You Know You Are Old When

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I know I'm old because I'm constantly swatting at Ocular floaters.

 

[BravoXray]

I know I'm old because I'm constantly swatting at Ocular floaters.

I have one in my left eye that drives me crazy. When sitting at the counter eating breakfast and reading the paper, moving my eyes makes it jump around and I think it's a bug or something.

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

I'm sure just as often the reverse it true.
Nearest Menard's is maybe 1000 mi away, so not really an option but I've found Lowes will have something that HD doesn't and vice versa in about equal amounts.

To be fair, you can't expect every employee to know where every single item in a store that big is located. Usually, I don't have any trouble finding the stuff that's in an obvious place, it's the oddball items that can be difficult to find.


Yeah, Lowes is pretty good in that regard as is HD. Most other stores, not so much.
As much as Walmart hypes online ordering/pick up at store, their website is inconsistent about what a local store has in stock, and is rife with items that for some reason cannot be shipped to store. WTF? You'd think a chain as ubiquitous as WM would have that down by now and make the most of it.

Seems to me that there's an unwritten rule that states "No hardware store is allowed to stock compatible/matching plumbing fittings." They'll have everything except that one piece or two needed to complete the job or repair.

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

I have one in my left eye that drives me crazy. When sitting at the counter eating breakfast and reading the paper, moving my eyes makes it jump around and I think it's a bug or something.

Yep! I'll be in the woods and move my head, the floater moves and I think something darted through the brush.

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

.. or when you’re older than your dad ever lived to be.

Well... got past mom. Not hard to do when someone lived on coffee and cigarettes.

Average age of us kids dying is thus far at 60, and I have a few more years to break past the high mark. I keep telling my remaining sister that she's responsible for raising the average. One sister dying at 14 is what brought the average so low.

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

Genetics has the biggest say in one's longevity as a general rule.

During the pandemic a fancy Russian lab had a sale going on where they'd do a compete sequencing of your genes for half what they usually charged. Way beyond a 23&Me type of thing.

Since I'm missing half my family tree, my wife decided I should do this for medical and piece of mind reasons.

One of the markers they had was about a Methuselah gene which if you had that variation, it gave you a tendency to live a longer life.

Yeah... I don't have that one.

 

[Alan46]

I have one in my left eye that drives me crazy. When sitting at the counter eating breakfast and reading the paper, moving my eyes makes it jump around and I think it's a bug or something.

Hey BravoXray, what is this paper you speak of?

 

[NoTrespassing]

Yep! I'll be in the woods and move my head, the floater moves and I think something darted through the brush.

I have several small floaters in one eye that can be problematic playing video games.

 

[WinterDeere]

Seems to me that there's an unwritten rule that states "No hardware store is allowed to stock compatible/matching plumbing fittings." They'll have everything except that one piece or two needed to complete the job or repair.

Years ago, our well pump failed on a Saturday evening. I was already swamped with other projects, so I figured I'd just call a plumber out to do the fix for me... but none were interested in taking a weekend emergency call from a new customer.

"No problem," I say, I'll just go pick up a new pump at Lowes Sunday morning, and do the swap myself. I tell my wife her and the kids will be showering by dinner time.

Well, it turns out that the submersible well pumps sold by Lowes in the size needed for my depth and flow have a 1-1/4" NPT outlet fitting. But neither Lowes nor anyone else open on a Sunday carries 1-1/4" NPT tubing fittings to adapt to our existing ABS. How they can carry a pump without carrying the fitting that the pump requires, is beyond me... one of their buyers missed an opportunity, there.

In the middle of calling around to every hardware and plumbing store in the tri-state area, one of the plumbers I'd tried on Saturday evening finally returned my call, and I was telling him about this fitting I couldn't find anywhere. He happened to have one, so I paid him a service call fee to just come drop off the fitting for me.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Everything breaks on the weekend. Everything.