I volunteered driving ambulances. Started in high school, 2003-2004. Our rigs at the time were a '97 Chevy van with a box and a '99 F250 with a box. They were the biggest things I’d driven at the time.

Moved away, did life, came back a decade later. Newest rigs were now 2015 F450 Super Duty with a box you could legit stand up in. Thing was unnecessarily large. All the things you’re saying are correct. The rig we purchased while I was there ended up being a slightly larger mod, but came with front, side, and rear cameras, because you’re absolutely right, can’t see shit. Blind spot in the front is legit 10-15 feet from the bumper.

You know what didn’t change in that interim? People’s windy, tiny driveways. I won’t toot my own horn but I’m a good driver, I frequently tell my wife “You could fit a Mac truck through there” when she’s driving and won’t squeeze through a gap. So when it came time to back these rigs up these narrow, curving driveways, up a hill, it was difficult. I’d have my crew get out generally and go begin assessment so I could get the rig in place for takedown. Problem is that I couldn’t drive all the time, and so the rig would frequently get left down on the road. And I don’t blame anyone, they were difficult maneuvers. I knew a few members who outright refused to drive the newer rigs becaude they were so massive, so now we’ve neutered our manpower.

Vitamin D toxicity is also a big problem, and doctors have been overprescribing supplementary vitamin D for years. Feels almost like a joke, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Doesn’t “depressant” have more to do with your body’s functions and not necessarily the depression we think about? Been a long time since high school health and EMT classes.

Kratom cut my drinking by 80%. Haven’t had a single beer at home alone in years. Still go out occasionally with friends, so not a recluse or anything, just the excess stuff.

Work definitely does suck the life out of you, regardless of whether or not you like it. Just hard to focus on something all day and not be tired.

I won’t say good luck in retirement, because I don’t know what that means. So I’ll just say see you around the fediverse, because there’s no retiring from this life.

And go back even further, exposure to lead fumes from leaded gas in cars made an entire generation incapable of complex logical thought.

Glad to hear t-pose is the way to go. I’m beginning to think it’s the solution to the world’s problems.

I’m (unfortunately) not even close to retirement, but everything you said, I agree with. For me, a job is like a train track, and I’m on the train and life is just going, and I get off at stops here and there, but that clickity-clack is a constant white noise. Perhaps it’s me remembering the immaturity of when I was younger, but I’ve always found that when I don’t have work, I seem less focused on general.

I am fortunate to have a good job, and I don’t love it, but it’s more than tolerable, which to me is the benchmark. I assume how you feel about your job is a big factor in this whole discussion. I imagine I’ll work less when I hit the magic social security number, but the thought of retiring just stopping working entirely one day just doesn’t make sense to me.

Same. Any more and just about anyone you know and can relate to is dead. And I have kids and perhaps they’ll have kids, but when I’m 90 and all my friends are dead, and anyone I looked to in life for guidance is dead, and I can’t commiserate with people about the old days of the Internet or what things used to be like without hearing “oh grandpa,” what really is the point?

For me, it was AIM chatrooms and ebaums forums, maybe the super early days of Skype (before being sold to Microsoft obviously). Shit did feel more real, and while content maybe didn’t come out at the same frequency, and there sure was shit, you just knew you were talking about it with other people. Made some good friends back then, would’ve been cool to stay in touch, but 20+ years is a long time.

Marine Corps beat that into me. We had two options for drinks at the chow hall in boot camp: water or blue Powerade. No milks no juices no sodas no red Powerade. Only blue Powerade. It’s the only one I’ll drink anymore, the rest serve no purpose.

Definitely thought you meant hair plugs at first, and that there was an app to give you male pattern baldness.

Obligatory I didn’t read the article.

It’s obviously T9 Word’s fault. All these kids out here texting with T9 word, can’t expect anyone to be spelling when they can T9 their way through life.

My only gripe is I can never remember the number, and there are several teenths. I’m bad with dates. July 4th is idiot proof.

My kids finished today. A couple towns over finished last week. I don’t know how they decide this shit.

Just got around to watching this movie for the first time, real happy ending.

I’ve 100% turned on my blinker for a curve in the road, and I feel like a fucking idiot when I do it. So fortunately I’ve seen other people do it and I know there’s at least a couple of us out there. The worst part is it’s been the same curve multiple times. There’s nowhere else to go either, the road just bends right, but sometimes I just hit the old blinkety-blink.

What if their arms are just really weak, you do have to turn the wheel slightly more than normal.

You do, it’s called property taxes.