Today I Learned (TIL)

TIL that restored trick cars are not as much as a "chick magnet" as restored old camping trailers.

Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:

TIL that some people gauge how good a mechanic is by how long the washer fluid lasts......

It's bug season.  Swarms in the air on the sides of the highway that look like there's been a large fire.

No further comment re: washer fluid miles per gallon.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

TIL someone at Charles Barker Toyota was probably relieved to lose a customer. 

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

TIL someone at Charles Barker Toyota was probably relieved to lose a customer. 

I agree wholeheartedly

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

TIL someone at Charles Barker Toyota was probably relieved to lose a customer. 

If they come in at time intervals longer than six months, most likely far more trouble than they could ever be worth.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Definitely. 

Sometimes you have to fire the customer

I had to let a guy go the other day, my boss asked how it went and I said "I promoted him to customer".

TIL: my boss can actually laugh.

NASCAR runs at COTA regardless of weather.  TIAL - NASCAR in the rain, on a road course, is hilarious.  Unfortunately, I didn't learn this until about lap 35.

NOTE:  Not mocking them, I can't even imagine trying to wrestle a traction-limited, high power, RWD pig that's set up for roundy-roundy under those conditions.  

TIL:  There is a such thing as an automatic, critter-blasting sprinkler system.  Now I want one. . . Link

Ligroin

I actually learned this last Thursday but six feet deep is a figure of speech. Jodi is closer to 3-4 feet. We learned this when we say they finally dug the hole for her stone and we could see the tip of her vault. It unintentionally made a sad day berkeleying hysterical as my incredibly sweet niece and nephew were excited to "see" her one last time and began swiping flowers from other plots to place in with her.  Jodi was a sucker for fresh flowers so they weren't going to miss a chance to deliver.  I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe and my sister was mortified. I can't wait for our next call from the school psychologist. 
 

In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :

I have a long story about this sort of thing that I really don't feel like typing out again. But it's a good story and I've told it here before, so I'll try to find it and post a link. Someone started a thread called "How GRM are you?" or something like that.

I dug my own mother's grave.

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

My brother dug our father's and his father in law's. FIL was a preacher and ran the cemetery and my brother was his assistant. There's a story there too for another day. 

TIL that you can make toilet paper out of spider webs.

The portapotty at the fairgrounds had the most gossamer-thin toilet paper I have ever seen.  You could reel out an arm's length and it would have about the same mass, heft, and cleaning capability as a single sheet of the real stuff.

TIL: When you tell your wife you're really struggling with the whole feminine/masculine thing, you should probably preface it with, when I'm trying to learn a new language...

Mr. Peabody said:

TIL: When you tell your wife you're really struggling with the whole feminine/masculine thing, you should probably (FILL IN THE BLANK).

This is now a fill in the blank.

... not mention that it seems the peach fuzz on her upper lip is getting darker.

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

I bought one of those a few years ago to keep neighbor's cat off the car.  It worked well.

Now the cat is old and slow & can't climb onto the car.  She likes to rest under the car. I like that. It may deter rodents from chewing the wiring.

In reply to M2Pilot :

Minor Confession:

I scrolled back about four or five pages, but I still have no idea what the hell you're talking about. 

In reply to Mr. Peabody :

I think the primary reason I dropped French in grade 10, other than the teacher with the speech impediment, was the requirement to remember that a chair was a girl.  Or not.  Struck me as the stupidest thing I had learned yet.

TIL that my sixteen y/o daughter may think a little more highly of me than she lets on.

This morning, Aircooled let her practice driving a stick shift in his 1958 Karmann Ghia (thanks man) and she showed up with pockets full of crystals (because superstitious) and wearing one of my favorite shirts.

I later asked her why she was wearing one of my shirts and she said "I was hoping some dad magic would rub off on me"..sniff.

BTW, this was only her second practice session but even if were her fourth, I'd still be highly impressed with her rate of progress...sniff.  

In reply to kazoospec :

I had one of these. It worked well.

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

Sorry about that.  I meant to reply to Kazoospec's post.  

It's about a motion detector water sprayer.

TIL that in WW2 the Germans evaluated captured P51 Mustangs. I didn't know they managed to do that, and the pic is surprisingly unnerving.

Over the weekend I learned that if I plug the trailer in to the truck when the truck's running lights are on, the trailer electrics do weird things.  The brake controller won't sync up and while the tail lights come on they're really dim and the only thing the brake pedal will do to the trailer lights is just turn them off completely while the turn signal will flash the trailer tail light opposite the pattern of the truck's turn signal.  If I turn the running lights off and back on again, everything is fine.  Being an 2000 Ford, I would have expected that the truck wouldn't really be all that "smart" about the trailer electrics.  I kind of wish they'd just send voltage to the pins and if the trailer is hooked up right, great, and if not, blow some fuses and be done with it.  At least that way I wouldn't have spent an hour and a half taking the trailer wiring apart to try to find a funky ground or some other problem that was causing the issue.