#so my dad ordered a new hose and installed it

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

me: oh man, so pumped to go to church after missing it last week

GI tract:

[superwingscentral]

'Chopper' Family HCs

Should they have a surname like the Wheels family? Something something Chopper maybe

Holy shit we got a full-quartet

my characters now 👹👹👹

Okay!! So its either:

[ 1) They're all siblings, the order goes like this: (new edit): Runi -> Dizzy -> Sparky -> Zoey (although methinks dizzy is still older bye.) ]

[ 2) Runi and Dizzy are sibs, Sparky and Zoey are sibs, theyre cousins ]

Scenario 1 (and this post is full of this one lmao)

They don't have parents (I imagine them having risky jobs like rescue workers. what if one job went wrong?) Mom was a firefighter, dad was an EMT.

Runi and Dizzy has seperation anxiety purely because of that (Runi manages it better than Dizzy though) Zoey and Sparky was pretty young so they dont really know

Their parents knew Grand Albert and Poppa Wheels. Also Paul too I think

At first Dizzy was kind of against to becoming a rescue worker (for all of them) because what if the same thing happens again?? But she wanted to become one. Then later she changed her mind.

Anyway enough with the angsty stuff

For looks, Dizzy and Zoey took up after their dad. Runi and Sparky took up after their mom

Runi is aroace and Dizzy is bi bc i said so. Runi is he/they bc i also said so

ALL of them have extreme sweet tooth. they would eat pure sugar. They also love spicy stuff (Zoey is really good at making spicy burritos)

(during his firefighter training) Runi got a scratch all across his mouth (ty @/worldairportwonders 's doodle for the insp) and it damaged their vocal system badly. They had to cover his mouth during that time for the treatment, why not spice it up with a cool looking mask? Thats where his mask comes from. Although their voice is now a little raspy.

Zoey is really interested towards biology. She collects dead bugs, plants, etc. to cut them up. On the other hand, Sparky doesnt really like them so Zoey sometimes annoys him with it

Runi loves chemistry, mainly fire interests him. They watch lot of vids about fire experiments, chemical reactions, etc. He never tries anything with fire though (they also watch Curie's experiments)

All of them likes drawing in some way.

Runi left first to become a firefighter. He always dreamed about becoming one

Dizzy left next, to join SW. hard for her at first but after seeing Runi she did it

Zoey left next to become a doctor

Sparky stayed at their house, but he got a hose installed etc etc. there

Then Zoey and Sparky both joined SW :] Runi didnt though, but years later he joined the new generation team

About their house, they had a base-like house on a mountain (like Dizzy's base in season 2) It's not used as a living space now since all of them left but they still go there for reunions etc.

Runi and Zoey are good with cooking, Dizzy and Sparky are good with baking

Whenever they bring someone they're dating each of the family member has different reactions. Runi is chill, Dizzy stares at them constantly, Sparky is nice but also wary, Zoey will try to test them.

When they play Splatoon (they play it. actually majority of them play it. because i said so) Dizzy mains Dynamo, Zoey mains Glooga Dualies, Sparky mains Hydra, Runi mains Range Blaster. These mfs mastered slow weapons and theyre the best defenders

Uhhhhh I don't think I have more rn. I'll reblog when I have probably

[lindoig8]

Sunday 18 April

We were on the road a little earlier than usual and soon met up with a couple (Dad and adult Daughter, we think) going the other way. We had seen almost no other cars on this road, but they hailed us down and asked if we had seen the other two cars in their party of three vehicles. We had, just a few minutes earlier, so they were not far ahead of us and this car had obviously passed them without recognising them. We knew of a side road up to the Strzelecki Track and suggested that their companions may have taken that route, but it was in the opposite direction they wanted to go – to Lyndhurst rather than Innamincka. They turned around and we let them pass us while they raced off to find their friends – only for us to pass them again 30-40 clicks ahead where they were again studying their maps and GPS. We stopped again and used Heather’s Maps.me app to give them the lie of the land because they couldn’t understand their own GPS. Off they went again and we caught up with them and their travelling companions at the junction with the Strzelecki. They had finally found each other, having probably never been more than 10 clicks apart and having passed each other at least once, possibly twice. I have an excellent navigator aboard so I hope we never get into the sort of pickle they seemed to have succumbed to.

The Strzelecki was something of a disappointment! We drove it 191 kilometres west to Lyndhurst and at least half of it was sealed with a good deal more prepared and ready for sealing. I reckon the government, all governments, should just decide to seal the entire surface of Australia and be done with it. There is so little adventure left in the Outback and we are continually hearing stories of the Outback Way, the Plenty Highway, the Tanami and who knows what else being sealed. It is just so sad!!! It will change the face of the Outback once the luxury hotels and resorts are built to take advantage of the bustling tourist traffic on all the sealed freeways (probably tollways!) – totally destroying the last vestige of romance, excitement and challenge. Within a very few years, there will be no authentic Outback to see and explore. If you want to learn about the Outback, do it now or it will be too late.

We had a few more stops along the way and at one place, I heard water dripping onto the road and found that the tap on one of our water tanks had been broken off when a stone flew up and hit it. I plugged it with 'Blue-tack' but doubted if it would hold (and it didn’t).

We were going to get fuel at Lyndhurst, but the bowser was not working and would be fixed in a few days. So we went south to Copley – alas, it was Sunday and the bowser there was closed too. So we ended up at Leigh Creek again, close to 50 kilometres south of Lyndhurst when we wanted to go north, but at least we got fuel. We booked into the Caravan Park at the service station so we could have showers, only to find we had to return to the servo to get the code for the ablution block.

We then found that another stone had broken the inlet hose to our water tanks so we have had to rely on our own tanks and the DC pump in the van ever since. Fortunately, we figured we had plenty of water to last us to Alice Springs so it was not going to delay us while we arranged repairs - at some unknown location!

It is interesting that we always have hundreds of small gravel stones rolling around on the car roof, making it difficult to open the back because they get lodged in the joint between the door and the roof. Every horizontal surface under the car and van is chockers with similar stones, often quite a lot larger, but the only way they can get onto the roof of the car is to be flicked up onto the sloping front of the van and bounce the 2-3 metres forward onto the car roof. There is plenty of evidence of minor stone damage on the van so I don’t suppose it is all that surprising.

A car and trailer turned up a few minutes after we arrived in the caravan park and the woman pleaded with me to tell her the code for the ablution block because she was desperate to use the toilet. I was reluctant because I thought it was a con, but eventually agreed – and they never returned to the servo to pay for their stay in the park. But next day, they wanted to empty their Portaloo and found the dump-point was padlocked. We never had a key so when she asked me for one, I redirected her to the servo and an hour later she returned, presumably having been forced to pay for the night in order to get the key to the dump-point.

We had a loquacious busybody parked next to us at Leigh Creek who was very eager to tell us all the things we were doing wrong and where we should go instead of what our plans involved, but I eventually escaped him and hid out in the van instead. And he left well before us next morning so I avoided most of his ramblings then too.

Monday 19 April

We needed to exchange our empty gas bottle for a full one so went to the servo only to find that the dust had clagged up the padlock on our gas bottle and I had to use some bolt-cutters to cut the lock off. Dearest gas ever at $50 a bottle – usually under $30. (I subsequently had to cut the clogged padlock off our second gas bottle too!)

Our first stop was Farina – the ruins of what was once a sizeable town of well over 300. There were lots of ruins around of shops, a smithy, school, hardware outlet, train station and yards, a bank, mill, bakery, etc., but in 1955 everyone simply walked away and left the place to crumble in their wake. We have seen quite a few places like this, mainly based around a single industry or service (telegraph or train station, for example), but this was a significant diverse township with a Council and local laws – yet within a single year, it became a deserted, heavily-vandalised ruin. Where did everyone go? What did they do in their new abodes? If they left everything behind, how did they survive? It is not much more than 50 years ago, certainly well within my lifetime, and it seems so hard to understand how people simply decided to leave en masse and how they survived afterwards. It certainly gives me cause for thought.

And why are all such buildings so heavily vandalised? Vandals will wreck anything, but most of the wrecked buildings we saw were made out of stone, often constructed of two layers with an air-gap between and up to about 6-700mm thick. What induces vandals to demolish such structures? It would be bloody hard work for no reward. One of the sidings we saw beside the old Ghan track had been left in such a state that I could have given some of the walls a gentle push and the entire wall and roof would have collapsed on me. It looked quite dangerous so why would anyone deliberately leave a building in such a precarious condition? Some very strange people inhabit this world!

We stopped in Marree to fill out our Northern Territory border forms. It took almost an hour – and they were never even looked at. So much bureaucracy for so little benefit. I have probably always been something of a bureaucrat myself but hopefully, always for a purpose. This Covid thing seems simply to always have been a device to keep the population under the thumb of the politicians.

Marree is at the eastern end of the famous Oodnadatta Track (and at the southern end of the Birdsville Track that we drove a few years ago) and the road itself was probably in better condition than it has been for any of our earlier 3-4 crossings. It is more than 600 kilometres of gravel and ends at Marla on the sealed Stuart Highway. We stopped at several places that day: a couple of defunct railway sidings (from when the Ghan paralleled the road en route to Alice Springs) as well as a few dry riverbeds and occasional watercourses, looking at plants and looking for the very elusive birds – of which there have been very few so far this trip. Surprisingly, at one expansive patch of water, I saw a flock of Silver Gulls (500+ km from the ocean), an Australasian Grebe, some Pacific Black Ducks and some Little Black Cormorants – as well as the usual Budgerigars – many more of them than I can recall on previous trips, but many fewer Zebra Finches.

We stopped to photograph some of the Art in the Desert, quirky stuff erected by a local pastoralist who decided that there needed to be more entertainment along the Track. It is just a string of quaint installations a couple of clicks long on his property beside the Track. I will post a couple of pics if I can find them.

We camped overnight at Coward Springs. Literally an oasis in the desert with an extensive permanent wetland that is the habitat of quite a few waterbirds, despite us not seeing any this trip. There were about 150 people there overnight: very different from our previous visits, and a nice little earner for the current owners at $15 a head (plus $10 a head for day visitors). Mind you, there is a lot of work for them to do, just the two of them looking after a big area with diverse challenges not encountered at most ‘resorts’. There are several big date palms there and on our first visit several years ago, we picked some and put them in our pockets for later – needless to say, our pockets ended up full of a dusty gooey mess that was quite inedible. Once bitten…… so we never indulged this time.

Before dinner, I walked to the natural hot spa but never went in. It is not all that big and there was a family already in it so adding us (even if we had wanted) would have made it a bit crowded. I strolled around the edge of the wetland hoping to see some of its inhabitants, but although I was almost constantly regaled with a cacophony of gentle squeaks and squawks from the reeds and shrubbery, I saw only Crested Pigeons.

[kedreeva]

Today Menards emailed to say our pickup order was ready, so I called my dad to bring his truck. He met us in the parking lot and we got in the truckbed and he drove us into the menards lot. All the Menards employees were wearing masks. Every customer in the yard was wearing a mask. We got our posts, our gravel, and then drove around to the pickup area. They took our order form and walked our cart out and left it for us. We emptied it, parked the cart, and my dad drove us back to our car (all without getting out of his truck, we made sure he stayed in). We tagged the lumber, put the loose articles in my car, and followed him to my house. We unloaded everything (by dumping it into our garden cart or yard lol), and I put a dozen farm fresh eggs in my dad’s passenger seat as a thank you, and he left. Sark and I put the road gravel into the parts of our drive that had been turning to mud, and then unloaded the pea gravel into the pen near where we are going to install the support posts for the netting.

Tomorrow we plan to go out and install the support posts and set up the new water system (we keep wrecking hoses so we’re setting up a system to stop that). The posts will be buried 4 feet into the ground and stand 12 feet tall. Next weekend we’ll be putting up the netting, and the weekend after we’ll be moving the birds into it! The goal is to get the outside birds into that pen, til up the first two pens and plant grass in those, and then movie the babies out of the barn so we can renovate/build in the barn this summer to get a pen especially for the bobwhite quail we want to raise for release. If we can stick to this timeline, I should have the 2 “mandatory go home” weeks off to work on building and cleaning the barn.

[selmersix]

Fred & Ed’s South American Tour

PROLOG

Getting Ready:

The time to leave on our adventure is getting close. Ed & Chia are going to Africa on an Ares Tour for three weeks beginning in September. Ed will return on September 20th. He will pack his Africa Twin motorcycle and meet Fred in Jashua Tree National Park.

Fred will venture to Southern California to visit his cousin Louisa Ortiz September 15th. Then ride to Joshua Tree National Park where he will meet up with Ed. From there they will begin their journey to Mexico, Central and South America. The ultimate destination is Ushuaia, Patagonia - Argentina ( the most southern location on the American continent). The trip will cover 18,000 to 20,000 miles, 12 countries, and take 6 months. We plan to arrive in Santiago, Chile for Christmas and New Years.

The bikes require maintenance for this long journey. Change oil , filters, coolant, and adjust valves. New tires will be installed. We will add Oaford Heated Grips, and an electric box to connect the grips, GPS, and heated clothing. Ed will install new fork seals, chain, and sprockets on his bike. Fred did all that when he returned from Alaska last year.

We met at Ed’s house September 12th to work on our bikes. This was scheduled as a three day bike-a-thon. It turned out to be a five day marathon. In order to adjust the valves we needed to remove the crash bars, side panels, gas tank, air box, throttle body, and radiators. Electrical connections everywhere and hoses. Whew! Once we could get to the valve covers it didn’t take long to adjust the valves. Although there was one valve on Ed’s bike that required a shim. We went to the local Honda dealer and got the wrong size shim. Oh no... We had to go back to the dealer and exchange the part. Not a problem but this takes valuable time. Ed adjusted his valves then helped me get my bike together so I could go home on Friday to get ready for a family bon-voyage gathering Saturday September 17th. It took longer then we thought to work on the bikes, but the good news is that we now know our bikes much better .

We worked on our Africa Twin Motorcycles at Ed’s garage. I would not have done all the maintenance and installation of the grips, and electric box without the help of Ed. He is a good mechanic. I assisted wherever I could. I feel lucky to have him as my friend and riding partner.

Good location for Ed’s GPS

While I was at the Perry household Chia arrived one afternoon and surprised Ed and I with a gift of very unique shirts with the map of Central & South America imprinted on the entire shirt. These shirts are amazing.

Saturday arrived and the family gathering got into full swing. The pot luck meal included tamales, salad, spegetti, garlick bread, apricot cobbler, and a birthday cake for Rudy, Henry, Rosemary and Fred. Mark Fassett produced a wonderful video of Hank and Fred’s music history. It included an interview of Dad & Mom, Steve & Mary, that was truly amazing.

[miki-agrawal]

‘My parents helped me pack lube’: from sex toys to bidets, the lockdown businesses that boomed

Polly Rodriguez of Unbound sex toys company in New York. Photograph: Chris Buck/The Guardian

Originally Published on theguardian.com By Jimi Famurewa On July 11, 2020

While some firms have been devastated as Covid-19 grips the planet, others have seen their sales go off the chart. How have they coped?

For most businesses, the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic were an economic horror story measured in job losses and plummeting sales graphs. But this was not the case for everyone. As lockdown measures were imposed around the globe, certain companies struggled to cope with sudden demand from a confined populace with new, highly specific needs.

So what was it like to be the focus of such frenzied consumer interest? How did they cope with self-isolating staff and faltering supply chains? And what are their hopes now the world is tentatively reopening? Here, five different companies reflect on their accidental boom.

‘We’ve donated product to nurses’

Polly Rodriguez, CEO and co-founder of Unbound, in New York

At the beginning of Covid-19, on 31 March, someone tweeted: “All my strongest soldiers on life support” with a video of all these vibrators charging. She tagged us, and it went viral; I think a million people watched it. Suddenly we had all this traffic. The second surge happened on 15 April, which, it so happens, was the day the US federal government gave a lot of people a cheque to get through the crisis. People had this discretionary income that they were spending on our products.

From then we were at a new normal: sales were up by 150% compared with this time last year. This is usually our slowest time of year, because people are travelling and spending on vacations, but every day we’d wake up and say, “Are the numbers going to go down? Is this the day it ends?” It’s like being on a rollercoaster, thinking, it’s got to stop somewhere. And it honestly hasn’t.

We have a stimulating lubricant that has sold really well – 8,500 units in three months – which is probably down to couples trying to make sex a little more interesting. I moved back to the Midwest to stay with my parents for a while, and my mom, dad and boyfriend had to help me get about 2,000 lubricants into packaging. Vibrators are our bestsellers – particularly Bender, a £55 dual stimulation product; pretty soon we ran out of inventory. We were scrambling to set up remote working systems and paying an exorbitant amount to ship product from China, because so many of the commercial flights we use were grounded.

Morale has been tough. We’re a small startup and it has been hard to hear people on the team say that they miss being in the office and seeing other people. I’ve encouraged staff to take a mental health day when they need it. For me, there was one day when I was working from home, I had no groceries, an investor call in 10 minutes and a new, five-month-old puppy. I ran downstairs to grab some delivered food, the puppy freaked out because he didn’t know where I was, and when I came back up he had sprayed diarrhoea everywhere. I burst into tears.

We made more than $400,000 in April which, traditionally, is our slowest month; there was a wholesale order for $70,000 in a single day. It’s weird to have your business doing well during such a sombre time. But I don’t feel guilty; I feel proud. We’ve donated product to nurses. It’s a remarkable thing, that in such a horrific time people are still giving themselves permission to experience pleasure. I think [sex toy] sales will stay at this level until there is a vaccine. It’s going to take a while before normal human behaviour – and the option to have sex with someone you don’t know that well – returns. Humans are sexual by nature. That’s not going to change.

Miki Agrawal and Jason Ojalvo of Tushy, with one of their bidet attachments (just seen in blue). Photograph: Chris Buck/The Guardian

‘Bidets used to scare people. Suddenly it was like we were on a rocket ship’

Miki Agrawal, founder, and Jason Ojalvo, CEO of Tushy, a bidet attachment company based in New York

JO In early March, we started to see a little uptick in sales and my first instinct was that [because of the virus] everyone wanted to be more hygienic, and that a bidet would give them that. We ship internationally, and the Tushy Classic – our bestselling bidet attachment – costs $79 and takes 10 minutes to install [it fits under the seat and is attached to the cistern with a hose]. Then the viral videos of people fighting over toilet paper came out. On 9 March, we did twice what we’d normally sell; the next day it was three times; the day after that it was maybe 20 times, and we had a million dollar sales day when we sold more than 10,000 bidets.

We had a team night out – we call it Forced Fun – and it was this last hurrah, where everyone was on edge and weirded out in this empty bar. The early challenge was production capacity, which we managed to up by about six times. A big part of that was convincing our factories in Asia that it wasn’t just one crazy day, or one crazy week. In April, we changed our revenue target for the year, from $20m to $50m. We also had to hire a dozen new people.

We also sell bamboo butt towels, for people who want to stop buying toilet paper and pat dry. A new, two-month shipment sold out in two or three days. So people are going zero waste and to the next level. I don’t think people will go back now they have discovered bidets, because it’s a game changer – it’s like being given an iPhone and then having to go back to using a rotary dial.

MA It’s a weird product that scares some people. A lot of the negative connotations come from the fact that US soldiers in the second world war associated bidets with the French brothels they visited, so they came back to puritanical America and shunned them. We fully launched Tushy in 2016; the last four years have been about getting people to go against generational attachment to toilet paper and say, “OK, I’ll wash my butt.” We’ve been using humour and a ton of education to lead them towards that cliff edge. So the whole coronavirus thing was just like everyone jumping off at once.

I was in California on sabbatical when everything exploded. I remember FaceTiming the team and everyone was like, this is fun. But after a few days, we were trying to forecast how much stock we needed – and we just couldn’t; I felt the pressure and sadness of the world. It was like we were on a rocket ship, so after a few weeks of the insanity I decided to come back to New York.

If we hit the $50m target, the team will earn a double bonus. Down the road, we’re planning a heated bidet seat. Even though the toilet paper shortage has passed, things are not going back. That part of our body has been neglected and deemed taboo for societal reasons for so long. What we’re saying is, clean it properly, respect it and honour it.

Paul Bodger, managing director of Origin Fitness. Photograph: Robert Ormerod/The Guardian

‘Two refurbished rowing machines sold in the 60 seconds it took to put them online’

Paul Bodger, MD of Origin Fitness, an exercise equipment company in Edinburgh 

A lot of our products are manufactured in China and Taiwan, so we started hearing about factories shutting in January, and that home fitness sales were taking off in Asia. But in early March, our website went bananas. Online sales jumped 1,900%; revenue from those jumped 2,300%, an increase of more than £1m. We were getting a million page views a day and our website, which isn’t built for that traffic, kept crashing. We put a couple of refurbished rowing machines on the site one day and in the 60 seconds it took our web manager to add them, they were sold.

On 17 March, we stopped accepting new orders online, and did the same for two weeks in April. It took the heat and emotion out of the situation. We don’t specialise in retail – about 98% of our business is commercial sales to gyms and other organisations. So I had to furlough most of the staff; when gyms do reopen, the market is going to be slow. Before we ran out of stock, the e-commerce was a lifeline. And I, with other senior management, have been working dispatch, driving forklifts and packing 100kg weights. It’s tough work, but has helped me understand the business again.

Our product range covers everything from £8 dumbbells to exercise bikes costing £5,000; a lot is high-end and not designed for home use. Equipment for online or app-based circuit training – medicine balls especially – exploded. Olympic bars ran out; I thought that would mean the plates that go with them would stop selling, but they didn’t. I imagine there are a lot of people out there lifting our weights with broom handles.

For a lot of customers, it was almost like we were sending their medicine. They would tell us we were helping not just their physical health but their mental health. A good home gym will set you back £10,000, but we had people spending twice that. I keep thinking, are people going to keep this stuff, or is eBay going to be flooded with it? I hope they will keep hold of it, because they won’t want to get caught out again.

Lincoln Romain (far right) and Georgina Taylor (on counter) with the team at Brixton Cycles. Photograph: David Yeo/The Guardian

‘People can’t believe you’ve transformed their bike from a garden ornament into something useful’

Lincoln Romain and Georgina Taylor, workers at Brixton Cycles, a staff-owned bike shop in London

LR I’ve been here 30 years. When the pandemic started, I remember thinking that if we had to shut for three months, I didn’t know how we would survive. We’re a non-profit organisation and it’s hand-to-mouth.

Then after Boris Johnson’s announcement about the lockdown [on 23 March], we found out bike shops were an essential business. People started turning up with bikes for repair, left, right and centre. You couldn’t move in the shop for bikes. One morning in April, we sold six in 30 minutes. They were shotgun sales, where people just wanted to ride out on something.

Very quickly we had to bring in social distancing, allowing only four people in the shop at a time. I had one guy approach me, so I put my hand out to get him to stay back, and he was offended. I was like, “Wow. There’s so much going on, people are dying, and people of colour like me are high risk. But you’re getting your nose slightly twisted because you didn’t want me to put my hand up?” On the whole, though, people have been good. More people are cycling, and I’m seeing local families out on bikes with their kids. I like that.

For many people, buying a new bike is not an option. So when you can revive a rusty old thing by giving it new cables and tyres, and oiling up the chain, their eyes light up. They can’t believe you’ve transformed this garden ornament into something useful.

GT It started with fixing zombie bikes: things that had been pulled from gardens and still had snails living on them. Now, a lot of new bikes in Europe and the UK seem to have sold out, so it’s incredibly frustrating – if our suppliers had more bikes, we’d be selling them. You develop a skill for letting people down gently. Every day people would call and ask for the same thing – a hybrid bike that costs around £400 – and I could hear in their voices that they had already phoned around 20 shops and were distraught.

All the money we’ve made has gone into future-proofing the co-op rather than on bonuses or pay rises, because you never know what’s round the corner. Even though we wish it was under different circumstances, it has been important for us to be open and help so many people. We pushed NHS staff up the queue, and we gave a second-hand bike to a psychiatrist who offered us free group therapy as part payment. I said I’d have to talk to the other co-op members, but maybe after this, it might be quite good.

I’m a cynic, and think maybe only 20% of people will stick with cycling. But those of us who rode a bike during lockdown all saw what a pleasant place the city could be with cleaner air and fewer cars on the road. I don’t like the idea of going back to how things were. The world has got a chance to make things a lot nicer – and riding bicycles can be a big part of that.

Jamie Stanford of Liberty Games. Photograph: David Yeo/The Guardian

‘A pool table isn’t a miracle product, but it brings families together’

Jamie Stanford, managing director of Liberty Games, a game table retailer in Epsom, Surrey

Our business started with renting coin-operated equipment to pubs and clubs 20 years ago. But, of course, the pool machine in a pub has been replaced by a dining table now. What we’ve found is that people want to replicate the experience at home, with air hockey, football tables and table tennis sets that start at under £100 and top out at £50,000.

In early March, people started asking, “Can you deliver before lockdown?” When the announcement came, people piled in. Demand was spiking at around four times the average level. A normal March might mean 80 transactions each day – we were selling more than 400 in a 24-hour period. We didn’t run out of stock immediately. I’d love to say that was because I’d been some wizard and predicted it; really, it was because after Christmas you have leftover stock. But then that got depleted, and, working from home, we were a company with one hand tied behind our backs.

I can picture a moment about two weeks into lockdown when I got back from the office at about 7pm, and looked at the sales graph. I refreshed and it jumped up by the equivalent of a week’s sales in one day. I had dinner, thought about how we’d manage that volume. Then I refreshed it again, and another week’s worth of sales had happened in an hour. That was overwhelming. But our delivery companies were set up to deal with seasonal changes in demand, so took on extra staff and vans. My staff were clocking overtime; our more experienced suppliers ringfenced stock; and I was driving sackloads of pool cue chalk to the post office. It was seven days a week, but we muddled through. There was a slightly guilty, awkward feeling to it, when things are so desperate for other businesses. But this stuff does give people a bit of a lift.

One lady who bought a table tennis top said, “This is the first time I’ve seen a smile on my teenager’s face in three years.” Most of us are introduced to games tables on holiday. They are not a miracle product, but they bring families together. If you’ve got a kid playing Xbox all day and not interacting with his dad or his mum, and a pool table turns up, the family has a communal, enjoyable game that they can try to master.

When restrictions started to ease on 13 May, we thought, OK, that’s it, things will settle down. But we still had the same level of demand. I think this [crisis] is changing the psychology of a lot of people. Going to a restaurant, you’ll just become hypersensitive to every cough, every droplet in the air. It will probably take as long as lockdown lasted for these attitudes to wear off. I’m sure the desire to buy a pool table or a football table will eventually wane. But this has surprised me every single day. So I’m done making predictions.

[come-join-themurder]

Obsessive - Part 5

The Reader is brought back to the clubhouse to get patched up. What happens when Daddy and Jackson find out??? (This will be multi parts so check back for my next installment. As always, if you want to be notified of my updates just let me know and I will message you when I post new chapters) **Disclaimer: I do not suffer from OCD so I cannot begin to imagine what it is like. Any and everything that I am writing is what I’ve learned from people I know and the internet as well as asking advice from friends who know more about it than me. If anything is wrong or inaccurate of someone with OCD, please excuse my ignorance, as I said I am asking questions to help with the descriptions but I’m sure I will get something wrong eventually. Juice Ortiz x Reader

(GIF isn’t mine)  ____________________________

You were awakened by the feeling of someone hoisting you from the truck to carry you to the clubhouse. Your eyes fluttered, catching glimpses of the ground and the person carrying you, it was Juice of course, with Chibs right beside you asking you questions you couldn’t quite understand. “She looks like she’s lost a lot of blood, Juicey,” Chibs remarked as the two men walked towards the Chapel and Juice walked in, laying you on the table. Bobby was sitting in the Chapel working when his two brothers walked in with you, and he looked up from his work, gasping and standing up. “Jesus! What happened?” he asked and the men shrugged, “She hasn’t really spoken much,” Juice claimed, looking to Chibs, “What do we do?” he asked, wiping his now bloody hands off on his shirt. “I’ll go ahead and stitch ‘er up while she’s out. You call her da’ and Jax,” the older man ordered and Juice nodded, walking out of the room and pulling out his phone. You woke up when you felt the sting of a needle piercing your skin to see Chibs standing over you, glasses and gloves on, trying to stitch up your head injury with Bobby standing beside him. He stopped what he was doing and stood straight, looking at you, “Ye’ alrigh’ love?” he asked you and you blinked a few times, nodding to him and he went back to work on your head. “I’m not a practiced doctor lass, ye’ll probably have a scar over yer eye when ’s all said an’ done.” he lamented and you swallowed, feeling cotton mouthed, and began to speak, “It’s ok, we can be scar buddies,” you gave him a half smile and he smirked back at you. “I see ye still have yer sense of humor,” he smiled. “How are you feeling?” Bobby asked and you thought about your injury, “Like I was pistol whipped by a man in panty hose,” you groaned. “Jesus Christ,” Chibs sighed, “Juicey said ye tol’ him someone was in yer home but thought ye might be delusional from th’ blood loss an’ maybe ye just hit yer head. Yer sayin’ someone broke in and attacked you?” he asked as he continued with your stitches. “He was already there when I got home, I pulled the gun but it wasn’t loaded, he took it from me and hit me with it, that’s all I remember,” you spoke quietly, taking a deep breath just as you heard loud voices from the main bar room, Clay and Jax were here. “Where is she.” you heard your dad order before busting through the door with Jax and Juice close behind. “Sweetheart,” he sat at the table in front of you, beside Chibs who was leaned over you still working the needle through your skin, “what in the hell did you do to yourself?” he asked and you immediately went from calm to annoyed and upset, your own father assumed you somehow did this to yourself. Tears welled up in your eyes again for what seemed like the millionth time today, “I didn’t do it dad this wasn’t an accident. I was attacked!” you exclaimed, the tears breaking free. Clay looked to Chibs who nodded, “Aye, th’ lass was jus’ tellin’ us how some fellow was in her apartment when she got home an’ he attacked her,” he defended your claim and Bobby nodded. “Shit,” Jax cursed, looking down and running his hands through his hair before looking back up to you, “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you (Y/N),” he spoke pleadingly. “S'ok Jax,” you sniffled, “I know I’m crazy and its hard to take me seriously…” you trailed off and your dad took your hand in his own, kissing it and then looking to Chibs, Bobby and Juice, “One of you bring her to my house when you’re done patching her up, she doesn’t need to stay alone, not there,” he ordered and you objected, “No. I can’t stay there I need to be home,” you argued. “(Y/N) you were just attacked–” “I don’t care dad, your house makes my OCD out of control and Gemma never lets me do anything for myself when I stay over because it aggravates her to see me do things my way,” you pointed out. Clay sighed and Jax spoke up, “Come stay with me then,” he said and you grumbled, “No Gemma spends more time there than her own house, same thing.” Clay threw his hands up in frustration, “Well I don’t know how to fucking keep you safe (Y/N). Someone’s gotta stay with you then, I’ll put one of the prospects on you.” Your eyes widened and you felt your anxiety heighten at the idea of someone living in your apartment with you, disturbing you and messing up the order you worked so hard to create, moving things or making messes. “No, dad, they’ll move stuff and mess everything up and get in the way!” you cried, sitting up and pulling away from Chibs who grumbled with frustration. “(Y/N) you have to work with me here,” he pleaded with you, “I can put Tig with you…” he trailed off and you huffed, folding your arms. Bobby cleared his throat and looked at you, “I, uh, have an idea,” he interjected and everyone looked at him as he turned his head to Juice. Oh God, you thought, Now he’s going to know I like him! You were silently cursing Bobby as he began to speak again, “Juice has that compulsive shit too so he won’t make a mess and you two seem to get along pretty well,” Bobby motioned between the two of you and you feigned disappointment. Jax looked at Juice who shrugged, “I wanna take a look at the camera feeds anyway, see what they caught. I’m cool with sticking by her for a while, whatever makes her comfortable,” he smiled that heart-stopping smile. Jax turned back to you, “That’s the deal (Y/N), take it or prepare to live with me for a couple weeks,” he bargained with you and you sighed, leaning back on the table so Chibs could finish with you, “Fine… But only Juice, nobody else,” you said, trying to hide the excitement you felt, along with the blushing in your cheeks as the room emptied and Chibs silently went back to work on your face.

[hencoplumbingservices]

What is a washing machine waste hose/pipe/extension?

Get the best plumber Vancouver WA

Ordered a new washing machine and the guys who came to remove the old one and install the new one said that they couldn’t go through with it because I needed to buy two things: 1) an extension hose (I’ve searched it and I think I know what this is – a long hose, think he mentioned it would be blue in colour), and 2) a waste pipe/hose/extension/connecter (he said it would be grey usually). I didn’t think to write down the things I needed (though I should have) so these terms are from memory.

I have no idea what the second thing is. Can someone help me understand? I don’t really have a clue what I’m looking for in terms of the waste thing. I tried but I can’t contact the service guy either.

​

Also I live in the UK so sorry if the terms I’ve used to do with hoses/pipes aren’t universal.

​

Edit: sorry if this is considered a dumb question, I really don’t know much about plumbing or washing machines. My dad’s really annoyed right now (so am I) that I didn’t make a note of the specific things the service guy said. I’m on hardware store websites rn looking for what the waste thing might be – I’m coming across hoses that look similar to number 1, and rubbery short connecter things.

submitted by /u/yandrea [link] [comments]

Find highest rated plumber Vancouver WA

[itsworn]

A 1965 Mustang Convertible for a New Zealander’s Father Back Home

When Chris Slee left his New Zealand home for the States in 2008, he brought his family…and his love of American cars. But just as his family’s genealogy traces back across the Pacific, so does Slee’s passion for American car culture.

Growing up in New Zealand, Slee recalls that is his father, Ron, owned vintage American cars. He says, “We couldn’t afford anything ‘exotic’ like a Mustang, but I remember cars like ’60s Impalas.” Ron Slee always had a soft spot for American cars, and his son, Chris, inherited it.

When Chris Slee wanted to build his 80-year-old father an American car to drive in New Zealand, the obvious choice was a classic Mustang convertible.

The junior Slee now runs Kiwi Classics and Customs in Franklin, Tennessee. Even though he resides 8,000 miles from his father, their love of automotive Americana ties them together. During a visit to the United States when younger Slee came across a 1965 Mustang in Michigan, father and son decided to take a road trip to pick up the car and tour Detroit’s heritage. Once back in Tennessee, Chris planned to rebuild the car and send it to New Zealand for his father to enjoy.

After driving the car back to Tennessee, Chris and his crew at Kiwi Classics and Customs got to work. The project snowballed from a basic restoration to a larger project because of a common reason: rust. Once disassembled, Slee found more of the metal cancer than he anticipated. However, Slee remained pragmatic. “The floors were really rusty. But, if a panel is ‘a little’ rusty or ‘a lot’ rusty, the work is the same to replace it.”

Subtle body modifications are a hallmark of Chris Slee’s work. Note the raised front wheel arches, tight panel gaps, tucked-in bumpers, and smoothed rockers.

One of the hallmarks of Slee’s work is performing subtle sheetmetal modifications to his customers’ cars—and his dad’s ’65 convertible is no exception. None of the features stand out, but rather update and enhance his subject’s classic shape. Astute enthusiasts will notice the raised front wheel arch (1 inch higher than stock), tucked-in bumpers, and precise fender gaps. Slee also extended the rocker panel sheetmetal to fill in the gap to the pinch weld. The result is a smooth rocker panel that tucks up cleanly under the car. Slee also reworked the rear fender pinch welds to match the tidiness of the rocker treatment.

One of the most noteworthy coachwork customizations is incorporating 1967 Mustang hoodscoops and turn signal indicators into the 1965 hood. Slee is proud of the result, and adds, “It’s one of the first things Mustang people notice about the car.”

Subtle body modifications are a hallmark of Chris Slee’s work. Note the raised front wheel arches, tight panel gaps, tucked-in bumpers, and smoothed rockers.

Interestingly, Slee had to restrain himself from making more extensive sheetmetal and powertrain alterations. In New Zealand, modified vehicles are subject to a strict “compliancing” process. All collision repairs and other modifications are subject to inspection by a certified automotive engineer, who vouches for the safety of every vehicle that’s modified beyond its original equipment. Slee explains, “A lot of what some people do here in the States would never fly over in New Zealand. So, I couldn’t really cut up the body and add a big-horsepower engine without running afoul of a New Zealand compliance inspector.”

With the metalwork done, Slee turned his attention to the paint. “We had a blue color in mind, but not the typical dark blue often seen on these cars. We took some Matrix paint colors and started mixing, and added pearls and metal flakes of various sizes. It took thirteen tries, but we found something we liked.” Kiwi Classics and Customs’ in-house painter, Barry Bannister, fogged the custom color over the Mustang’s smoothed panels. Bannister even painted the underbody with a tinted Raptor coating to protect the floors from rock chips.

Slee incorporated the Vintage Air vents into the metal dashboard and relocated the controls to the center for a subtle, integrated look.

Suspension modifications were also kept simple to please New Zealand’s compliance inspectors. The front was treated to a “Shelby drop” kit, while Summit Racing 1-inch drop rear springs were installed to level the ride. An upgraded Borgeson steering box tightened up the steering feel, while Slee painted a set of stock-style four-piston front calipers in body color to brighten up the braking equipment.

The front discs and rear drums were installed behind US Mags measuring 17×7 and 17×8 front and rear, respectively. Slee ordered the wheels with textured gray centers and diamond-cut lips, and then wrapped them in Hankook P235/45R17 rubber up front and P245/45R17 rubber in the rear.

Slee incorporated 1967 hoodscoops and turn signal indicators into the 1965 hood.

The custom touches continued with the interior, and specifically to the dashboard. “I didn’t like how the bezels for the Vintage Air conditioning system hung below the dash, so I incorporated them into the dashboard.” Slee also relocated the controls to the center of the dash in a space formerly occupied by the ash tray. “Most people don’t notice that I moved it unless I point it out.”

Slee turned to TMI Products for their interior expertise, including complete low-back bucket seats, a full console, dashpad, and full-length door panels. The rich, tan leather contrasts nicely with the bright blue paint and matching TMI cloth convertible top.

Slee painted the bumpers and tucked them closely to the body.

The Mustang’s original straight-six engine and three-speed transmission were chucked in favor of a 5.0-liter/five-speed combination snatched from a 1995 Mustang GT. When asked about any engine work, Slee replies, “We weren’t planning on it, but when swapping to a proper oil pan for the ’65, I made the mistake of checking the main bearings.” The inspection resulted in a complete rebuild from Grooms Engines in Nashville, Tennessee. Slee topped the freshened short-block with a set of Flo-Tek aluminum heads, a Summit Racing Stage 1 intake, and a Quick Fuel 600-cfm carburetor. A CFR front engine accessory drive kit, valve covers, and air cleaner complete the under-hood aesthetics.

To clean up the engine bay, Slee filled a lot of the holes, hid the air conditioning hoses and wiring harnesses, and fabricated a custom radiator cover panel emblazoned with the Māori warrior—a symbol of New Zealand culture, and used in the Kiwi Classics and Customs logo.

The smooth lower body look continues from the extended rocker panels to the rear fender seam behind the wheels.

Slee always keeps the needs of his customers in the forefront of his mind, and as such this Mustang retains three pedals. “Even though my father is 80 years old, he insisted on driving a stick shift.” The aforementioned 1995 Mustang five-speed gearbox received a new countershaft cluster, fresh clutch, and stock shifter to make his dad’s driving chores as easy as possible. Torque from the Tremec box is sent to an 8-inch rearend with 2.80:1 gears and an open differential. “The one-tire fryer is actually a safety measure. If my dad spins the tires, the differential keeps it from going sideways.” Flowtech headers and a Summit Racing exhaust kit make sure Ron Slee’s neighbors in New Zealand know when he’s coming or going.

Ron Slee’s Mustang is a perfect example that one doesn’t need to go overboard to build a fabulous car. It’s the little things that complete the package. By the time you read this, the blue beauty you see before you will be on an 8,000-mile journey to Auckland, New Zealand, where Slee’s father will ignite genealogy and gasoline every time he turns the key.

A 5.0L/five-speed sourced from a 1995 Mustang GT fills the engine bay. A Quick Fuel carburetor, Flo-Tek aluminum heads, and a Summit Racing intake manifold enhance motivation.

Kiwi Classics and Customs’ Barry Bannister sprayed the tinted Raptor liner on the underside of the Mustang to make sure this Mustang survives any surface it drives in New Zealand.

Ron Slee (left) and his son and car builder, Chris Slee (right), take a selfie during their Michigan-to-Tennessee road trip in front of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame.

The post A 1965 Mustang Convertible for a New Zealander’s Father Back Home appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network http://www.hotrod.com/articles/a-1965-mustang-convertible-for-a-new-zealanders-father-back-home/ via IFTTT

[smoothshift]

Is being a loser a prerequisite in order to work at Autozone/ Advanced Auto? via /r/cars

Is being a loser a prerequisite in order to work at Autozone/ Advanced Auto?

So, every time I go to my local Autozone, it seems that I meet a new idiot that loves to share their unsolicited opinions with me. If you'll allow me, I'd like to share a few fun stories, maybe some of you can relate:

When my battery died, I went to Autozone to pick a new one up. I figured I'd buy the best one that they had and it would probably last the rest of my 22 year old car's life. I am greeted by an all-too-friendly salesman, and I tell him what I want. "Oh, no, you don't want X brand, you want DURALAST." Whatever. During checkout, he's beaming the whole time and trying to be talkative, and says he can only do cash on this register, which is fine because that's what I was planning on using. He's talking about his favorite car batteries or something, but I ask what the $40 extra was on top of the sticker price. He was nervous and fumbling for words. n employee whom assume was the manager walks over with a concerned look on his face since he was nearby and overheard me. He pulled the salesman aside to his office, and he came back and took off the extra $40 charge. I asked what it turned out to be mumble grumble "taxes... fees...". I smiled and said "are you new here?" assuming he just punched something in wrong. He had been working there six months. Speculation, but I think he was trying to skim the $40 for himself and void it off of the transaction later since he asked me to pay in cash and acted so shady when I asked what the charge was. Might've worked on a naive shopper, but I'm a poor young car guy, so I caught it. Can only wonder if it had worked for him before. THEN, he insists that he install the battery himself even though I made it clear that I intended to do it myself. I reluctantly obliged, and off we went to the strip mall parking lot. He began telling me how he owned a Hellcat Challenger but unfortunately "had to sell it because his sister's boyfriend was a volunteer firefighter and needed the money". Ok, guy, sure. He talked about a few other pricey muscle cars he had owned. I asked him what he owned currently, and he pointed to a base model bright orange Dodge Dart. He interrupted himself by saying "I know what you're thinking, but this thing is a sleeper. It's almost as good as the Hellcat, and I've had a lot of people say it looks even cooler." Wow, ok. I just want my battery changed. He fumbles with the hood release and holds the hood up with his head as he installs the battery. I wordlessly prop it up to relieve his head. We start the car to charge up the new battery. "Wow, it's been awhile since I've seen one of these old Hondas! Throttle by wire too!" and proceeds to bang off rev limiter for several seconds by yanking the throttle cable. Uhg. "Y'know... me and my dad paint cars for people. This car would look a lot meaner in black. I could paint it for you for pretty cheap." I let him know that I accept that it's not a "mean" car, and I really like the green paint it has already. On our way back in to drop off the old battery, he tells me how slow my car is, and that I could really "wake it up" with a new intake. He pulls me over to the ugliest, chromiest, cheapest looking ram intake I have ever seen, which I'm sure would have fit my car with enough tape and hose clamps, and says "this would be a great mod for a tuner. I get paid commission, too, so you'd be helping me out." I am embarassed and ask when he's working again, maybe I'll check it out another time. Probably not though, right? He proceeds to tell me all about the wonderful Autozone doodads he can get me for my car, leaving me to stand there with this corroded battery. I needed to leave. I just told him I had to get going. He tried to give me his phone number, I declined, and left the battery on the floor.

I need an oil filter and I'm in a hurry. Didn't realize they weren't behind the counter, big mistake. I told the guy at the desk what I drive, and he laughs at me, literally calling his customer's car gay in his place of work. I didn't ask for a car review, but great! I grab my filter and go to check out, and he said "you know you're gonna need oil with that too" and laughs his ass off. A real comedian. I grumble and leave. I come back 30 minutes later for them to dispose of my old filter and oil, and one of the other employees says "wow, a Del Sol, those are so cool! I want one" or something like that. I thank him, and the guy from earlier that assumed the sexuality of my car said "I'll never drive anything that's not American. Imports are all garbage." The other employee said "really?" which I thought was a facetious remark, but it was, in fact, a genuine inquisition. The import-hating employee confirmed, and the other just said "wow." All I could do was blink. I just want my fucking oil bucket back. He mentioned that he drove a Mercury Tracer himself. I'm done. On my way out, I hear something something "Ricer". Not the first, not the last.

My father and I went to get oil for his terminal Pruis (now sold) that was somehow burning 2 quarts of oil in a week. The Dodge Dart enthusiast was working, and recognized me. As we tried to pick out oil, he talked to us about these great new floormats they just got in stock and offered to show them to us. Oh my God, please fuck off.

These are just the worst times I've been there, other times I have been subject to bad salesmanship and overall bad taste in what opinions to share and which ones to keep to yourself. I'm not knocking every employee of every Autozone, but I feel that they attract individuals who aren't qualified to be Jiffy Lube technicians, but also know that cars have a whole lotta parts, am I right??? Usually working minimum wage, so they couldn't care less about the job, either. At this point, I will be taking my business online for my auto parts needs when there is no urgency in when I get them.

Anyone else have this kind of experience?