.

I don't think it should be free, but it should be affordable. The days of working part time to put yourself through school are long gone for the most part. I'm the one that should shut up, talking about a period of time that I wasn't even alive during. And thank you for the kind words.

Fair enough. I'm a little jaded and pessimistic after digging through the job market. Seems like you're darned if you do, darned if you don't.

Sure. But there was a time when any degree would get you in a job that paid reasonably well. There's a lot of people out there with degrees that are working retail. The job market has always, and always will be, good with the right set of knowledge, skills and abilities. That's a "wherever you go, there you are" type of statement.