Hot take: I thought the park tool shop apron was just for show until I tried one at the Philly bike co-op.

I was fixing a stuck bottom bracket and kept dropping my 15mm wrench on the ground. The guy next to me handed me his apron and said 'try the pocket'. Having that wrench right there saved me so much bending over. Do you all use shop aprons or just keep tools on the bench?

Rant: A job in Phoenix made me stop using pine for outdoor trim.

The sun warped a whole porch's worth of it in under a year, so what's your go-to budget wood for hot climates?

Saw some scary wiring in a rental house I was checking out in Phoenix

I was looking at a place for my sister last week and the panel cover was off. Inside, there were three circuits with double tapped neutrals on the same bus bar. One of the neutral wires was loose and arcing, you could see the burn marks. The whole thing was a fire waiting to happen. Has anyone else run into this kind of mess in old rental units?

Overheard a guy at the coffee shop talking about his old band

He said they almost got a gig opening for a bigger act in 2015, but he took a steady job instead. It hit me that I quit piano lessons for the same reason, a 'safe' choice. Anyone else give up a creative thing for security?

I used to plan my route by the fastest highway. Now I check for wildfire smoke first.

Last year, driving through Oregon, I had to pull over for an hour because the air got so thick I couldn't see the road. I keep a real-time air quality map open on my tablet now, and it adds 20 minutes to my trip sometimes. How many of you have changed a simple daily plan because of something like this?

Just saw a doc about how they're mapping the Maya jungle now with lidar vs. old school machete crews

Just realized that setting a 16 character password with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols is way less secure than using a 4-word random phrase from a book I own.

I got locked out of an old account last week and the 'complex' password I made in 2019 was cracked in under an hour according to the breach report, but my simple 'correct-horse-battery-staple' style phrase from my garage copy of 'Dune' has never been flagged.

Had a close call with a spooked draft horse in Lancaster last week, my apron got caught on a stall latch.

The great parking spot debate of Tuesday morning

I pulled into the last open spot at the grocery store, only to see a woman in a red car mouth 'I was waiting for that' from the lane. I'd already started turning in, so I parked. She circled and took a spot way at the back. Felt like a jerk, but also... was I? The unwritten rules of parking lot conduct are a real minefield. Has anyone else had to make a quick call like that and felt weird about it after?

Just realized skipping soot disposal rules hurts more than just the environment.

Ignoring disposal rules for convenience steals from our kids' future.