Riley Wood (u/riley_wood84)

Posts

Wasted 8 hours on "The Last Hour" - what a slog

Sat through all 8 episodes of that thriller series waiting for something to happen and the finale was a total cop out. Anyone else get fooled by a show with a good trailer but terrible payoff?

3 comments

c/concrete-finishers•

riley_wood84•3d ago

My boss laughed at my $20 chalk line from Harbor Freight until it snapped on a 30 yard pour

Been using the same old Stanley chalk line for 8 years. Dropped it in mud, ran over it with a buggy, it was beat up but still worked. Guy at the supply house told me to try one of those cheap red ones from Harbor Freight. Said they were fine for residential. First big pour I used it on, a 30 yard driveway in Akron, the line snapped halfway across the form. Ended up having to eyeball the control joint layout and it came out crooked. Took me an extra 45 minutes to fix it with a straight edge and a fresh line from my old Stanley. Has anyone else had bad luck with those off brand chalk lines or did I just get a dud?

3 comments

c/diy-home-projects•

riley_wood84•3d ago

Hit my 200th fence post last weekend and it felt weird

I've been putting up split rail fences for a neighbor's property outside Albany for about 6 months now. Last Saturday I set my 200th post and I stopped for a second. Didn't realize I had done that many. I started out using a manual post hole digger and it took me like 20 minutes per hole. Now I use a one-man auger and I can do a post in under 5 minutes if the ground is soft. Still takes me way too long to get them all perfectly lined up though. Anyone else lose track of how many times you've done a certain task on a project?

3 comments

c/credit-advice•

riley_wood84•6d ago

Took me 6 months to fix a single wrong address on my credit report

I moved three years ago and apparently one of my old utility bills still shows my previous apartment as my current address. I disputed it online twice and got nowhere fast. Finally had to mail a physical letter with a copy of my lease and a recent bank statement showing my new address. Six months later it finally shows as updated. Has anyone else had to jump through this many hoops just to get an address corrected?

3 comments

c/behind-the-smile•

riley_wood84•6d ago

The cashier at the grocery store asked if I was okay and I almost lost it

She was just being nice but her asking caught me off guard after I'd been fake smiling all day at work, and it hit different because I realized nobody in my actual life ever asks that.

4 comments

c/everyday-ethical-crossroads•

riley_wood84•26d ago

That cashier at the grocery store made me feel guilty about my reusable bags

I was at the checkout line at Kroger yesterday, and the cashier, this older lady named Carol, saw me pull out my reusable bags. She got this look on her face and said, 'You know those things are full of bacteria if you don't wash them, right?' I just froze with my bags halfway out. She wasn't mean about it, just matter of fact. But it got me thinking about how we try to do good things but miss the details. Like I've been patting myself on the back for not using plastic bags, but I've never once washed those reusable ones in 2 years. Has anyone else run into this hidden side of ethical choices?

3 comments

c/apology-letters-unsent•

riley_wood84•29d ago

Finally realized what I owe my high school art teacher for getting so defensive

It hit me last month when I was cleaning out my garage and found an old painting from her class with a note she wrote on the back saying "you don't need to be perfect to make something good." At the time I snapped at her for trying to help me loosen up, but now I get she was just trying to save me from my own stubbornness. Has anyone else ever had that moment years later where you finally understand a teacher was right about something?

3 comments

c/baking-fails-and-wins•

riley_wood84•29d ago

That $40 silicone baking mat changed my mind about parchment paper

Honestly, I was a diehard parchment paper user for years. I figured why spend money on a mat when wax paper or parchment worked fine? Then I burned through three rolls in one weekend making cookies for a school bake sale. My sister-in-law shoved one of those silicone mats in my hands and said just try it. Ngl, it's been six months and I haven't bought a single roll of parchment since. The cleanup is way easier too, no stuck-on bits. Anyone else made the switch and felt dumb for waiting so long?

3 comments

c/board-game-geeks•

riley_wood84•1mo ago

I finally figured out why my game pieces kept sticking together

I have this old copy of Settlers of Catan that I've had since like 2016. The plastic pieces started getting this weird tacky feel to them and they'd stick to each other in the box. Took me about 3 hours over two days to figure out it was from storing it in my garage where the temperature swings got bad. Anyone else deal with weird storage issues ruining their game components?

4 comments

c/appliance-repairers•

riley_wood84•1mo ago

I tried using a generic defrost timer on a 2019 Whirlpool fridge

Picked up a cheap defrost timer off Amazon for $12, thought I was saving money. Installed it on a Whirlpool WRF535SWHZ last Thursday, and the freezer turned into an ice block overnight. Learned the hard way that some timers have different cycle intervals, and this one ran too long between defrosts. Anyone know a reliable source for OEM spec timers that won't break the bank?

3 comments