• have bussiness ceased?

    From ck@21:1/5 to All on Sat Nov 27 10:29:12 2021
    Is anybody there?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Leon@21:1/5 to All on Sat Nov 27 09:13:01 2021
    On 11/27/2021 3:29 AM, ck wrote:
    Is anybody there?

    No we are all at home.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Sonny@21:1/5 to Leon on Sat Nov 27 07:44:52 2021
    On Saturday, November 27, 2021 at 9:13:10 AM UTC-6, Leon wrote:
    On 11/27/2021 3:29 AM, ck wrote:
    Is anybody there?

    No we are all at home.

    I'd been away from home, out in the country.... checked on the chestnut trees, also. They have a bit of insect-chewed leaves, not much, and seem to be doing well, otherwise. Initially about 18"-20" tall, now they are about 4' tall. Initially
    planted 10, only three have survived. The area is about 200 miles south and west from the historical chestnut southern most growing area, so I'm satisfied these few have survived. Five of the dead were trampled by cows..... I should have known
    better than to have planted them, there. They are not the hybrid chestnuts and I'm hoping the blight aspect is not in this far SW area, for them to be subsequently affected/infected.

    There's and old 50' tree that has long ago fallen in the area, seems nice solid wood, still. The middle 35' of the trunk is about 14" dia. one end and 10" dia. the farther end. I might collect and mill it, see what reasonable wood is there.....
    hoping it might be white oak. Also, nearby, a large red oak has fallen recently.... 30" dia. and 40' long nice straight trunk. I may collect and have it milled, also. As if I don't have enough lumber, but I dislike seeing potentially good wood
    rot away.

    Sonny

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Grossbohlin@21:1/5 to All on Sat Nov 27 10:43:50 2021
    "ck" wrote in message news:61a1fa68$0$6456$426a74cc@news.free.fr...

    Is anybody there?

    Was busy cleaning my shop and putting "stuff" away from my renovation,
    natural edge walnut slab window stool project, snowblower repairs, and other projects that I hadn't made time for previously.

    I found a new shop tool that I fully endorse. It's ZEP sweeping compound. https://www.homedepot.com/p/ZEP-50-lbs-Sweeping-Compound-HDSWEEP50/202056504

    The sweeping compound keeps the dust from becoming airborne. It also
    attracts dust and seems to pull it out of the concrete surface. It offers a light scrubbing action when pushed around with a wide broom that removed
    some of the shop grime from the floor too. It got fire extinguisher "dust"
    off the concrete that had escaped sweeping and vacuuming in the
    past--somehow or other my son accidently discharged a fire extinguisher that was in a box of stuff he had stored in my basement.

    It worked so good in the shop and basement that I used it in the rooms I'm renovating... I addition to the construction dust I have an English Setter
    so little white hairs were everywhere too. It all came up and the dog hair accumulated on the broom instead of taking off into the air.

    Wonderful product!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Leon@21:1/5 to John Grossbohlin on Sat Nov 27 14:14:23 2021
    On 11/27/2021 9:43 AM, John Grossbohlin wrote:
    "ck"  wrote in message news:61a1fa68$0$6456$426a74cc@news.free.fr...

    Is anybody there?

    Was busy cleaning my shop and putting "stuff" away from my renovation, natural edge walnut slab window stool project, snowblower repairs, and
    other projects that I hadn't made time for previously.

    I found a new shop tool that I fully endorse. It's ZEP sweeping
    compound. https://www.homedepot.com/p/ZEP-50-lbs-Sweeping-Compound-HDSWEEP50/202056504


    The sweeping compound keeps the dust from becoming airborne. It also
    attracts dust and seems to pull it out of the concrete surface. It
    offers a light scrubbing action when pushed around with a wide broom
    that removed some of the shop grime from the floor too. It got fire extinguisher "dust" off the concrete that had escaped sweeping and
    vacuuming in the past--somehow or other my son accidently discharged a
    fire extinguisher that was in a box of stuff he had stored in my basement.

    It worked so good in the shop and basement that I used it in the rooms
    I'm renovating... I addition to the construction dust I have an English Setter so little white hairs were everywhere too. It all came up and the
    dog hair accumulated on the broom instead of taking off into the air.

    Wonderful product!




    Very cool! So does that sweeping compound have a color, red maybe?

    Way back when, 60's, the small town that my grand mother lived in had 2
    grocery stores. Both within eye site of each other and my grand
    mother's house. Her preferred store delivered groceries inside her home
    and put her grovery bill on her tab. Boy, those were the days. Anyway
    the store had red wooden floors. Red because of the red sweeping
    compound that was piled up in all the corners.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DerbyDad03@21:1/5 to All on Sat Nov 27 20:13:45 2021
    On Saturday, November 27, 2021 at 4:29:15 AM UTC-5, ck wrote:
    Is anybody there?

    I was there, but now I'm on my way to not there.

    I didn't feel like driving 10 hours in the rain and snow, so I got a room
    for the night, halfway between there and not there.

    My son and his GF bought a house there. Nice place. Too bad there
    is a 10 hour drive from not there. I'd like to spend more time there.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to teamarrows@eznet.net on Sat Nov 27 23:56:34 2021
    On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 20:13:45 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Saturday, November 27, 2021 at 4:29:15 AM UTC-5, ck wrote:
    Is anybody there?

    I was there, but now I'm on my way to not there.

    I didn't feel like driving 10 hours in the rain and snow, so I got a room
    for the night, halfway between there and not there.

    My son and his GF bought a house there. Nice place. Too bad there
    is a 10 hour drive from not there. I'd like to spend more time there.

    Smart kid. It's good to get away from the parents for a time. 10H is
    perhaps a bit much. Our first place was at least twice that. Remember
    the national 55mph speed limit? CB radios and RADAR detectors? ;-)

    I didn't pick up my new truck from not there, either. Four month
    order cycle. Could be worse but having SWMBO chaffering me around
    wasn't fun (but could drive anyway).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Puckdropper@21:1/5 to ck@none.none on Sun Nov 28 10:42:27 2021
    ck <ck@none.none> wrote in news:61a1fa68$0$6456$426a74cc@news.free.fr:

    Is anybody there?

    Yeah... Got to do some "woodworking" if you can call it that. The tree has decided our drainpipe is the way to be, so now I have to either find a
    plumber or an electric root cutting auger. I'm very tempted to go the root cutting auger way. The last guy was excellent but it cost nearly $2000 for
    the camera, auger, and removing roots every 3' along the pipe.

    Puckdropper

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DerbyDad03@21:1/5 to k...@notreal.com on Sun Nov 28 17:20:30 2021
    On Saturday, November 27, 2021 at 11:56:40 PM UTC-5, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 20:13:45 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teama...@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Saturday, November 27, 2021 at 4:29:15 AM UTC-5, ck wrote:
    Is anybody there?

    I was there, but now I'm on my way to not there.

    I didn't feel like driving 10 hours in the rain and snow, so I got a room >for the night, halfway between there and not there.

    My son and his GF bought a house there. Nice place. Too bad there
    is a 10 hour drive from not there. I'd like to spend more time there.
    Smart kid. It's good to get away from the parents for a time. 10H is
    perhaps a bit much. Our first place was at least twice that.

    They've been away from the 'rents for a while. 9 years I think.

    First it was 2500 miles away. Only drove there once, sort of. Flew 2300 miles to Son #2's house, then drove 8 hours over 2 days (sight seeing) to Son #1's place.

    Then it was a 6 hour drive, but only for 1 year. Drove that twice. That's easy.

    Now it's 10 hours. Maybe I'll drive it in spring/summer, but driving in the snow
    and rain @ 31° really sucks.

    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Remember the national 55mph speed limit? CB radios and RADAR detectors? ;-)

    I like the stretches of 70 MPH limits from this trip. I always add 9 MPH, don't even
    slow down when I see the po-po.

    Son #2 spends time with his truck in the dunes of NV and CA. They still use CB's when
    there's no cell coverage.


    I didn't pick up my new truck from not there, either. Four month
    order cycle. Could be worse but having SWMBO chaffering me around
    wasn't fun (but could drive anyway).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to teamarrows@eznet.net on Sun Nov 28 22:13:37 2021
    On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 17:20:30 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Saturday, November 27, 2021 at 11:56:40 PM UTC-5, k...@notreal.com wrote: >> On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 20:13:45 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teama...@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Saturday, November 27, 2021 at 4:29:15 AM UTC-5, ck wrote:
    Is anybody there?

    I was there, but now I'm on my way to not there.

    I didn't feel like driving 10 hours in the rain and snow, so I got a room >> >for the night, halfway between there and not there.

    My son and his GF bought a house there. Nice place. Too bad there
    is a 10 hour drive from not there. I'd like to spend more time there.
    Smart kid. It's good to get away from the parents for a time. 10H is
    perhaps a bit much. Our first place was at least twice that.

    They've been away from the 'rents for a while. 9 years I think.

    First it was 2500 miles away. Only drove there once, sort of. Flew 2300 miles >to Son #2's house, then drove 8 hours over 2 days (sight seeing) to Son #1's >place.

    We moved out on them. They're still in the People's Republic of
    Vermont. 1200mi, IIRC

    Then it was a 6 hour drive, but only for 1 year. Drove that twice. That's easy.

    Now it's 10 hours. Maybe I'll drive it in spring/summer, but driving in the snow
    and rain @ 31° really sucks.

    I put my food down. May to October. I never want to see snow again.
    We have a couple of times in the ten years. Everyone freaks but the
    strategy is simple. Stay home until the nuts are in the ditch.

    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Remember the national 55mph speed limit? CB radios and RADAR detectors? ;-)

    I like the stretches of 70 MPH limits from this trip. I always add 9 MPH, don't even
    slow down when I see the po-po.

    It's 70mph on the Interstates here but speed limits are just
    suggestions. They drive in the big city at 80-90 in 55-65 zones,
    zig-zagging, driving on shoulders, whatever, all the way. On local
    roads we're blown off if we're going the speed limit. If the powers
    that be wanted to eliminate all taxes, all they'd have to is enforce
    traffic regulations. They'd need a *lot* more officers though.

    Son #2 spends time with his truck in the dunes of NV and CA. They still use CB's when
    there's no cell coverage.


    I didn't pick up my new truck from not there, either. Four month
    order cycle. Could be worse but having SWMBO chaffering me around
    wasn't fun (but could drive anyway).



    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to Puckdropper on Mon Nov 29 11:39:46 2021
    On 11/28/2021 5:42, Puckdropper wrote:
    ck<ck@none.none> wrote in news:61a1fa68$0$6456$426a74cc@news.free.fr:

    Is anybody there?

    Yeah... Got to do some "woodworking" if you can call it that. The tree has decided our drainpipe is the way to be, so now I have to either find a plumber or an electric root cutting auger. I'm very tempted to go the root cutting auger way. The last guy was excellent but it cost nearly $2000 for the camera, auger, and removing roots every 3' along the pipe.

    Puckdropper

    Have you tried copper sulfate down the drain? I have to have a guy come
    out an auger tree roots form the sewer, sometimes 80 feet out, because eventually the greywater starts backing up into my cellar (thank God,
    typically not the toilet). Seems to happen every 2 years. He told me
    last time that if it happens again, I really should pay for the camera
    line inspection. It's the old terracotta pipes.

    Anyway, I bought a bag of copper sulfate on eBay, and they jammed the 10
    lbs of sulfate into this flat rate bubble mailer... I have no clue how
    it fit, but they REALLY got their monies worth out of that little
    envelope from USPS... haha! I'm going to dump some directly into the
    clean-out in the cellar with water, and flush the rest. Supposedly if
    you do it annually, it will kill all of the tree roots that get into the
    pipes, without killing the tree.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to All on Mon Nov 29 11:35:46 2021
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed
    at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became
    an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the
    same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the
    waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bob La Londe@21:1/5 to All on Mon Nov 29 10:17:46 2021
    On 11/27/2021 2:29 AM, ck wrote:
    Is anybody there?


    I started out 2021 very strong, on schedule, with lots of work, and a
    little working capital to smooth over any bumps. A death in the family,
    a brain surgery in the family, elderly relatives that needed extra care
    and took it as opening for demanding care for months, a couple jobs that
    went badly, and 2021 may well be my most hated year in business since I
    started my first business back in the 1980s. I feel like I've been
    treading water. The reality is it could have been a very good year.
    The work has been there, and its profitable work.

    I've been working seven days a week trying to get back on level ground,
    but when you have a bad day you can't just leave it for somebody else to
    clean up your mess when you are self employed. Yesterday working late I managed to destroy 11 work pieces simultaneously on three different
    machines. I have stacks of parts that just need a little hand finishing
    to ship I never even got to.

    Personal projects? Not flipping likely. Not any time soon. I have a whiteboard in the back of the shop with a list of necessary personal and
    shop projects. They are prioritized with numbers from 1-10 with 10
    being urgent. Lots of 9s on there, but the only one labeled 10 is clean
    up the shop. The list hasn't changed in months until Thanksgiving day
    when I finally moved my construction tool cart of of the house and back
    to the shop after installing a shop made stainless surround behind the
    stove. That was NOT on my list. It was on my wife's list. Getting the
    tool cart back was an 8 on my to do list. A new (earlier this year)
    milling machine in the shop really needed its own tool cart. I was very
    happy to cross that off my list, then right below it add a new one.
    Empty tool cart. Still I felt good about it. Friday I got a couple
    small jobs done in the shop. Saturday was about the same. Sunday was
    on track to be a banner day bringing me a lot closer to being on
    schedule until it wasn't.


    --
    This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
    https://www.avg.com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to All on Mon Nov 29 13:47:53 2021
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon <lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast?  I've stayed
    at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID".  I figured it became
    an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the
    same for a room and save money.  I miss staying at a hotel with the
    waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this
    year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a >minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the
    North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a
    year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple
    of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often
    mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DerbyDad03@21:1/5 to Michael Trew on Mon Nov 29 10:56:10 2021
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 11:35:49 AM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.
    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast?

    What's to derail? This is a strange thread anyway. Just look at the OP. ;-)


    I've stayed
    at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became
    an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the
    same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the
    waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.

    Free breakfast hasn't been an issue for me recently. I stayed at a cheap Comfort Inn in New England, a nice Marriott in the Great Lakes Region
    (twice) and booked a Hilton (Home2 Suites) in the mid-west for my
    daughter. All had free breakfast, although the breakfast offerings at the Comfort Inn left a lot to be desired. I was traveling alone, so I went cheap. SWMBO wouldn't have approved of my choice and I wouldn't have blamed
    her. What a dump.

    If I want to complain about something, it would be the Pet Fees. Both the Marriott and the Hilton list their properties as "Pet Friendly" and then
    charge $100 and $75 respectively for bringing a pet. When you are only
    staying one night, that's one heck of an upcharge.

    I booked the Marriott directly through the property and talked them into reducing the fee to $50 for each single night stay. However, when I checked
    in for the second stay, I was politely informed that as of January 1st, they would no longer be discounting the fee. I don't have plans to stop there
    again any time soon, but I'd really like to test that claim.

    As far as the Hilton, I had to book that through their (offshore, I suspect) reservations desk. They couldn't discount the Pet Fee, but when I threatened
    to reserve elsewhere, they took $25 off the room rate to essentially get the Pet Fee down to $50.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Leon@21:1/5 to Michael Trew on Mon Nov 29 12:27:27 2021
    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast?  I've stayed
    at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID".  I figured it became
    an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the
    same for a room and save money.  I miss staying at a hotel with the
    waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this
    year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bill@21:1/5 to Bob La Londe on Mon Nov 29 14:10:05 2021
    On 11/29/2021 12:17 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
    On 11/27/2021 2:29 AM, ck wrote:
    Is anybody there?


    I started out 2021 very strong, on schedule, with lots of work, and a
    little working capital to smooth over any bumps.  A death in the family,
    a brain surgery in the family, elderly relatives that needed extra care
    and took it as opening for demanding care for months, a couple jobs that
    went badly, and 2021 may well be my most hated year in business since I started my first business back in the 1980s.  I feel like I've been
    treading water.  The reality is it could have been a very good year. The work has been there, and its profitable work.

    I've been working seven days a week trying to get back on level ground,
    but when you have a bad day you can't just leave it for somebody else to clean up your mess when you are self employed.  Yesterday working late I managed to destroy 11 work pieces simultaneously on three different machines.  I have stacks of parts that just need a little hand finishing
    to ship I never even got to.

    Personal projects?  Not flipping likely.  Not any time soon.  I have a whiteboard in the back of the shop with a list of necessary personal and
    shop projects.  They are prioritized with numbers from 1-10 with 10
    being urgent.  Lots of 9s on there, but the only one labeled 10 is clean
    up the shop.  The list hasn't changed in months until Thanksgiving day
    when I finally moved my construction tool cart of of the house and back
    to the shop after installing a shop made stainless surround behind the stove.  That was NOT on my list.  It was on my wife's list.  Getting the tool cart back was an 8 on my to do list.  A new (earlier this year)
    milling machine in the shop really needed its own tool cart.  I was very happy to cross that off my list, then right below it add a new one.
    Empty tool cart.  Still I felt good about it.  Friday I got a couple
    small jobs done in the shop.  Saturday was about the same.  Sunday was
    on track to be a banner day bringing me a lot closer to being on
    schedule until it wasn't.



    I agree with you that "lists" are a really valuable tool--surely
    under-rated ones! Your note serves as a gentle reminder to all to be a
    bit humble and thankful, and not to just take everything for granted. I
    wish you, as well as everyone else here, a sincere good luck with your
    various projects going forward, into and including 2022!

    Cheers!
    -Bill

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Leon@21:1/5 to krw@notreal.com on Mon Nov 29 13:49:41 2021
    On 11/29/2021 12:47 PM, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon <lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast?  I've stayed
    at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID".  I figured it became >>> an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the
    same for a room and save money.  I miss staying at a hotel with the
    waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this
    year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a
    minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the
    North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a
    year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple
    of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often
    mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.


    I meant to mention the exception to the places we stayed at. We were
    going to eat on the way, lunch, in Arkansas. Arkansas was like a ghost
    state unless you were in the bigger cities. Many FF places had boarded
    up and closed..

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DerbyDad03@21:1/5 to Michael Trew on Mon Nov 29 13:56:52 2021
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed
    at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of >>> a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became >>> an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the >>> same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the
    waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this
    year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a >> minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the
    North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple
    of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid.

    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests when you have 94 empty rooms.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to krw@notreal.com on Mon Nov 29 16:18:10 2021
    On 11/29/2021 13:47, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed
    at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became >>> an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the
    same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the
    waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this
    year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a
    minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the
    North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a
    year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple
    of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often
    mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.

    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I
    stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to All on Mon Nov 29 16:17:11 2021
    On 11/29/2021 13:56, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 11:35:49 AM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:

    I've stayed
    at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became
    an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the
    same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the
    waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.

    Free breakfast hasn't been an issue for me recently. I stayed at a cheap Comfort Inn in New England, a nice Marriott in the Great Lakes Region
    (twice) and booked a Hilton (Home2 Suites) in the mid-west for my
    daughter. All had free breakfast, although the breakfast offerings at the Comfort Inn left a lot to be desired. I was traveling alone, so I went cheap. SWMBO wouldn't have approved of my choice and I wouldn't have blamed
    her. What a dump.

    If I want to complain about something, it would be the Pet Fees. Both the Marriott and the Hilton list their properties as "Pet Friendly" and then charge $100 and $75 respectively for bringing a pet. When you are only staying one night, that's one heck of an upcharge.

    I booked the Marriott directly through the property and talked them into reducing the fee to $50 for each single night stay. However, when I checked in for the second stay, I was politely informed that as of January 1st, they would no longer be discounting the fee. I don't have plans to stop there again any time soon, but I'd really like to test that claim.

    As far as the Hilton, I had to book that through their (offshore, I suspect) reservations desk. They couldn't discount the Pet Fee, but when I threatened to reserve elsewhere, they took $25 off the room rate to essentially get the Pet Fee down to $50.

    Ah, typically I'm looking for a room that costs less than $100/night for
    a quick over-night stay and a shower during a long road trip. I usually
    have good luck with the free hotel magazines at truck stops and rest
    areas, honestly. An older guy told me to look for those, and it's
    always a cheap, clean room so far. Perhaps these cheap places in the
    mid-west are the last ones clinging to "No breakfast COVID".

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to michael.trew@att.net on Mon Nov 29 20:12:06 2021
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 13:47, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed >>>> at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of >>>> a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became >>>> an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the >>>> same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the
    waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this
    year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a >>> minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the
    North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a
    year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple
    of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often
    mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.

    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier
    states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated
    from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to teamarrows@eznet.net on Mon Nov 29 20:15:20 2021
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 13:56:52 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed
    at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of >> >>> a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became >> >>> an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the >> >>> same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the
    waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this
    year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a >> >> minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the
    North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a
    year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple
    of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often
    mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I
    stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop >offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid.

    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests when you >have 94 empty rooms.

    Good point. "Free" breakfast is a marketing tool to "steal" customers
    from other hotels in the area. If there are no customers to steal or
    not enough to market to, it makes sense not to do the marketing.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Leon@21:1/5 to All on Tue Nov 30 08:45:12 2021
    On 11/29/2021 3:56 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed >>>>> at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of >>>>> a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became >>>>> an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the >>>>> same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the
    waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this
    year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a >>>> minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the
    North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a
    year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple
    of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often
    mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I
    stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid.

    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests when you have 94 empty rooms.


    This is true but most hotels are not offering daily room service either.
    You get a clean room and a made bed when you walk in. Then it up to
    you to do the daily routines yourself.
    Over night, not so bad, extended stay, not so good.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DerbyDad03@21:1/5 to Leon on Tue Nov 30 07:49:18 2021
    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 9:45:17 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 3:56 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed >>>>> at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of >>>>> a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became >>>>> an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the >>>>> same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the >>>>> waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this >>>> year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a >>>> minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the
    North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a >>> year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple
    of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often
    mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid.

    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests when you
    have 94 empty rooms.


    This is true but most hotels are not offering daily room service either.
    You get a clean room and a made bed when you walk in. Then it up to
    you to do the daily routines yourself.
    Over night, not so bad, extended stay, not so good.

    What daily routines are you referring to, specifically ones that you would
    do at a hotel?

    In my recent experience, the amount of cleaning varies. Some offer new
    towels every 3 days, things like that. Extra house cleaning is often an option, you just have to ask. IIRC that began way before Covid, especially the towels. It's all about "water conservation", so they say.

    It's been years since I did anything that even resembled an "extended stay" at a hotel, so cleaning has not been issue for me. Usually it's just 1 or 2 nights.
    I've taken longer vacations but in most cases we move around, like 2 nights here, 2 nights there, etc. In addition, we tend to use Airbnb more than hotels for anything longer than 2 nights. They don't get cleaned every day either, never did.

    Bottom line, I don't think I've stayed anywhere that required me to "clean" my room during my stay. I don't clean my own bathroom or change the sheets
    every few days, so why would I do it at a hotel? In fact, even back in the days where daily cleaning was routine, I usually hung the Do Not Disturb tag on the door anyway. I never needed anyone to clean for me every day and I didn't have to worry about "neatening up" before they came in. Basically, I didn't want them
    in my room during my stay.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Leon@21:1/5 to All on Tue Nov 30 10:08:54 2021
    On 11/30/2021 9:49 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 9:45:17 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 3:56 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed >>>>>>> at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of >>>>>>> a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became >>>>>>> an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the >>>>>>> same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the >>>>>>> waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this >>>>>> year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a >>>>>> minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the
    North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a >>>>> year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple >>>>> of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often
    mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August. >>>
    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop >>> offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid.

    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests when you
    have 94 empty rooms.


    This is true but most hotels are not offering daily room service either.
    You get a clean room and a made bed when you walk in. Then it up to
    you to do the daily routines yourself.
    Over night, not so bad, extended stay, not so good.

    What daily routines are you referring to, specifically ones that you would
    do at a hotel?

    Until relatively recently beds were made, bathroom towels were replaced,
    floor vacuumed, trash cans emptied, daily.

    This may not be important to you but If I am paying for this service I
    expect this service, or a discount.



    In my recent experience, the amount of cleaning varies. Some offer new
    towels every 3 days, things like that. Extra house cleaning is often an option,
    you just have to ask. IIRC that began way before Covid, especially the towels.
    It's all about "water conservation", so they say.

    It's been years since I did anything that even resembled an "extended stay" at
    a hotel, so cleaning has not been issue for me. Usually it's just 1 or 2 nights.
    I've taken longer vacations but in most cases we move around, like 2 nights here, 2 nights there, etc. In addition, we tend to use Airbnb more than hotels
    for anything longer than 2 nights. They don't get cleaned every day either, never did.


    Bottom line, I don't think I've stayed anywhere that required me to "clean" my
    room during my stay. I don't clean my own bathroom or change the sheets
    every few days, so why would I do it at a hotel? In fact, even back in the days
    where daily cleaning was routine, I usually hung the Do Not Disturb tag on the
    door anyway. I never needed anyone to clean for me every day and I didn't have
    to worry about "neatening up" before they came in. Basically, I didn't want them
    in my room during my stay.


    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DerbyDad03@21:1/5 to Leon on Tue Nov 30 09:14:09 2021
    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 11:09:03 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 11/30/2021 9:49 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 9:45:17 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 3:56 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote: >>>> On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed >>>>>>> at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became
    an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the
    same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the >>>>>>> waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this >>>>>> year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a
    minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the >>>>> North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a >>>>> year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple >>>>> of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often >>>>> mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop >>> offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid.

    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests when you
    have 94 empty rooms.


    This is true but most hotels are not offering daily room service either. >> You get a clean room and a made bed when you walk in. Then it up to
    you to do the daily routines yourself.
    Over night, not so bad, extended stay, not so good.

    What daily routines are you referring to, specifically ones that you would do at a hotel?
    Until relatively recently beds were made, bathroom towels were replaced, floor vacuumed, trash cans emptied, daily.

    This may not be important to you but If I am paying for this service I
    expect this service, or a discount.

    I think you need to change your expectations.

    I consider this analogous to the purchase of ice cream. Remember when
    $2.69 got you a half gallon? Now it gets you 48 oz. You are not paying for
    64 oz and getting 48, you are paying for 48 and getting 48. That's the
    current price for the current product.

    Do you "expect" 64 oz simply because that's what it used to be? Do you ask
    for a discount when you only get 48?

    $125 a night (or you pick the number) used to get you a daily room cleaning. Now $125 (pick the same number) gets you towels every 3 days and (hopefully) extra cleaning when requested.

    Bottom line: You are getting the current product at the current price.

    As far as a discount, I almost always ask for a discount when booking a room. Not because they aren't cleaning it daily, but just because I hate paying full price.
    It never hurts to ask, and in all three cases this past week, a discount was applied.



    In my recent experience, the amount of cleaning varies. Some offer new towels every 3 days, things like that. Extra house cleaning is often an option,
    you just have to ask. IIRC that began way before Covid, especially the towels.
    It's all about "water conservation", so they say.

    It's been years since I did anything that even resembled an "extended stay" at
    a hotel, so cleaning has not been issue for me. Usually it's just 1 or 2 nights.
    I've taken longer vacations but in most cases we move around, like 2 nights here, 2 nights there, etc. In addition, we tend to use Airbnb more than hotels
    for anything longer than 2 nights. They don't get cleaned every day either, never did.


    Bottom line, I don't think I've stayed anywhere that required me to "clean" my
    room during my stay. I don't clean my own bathroom or change the sheets every few days, so why would I do it at a hotel? In fact, even back in the days
    where daily cleaning was routine, I usually hung the Do Not Disturb tag on the
    door anyway. I never needed anyone to clean for me every day and I didn't have
    to worry about "neatening up" before they came in. Basically, I didn't want them
    in my room during my stay.


    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bill@21:1/5 to All on Tue Nov 30 12:58:06 2021
    On 11/30/2021 12:14 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:

    As far as a discount, I almost always ask for a discount when booking a room. Not because they aren't cleaning it daily, but just because I hate paying full price.
    It never hurts to ask, and in all three cases this past week, a discount was applied.


    I typically "inquire/negotiate" from a cell phone, even while sitting in
    the parking lot of the motel I'm calling. I have also got significant
    discounts in the lobby by saying "that's more than I expected to pay--I
    may go compare to some of the other motels down the road first..". To
    which I was asked, "Well, what did you expect to pay?" And I got that
    rate ($70). As she was writing it up, I needed to remind her that I
    meant **including** taxes and fees--the final price! ; )

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to Bill on Tue Nov 30 13:41:14 2021
    On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 12:58:06 -0500, Bill <nonegiven@att.net> wrote:

    On 11/30/2021 12:14 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:

    As far as a discount, I almost always ask for a discount when booking a room.
    Not because they aren't cleaning it daily, but just because I hate paying full price.
    It never hurts to ask, and in all three cases this past week, a discount was applied.


    I typically "inquire/negotiate" from a cell phone, even while sitting in
    the parking lot of the motel I'm calling. I have also got significant >discounts in the lobby by saying "that's more than I expected to pay--I
    may go compare to some of the other motels down the road first..". To
    which I was asked, "Well, what did you expect to pay?" And I got that
    rate ($70). As she was writing it up, I needed to remind her that I
    meant **including** taxes and fees--the final price! ; )

    "Checkout time is 11:00."
    "Oh, we'll be out by 8:00."
    "Um, It's 10:00 now."

    :-0

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to teamarrows@eznet.net on Tue Nov 30 13:36:47 2021
    On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 07:49:18 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 9:45:17 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 3:56 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed >> >>>>> at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became
    an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the >> >>>>> same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the
    waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this
    year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a
    minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the
    North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a >> >>> year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple
    of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often
    mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >> >> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop >> > offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid.

    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests when you
    have 94 empty rooms.


    This is true but most hotels are not offering daily room service either.
    You get a clean room and a made bed when you walk in. Then it up to
    you to do the daily routines yourself.
    Over night, not so bad, extended stay, not so good.

    What daily routines are you referring to, specifically ones that you would
    do at a hotel?

    In my recent experience, the amount of cleaning varies. Some offer new
    towels every 3 days, things like that. Extra house cleaning is often an option,
    you just have to ask. IIRC that began way before Covid, especially the towels. >It's all about "water conservation", so they say.

    Most of the hotels where I've stayed for more than one night, say
    something like "throw dirty towels on the floor or to save water, hang
    them on the bar". They've all had daily housekeeping, AFAIK. Room
    service in only the top tier hotels ($200 and up).

    It's been years since I did anything that even resembled an "extended stay" at >a hotel, so cleaning has not been issue for me. Usually it's just 1 or 2 nights.
    I've taken longer vacations but in most cases we move around, like 2 nights >here, 2 nights there, etc. In addition, we tend to use Airbnb more than hotels >for anything longer than 2 nights. They don't get cleaned every day either, >never did.

    The beach rentals we've done get cleaned between renters. The owners
    treat it like a long-term lease (privacy and all that).

    Bottom line, I don't think I've stayed anywhere that required me to "clean" my >room during my stay. I don't clean my own bathroom or change the sheets
    every few days, so why would I do it at a hotel? In fact, even back in the days
    where daily cleaning was routine, I usually hung the Do Not Disturb tag on the >door anyway. I never needed anyone to clean for me every day and I didn't have >to worry about "neatening up" before they came in. Basically, I didn't want them
    in my room during my stay.

    The above beach units have to be cleaned by the outgoing renters to
    some degree ("broom clean", garbage out, dishes in the DW, used
    bedding on the floor. It seems that they only schedule a half day
    between rentals so there isn't much time to scrub it top to bottom.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DerbyDad03@21:1/5 to k...@notreal.com on Tue Nov 30 12:32:26 2021
    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 1:36:55 PM UTC-5, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 07:49:18 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teama...@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 9:45:17 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 3:56 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed
    at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became
    an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the
    same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the >> >>>>> waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this >> >>>> year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a
    minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the
    North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a >> >>> year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple >> >>> of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often
    mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I
    stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop >> > offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid.

    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests when you
    have 94 empty rooms.


    This is true but most hotels are not offering daily room service either. >> You get a clean room and a made bed when you walk in. Then it up to
    you to do the daily routines yourself.
    Over night, not so bad, extended stay, not so good.

    What daily routines are you referring to, specifically ones that you would >do at a hotel?

    In my recent experience, the amount of cleaning varies. Some offer new >towels every 3 days, things like that. Extra house cleaning is often an option,
    you just have to ask. IIRC that began way before Covid, especially the towels.
    It's all about "water conservation", so they say.
    Most of the hotels where I've stayed for more than one night, say
    something like "throw dirty towels on the floor or to save water, hang
    them on the bar". They've all had daily housekeeping, AFAIK. Room
    service in only the top tier hotels ($200 and up).
    It's been years since I did anything that even resembled an "extended stay" at
    a hotel, so cleaning has not been issue for me. Usually it's just 1 or 2 nights.
    I've taken longer vacations but in most cases we move around, like 2 nights >here, 2 nights there, etc. In addition, we tend to use Airbnb more than hotels
    for anything longer than 2 nights. They don't get cleaned every day either, >never did.
    The beach rentals we've done get cleaned between renters. The owners
    treat it like a long-term lease (privacy and all that).
    Bottom line, I don't think I've stayed anywhere that required me to "clean" my
    room during my stay. I don't clean my own bathroom or change the sheets >every few days, so why would I do it at a hotel? In fact, even back in the days
    where daily cleaning was routine, I usually hung the Do Not Disturb tag on the
    door anyway. I never needed anyone to clean for me every day and I didn't have
    to worry about "neatening up" before they came in. Basically, I didn't want them
    in my room during my stay.
    The above beach units have to be cleaned by the outgoing renters to
    some degree ("broom clean", garbage out, dishes in the DW, used
    bedding on the floor. It seems that they only schedule a half day
    between rentals so there isn't much time to scrub it top to bottom.

    I've experienced varying levels of "cleaning requirements at Airbnb's.
    Some are pretty lenient, some make me question why I am even paying
    a cleaning fee.

    I have a family member that owns 2 Airbnb houses in a tourist area. He
    is usually booked back to back. He does a lot of his own cleaning but
    has a service available if needed. He scrambles, but he gets it done.

    He's only had one "squatter". He got to the house at 10 to clean and there
    was no one there, but all their stuff was. Open suitcases, personal items everywhere, even the dog. He called them and they said they were stuck
    at a repair shop getting their RV fixed. Luckily he had the night open, so
    he extended their stay.

    Next day, 10 AM, same thing. Open suitcases, personal items everywhere,
    even the dog. Except this time they aren't answering their phone. He left messages through every means possible that if they weren't back by 1:00,
    he was going to move all their stuff into the garage and call Animal Control
    to come get the dog.

    At 1:00, he started moving their stuff so he could clean. He's a dog owner,
    so he didn't call Animal Control just yet. Soft hearted guy. After all, the dog didn't do anything wrong.

    Around 2:00, they finally rolled up in their RV. Apparently, the elderly Mom was all apologetic about the delay, but the son was a real A-hole. "Don't
    blame me, they took too long to fix the da*m RV", etc. Never provided a
    good reason for not responding to all of the contact attempts.

    In the end, they were gone before the next guests arrived so it all worked
    out. At least he got paid for his trouble since he obviously charged them
    for the extra night, which would have been open.

    Overall, he doing great with the Airbnb business. He's hoping to show
    enough income this year to qualify for a mortgage on a 3rd house to
    Airbnb.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to teamarrows@eznet.net on Tue Nov 30 19:13:34 2021
    On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 12:32:26 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 1:36:55 PM UTC-5, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 07:49:18 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teama...@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 9:45:17 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 3:56 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote: >> >> >> On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed
    at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became
    an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the
    same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the >> >> >>>>> waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this >> >> >>>> year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a
    minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the >> >> >>> North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a
    year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple >> >> >>> of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often >> >> >>> mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I
    stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop
    offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid.

    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests when you
    have 94 empty rooms.


    This is true but most hotels are not offering daily room service either. >> >> You get a clean room and a made bed when you walk in. Then it up to
    you to do the daily routines yourself.
    Over night, not so bad, extended stay, not so good.

    What daily routines are you referring to, specifically ones that you would >> >do at a hotel?

    In my recent experience, the amount of cleaning varies. Some offer new
    towels every 3 days, things like that. Extra house cleaning is often an option,
    you just have to ask. IIRC that began way before Covid, especially the towels.
    It's all about "water conservation", so they say.
    Most of the hotels where I've stayed for more than one night, say
    something like "throw dirty towels on the floor or to save water, hang
    them on the bar". They've all had daily housekeeping, AFAIK. Room
    service in only the top tier hotels ($200 and up).
    It's been years since I did anything that even resembled an "extended stay" at
    a hotel, so cleaning has not been issue for me. Usually it's just 1 or 2 nights.
    I've taken longer vacations but in most cases we move around, like 2 nights >> >here, 2 nights there, etc. In addition, we tend to use Airbnb more than hotels
    for anything longer than 2 nights. They don't get cleaned every day either, >> >never did.
    The beach rentals we've done get cleaned between renters. The owners
    treat it like a long-term lease (privacy and all that).
    Bottom line, I don't think I've stayed anywhere that required me to "clean" my
    room during my stay. I don't clean my own bathroom or change the sheets
    every few days, so why would I do it at a hotel? In fact, even back in the days
    where daily cleaning was routine, I usually hung the Do Not Disturb tag on the
    door anyway. I never needed anyone to clean for me every day and I didn't have
    to worry about "neatening up" before they came in. Basically, I didn't want them
    in my room during my stay.
    The above beach units have to be cleaned by the outgoing renters to
    some degree ("broom clean", garbage out, dishes in the DW, used
    bedding on the floor. It seems that they only schedule a half day
    between rentals so there isn't much time to scrub it top to bottom.

    I've experienced varying levels of "cleaning requirements at Airbnb's.
    Some are pretty lenient, some make me question why I am even paying
    a cleaning fee.

    We try to leave them as clean as they were when we got there but
    follow the directions (dishes in the DW, not turned on is typical).
    Some don't even have vacuums, others are tile throughout, which is a
    good idea for a beach house.

    I have a family member that owns 2 Airbnb houses in a tourist area. He
    is usually booked back to back. He does a lot of his own cleaning but
    has a service available if needed. He scrambles, but he gets it done.

    Back-to-back check-in/check-out the same hour? Most of the rentals
    we've stayed at have a check-out at 9:00 or 10:00 and the next
    check-in at 5:00 on the same Saturday. Everyone gets a "full" week and
    the owner doesn't miss a day's income.

    He's only had one "squatter". He got to the house at 10 to clean and there >was no one there, but all their stuff was. Open suitcases, personal items >everywhere, even the dog. He called them and they said they were stuck
    at a repair shop getting their RV fixed. Luckily he had the night open, so
    he extended their stay.

    Next day, 10 AM, same thing. Open suitcases, personal items everywhere,
    even the dog. Except this time they aren't answering their phone. He left >messages through every means possible that if they weren't back by 1:00,
    he was going to move all their stuff into the garage and call Animal Control >to come get the dog.

    At 1:00, he started moving their stuff so he could clean. He's a dog owner, >so he didn't call Animal Control just yet. Soft hearted guy. After all, the dog
    didn't do anything wrong.

    I would have charged the second day plus additional cleaning. He
    doesn't need them back anyway. Is there some service where they can
    rate renters something like the sites that rank the properties?

    Around 2:00, they finally rolled up in their RV. Apparently, the elderly Mom >was all apologetic about the delay, but the son was a real A-hole. "Don't >blame me, they took too long to fix the da*m RV", etc. Never provided a
    good reason for not responding to all of the contact attempts.

    Yeah, don't need them back.

    In the end, they were gone before the next guests arrived so it all worked >out. At least he got paid for his trouble since he obviously charged them
    for the extra night, which would have been open.

    Should have been two.

    Overall, he doing great with the Airbnb business. He's hoping to show
    enough income this year to qualify for a mortgage on a 3rd house to
    Airbnb.

    Does he have a special insurance policy that covers him for a
    commercial property? LLC for each, or similar? Just curious. I've
    heard podcasts with the strategies for Air-B&Bs and protection from
    the financial risks. It's interesting stuff but far to risky for me.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John McGaw@21:1/5 to All on Tue Nov 30 18:27:38 2021
    On 11/27/2021 4:29 AM, ck wrote:
    Is anybody there?

    I, for one, am _not_ here. The last time I looked I was over there but that
    was almost an hour ago...

    --
    Bodger's Dictum: Artifical intelligence
    can never overcome natural stupidity.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to All on Tue Nov 30 19:16:21 2021
    On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 18:27:38 -0500, John McGaw <Nobody@Nowh.ere>
    wrote:

    On 11/27/2021 4:29 AM, ck wrote:
    Is anybody there?

    I, for one, am _not_ here. The last time I looked I was over there but that >was almost an hour ago...

    He's a real nowhere man
    Sitting in his nowhere land
    Making all his nowhere plans for nobody

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Leon@21:1/5 to All on Wed Dec 1 09:05:52 2021
    On 11/30/2021 11:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 11:09:03 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 11/30/2021 9:49 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 9:45:17 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 3:56 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote: >>>>>> On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed >>>>>>>>> at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became
    an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the
    same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the >>>>>>>>> waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this >>>>>>>> year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a
    minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the >>>>>>> North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a >>>>>>> year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple >>>>>>> of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often >>>>>>> mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>>>>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop >>>>> offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid.

    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests when you
    have 94 empty rooms.


    This is true but most hotels are not offering daily room service either. >>>> You get a clean room and a made bed when you walk in. Then it up to
    you to do the daily routines yourself.
    Over night, not so bad, extended stay, not so good.

    What daily routines are you referring to, specifically ones that you would >>> do at a hotel?
    Until relatively recently beds were made, bathroom towels were replaced,
    floor vacuumed, trash cans emptied, daily.

    This may not be important to you but If I am paying for this service I
    expect this service, or a discount.

    I think you need to change your expectations.

    I consider this analogous to the purchase of ice cream. Remember when
    $2.69 got you a half gallon? Now it gets you 48 oz. You are not paying for
    64 oz and getting 48, you are paying for 48 and getting 48. That's the current price for the current product.


    Did you vote for Biden? ;~) I have already changed my expectations,
    does not mean I have to agree.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Leon@21:1/5 to krw@notreal.com on Wed Dec 1 09:06:46 2021
    On 11/30/2021 6:16 PM, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 18:27:38 -0500, John McGaw <Nobody@Nowh.ere>
    wrote:

    On 11/27/2021 4:29 AM, ck wrote:
    Is anybody there?

    I, for one, am _not_ here. The last time I looked I was over there but that >> was almost an hour ago...

    He's a real nowhere man
    Sitting in his nowhere land
    Making all his nowhere plans for nobody



    Sing it Paul! LOL

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Grossbohlin@21:1/5 to Leon on Wed Dec 1 10:10:44 2021
    "Leon" wrote in message
    news:MbWdnQit66M9DD_8nZ2dnUU7-cXNnZ2d@giganews.com...

    On 11/27/2021 9:43 AM, John Grossbohlin wrote:

    Was busy cleaning my shop and putting "stuff" away from my renovation,
    natural edge walnut slab window stool project, snowblower repairs, and
    other projects that I hadn't made time for previously.

    I found a new shop tool that I fully endorse. It's ZEP sweeping compound.
    https://www.homedepot.com/p/ZEP-50-lbs-Sweeping-Compound-HDSWEEP50/202056504 >> Wonderful product!


    Very cool! So does that sweeping compound have a color, red maybe?

    Way back when, 60's, the small town that my grand mother lived in had 2 >grocery stores. Both within eye site of each other and my grand mother's >house. Her preferred store delivered groceries inside her home and put her >grovery bill on her tab. Boy, those were the days. Anyway the store had
    red wooden floors. Red because of the red sweeping compound that was piled >up in all the corners.

    I recall the red compound from my school days in the '60s. The janitor used
    a big dust mop with a vibrant dark red sweeping compound to sweep the
    hallways. As a kid I was curious about what that red stuff was... I also thought that stuff and the big dust mop were pretty cool! This as pushing
    that stuff around seemed like more fun than sitting in the classroom. LOL

    The ZEP compound I got is a pale red. Not as visually appealing perhaps but
    it works great! Amongst other things it contains sawdust and silica. I've noticed that the concrete in my shop looks a bit shiny now as the compound
    is not only getting the dust up but it seems to be polishing the floor. The dust collector and ambient air cleaner help but they certainly don't get it all... and completely miss the dirt I track in on my feet. I find that I'm sweeping more often now because doing so is so effective. I also suspect
    that having the dust and dog hair off the floors should help with finishing
    as there will be less dust to mess up the finish.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DerbyDad03@21:1/5 to Leon on Wed Dec 1 07:36:23 2021
    On Wednesday, December 1, 2021 at 10:06:03 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 11/30/2021 11:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 11:09:03 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 11/30/2021 9:49 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 9:45:17 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 3:56 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote: >>>>>> On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet> >>>>>>> wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed
    at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became
    an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the
    same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the >>>>>>>>> waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this >>>>>>>> year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a
    minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the >>>>>>> North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a
    year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple >>>>>>> of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often >>>>>>> mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I
    stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop
    offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid. >>>>>
    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests when you
    have 94 empty rooms.


    This is true but most hotels are not offering daily room service either. >>>> You get a clean room and a made bed when you walk in. Then it up to
    you to do the daily routines yourself.
    Over night, not so bad, extended stay, not so good.

    What daily routines are you referring to, specifically ones that you would
    do at a hotel?
    Until relatively recently beds were made, bathroom towels were replaced, >> floor vacuumed, trash cans emptied, daily.

    This may not be important to you but If I am paying for this service I
    expect this service, or a discount.

    I think you need to change your expectations.

    I consider this analogous to the purchase of ice cream. Remember when
    $2.69 got you a half gallon? Now it gets you 48 oz. You are not paying for 64 oz and getting 48, you are paying for 48 and getting 48. That's the current price for the current product.

    Did you vote for Biden? ;~)

    Not sure what that question has to do with the cost of ice cream...

    I have already changed my expectations, does not mean I have to agree.

    Your words from yesterday:

    "This may not be important to you but If I am paying for this service I
    expect this service."

    Sounds like an overnight change in your expectations. ;-)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DerbyDad03@21:1/5 to k...@notreal.com on Wed Dec 1 08:27:41 2021
    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 7:13:42 PM UTC-5, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 12:32:26 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teama...@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 1:36:55 PM UTC-5, k...@notreal.com wrote: >> On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 07:49:18 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teama...@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 9:45:17 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 3:56 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote: >> >> >> On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed
    at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became
    an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the
    same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the
    waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this
    year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a
    minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the >> >> >>> North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a
    year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple
    of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often >> >> >>> mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I
    stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop
    offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid.

    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests when you
    have 94 empty rooms.


    This is true but most hotels are not offering daily room service either.
    You get a clean room and a made bed when you walk in. Then it up to
    you to do the daily routines yourself.
    Over night, not so bad, extended stay, not so good.

    What daily routines are you referring to, specifically ones that you would
    do at a hotel?

    In my recent experience, the amount of cleaning varies. Some offer new
    towels every 3 days, things like that. Extra house cleaning is often an option,
    you just have to ask. IIRC that began way before Covid, especially the towels.
    It's all about "water conservation", so they say.
    Most of the hotels where I've stayed for more than one night, say
    something like "throw dirty towels on the floor or to save water, hang
    them on the bar". They've all had daily housekeeping, AFAIK. Room
    service in only the top tier hotels ($200 and up).
    It's been years since I did anything that even resembled an "extended stay" at
    a hotel, so cleaning has not been issue for me. Usually it's just 1 or 2 nights.
    I've taken longer vacations but in most cases we move around, like 2 nights
    here, 2 nights there, etc. In addition, we tend to use Airbnb more than hotels
    for anything longer than 2 nights. They don't get cleaned every day either,
    never did.
    The beach rentals we've done get cleaned between renters. The owners
    treat it like a long-term lease (privacy and all that).
    Bottom line, I don't think I've stayed anywhere that required me to "clean" my
    room during my stay. I don't clean my own bathroom or change the sheets >> >every few days, so why would I do it at a hotel? In fact, even back in the days
    where daily cleaning was routine, I usually hung the Do Not Disturb tag on the
    door anyway. I never needed anyone to clean for me every day and I didn't have
    to worry about "neatening up" before they came in. Basically, I didn't want them
    in my room during my stay.
    The above beach units have to be cleaned by the outgoing renters to
    some degree ("broom clean", garbage out, dishes in the DW, used
    bedding on the floor. It seems that they only schedule a half day
    between rentals so there isn't much time to scrub it top to bottom.

    I've experienced varying levels of "cleaning requirements at Airbnb's.
    Some are pretty lenient, some make me question why I am even paying
    a cleaning fee.
    We try to leave them as clean as they were when we got there but
    follow the directions (dishes in the DW, not turned on is typical).
    Some don't even have vacuums, others are tile throughout, which is a
    good idea for a beach house.
    I have a family member that owns 2 Airbnb houses in a tourist area. He
    is usually booked back to back. He does a lot of his own cleaning but
    has a service available if needed. He scrambles, but he gets it done. Back-to-back check-in/check-out the same hour? Most of the rentals
    we've stayed at have a check-out at 9:00 or 10:00 and the next
    check-in at 5:00 on the same Saturday. Everyone gets a "full" week and
    the owner doesn't miss a day's income.

    No, I believe it's more like out at 10, in at 3. By back-to-back I meant very few
    open nights.



    He's only had one "squatter". He got to the house at 10 to clean and there >was no one there, but all their stuff was. Open suitcases, personal items >everywhere, even the dog. He called them and they said they were stuck
    at a repair shop getting their RV fixed. Luckily he had the night open, so >he extended their stay.

    Next day, 10 AM, same thing. Open suitcases, personal items everywhere, >even the dog. Except this time they aren't answering their phone. He left >messages through every means possible that if they weren't back by 1:00,
    he was going to move all their stuff into the garage and call Animal Control >to come get the dog.

    At 1:00, he started moving their stuff so he could clean. He's a dog owner, >so he didn't call Animal Control just yet. Soft hearted guy. After all, the dog
    didn't do anything wrong.

    I would have charged the second day plus additional cleaning. He
    doesn't need them back anyway.

    I don't have the exact details, maybe he did charge them something extra.

    Is there some service where they can
    rate renters something like the sites that rank the properties?

    Airbnb (but he's also listed on other booking sites) has a review system
    where the guest enters a hidden review as does the host. Nothing is posted until both reviews are complete or 14 days have passed.

    https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/13/reviews-for-stays

    Once the reviews are posted, I believe that other hosts can read the reviews for potential guests by accessing their Airbnb profile. I have no idea
    if Airbnb reviews get ported between Airbnb, VRBO, booking.com, etc.

    That said, hosts have to be careful how hard they slam their guests since all reviews are public. You don't want to come across as an A-hole host since
    the readers (potential guests) don't really know the full situation. Guests want a nice, friendly, easy going host.


    Around 2:00, they finally rolled up in their RV. Apparently, the elderly Mom >was all apologetic about the delay, but the son was a real A-hole. "Don't >blame me, they took too long to fix the da*m RV", etc. Never provided a >good reason for not responding to all of the contact attempts.
    Yeah, don't need them back.

    In the end, they were gone before the next guests arrived so it all worked >out. At least he got paid for his trouble since he obviously charged them >for the extra night, which would have been open.
    Should have been two.
    Overall, he doing great with the Airbnb business. He's hoping to show >enough income this year to qualify for a mortgage on a 3rd house to
    Airbnb.
    Does he have a special insurance policy that covers him for a
    commercial property? LLC for each, or similar? Just curious. I've
    heard podcasts with the strategies for Air-B&Bs and protection from
    the financial risks. It's interesting stuff but far to risky for me.

    Yeah, he has something like a $1MM policy through Airbnb. He's had
    some small items stolen (clock radio, etc.) and some minor damage
    that was all covered by Airbnb.

    He advertises RV parking in his listing. One guest backed in too far
    and damaged the fence. He put in a claim and Airbnb paid up.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to krw@notreal.com on Thu Dec 2 13:59:34 2021
    On 11/29/2021 20:15, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 13:56:52 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed >>>>>> at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some sort of >>>>>> a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it became >>>>>> an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge the >>>>>> same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the >>>>>> waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this >>>>> year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast as a >>>>> minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the
    North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a >>>> year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple
    of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often
    mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August. >>
    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop
    offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid.

    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests when you >> have 94 empty rooms.

    Good point. "Free" breakfast is a marketing tool to "steal" customers
    from other hotels in the area. If there are no customers to steal or
    not enough to market to, it makes sense not to do the marketing.

    Fair enough, I was staying in rural areas. They had coffee, but that
    was it. Some toast or pastries would have been nice, though.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to Leon on Thu Dec 2 14:00:25 2021
    On 11/30/2021 9:45, Leon wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 3:56 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Monday, November 29, 2021 at 4:18:12 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 13:47, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:27:27 -0600, Leon<lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
    wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 10:35 AM, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/28/2021 20:20, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    A warm bed and free breakfast is so much better.

    Sorry to derail, but do any hotels still offer breakfast? I've stayed >>>>>> at 3-4 hotels since COVID, and every one that used to have some
    sort of
    a breakfast was no longer doing it, "due to COVID". I figured it
    became
    an industry-wide thing to dump hotel breakfast, so they can charge >>>>>> the
    same for a room and save money. I miss staying at a hotel with the >>>>>> waffle iron in the lobby... that was the best part, lol.


    My wife and I travel quite a bit and October last year, June of this >>>>> year the hotels that we stayed in all offered continental breakfast
    as a
    minimum.

    Now this was in Texas , Tennessee, Mississippi,

    Hampton, Hilton, and Menger.

    Yeah, things are a lot more open in the South (red states) than the
    North. Here, everything has been pretty much back to normal for over a >>>> year. A few cities/counties imposed a silly mask mandate for a couple
    of months earlier this year but nothing spectacular now. RSV, often
    mistaken for covid, is much of the problem now.
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this
    August.

    Could be an Covid excuse of a different flavor:

    Maybe it wasn't the "social distancing" part of Covid that made him stop
    offering free grub. Maybe it was the lack of guests part of Covid.

    You can't cost-effectively provide free breakfast for your 6 guests
    when you
    have 94 empty rooms.

    This is true but most hotels are not offering daily room service either.
    You get a clean room and a made bed when you walk in. Then it up to you
    to do the daily routines yourself.
    Over night, not so bad, extended stay, not so good.

    Honestly, I'd rather do it myself anyway. I am uncomfortable with
    people coming into my personal space. I'll keep it tidy, and you
    refresh it once I'm checked out.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to krw@notreal.com on Thu Dec 2 14:05:59 2021
    On 11/29/2021 20:12, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I
    stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier
    states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated
    from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.

    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town,
    probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DerbyDad03@21:1/5 to Michael Trew on Thu Dec 2 11:54:25 2021
    On Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 2:05:58 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 20:12, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier
    states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated
    from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.
    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town,
    probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Heck, I didn't even know that Chicago was a state. My, how things have
    changed. :-)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Markem618@21:1/5 to teamarrows@eznet.net on Thu Dec 2 16:55:04 2021
    On Thu, 2 Dec 2021 11:54:25 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 2:05:58 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 20:12, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >> >> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier
    states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated
    from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.
    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town,
    probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Heck, I didn't even know that Chicago was a state. My, how things have >changed. :-)

    A lot of folks around here would not mind if that was true. (southern
    Illinois)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to michael.trew@att.net on Thu Dec 2 19:54:25 2021
    On Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:05:59 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 20:12, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August. >>
    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier
    states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated
    from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.

    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town,
    probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Exact opposite? The whole state is *exactly* that. It's controlled
    by Chicago but it drags the whole state into loonyville. Check their
    credit rating.

    BTW, I didn't come from Cook County either (150ish miles South).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Leon@21:1/5 to All on Fri Dec 3 08:26:43 2021
    On 12/2/2021 4:55 PM, Markem618 wrote:
    On Thu, 2 Dec 2021 11:54:25 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 2:05:58 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 20:12, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>>>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier
    states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated
    from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.
    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town,
    probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Heck, I didn't even know that Chicago was a state. My, how things have
    changed. :-)

    A lot of folks around here would not mind if that was true. (southern Illinois)


    What country is Chicago in?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Markem618@21:1/5 to Leon on Fri Dec 3 09:10:14 2021
    On Fri, 3 Dec 2021 08:26:43 -0600, Leon <lcb11211@swbelldotnet> wrote:

    On 12/2/2021 4:55 PM, Markem618 wrote:
    On Thu, 2 Dec 2021 11:54:25 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 2:05:58 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 20:12, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>>>>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier
    states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated
    from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.
    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town,
    probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Heck, I didn't even know that Chicago was a state. My, how things have
    changed. :-)

    A lot of folks around here would not mind if that was true. (southern
    Illinois)


    What country is Chicago in?

    Hard to tell, could be Mexico, Poland, maybe Russia?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to krw@notreal.com on Fri Dec 3 14:47:03 2021
    On 12/2/2021 19:54, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:05:59 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 20:12, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August. >>>
    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier
    states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated
    from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.

    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town,
    probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Exact opposite? The whole state is *exactly* that. It's controlled
    by Chicago but it drags the whole state into loonyville. Check their
    credit rating.

    The whole state of Illinois is a southern red state? Are you sure about
    that? I can't vouch for the rest of IL, but Chicago is a very blue state.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Markem618@21:1/5 to michael.trew@att.net on Fri Dec 3 14:47:26 2021
    On Fri, 03 Dec 2021 14:47:03 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 12/2/2021 19:54, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:05:59 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 20:12, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>>>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier
    states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated
    from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.

    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town,
    probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Exact opposite? The whole state is *exactly* that. It's controlled
    by Chicago but it drags the whole state into loonyville. Check their
    credit rating.

    The whole state of Illinois is a southern red state? Are you sure about >that? I can't vouch for the rest of IL, but Chicago is a very blue state.

    You read what he said wrong, rural southern Illinois tend to red to
    purple, urban centers blue. But krw has opinions that seems to be
    about what was versus, what is about Illinois. All negative though but
    it is only one persons opinion.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Puckdropper@21:1/5 to Michael Trew on Fri Dec 3 21:50:53 2021
    Michael Trew <michael.trew@att.net> wrote in
    news:so2voi$96h$1@dont-email.me:

    On 11/28/2021 5:42, Puckdropper wrote:
    ck<ck@none.none> wrote in
    news:61a1fa68$0$6456$426a74cc@news.free.fr:

    Is anybody there?

    Yeah... Got to do some "woodworking" if you can call it that. The
    tree has decided our drainpipe is the way to be, so now I have to
    either find a plumber or an electric root cutting auger. I'm very
    tempted to go the root cutting auger way. The last guy was excellent
    but it cost nearly $2000 for the camera, auger, and removing roots
    every 3' along the pipe.

    Puckdropper

    Have you tried copper sulfate down the drain? I have to have a guy
    come out an auger tree roots form the sewer, sometimes 80 feet out,
    because eventually the greywater starts backing up into my cellar
    (thank God, typically not the toilet). Seems to happen every 2 years.
    He told me last time that if it happens again, I really should pay
    for the camera line inspection. It's the old terracotta pipes.

    Anyway, I bought a bag of copper sulfate on eBay, and they jammed the
    10 lbs of sulfate into this flat rate bubble mailer... I have no clue
    how it fit, but they REALLY got their monies worth out of that little envelope from USPS... haha! I'm going to dump some directly into the clean-out in the cellar with water, and flush the rest. Supposedly if
    you do it annually, it will kill all of the tree roots that get into
    the pipes, without killing the tree.

    I've heard good things about Copper Sulfate. A plumber told me about
    RootX which foams to get the roots at the top of the pipe, unlike the
    Copper Sulfate. It seems to have done pretty decent...

    I found one blockage and ran the snake to the end of the line. Guess
    it's some new roots that didn't know that pipe wasn't where they were
    supposed to be. I'll RootX things here in about 6 weeks. (It was
    suggested to either do it immediately--like within 2 hours--or wait 6
    weeks so the plants aren't in defensive stage.)

    Puckdropper

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Markem618@21:1/5 to All on Fri Dec 3 16:02:28 2021
    On Fri, 03 Dec 2021 21:50:53 GMT, Puckdropper <puckdropper@yahoo.com>
    wrote:

    Michael Trew <michael.trew@att.net> wrote in
    news:so2voi$96h$1@dont-email.me:

    On 11/28/2021 5:42, Puckdropper wrote:
    ck<ck@none.none> wrote in
    news:61a1fa68$0$6456$426a74cc@news.free.fr:

    Is anybody there?

    Yeah... Got to do some "woodworking" if you can call it that. The
    tree has decided our drainpipe is the way to be, so now I have to
    either find a plumber or an electric root cutting auger. I'm very
    tempted to go the root cutting auger way. The last guy was excellent
    but it cost nearly $2000 for the camera, auger, and removing roots
    every 3' along the pipe.

    Puckdropper

    Have you tried copper sulfate down the drain? I have to have a guy
    come out an auger tree roots form the sewer, sometimes 80 feet out,
    because eventually the greywater starts backing up into my cellar
    (thank God, typically not the toilet). Seems to happen every 2 years.
    He told me last time that if it happens again, I really should pay
    for the camera line inspection. It's the old terracotta pipes.

    Anyway, I bought a bag of copper sulfate on eBay, and they jammed the
    10 lbs of sulfate into this flat rate bubble mailer... I have no clue
    how it fit, but they REALLY got their monies worth out of that little
    envelope from USPS... haha! I'm going to dump some directly into the
    clean-out in the cellar with water, and flush the rest. Supposedly if
    you do it annually, it will kill all of the tree roots that get into
    the pipes, without killing the tree.

    I've heard good things about Copper Sulfate. A plumber told me about
    RootX which foams to get the roots at the top of the pipe, unlike the
    Copper Sulfate. It seems to have done pretty decent...

    I found one blockage and ran the snake to the end of the line. Guess
    it's some new roots that didn't know that pipe wasn't where they were >supposed to be. I'll RootX things here in about 6 weeks. (It was
    suggested to either do it immediately--like within 2 hours--or wait 6
    weeks so the plants aren't in defensive stage.)

    Puckdropper

    Have used copper sulfate in the past it worked on the line to the
    septic tank, gave about six to twelve months of relief, the root if
    from a bald cypress and it always came back. Have not used any since
    the arerator tank was put in. But had Helitech out to fix foundation
    leak problem, they cut the roots out all the way to the footings. No
    problem with roots so far.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to michael.trew@att.net on Fri Dec 3 20:00:22 2021
    On Fri, 03 Dec 2021 14:47:03 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 12/2/2021 19:54, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:05:59 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 20:12, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>>>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier
    states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated
    from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.

    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town,
    probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Exact opposite? The whole state is *exactly* that. It's controlled
    by Chicago but it drags the whole state into loonyville. Check their
    credit rating.

    The whole state of Illinois is a southern red state? Are you sure about >that? I can't vouch for the rest of IL, but Chicago is a very blue state.

    I think I see the disconnect.

    Me: "Chicago is hardly red state, anywhere in the state (can't be)."

    You: "Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that."

    Me: "_hardly_ a red state" (emphasis added).


    {My interpretation: The whole state is the opposite of "hardly a red
    state", meaning that it's "not, not a red state".}

    ...and the confusion continues. I think we're in violent agreement.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to Leon on Fri Dec 3 19:46:39 2021
    On Fri, 3 Dec 2021 08:26:43 -0600, Leon <lcb11211@swbelldotnet> wrote:

    On 12/2/2021 4:55 PM, Markem618 wrote:
    On Thu, 2 Dec 2021 11:54:25 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 2:05:58 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 11/29/2021 20:12, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>>>>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier
    states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated
    from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.
    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town,
    probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Heck, I didn't even know that Chicago was a state. My, how things have
    changed. :-)

    A lot of folks around here would not mind if that was true. (southern
    Illinois)


    What country is Chicago in?

    People's Republic of Illinois

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to All on Fri Dec 3 20:08:38 2021
    On Fri, 03 Dec 2021 14:47:26 -0600, Markem618 <markrm618@hotmail.com>
    wrote:

    On Fri, 03 Dec 2021 14:47:03 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 12/2/2021 19:54, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:05:59 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 20:12, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>>>>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier
    states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated
    from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.

    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town,
    probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Exact opposite? The whole state is *exactly* that. It's controlled
    by Chicago but it drags the whole state into loonyville. Check their
    credit rating.

    The whole state of Illinois is a southern red state? Are you sure about >>that? I can't vouch for the rest of IL, but Chicago is a very blue state.

    You read what he said wrong, rural southern Illinois tend to red to
    purple, urban centers blue. But krw has opinions that seems to be
    about what was versus, what is about Illinois. All negative though but
    it is only one persons opinion.

    "Downstate is blue/purple" isn't right either.

    Wrong. Much of my family lived in IL until very recently (when they
    finally escaped). My SIL has a teacher's retirement from IL and is
    worried that the state bankruptcy coming will wipe it out. It's a
    blue cesspool, on the order of CA. I can see the tax rates and the
    state is still on the brink of bankruptcy. Yes, it all negative.
    Deservedly so.

    The cities "downstate" are blue. Only the wide, unpopulated spaces
    between are blue.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to krw@notreal.com on Fri Dec 3 22:27:22 2021
    On 12/3/2021 20:00, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Fri, 03 Dec 2021 14:47:03 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 12/2/2021 19:54, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:05:59 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 20:12, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I >>>>>> stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier
    states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated
    from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.

    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town,
    probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Exact opposite? The whole state is *exactly* that. It's controlled
    by Chicago but it drags the whole state into loonyville. Check their
    credit rating.

    The whole state of Illinois is a southern red state? Are you sure about
    that? I can't vouch for the rest of IL, but Chicago is a very blue state.

    I think I see the disconnect.

    Me: "Chicago is hardly red state, anywhere in the state (can't be)."

    You: "Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that."

    Me: "_hardly_ a red state" (emphasis added).


    {My interpretation: The whole state is the opposite of "hardly a red
    state", meaning that it's "not, not a red state".}

    ....and the confusion continues. I think we're in violent agreement.

    Ah, I see.

    "Violent agreement", heh

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Markem618@21:1/5 to krw@notreal.com on Fri Dec 3 21:31:32 2021
    On Fri, 03 Dec 2021 20:08:38 -0500, krw@notreal.com wrote:

    On Fri, 03 Dec 2021 14:47:26 -0600, Markem618 <markrm618@hotmail.com>
    wrote:

    On Fri, 03 Dec 2021 14:47:03 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 12/2/2021 19:54, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:05:59 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 20:12, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I
    stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier >>>>>> states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated >>>>>> from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.

    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town, >>>>> probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Exact opposite? The whole state is *exactly* that. It's controlled
    by Chicago but it drags the whole state into loonyville. Check their
    credit rating.

    The whole state of Illinois is a southern red state? Are you sure about >>>that? I can't vouch for the rest of IL, but Chicago is a very blue state. >>
    You read what he said wrong, rural southern Illinois tend to red to
    purple, urban centers blue. But krw has opinions that seems to be
    about what was versus, what is about Illinois. All negative though but
    it is only one persons opinion.

    "Downstate is blue/purple" isn't right either.

    Wrong. Much of my family lived in IL until very recently (when they
    finally escaped). My SIL has a teacher's retirement from IL and is
    worried that the state bankruptcy coming will wipe it out. It's a
    blue cesspool, on the order of CA. I can see the tax rates and the
    state is still on the brink of bankruptcy. Yes, it all negative.
    Deservedly so.

    The cities "downstate" are blue. Only the wide, unpopulated spaces
    between are blue.



    The politicians of this state get the blame for the mess, does not
    matter that your opinion blames the democrats, our last republican
    governor sat on his hands and did nothing but drive the state further
    into debt by his inaction. Big Jim and Jim Edgar both republicans just
    push the debts off to the future.

    We transferred my wife's SURS retirement to safer ground once she
    retired.

    I live here have watched our egotistical self serving government
    officials feed themselves at the trough and not really give a damn.

    Have not seen much better behavior in governments in the USA.

    I do not pay income tax in this state, my real estate taxes will drop
    by 25% this year and the multiplier is frozen.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to All on Fri Dec 3 23:08:09 2021
    On Fri, 03 Dec 2021 21:31:32 -0600, Markem618 <markrm618@hotmail.com>
    wrote:

    On Fri, 03 Dec 2021 20:08:38 -0500, krw@notreal.com wrote:

    On Fri, 03 Dec 2021 14:47:26 -0600, Markem618 <markrm618@hotmail.com> >>wrote:

    On Fri, 03 Dec 2021 14:47:03 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 12/2/2021 19:54, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:05:59 -0500, Michael Trew
    <michael.trew@att.net> wrote:

    On 11/29/2021 20:12, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I
    stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier >>>>>>> states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated >>>>>>> from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.

    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town, >>>>>> probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Exact opposite? The whole state is *exactly* that. It's controlled >>>>> by Chicago but it drags the whole state into loonyville. Check their >>>>> credit rating.

    The whole state of Illinois is a southern red state? Are you sure about >>>>that? I can't vouch for the rest of IL, but Chicago is a very blue state. >>>
    You read what he said wrong, rural southern Illinois tend to red to >>>purple, urban centers blue. But krw has opinions that seems to be
    about what was versus, what is about Illinois. All negative though but
    it is only one persons opinion.

    "Downstate is blue/purple" isn't right either.

    Wrong. Much of my family lived in IL until very recently (when they
    finally escaped). My SIL has a teacher's retirement from IL and is
    worried that the state bankruptcy coming will wipe it out. It's a
    blue cesspool, on the order of CA. I can see the tax rates and the
    state is still on the brink of bankruptcy. Yes, it all negative. >>Deservedly so.

    The cities "downstate" are blue. Only the wide, unpopulated spaces
    between are blue.



    The politicians of this state get the blame for the mess, does not
    matter that your opinion blames the democrats, our last republican
    governor sat on his hands and did nothing but drive the state further
    into debt by his inaction. Big Jim and Jim Edgar both republicans just
    push the debts off to the future.

    Sure, there are a lot of RINOs all around the country.

    We transferred my wife's SURS retirement to safer ground once she
    retired.

    My SIL doesn't have that option.

    I live here have watched our egotistical self serving government
    officials feed themselves at the trough and not really give a damn.

    Have not seen much better behavior in governments in the USA.

    They exist.

    I do not pay income tax in this state, my real estate taxes will drop
    by 25% this year and the multiplier is frozen.

    I won't pay any next year and my real estate taxes went down a third
    last year and another third the year after next. Ours are already
    pretty low (about .8% of market value), though. OTOH, our property
    tax when we lived in Vermont was 4% (and .5% in Alabama).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DerbyDad03@21:1/5 to Puckdropper on Sat Dec 4 02:14:23 2021
    On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 4:50:57 PM UTC-5, Puckdropper wrote:
    Michael Trew <michae...@att.net> wrote in
    news:so2voi$96h$1...@dont-email.me:

    On 11/28/2021 5:42, Puckdropper wrote:
    ck<c...@none.none> wrote in
    news:61a1fa68$0$6456$426a...@news.free.fr:

    Is anybody there?

    Yeah... Got to do some "woodworking" if you can call it that. The
    tree has decided our drainpipe is the way to be, so now I have to
    either find a plumber or an electric root cutting auger. I'm very
    tempted to go the root cutting auger way. The last guy was excellent
    but it cost nearly $2000 for the camera, auger, and removing roots
    every 3' along the pipe.

    Puckdropper

    Have you tried copper sulfate down the drain? I have to have a guy
    come out an auger tree roots form the sewer, sometimes 80 feet out,
    because eventually the greywater starts backing up into my cellar
    (thank God, typically not the toilet). Seems to happen every 2 years.
    He told me last time that if it happens again, I really should pay
    for the camera line inspection. It's the old terracotta pipes.

    Anyway, I bought a bag of copper sulfate on eBay, and they jammed the
    10 lbs of sulfate into this flat rate bubble mailer... I have no clue
    how it fit, but they REALLY got their monies worth out of that little envelope from USPS... haha! I'm going to dump some directly into the clean-out in the cellar with water, and flush the rest. Supposedly if
    you do it annually, it will kill all of the tree roots that get into
    the pipes, without killing the tree.

    I've heard good things about Copper Sulfate. A plumber told me about
    RootX which foams to get the roots at the top of the pipe, unlike the
    Copper Sulfate. It seems to have done pretty decent...

    I found one blockage and ran the snake to the end of the line. Guess
    it's some new roots that didn't know that pipe wasn't where they were supposed to be. I'll RootX things here in about 6 weeks. (It was
    suggested to either do it immediately--like within 2 hours--or wait 6
    weeks so the plants aren't in defensive stage.)

    Puckdropper

    I used to use RootX every 6 months as preventative maintenance since
    I knew that roots were entering my pipe. That worked for over 5 years
    and then it didn't.

    I called a company that installs sleeves and also does a free scope as
    part of the estimating process. He determined that the junction between
    my 65 YO pipe Orangeburg pipe and the PVC that the town install about
    15 years ago was letting in roots.

    For $2500 he could install a 2 foot sleeve at the junction to seal it up,
    but - believe it or not - he said "Call the town first. They might accept responsibility and do it for free."

    I called the town, and sure enough, they knew that the junctions they
    had installed were failing. About a week later I had a sleeve installed
    for free.

    I would have gladly paid the $2500 to the first guy, but he was nice
    enough to suggest calling the town. You don't get that kind of service
    too often these days.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Leon@21:1/5 to krw@notreal.com on Sat Dec 4 09:06:03 2021
    On 12/3/2021 6:46 PM, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Fri, 3 Dec 2021 08:26:43 -0600, Leon <lcb11211@swbelldotnet> wrote:

    On 12/2/2021 4:55 PM, Markem618 wrote:
    On Thu, 2 Dec 2021 11:54:25 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 2:05:58 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote: >>>>> On 11/29/2021 20:12, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I
    stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier >>>>>> states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated >>>>>> from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.
    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town,
    probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Heck, I didn't even know that Chicago was a state. My, how things have >>>> changed. :-)

    A lot of folks around here would not mind if that was true. (southern
    Illinois)


    What country is Chicago in?

    People's Republic of Illinois



    That place that is Ill and inois me?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to Leon on Sat Dec 4 13:11:01 2021
    On Sat, 4 Dec 2021 09:06:03 -0600, Leon <lcb11211@swbelldotnet> wrote:

    On 12/3/2021 6:46 PM, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Fri, 3 Dec 2021 08:26:43 -0600, Leon <lcb11211@swbelldotnet> wrote:

    On 12/2/2021 4:55 PM, Markem618 wrote:
    On Thu, 2 Dec 2021 11:54:25 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 2:05:58 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote: >>>>>> On 11/29/2021 20:12, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I
    stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier >>>>>>> states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated >>>>>>> from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.
    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town, >>>>>> probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Heck, I didn't even know that Chicago was a state. My, how things have >>>>> changed. :-)

    A lot of folks around here would not mind if that was true. (southern
    Illinois)


    What country is Chicago in?

    People's Republic of Illinois



    That place that is Ill and inois me?

    A corny place, from top to bottom, left to right.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Markem618@21:1/5 to krw@notreal.com on Sat Dec 4 14:21:55 2021
    On Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:11:01 -0500, krw@notreal.com wrote:

    On Sat, 4 Dec 2021 09:06:03 -0600, Leon <lcb11211@swbelldotnet> wrote:

    On 12/3/2021 6:46 PM, krw@notreal.com wrote:
    On Fri, 3 Dec 2021 08:26:43 -0600, Leon <lcb11211@swbelldotnet> wrote:

    On 12/2/2021 4:55 PM, Markem618 wrote:
    On Thu, 2 Dec 2021 11:54:25 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 2:05:58 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote: >>>>>>> On 11/29/2021 20:12, k...@notreal.com wrote:
    On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:18:10 -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
    The guy at the front desk gave me the "COVID" excuse at the last hotel I
    stayed at, somewhere in the (distant) outskirts Chicago-area, this August.

    Chicago is hardly in a Southern red state. It's one of the nuttier >>>>>>>> states. I was born and raised in IL but escaped the day I graduated >>>>>>>> from college. ...didn't even wait around to get the diploma.
    Oh I know, it's the exact opposite of that. It was in a small town, >>>>>>> probably an hour and a half from Chicago.

    Heck, I didn't even know that Chicago was a state. My, how things have >>>>>> changed. :-)

    A lot of folks around here would not mind if that was true. (southern >>>>> Illinois)


    What country is Chicago in?

    People's Republic of Illinois



    That place that is Ill and inois me?

    A corny place, from top to bottom, left to right.

    Also home to a new green animal feed, yep that is right your pork,
    chicken and beef will now be fed bugs!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Scott Lurndal@21:1/5 to markrm618@hotmail.com on Sat Dec 4 23:50:12 2021
    Markem618 <markrm618@hotmail.com> writes:
    On Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:11:01 -0500, krw@notreal.com wrote:



    That place that is Ill and inois me?

    A corny place, from top to bottom, left to right.

    Also home to a new green animal feed, yep that is right your pork,
    chicken and beef will now be fed bugs!

    Chicken have been eating bugs for millions of years, and hogs
    will eat anything.

    Protein is protean.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Markem618@21:1/5 to All on Sat Dec 4 18:41:46 2021
    On Sat, 04 Dec 2021 23:50:12 GMT, scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal)
    wrote:

    Markem618 <markrm618@hotmail.com> writes:
    On Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:11:01 -0500, krw@notreal.com wrote:



    That place that is Ill and inois me?

    A corny place, from top to bottom, left to right.

    Also home to a new green animal feed, yep that is right your pork,
    chicken and beef will now be fed bugs!

    Chicken have been eating bugs for millions of years, and hogs
    will eat anything.

    Protein is protean.

    ADM is producing a feed with bugs because it is cheaper protein, the
    article I read said it has been done oversea. ADM has adapted to using
    the expended mash from the ethanol production to feed the bugs and use
    the waste heat from the stills as part of the process. Describe as it
    will extremely competitive with present feeds (cheaper).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jerry Osage@21:1/5 to Scott Lurndal on Sat Dec 4 21:18:09 2021
    On Sat, 04 Dec 2021 23:50:12 GMT, scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) wrote:

    Markem618 <markrm618@hotmail.com> writes:
    On Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:11:01 -0500, krw@notreal.com wrote:



    That place that is Ill and inois me?

    A corny place, from top to bottom, left to right.

    Also home to a new green animal feed, yep that is right your pork,
    chicken and beef will now be fed bugs!

    Chicken have been eating bugs for millions of years, and hogs
    will eat anything.

    And Chicken manure is fed to feeder steers on a large scale.

    Protein is protean.
    --
    Jerry O.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to All on Sat Dec 4 22:24:34 2021
    On Sat, 04 Dec 2021 23:50:12 GMT, scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal)
    wrote:

    Markem618 <markrm618@hotmail.com> writes:
    On Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:11:01 -0500, krw@notreal.com wrote:



    That place that is Ill and inois me?

    A corny place, from top to bottom, left to right.

    Also home to a new green animal feed, yep that is right your pork,
    chicken and beef will now be fed bugs!

    Chicken have been eating bugs for millions of years, and hogs
    will eat anything.

    Protein is protean.

    Go for it. You can eat my share of roaches.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Leon@21:1/5 to Scott Lurndal on Sun Dec 5 09:18:43 2021
    On 12/4/2021 5:50 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
    Markem618 <markrm618@hotmail.com> writes:
    On Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:11:01 -0500, krw@notreal.com wrote:



    That place that is Ill and inois me?

    A corny place, from top to bottom, left to right.

    Also home to a new green animal feed, yep that is right your pork,
    chicken and beef will now be fed bugs!

    Chicken have been eating bugs for millions of years, and hogs
    will eat anything.

    Protein is protean.


    LOL, Yeah, city foke!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DerbyDad03@21:1/5 to Leon on Sun Dec 5 12:08:45 2021
    On Sunday, December 5, 2021 at 10:18:49 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 12/4/2021 5:50 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
    Markem618 <mark...@hotmail.com> writes:
    On Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:11:01 -0500, k...@notreal.com wrote:



    That place that is Ill and inois me?

    A corny place, from top to bottom, left to right.

    Also home to a new green animal feed, yep that is right your pork,
    chicken and beef will now be fed bugs!

    Chicken have been eating bugs for millions of years, and hogs
    will eat anything.

    Protein is protean.

    LOL, Yeah, city foke!

    I grew up in the city. I ate these.

    https://www.teachersource.com/product/cricket--larva-licket-lollipops

    Forget that second hand protein, I went straight to the source.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From krw@notreal.com@21:1/5 to teamarrows@eznet.net on Sun Dec 5 17:17:05 2021
    On Sun, 5 Dec 2021 12:08:45 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
    <teamarrows@eznet.net> wrote:

    On Sunday, December 5, 2021 at 10:18:49 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
    On 12/4/2021 5:50 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
    Markem618 <mark...@hotmail.com> writes:
    On Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:11:01 -0500, k...@notreal.com wrote:



    That place that is Ill and inois me?

    A corny place, from top to bottom, left to right.

    Also home to a new green animal feed, yep that is right your pork,
    chicken and beef will now be fed bugs!

    Chicken have been eating bugs for millions of years, and hogs
    will eat anything.

    Protein is protean.

    LOL, Yeah, city foke!

    I grew up in the city. I ate these.

    https://www.teachersource.com/product/cricket--larva-licket-lollipops

    Too many carbs (SWMBO just made six batches of English toffee, has at
    least six more to go ;-)

    Forget that second hand protein, I went straight to the source.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to All on Sun Dec 5 21:19:50 2021
    On 12/4/2021 5:14, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 4:50:57 PM UTC-5, Puckdropper wrote:
    Michael Trew<michae...@att.net> wrote in
    news:so2voi$96h$1...@dont-email.me:

    On 11/28/2021 5:42, Puckdropper wrote:
    ck<c...@none.none> wrote in
    news:61a1fa68$0$6456$426a...@news.free.fr:

    Is anybody there?

    Yeah... Got to do some "woodworking" if you can call it that. The
    tree has decided our drainpipe is the way to be, so now I have to
    either find a plumber or an electric root cutting auger. I'm very
    tempted to go the root cutting auger way. The last guy was excellent
    but it cost nearly $2000 for the camera, auger, and removing roots
    every 3' along the pipe.

    Puckdropper

    Have you tried copper sulfate down the drain? I have to have a guy
    come out an auger tree roots form the sewer, sometimes 80 feet out,
    because eventually the greywater starts backing up into my cellar
    (thank God, typically not the toilet). Seems to happen every 2 years.
    He told me last time that if it happens again, I really should pay
    for the camera line inspection. It's the old terracotta pipes.

    Anyway, I bought a bag of copper sulfate on eBay, and they jammed the
    10 lbs of sulfate into this flat rate bubble mailer... I have no clue
    how it fit, but they REALLY got their monies worth out of that little
    envelope from USPS... haha! I'm going to dump some directly into the
    clean-out in the cellar with water, and flush the rest. Supposedly if
    you do it annually, it will kill all of the tree roots that get into
    the pipes, without killing the tree.

    I've heard good things about Copper Sulfate. A plumber told me about
    RootX which foams to get the roots at the top of the pipe, unlike the
    Copper Sulfate. It seems to have done pretty decent...

    I found one blockage and ran the snake to the end of the line. Guess
    it's some new roots that didn't know that pipe wasn't where they were
    supposed to be. I'll RootX things here in about 6 weeks. (It was
    suggested to either do it immediately--like within 2 hours--or wait 6
    weeks so the plants aren't in defensive stage.)

    Puckdropper

    I used to use RootX every 6 months as preventative maintenance since
    I knew that roots were entering my pipe. That worked for over 5 years
    and then it didn't.

    I called a company that installs sleeves and also does a free scope as
    part of the estimating process. He determined that the junction between
    my 65 YO pipe Orangeburg pipe and the PVC that the town install about
    15 years ago was letting in roots.

    For $2500 he could install a 2 foot sleeve at the junction to seal it up,
    but - believe it or not - he said "Call the town first. They might accept responsibility and do it for free."

    I called the town, and sure enough, they knew that the junctions they
    had installed were failing. About a week later I had a sleeve installed
    for free.

    I would have gladly paid the $2500 to the first guy, but he was nice
    enough to suggest calling the town. You don't get that kind of service
    too often these days.

    I'd be concerned about orangeburg pipe collapsing.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From DerbyDad03@21:1/5 to Michael Trew on Sun Dec 5 20:41:45 2021
    On Sunday, December 5, 2021 at 9:19:54 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 12/4/2021 5:14, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 4:50:57 PM UTC-5, Puckdropper wrote:
    Michael Trew<michae...@att.net> wrote in
    news:so2voi$96h$1...@dont-email.me:

    On 11/28/2021 5:42, Puckdropper wrote:
    ck<c...@none.none> wrote in
    news:61a1fa68$0$6456$426a...@news.free.fr:

    Is anybody there?

    Yeah... Got to do some "woodworking" if you can call it that. The
    tree has decided our drainpipe is the way to be, so now I have to
    either find a plumber or an electric root cutting auger. I'm very
    tempted to go the root cutting auger way. The last guy was excellent >>>> but it cost nearly $2000 for the camera, auger, and removing roots
    every 3' along the pipe.

    Puckdropper

    Have you tried copper sulfate down the drain? I have to have a guy
    come out an auger tree roots form the sewer, sometimes 80 feet out,
    because eventually the greywater starts backing up into my cellar
    (thank God, typically not the toilet). Seems to happen every 2 years.
    He told me last time that if it happens again, I really should pay
    for the camera line inspection. It's the old terracotta pipes.

    Anyway, I bought a bag of copper sulfate on eBay, and they jammed the
    10 lbs of sulfate into this flat rate bubble mailer... I have no clue
    how it fit, but they REALLY got their monies worth out of that little
    envelope from USPS... haha! I'm going to dump some directly into the
    clean-out in the cellar with water, and flush the rest. Supposedly if
    you do it annually, it will kill all of the tree roots that get into
    the pipes, without killing the tree.

    I've heard good things about Copper Sulfate. A plumber told me about
    RootX which foams to get the roots at the top of the pipe, unlike the
    Copper Sulfate. It seems to have done pretty decent...

    I found one blockage and ran the snake to the end of the line. Guess
    it's some new roots that didn't know that pipe wasn't where they were
    supposed to be. I'll RootX things here in about 6 weeks. (It was
    suggested to either do it immediately--like within 2 hours--or wait 6
    weeks so the plants aren't in defensive stage.)

    Puckdropper

    I used to use RootX every 6 months as preventative maintenance since
    I knew that roots were entering my pipe. That worked for over 5 years
    and then it didn't.

    I called a company that installs sleeves and also does a free scope as
    part of the estimating process. He determined that the junction between
    my 65 YO pipe Orangeburg pipe and the PVC that the town install about
    15 years ago was letting in roots.

    For $2500 he could install a 2 foot sleeve at the junction to seal it up, but - believe it or not - he said "Call the town first. They might accept responsibility and do it for free."

    I called the town, and sure enough, they knew that the junctions they
    had installed were failing. About a week later I had a sleeve installed
    for free.

    I would have gladly paid the $2500 to the first guy, but he was nice
    enough to suggest calling the town. You don't get that kind of service
    too often these days.
    I'd be concerned about orangeburg pipe collapsing.

    Brain Fart Alert!

    I don't know why I typed Orangeburg. My sewer lateral is transite.

    My sewer has been scoped twice in the last year and both firms said
    that other than the connection that the town screwed up, my pipes, from
    the roof vent all the way to the town's PVC section, look really good.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to All on Mon Dec 6 10:04:17 2021
    On 12/5/2021 23:41, DerbyDad03 wrote:
    On Sunday, December 5, 2021 at 9:19:54 PM UTC-5, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 12/4/2021 5:14, DerbyDad03 wrote:

    I called a company that installs sleeves and also does a free scope as
    part of the estimating process. He determined that the junction between
    my 65 YO pipe Orangeburg pipe and the PVC that the town install about
    15 years ago was letting in roots.

    I'd be concerned about orangeburg pipe collapsing.

    Brain Fart Alert!

    I don't know why I typed Orangeburg. My sewer lateral is transite.

    My sewer has been scoped twice in the last year and both firms said
    that other than the connection that the town screwed up, my pipes, from
    the roof vent all the way to the town's PVC section, look really good.

    Glad that it's solid. I had never heard of transite, I had to look that
    up; asbestos cement pipe. From the skimming I did, it looks to be more
    stable than orangeburg, so that's good. Based on track record, I
    figured that 65 year old ob pipe would be ready to collapse.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)