I haven’t opened Reddit in months, but this interaction made me think of this sub, and I had to share.

My wife and I just got back from a trip to Arizona. We live in Ohio, and this was our first time spending any significant time in the southwest. We had a great time!

Being our first visit to this part of the country, it was also our first time seeing the various cacti in the wild, which was a super cool experience for us.

We had lunch with my boomer in-laws and were telling them about the trip. We were talking about all of the cool cacti and mentioned Saguaro - FIL interrupts and attempts to correct me, saying “it’s sbarro”. I chuckle because I’m pretty sure he’s joking and try to continue, but he doubles down. “No, it’s Sbarro. S-B-A-R-R-O.”

Wife says “I think you’re confusing it with the pizza place.” But no, he is 100% sure they are called Sbarro, not saguaro.

For some reason he added “and it’s illegal to shoot them” (???!)

We just changed the subject and moved on, but weve been joking about Sbarro cacti for three days now.

I should preface this by saying that my in-laws are nice people and worked for their money. They can do what they want with it! And SHOULD travel if they want to!

My in laws take at least one all-inclusive trip a year. Where they take you around Europe or something. They can afford it, and then some. It's always a big deal when they get back. They're excited to share about it, and it does seem like a legitimately cool experience.

They are always telling us (their kids and spouses) and their adult grandkids that we should "travel while we're young." It's so nice! They say. Travel the world! They say. And then point-blank ask when we plan to take a trip like theirs.

If we say something along the lines of, y'know, we probably won't be taking a 10,000 cruise any time soon, or be able to take 2 weeks off of work at once, it's met with skepticism.

We actually were able to take a really nice 5-day trip this year, for the first time in a few years, and spared no expense! When I showed my in-laws our pictures (that they ASKED to see), every one was interrupted by a 5 minute story and share out about something THEY did on a different trip (mind you, pics and stories I had already seen and heard). So we finally traveled and then they didn't actually care.

As nice as they are, they still just have that boomer self-centeredness and total lack of awareness of how expensive the world is right now. Sigh. OK boomer.

We visited my in-laws this weekend, went up Friday and are back home today (Sunday). This is essentially the max we can handle due to my FIL. I love my MIL, she's amazing and I've never seen her act like a stereotypical boomer ever.

My FIL on the other hand... He's a straight white able-bodied man who made a ton of money in the 80s-2000s and is retired. He used to be a libertarian/republican, but thankfully has never been maga or supported or voted for trump. In fact, thanks to trump my FIL has actually become a bit more left leaning than he'd likely admit. But besides that one silver lining, he is very difficult to be around.

I have been with my husband for 22 years, I know these people extremely well and he has sadly gotten worse over the years. He's blown up on me occasionally in the past for very small and odd reasons, and my past reactions were more of fear and sadness. However, with the state of the world and in the USA I am simmering with rage and I warned my husband that I was on edge going up there because my FIL stresses me out.

My husband is very supportive of me, has spoken to his father countless times, and we have essentially gone LC with him due to this, at least LC in comparison to the past where we would visit them typically 1-3x a month. We typically only see them on big holidays now.

Anyway, this weekend we went up because my BIL/SIL and their son would be there too.

My 3 year old took apart the plastic train tracks my FIL had put together, and my FIL seemed a bit annoyed but laughed and said "that's how boys are." My MIL and I rolled our eyes and told him that's just how kids are, girls do that too. (He has two sons.) So he said "well, I guess I just don't know girls then." And I said, "Yeah, you don't, so maybe don't speak on something you don't know." This is the same man who greeted the news of my pregnancy by saying he hoped we had a boy because boys are "better" and "so easy".

A few hours later my BIL/SIL arrived so the boys were playing and having a blast. Suddenly my FIL yelled at my son for taking apart train tracks that he had set up, but whatever, he's 3 and that's how kids play. I immediately told him to not yell at my son, and my husband/MIL/SIL/BIL all said something too. My FIL tried to argue about what my son was doing and I told him I fully didn't care, that this is how children play and that he cannot yell at my son regardless.

We moved our son to the kitchen where we were all chatting, while my FIL sat in the open living room.

The six of us are going on vacation soon to an all inclusive resort. My BIL was saying that he wants to eat so much food the resort has to raise its rates after and my SIL was saying it was her dream to go to the Japanese restaurant at the resort and eat all the sushi she wanted without worry about cost.

Suddenly my FIL interjects with a stereotypical Chinese accent saying "we're not a restaurant, we're a dry cleaners now". My BIL immediately told him to not do a voice and my FIL doubled down and did it again. I told him to stop and that it wasn’t funny and that he didn’t need to do a racist voice. He insisted it was funny and that he was repeating what a comedian did from "back in the day." I told him it didn't matter, it's not funny, it's offensive.

He rolled his eyes and said it was a joke.

So I asked him what the joke was. To explain it to me.

He got so red faced, stammering, "well, what, do I have to explain COMEDY to you?!"

I didn't break eye contact. "Explain the joke."

He said something about how it's that he would put them out of business and they wouldn't be a Chinese restaurant anymore. I pointed out how we had said this was a Japanese restaurant in a Mexican resort, and while I get the premise that he would eat so much it would put them out of business/or they're lying as to what their business is to have him leave, but that doesn't explain why he did a stereotypical accent.

He got even redder and yelled "Well, I'm sorry, I can't keep up with the WOKE!"

So I said, "well, I'm not sorry, I'm not a bigot."

He yelled "well, I'm so sorry I offended you, I didn't know you identified as ASIAN!"

I said "I don't have to be the race to care about someone who is. I have empathy. There's just no reason to do a voice like that."

This all happened in front both of our 3 year old sons, so we all were pissed at him for his behavior. At that point is was well past my son's bedtime, so I took him up to bed to get away from my FIL. I then hung out in our bedroom for a while to decompress, finally going downstairs after my MIL/FIL went to bed.

Maybe 30 minutes later he slunk downstairs to apologize. I'm sure my MIL gave him a piece of her mind and encouraged his apology.

He said "I'm sorry about earlier. I had a cancer infusion today and wasn't feeling well."

I said I was sorry he wasn't feeling well, but that doesn't excuse the behavior. That he can't yell at our son and can't do racist voices.

He said something about how my son taking the tracks apart triggered him because he spent so much time putting it together and he wasn't playing with it correctly. We reminded him our son is 3 and taking toys apart (not breaking them, he literally was just taking the tracks apart as they're meant to be taken apart) is normal kid behavior and even IF he was breaking things we were not okay with him yelling.

He then said he was sorry about the "whole woke thing"

BUT

that he still thought it was funny.

So I stopped listening after that.

I'm not looking forward to Thanksgiving.

For context my parents are fairly decent as far as boomers go. Big into church but more pro jesus than racist fanatical. Just very much fiscal conservatives. But suffice to say I have been able to rely on them despite our political differences.

While I anticipated falling out over politics, I never anticipated the AI disconnect. My dad was a computer science major since the 80s. He's constantly technology forward and savy, always wanting to try every new tech trend.

So AI was an obvious step for them but I didn't anticipate it completely taking them over. My parents have now become so reliant on it they use it in text responses, email responses most advice they give now, even congratulations or invitations. My mom got into publishing AI christian books. My dad is trying to adopt AI into more home and life functions.

Now just about every digital message I have with them I start to scan for AI and soon being suspicious of all communication with parents, it starts to feel like a body snatchers situation. It quickly feels hollow like i'm not even talking to my parents, just might as well ask AI. I at least think they edit a little, not just pure AI responses but it still doesn't feel great.

Now even in person they are slower, like in their late 60s yeah probably to be expected, but it just absolutely sucks having to attribute it to AI as well. Its just sad to see happen to people I considered very business and finance savy, not just from old age but this AI takeover. 😓

My boomer parents just moved, and I asked me to c

ome over to get their "tech" set up. So, I go there and ask if it's the same provider as at their old place. "It's Roku."No, it's not.

You pay money to your internet/tv cable providor. Every month. "Did you call and have them transfer services?" "OH, we were supposed to do that?"

Yes. Yes you do.

I try to be kind and realize that they are not digital natives, but geez.

This is a long story and somewhat personal, but I feel like it's relatable and would like to share. The tl;dr of it is that my dad keeps sharing shitty AI photos, really low-effort jokes, and ad-riddled American Idol clips with me, and it is getting so hard to keep pretending to laugh or be impressed by any of it. I've been distant from my folks for a long time, so I've been trying to reconnect, but good god, it's hard. I'm sure many can relate.

To preface, I recently moved back to my hometown to take care of my aging grandfather. It's honestly a long story as to the why and how of this situation, but that's for another time and another sub.

My parents live about a mile away, so when my grandfather settles in for the night, it's still very early, usually around 5 or 6, so I'll go over to see my folks. We eat dinner and typically watch a movie or two or binge some TV.

For context, they're 74-year-old boomers and I'm a 42-year-old millennial. Though we were close when I was growing up, I spent the last 25 years in a dense, urban environment with very progressive values whilst they stayed in church-cenetered suburbia with very conservative mindsets. We still get along, as we tend to avoid our conflicting interests and instead focus on spending time together, especially since we were rather estranged for a long time.

While I may read when they watch NCIS or Taylor Sheridan slop, we all enjoy prestige dramas, literary adaptations, thrillers/mysteries, and trivia game shows, so the overlap mostly works.

However... their critical thinking skills and senses of humor are really starting to grate on me. I can usually shrug if off easily with my mom, as even though she's a very sweet person, she knows we have very different modes of thinking. If she comments on something with which I don't agree or find funny, she takes the hint and drops it.

My dad is another story. He's always been the parent I've most looked up to: he's generally a well-read, intelligent man, studied chemistry and worked in that field for decades. When we watch Jeopardy, he may not be on par with me with the cultural categories, but he can match me when it comes to the hard sciences, language, or history. We especially share a love for photography, and he loves showing me his photos.

But lately, he has been sharing photos that he altered with really basic AI that are... less than impressive. Or memes that are funny on the most basic of levels. Or someone singing a cover of a musician we both enjoy, but it's on an inane competition show.

It's getting hard pretending to laugh or be impressed by it anymore. Tonight's shares were of the Neuschwanstein castle in Germany that "FACEBOOK MADE LOOK 3-D!!" (the original photo was great, this looked atrocious); a cartoon of a skeleton holding a margarita... that was it, that was the whole joke, and he was angry that I just nodded my head and didn't laugh uproariously; and a video of someone singing a Queen song on either American Idol or America's Got Talent that just kept cutting to the judges' facial expressions or the audience's reactions while getting interrupted by a commercial every ten seconds. It was getting honestly torturous. But imagine all that exponentially every single night for the past year.

There are other extenuating circumstances (I am broke and looking for work, which is difficult as a full-time unpaid caretaker, they are helping as little as possible, it's basically a financial trap) that make it harder to bear. Slip in some casual racism and classism, and it gets worse. It's honestly just so obnoxious or even sad as to what he seems to think is impressive or funny, and I am getting so sick of pretending.

Not looking for validation or advice or anything like that, but I feel like many other folks can relate. I just gotta laugh at the entire situation when I get back "home" every night because otherwise, I'd go insane.

My daughter's paternal grandparents haven't visited her the entire time she's been stage 4 or on chemo. Now that they want her to dogsit, they're actually visiting. They live an hour away. They are more than capable of visiting, they are Disney adults who walk the parks without any issue.

Of course this couldn't be an unobtrusive visit. They decided to bring homemade bread... that they failed to cook the night before so now they're here all day waiting for this bread to rise to cook it. My daughter asked for none of this.

Also they think their dog can be placed on a staked chain in the backyard and be ok. First of all, this is an apartment complex and second of all, no.

It's just one of those things where you're like "oh that's a sweet thing" until you realize it's all wrapped up in them getting what they want from her and it ends up as a huge inconvenience because they weren't "thoughtful" enough not to impose with it.

This has also derailed my entire day because they were late to begin with. I need to prep for an important interview tomorrow. They were supposed to be here only an hour. 🙄

Edit: Ope, I need to add some details. My daughter is an adult. I am living with her temporarily as a caregiver. I'm here until we get this to back off. I have influence but only so much because she is just like me. They want two instances of dog sitting,: she's already said no to next month but it's a maybe for December. And this does amount to me dog sitting. (Keep in mind, I left my dog with my able bodied son at home when I came here.)

I've never posted on Reddit before, but this just happened earlier today and I thought you all might get a kick out of it.

I live near a park with a lot of lovely trails in the forest. There's one in particular that's maybe five minutes from my house, short, not too taxing, close enough to the road to be in view of others while still being surrounded by trees, and rarely sees more than two or three people at a time. Basically, it's the perfect place for a short walk alone. I go there every day and often get to see folks walking their dogs. There's a few different ways people go about it. Most people have them on a leash and pull them to their side if we're passing each other at one of the narrower parts of the trail. This is the polite thing to do, by the way. Some people prefer those super long extendable leashes so they can let their dogs run as far ahead, off trail, or at as many people as they want and still feel like they're doing their due diligence because TECHNICALLY there's a leash there. This is not the polite thing to do, but good luck convincing them of that. And SOME people, which is to say basically every Boomer I've ever encountered in the like 7 years I've been using this trail, don't bother to leash their dog at all. Lots of them at least have the decency to call their dogs back if they get too far ahead or they see another person coming, which is still below the bare minimum (and very irresponsible, especially with how many deer we get around here,) but it's at least something.

And then... there's this guy.

So, I'm just about done with my walk, on my way back. I have my headphones in and I'm happily minding my own business. Up ahead I see a dog who's not on a leash, and their owner, a man in maybe his mid-60s, walking pretty far behind. The dog spots me and starts heading in my direction. I get a little nervous around big dogs because for some reason they all seem to possess some primal instinct to charge at me specifically and bowl me over, and being that I weigh maybe 130 pounds, they are usually successful. So, in the interest of remaining upright, I do what I normally do in this situation: stop walking and step off to the side. I'm expecting the owner will either call the dog back as is the typical, halfway-polite thing to do, or I'll just wait for them to pass me.

...Neither of these things happen. The dog keeps trotting my way, and the owner does start yelling... At me.

I take my headphones out to hear what he's saying and this man is yelling that his dog isn't bothering me and isn't even interested in me. I don't think I did anything to prompt this, except perhaps look at the large animal heading in what I thought was my exact direction, but I guess according to him was just a direction that looked very similar to the exact one I was in while having nothing to do with me at whatsoever. Alright. I take him at his word because I don't care that much and start walking again. The dog picks up its pace, now running in the direction strongly reminiscent of but definitely distinct from right at me. The man begins alternating between yelling at me and calling his dog back, and to its credit, the dog does not jump at me and listens to its owner for about two seconds before trotting on ahead again. I don't fault the dog, to be clear. It seemed very friendly and it was the first dog I have ever seen that was completely lacking a tail (And I'd never even considered that was a possibility. I must be even more ignorant than I imagined...)

So, as we walk past each other, I say, "Do you wanna leash your fucking dog?" (And, okay, even if he yelled first I shouldn't have cursed at him, that wasn't very smart nor was it at all kind.)

He responds, still yelling even though we are more than close enough to talk at a volume that won't scare the poor deer down the hill, "No, I don't, 'cause this is a fuckin' service dog in training, so why don't you shut your hole?"\*

So, that's an absolutely insane way to speak to a stranger, and I tell him as much. He yells back that I'm the one being insane. At this point, we are right next to each other. I spoke to him at lower than my normal volume in the hopes he'd lower his voice as well. It... did not work. I'm not sure if he's really as angry as he seems or if this is just how he acts all the time, but either way, standing there with him glaring down at me as he yelled I will admit, he was pretty... pathetic. He might have been going for intimidating. Really, I was more sad for him than annoyed. But still pretty annoyed.

As he walks past me I say (yes, say, not yell, because we are in the woods where it is quiet and we do not need to yell to hear each other. I know we teach toddlers inside voices, but you'd think as an adult one would understand the barely-more-complicated context appropriate volume...)

"You are not a very nice person and I'm sorry you don't have many people in your life who love you."

Which, okay. Not a very "sick burn," nor is it an appropriate or even remotely normal thing to say to someone, let alone a stranger. I wish I hadn't said it. I wanted to get the last word in (which is never a great sign in regard to how worth having a conversation is) but I didn't want to yell because it's crass and I didn't want to say anything that might directly provoke him because, well, I am 19 years old and 130 pounds and for all that he's pathetic and not at all intimidating he is still an older, bigger man I am sort of alone in the sort of woods with and there are a few statistically supported ways that could end that I'd rather they didn't. He walks off still cursing at me while his dog carries on none the wiser. Maybe he's nicer to it than he is to random girls who he thinks might be judging him.

It is just really frustrating how older folks seem to view any call to just treat their community and communal spaces with respect as a personal affront to their very liberty. It's not! We just want you to keep your dog, the wildlife, and your neighbors safe. And all you have to do is hold a piece of fabric. I used to walk in the local cemetery because it's got lots of hills that are just the right amount of challenging for me and all these big old trees that look so pretty in the fall and winter, but the baby boomers just... ruined it. They stand around in big groups talking and laughing loudly and let their dogs run around without leashes while also feeding the squirrels and I'm sure you can imagine how that ends. When I was 15 an old woman threw the water in her dog's bowl on me because I told her she ought to have some respect in a cemetery of all places. And a few days later a man was playing fetch with his dog on the graves, and when I tried to tell him there was a dog park not even ten minutes away he told me to kill myself. A fifteen year old girl! I didn't even say what he was doing was wrong, even though it was. I just told him where the dog park was! A neutral statement!

Okay, phrasing the title of this post as a question was kind of misleading. I know why they don't leash their dogs. You can tell from their immediately defensive reactions, and from what that defense consists of, exactly what their thought process is. They know they're breaking the rules, they know why the rules are there and they know that breaking them is making things worse for the people around them. They know all of that perfectly well, but they just think that, since they're the one doing it, it should be fine. They cannot connect the natural consequences of their poor conduct with the reactions people have to it. Every Boomer I've met, individually, believes that the world should cater to them in every respect. They single out and break these petty rules on purpose because no matter what happens as a result it reinforces their belief that they're society's one and only special little princess. Either no one reacts and they get away with it- as they think they should- or someone does tell them off, and their world view is so strongly dictated by their emotional reactions that the fact it makes them feel bad only further validates that anyone who dares to push back against them must be the one in the wrong, and really, short of a whole essay they won't read, the reason we're expected to leash our pets in public is because it's considerate to the people, plants and animals around us. And boomers just don't care about anything outside of themselves. So the justification just doesn't land, and it's the perfect way to test boundaries and affirm their own cyclical world-view.

Normally I just don't say anything to people who don't leash their dogs. There's a sign on either end of the trail, and at the parking lot, and two more on the road leading up to it asking you to leash and clean up after your dog. They know what the expectation is. They just don't care. And if anything is capable of making 60-something year old men care about their community, it is not a 130 pound, 19 year old girl with dyed hair in a floral maxi skirt telling them about rules they already knew and chose to ignore. I just give them a side-eye and move on. After all, I have many lovely walks in the forest ahead of me, and they have very few, so if they'd like to spend them angry in advance of a fight, then that's their business. They're not so important as to make the whole forest less lovely by demonstrating the reason their funeral won't attract a crowd, though I will admit, I do think it will get a little more lovely once they're gone.

Sorry for the rant this turned into. It always bothers me a little, but I don't usually get so worked up about these things. Writing it all out was pretty cathartic, though. I guess the moral of the story is to leash your dogs in the woods or some rando might tell you that nobody loves you and then tell Reddit you're going to die alone? Or maybe we can say it's that being considerate of others doesn't have to be hard unless you make it so. That sounds a bit better, I think :)

\*Paraphrased, I can't remember the exact wording as I wasn't really paying that much attention to him but the "shut your hole" part is verbatim. That's not a thing we say here. Is it a thing people say anywhere? It's so... crude.

My Grandma never had a driver's license so she usually either walked everywhere or my Grandpa would drive her around. He stopped being able to drive about 15 years ago and then died 10 years ago.

After he passed, my Grandma started this thing where she hates every place she lives. They lived in an assisted living place when my Grandpa died so she had to move after that. She decided to move back to where they lived before that, a 55+ building that's very old but downtown and walkable. She complained it was too old and dirty and there's nothing to do in the town she lived in (about 26k people).

So she moved to a suburb of a big city closer to my aunt. It was a nice building but after a couple of years, she said there was nothing to do there and the building didn't have events for its residents to do. So she moved back to the town she lived in before.

But this time, she moved to a newer building at the end of town. There's not much within walking distance of that place except for a target. She complained about that place and moved to a brand new building being built downtown. I think she made it about a year there and wanted to leave because there were too many younger people there. She had previously only lived in 55+ communities.

She wanted to move back to the bigger city since there will be more to do. Well, she decided to move back into the same building that she lived in before and hated. Of course she hated it there immediately and said she wanted to move back to the original building she lived in back home.

I think her kids finally told her that she needs to stop moving so much and give places a chance. No place is ever good for her but she doesn't remember that and wants to move back into the place she hated a couple of years previously.

So last weekend my son broke his arm during his football game. We are at the ER talking to the nurse in the triage area. This is a smaller rural ER where all of this typically done at the check in area. This old man comes in huffing up to the desk shouting his wife is sick. The nurse tells him to have a seat and she will get to them when she finishes with us. My son is in obvious pain with his hand very swollen and lots of bruising already. The lady finally wanders in and come right to the the desk. The nurse is in the middle of actually speaking to my son and I so she starts slamming the bell on the desk screaming hello! Hello! I need help here! Once again the nurse asks to please take a seat and she will be with them as soon as she is done. Then the husband comes back up to join the wife. He starts shouting about his wife is older and should be seen first. There is nothing wrong with that boy. He’s still ranting loudly about how parents coddle their kids now days and when he was a kid if you weren’t bleeding or dying parents didn’t waste the doctors time rushing you to the hospital. Finally, I had enough and told him to shut up, my son has a broken arm, and to mind his own damn business. He responds with my wife is sick that boy will still have a broken arm later get him up so the nurse can see her now. He steps towards my son and I quickly step in his path and tell him exactly what I will do him if he takes one more step to my child. At this point my adult son who coaches his younger brother arrives since the game has ended. The old man shuts up and goes to sit down. A few moments later he starts to scream that his wife has chest pains and is having a heart attack. The wife is sitting in her chair looking like she has no idea what he is going on about. Sure enough that got them called up to the desk but the best part was we were being taken back to the room already so it didn’t get them seen any quicker.

My Boomer FIL was visiting for a few days, and one evening my wife put on the Great British Baking Show. After a bit he came into the room, watched for a few minutes, and complained how they are pushing gay and trans people down his throat.

Rather than push the issue by asking exactly how having gay people on a TV show is "shoving it down his throat," she went for the more obvious statement of pointing out that there were no trans people this season.

He pointed to Noel Fielding (one of the hosts) and said, "That trans person!" My wife pointed out that Noel is not trans, but a rather emo male. He didn't believe her and stormed out of the room. It's not like this was his war movies or shows based around car repairs. It was a freaking baking show. I'm actually surprised there aren't more gay men on it.

I got into a similar argument with him several years ago about the promotional Bud Light can with Dylan Mulvaney's face on it. After he claimed they were shoving trans people down his throat I asked him if had purchased a can with her face (he doesn't drink Bud Light). Or if he had seen a commercial? Or seen it ANYWHERE other than Right Wing media. Of course he didn't have an answer to that and stormed off to pick a fight with one of his nieces, making her cry by attacking her political beliefs. Seems to me it was Fox News shoving it down his throat so that he could create an issue that doesn't exist.

So my(16) grandma(76) is in her “let’s remodel the entire house,” phase. A few weeks ago, she ordered a new bed spread for her room. According to my mother, my grandma came out of her room with the bed sheets and angrily said “These bedsheets don’t fit! They say they are for a king-sized bed, but it’s too long on the sides and not long enough on the bottom!” My mother asks if she has tried turning it. My grandma goes back to her room with my mom and she helps her turn the bedsheets. She was so embarrassed and claimed “well the darn tag was on the wrong side, so I thought-“ Luckily, she doesn’t double down like my grandfather and just laughs it off. I love my grandma, she may be a republican and Mormon, but she keeps anything harmful to herself and is always willing to laugh about things and accept everyone. She is what most organized religions should be. And I’m so lucky to have her as my grandma.

Just happened, and I so appreciate volunteers, however...

I was voting in a municipal election and when it came time to submit my ballot into the counter, this boomer volunteer was struggling to get it to accept my ballot. First it spits the ballot back out. She grabs it and waves it around before putting it back in the confidentiality sleeve (excusez moi?). She tries again, same thing. So she starts suggesting all the ways I might have screwed up filling it out. "Did the pen bleed through? Did you vote for the right number of candidates? You may need to get a replacement ballot..."

At this point I look at the line up which has grown a fair bit and say "I might just try a different machine first." So I go to the next machine where a millennial volunteer is helping. She basically explains how the boomer was doing it wrong and what do you know? My ballot was accepted first try.

Funny how user error on their part is NEVER an option. Must be my fault I guess... lol.

Last night we got a ton of rain over a relatively short period of time. When this happens the street I'm on can flood a little bit. Usually only a few inches but it tends to drain away pretty fast too. At worst you get your shoes wet or it splashes on your windshield.

Well after the rain stopped at around 8pm, I look out my window and I see the older couple who live across the street on their porch. They're the type of retiree that has nothing else to do but sorta be nosey busybodies obsessed with their yard and anything that might be going on in the little street we live on. I've never witnessed them doing what I'm about to describe before, however.

I see the wife standing on the porch gesturing and the husband walk down to the end of the driveway and he's using a metal snow shovel to try and like push the water away out of the road. This had no effect whatsoever, all that happened is more water flowed back in to instantly replace what he had tried to displace with the shovel. It's not like there was any damming caused by branches or debris and he was trying to break it up. Usually what happens is the water flows away slowly on its own, but he was trying to accelerate this process at 8pm using a shovel to little or no effect.

Given the gesturing, I guess they figured he ought to do *something* about the light flooding on the street, and thought him pushing the water away would have some noticeable effect. I have no idea what the actual goal was. They could have just gone to bed and it would have had the same effect because the water was mostly gone this morning. I mean... it's none of my business, you wanna go out after a heavy rain at 8am just to push water around with a shovel, have at it. I just thought it was an amusing story for this sub.

edit: we're actually at the bottom of a very slight incline, so the water didn't need any help flowing and it was cleared up the following morning. Apparently everyone is an expert in whatever was going on here.

another edit: apparently he was shovelling water all night according to my girlfriend. The scraping from the metal shovel kept waking her up. I wear earplugs so I didn't notice.

So this happened a few years ago, my(14) grandpa(79) had just been watching another episode of his favorite new political show “gutfield.” He called me in there to ”watch something funny with me!” Apparently his idea of funny was watching a racist comedian make horrible comments about Kamala Harris. I told him that it wasn’t funny and that seemed to have caused his filter to crumble like my interest in what he thought was funny. Suddenly he is talking about the “gay agenda” and “what are schools teaching these children!” It’s at this point I should mention that I am Lesbian. I’m open about it too. My grandpa starts ranting about “where I learned that being a lesbian was okay” and “kids turning trans in the bathrooms.” My grandpa is a normally kind and caring person, but he has lost his filter over the years such as making inappropriate remarks about my parents divorce, and making gross comments about the kids he sees (along the lines of “why is she dressed like a slut?!”). I love my grandpa, but I’m glad I’m going to college soon. He is just so infuriating to be around…

Boomers parked in a pickup space at one of the big box stores when they clearly didn't do a pickup. Proceeds to leave their cart right in front of their truck where it's going to roll and hit either my car or the one across from me when they leave. I asked the lady "What if that hits another car?" She angrily info dumps on me that she just had gallbladder surgery and that she can't put it up after walking around. That she always puts them up but not today. I would have put it back if she had just nicely asked. Her husband then starts yelling at me about whether or not they hit my car. Then he tells me to F off several times. I screamed back that wasn't the way to talk to someone for asking a question. He calls me a B*tch and then starts telling me to F off again. Told him to F off at this point. I walked around the truck and moved the cart so it was right behind the truck. Fool rage backs into it and just keeps bumping it over and over. I never saw them get back out so someone else must have moved the cart. Why are they all so angry all the damn time?!

Has anyone seen this? Idk what my parents are hearing/watching that has made them change their mind on this so quickly. My dad has been sick for over five months with very vague symptoms. He’s been out of work this whole time and doesn’t really leave the house. You’d think he’d be invested in getting better but he has simultaneously complaining the doctors aren’t doing enough, figuring out his issues, ordering enough tests AND not wanting to take medications or do treatment. Every medication he takes days to weeks to start then quits in a few days. Was scheduled for gallbladder surgery then canceled it. His most recent trip they told him he’s anxious and depressed and gave him zoloft, of course he won’t take that either!

He says taking medications scares him and makes him nervous, none of these are serious meds. He didn’t even want to take medication to regulate his diabetes. He was never like this before. Complains about how doctors are just pumping you full of pills, mind you he doesn’t live a healthy lifestyle and didn’t before.

This has even extended into my life as he is upset that I take medication, i am doing IVF I’m on a million things right now and frankly i don’t care! After two losses this year i will take whatever. He brings it up constantly I need to stop taking thyroid medication (i want a functioning thyroid no thanks) and how I’m “pumping myself full of hormones”. He even got mad I got a flu shot because that’s bad idk.

Anyone else seeing this?!