u/Top-Oil-2786

I’ll be camping in the park in a few weeks and obviously Old Rag has been at the top of my hiking list. But seeing people talk about the rock scramble portion has made me question if it’s for me.

I love hiking and the elevation doesn’t really scare me. I’ve hiked in Glacier and all over the blue ridge mountains. But I’ve never done a rock scramble. I also hiked out in NC recently and realized I’m out of shape and the hike definitely kicked my butt 😅

For the rock scramble, how much of it really requires upper body strength? I have noneeee of that to pull myself up and whatnot. Also, how much of it has significant drops? As much as I love mountain hiking, I was cursed with severe vertigo and anytime I’m on a ledge I start getting dizzy.

It feels like I’d be missing out so much if I skipped Old Rag while I was at the park, but is it worth attempting by myself given all that? From people who recently hiked it, how difficult was the scramble?

I’m planning a road trip up to Shenandoah at the end of October. I’m planning to car camp, do some hikes (I’ve seen Old Rag is the top one, but I’m worried my lack of upper body strength and fear of heights might make this one impossible), drive the skyline, and visit some of the small towns around. I’ll be in the area for about 7 days.

I’m also a solo female traveler, so I try to make sure I’m camping in more populated areas at least. Any tips or must-dos while I’m there? I’m really a big hiker overall, so all the trail recs are welcome! So far I’m mostly considering Big Meadow campground for camping, but I’m also considering staying outside of the park as to keep cell service available. So any recommendations on affordable campsites would also be appreciated!

I also wanna make a point to explore some towns in the area while I’m there! 7 days is awhile, so I feel like I’ll be able to split my time between hiking and exploring a good bit :) it’ll be my first time in the area, or VA at all, so I wanna make the most of it!

TIA!

So a family member of mine has a boxer mix who has become pretty aggressive. I’m not sure of a lot of the background, but she got the dog from a neighbor and I have a theory that he may have been being trained to be a fight dog.

I dog say for her a few months back and the dog bit me 3x (only broke the skin once). After the first day, he got used to me and he was okay. But it still freaked me out enough that I won’t dog sit anymore. Apparently, he’s only gotten more and more protective of the house and won’t let any strangers inside. She’s scared to get rid of him out of fear that he will be put down, but not sure how to improve the overprotective/reactive behavior.

We were recently talking about taking a trip, but she’d need to get a pet sitter. So for people to have aggressive/reactive dog or have dog sat them before, what’s the best way to handle this situation?

So I’ve been smoking on and off for about 3-4 years now. Before that, I’d never smoked nor taken an edible. I got a job at a medical dispensary while I was in college because it paid better than any other customer service job. I decided I might as well get my med card and try it if I were gonna be selling it, so I did.

For a while, I’d smoke ONLY when I was off work / school the next day and only at night. But I started doing it more.. on lunch breaks.. before class.. and all day on my days off. Then about 2 years ago I stopped for a while because I was seeing a guy who wasn’t a huge fan of it and he and I were going on this fitness journey together. I just stopped cold turkey. Wrapped everything up in a bag in my closet and it sat for a few months till I gave it away (I had a HUGE stash because I got crazy discounts).

Fast forward, I started getting pretty unhappy with my relationship after about 1-1.5 years with this guy. I still wasn’t smoking, but I started drinking pretty heavily to cope with feeling stuck. It’s also worth mentioning here that alcoholism and addiction run HEAVILY in my family. I don’t actually know of a family member who hasn’t struggled with it. So then I messed up pretty bad while drinking one night and it led to the end of my relationship (it was coming to an end anyway and it was best for everyone, but I still take accountability that my decision definitely made it end in a worse way).

After that, I stopped drinking. I’ve tried to a few times since and I realize that I just have absolutely no control when I start. It’s still a battle sometimes, but that’s for another sub lol. Anyway, towards the end of me and my ex living together, I started smoking a lot, and so did he. I realized I was just trading one addiction for another, but I justified that smoking was better than drinking and it was also a way that he and I could enjoy time together thru all the emotional bs that was going on. My smoking QUICKLY increased once he started doing it too. I work from home, but there’d be many days that I’d smoke first thing in the morning on weekdays, and undoubtedly all day on weekends.

Now, I’ve been living alone for about 3 months and just doing the same thing. I cut back on smoking during the day, but I do it every single night. I’ve said multiple times that I was gonna quit, but I just don’t. Once or twice I didn’t smoke for a few days… and then I wound up buying a bottle of wine (or two) and drinking it in one night.

I feel like I’ve gotten so lazy and I’m one mistake away from my life falling apart. I put on 50 lbs in the last year (a good portion being in the last 3-5 months), I’ve gotten so lazy with work, and I find myself just laying around after work and even during it since I work from home.

I have no friends to talk to or keep me accountable. Literally not one. I’m extremely introverted and finding making friends hard. I’m too ashamed to talk to my family about it since they’re all addicts themselves. Today was the first day in a while that I stayed sober, but I still feel that urge to smoke. It’s like I’m too scared to be alone with my own mind.

I genuinely enjoyed being sober today. I made better choices for myself.. I went out and did things I’ve been meaning to for a while, I even started reading a book again! But still, I’m scared I’ll fall back to smoking. I always tell myself “oh a little unwind time won’t kill anyone” and then wind up doing it all the time.

I also wanna clarify that I just started therapy, so hopefully that’ll help some too. And I’m not necessarily looking for anything with this post. Just kinda sharing my experience and putting my feelings out there I guess.

It’s a pretty simple project overall, but lengthy and tedious. There might be a shortcut I’m unaware of, but I’m not sure.

Basically, I have a KML file with crash points across a particular county. I need someone to go thru that file, screenshot close-ups of the roadways, put it in PowerPoint, and trace/label the roadways.

I have an example to show, if interested. We can discuss rates if you’re interested. If the final product turns out good, I have 2-3 more counties that need to be done as well that I’d be interested in paying for.

My ADHD isn’t letting me focus enough, and I’m beginning to enter hot water at work for not having this done yet.

I have 4 senior cats. One has chronic kidney disease so she is on a prescription diet, but after learning about the disease and how common it is in cats, I decided I want to switch my other cats to a low phosphorus diet to try and keep them from getting CKD. I spent sooo much time looking into the phosphorus levels of different foods (I hate that they don’t include it on packaging), and I just can’t afford some of the good, more expensive brands (like Weruva) for all of them.

I settled on Simply Nourish for their hard food since they have a low phosphorus recipe. I’ve been having more trouble with the wet food. So far, Friskies is looking like the best option… but I feel like I’ve heard so many bad things about friskies compared to other foods.

Is there a better option out there that anyone uses? Or is friskies my best bet here?

My team at work is a national group and we call come together for a conference once a year. My manager has decided that I’m not social enough, so he’s making me and a coworker lead a 30-40 minute icebreaker session this year (I have awful social anxiety, and on top of that everyone know no one actually likes icebreakers, so this is killing me inside).

Last year, we did a personality test (something like DISC, but I can’t remember exactly) and then broke off into groups and basically just discussed our personality types. The only idea I’ve had so far is doing some kinda work type personality test and then have one of each in a group to do an activity and then discuss the strengths of each personality in a teamwork setting.

I feel like that ideas a bit too close to last years, so I’m looking for some ideas on icebreaker activities that keeps my talking to the minimum and everyone won’t ABSOLUTELY hate it.

Just got back from the vet and I felt like her advice was very generic and meant more to just rush me out of the office… she told me to administer 100-150 mL of fluid every 1-2 weeks. When I asked how to know if it’s too much/little fluid, she basically said “eh, just use your best guess” and told me to watch YouTube videos to learn how to use the needle portion.

For context, my cat got diagnosed with stage 3 CKD, however, these numbers were based on her levels after a week of not eating and being very dehydrated. I got her from a shelter and they are going to run her blood again in 2 weeks to judge where her true levels are.

When I first brought her home from the shelter she barely ate for a week and was very dehydrated. I was told she was a much younger, healthier cat. I wasn’t expecting all the medical bills, so I can’t afford to do constant bloodwork. I’m doing my best to manage it myself at home rather than return her to the shelter where she will likely not get adopted with the health problems.

Any advice or tips on recognizing when she needs fluids, or how much she should be drinking per day on her own? Or just general advice on how to help take care of her best with this disease? TIA

So I adopted a dog recently and he’s almost 4 years old and a rottie/hound mix. He’s trained well in some regards (he sits and waits for his food until I give him the command to eat and he doesn’t jump at all). But most areas he’s seriously lacking.

He lived mostly in a crate prior to this, so he was never fully potty trained. He knows NOT to go in the house… but he still will go if I don’t walk him in time… and he hasn’t quiet learned to ask to go out yet, so I kind of just have to read him to know when he has to pee.

He also is TERRIBLE about pulling on the leash. Right now he’s about 70lbs, but he’s going to put on weight and probably end up 100+ lbs and it’s gonna be a lot harder to control him. Every time I open the door he BOLTS to the bushes and almost yanks me down with him. If he catches a scent while walking, he’ll do the same thing. Or I have to yank him away from a spot he’s decided to smell.

He’s EXTREMELY food motivated.. but sometimes I think he’s too focused on food/treats to even use that in training. It’s like he’s too excited to even hear me saying “sit”

I really want him to be a dog that I can take hiking with me or just out and about in general, but I know he needs A LOT of work for that. It’ll also help when I can finally get him fixed once he puts on a bit of weight.

Any training tips, or maybe some helpful videos/articles I could use to give me some direction? Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

First I just wanna say that I have a vet appointment set for Friday already, I just want some advice/opinions while I wait for that.

So I just adopted a 3 year old Rottie mix. He’s not neutered yet and pretty underweight (I think he’s only about 50-60 lbs right now). I got him as I was moving into a new apartment and we’ve only been here about 3 days. Since then I’ve been feeding him 3x a day of about 1.5 cups of his old food and .5 cup of a puppy salmon food to try and start putting weight on him while transitioning slowly. Today he had really bad diarrhea. He went in the house and it was mostly liquid. I think it was likely the stress of the day since I had to lock him in his crate today while maintenance was here and I had furniture delivered. I think it’s just stress of being in a new place and random people around… but I was getting conflicting advice.

I have one person telling me to feed him JUST his old food for about 3 weeks to help him settle… someone else saying to continue the feeding schedule and add a cup of rice to each meal.

Any advice on the best feeding method here?

So I have a 2019 Ford Edge, and I believe it’s the SE. It’s got almost 130k miles on it. About a year ago or more, it started doing this thing when I would put gas in it where it would shake a bit after I turned it back on. I chalked it up to being an older car or whatever. Fast forward a few months ago and the check engine light came on, but no noticeable problems, so I was waiting to get some extra cash to get it looked at. Then after just a week or two, it started sputtering when I would try and start it ONLY after putting gas in it. Some googling and a trip to a shop and I learned I need my purge valve replaced.

Now, my issue is I’ve now taken it to TWO places that have either said the part is such a specialty part that they can’t do it, or quoted me $600+

I was told that Ford made this model a specific way where you cannot replace JUST the purge valve, but the whole part (I don’t have the part number in front of me, but it kinda looks like a long tube).

Now I’m debating just getting the part (~ $200-$300 cost) and just having a family member help me replace it.

Anyone else have any experience with this? Or tips? I think this is the thing that’s finally driving me away from Ford… they have too many problems as is, but now to have stupidly specific parts that ALSO break all the time? Toyota or Mazda are calling my name after this…

TL;DR: Which apartment is most worth it: 2nd floor, partially upgraded ($1,100); 1st floor, no upgrades ($1,200); 1st floor, full upgrade ($1,400)

So I’m planning on moving into my first solo apartment soon and need help deciding what’s really worth it in terms of upgrades/floor level & price. This’ll be my first time alone, so hearing what other people found most worth it would be helpful! I’m mainly between the 2 lower costing apartments, but i wanna hear if anyone found upgraded apartments THAT much more worth it. I’m also wondering if lifestyle creep is just getting to me in wanting the upgrades 😅 these prices are all for the exact same layout (1b/1b; 800sqft)

So here are pros and cons of taking the $1200 1st floor apartment:

PROS:

- no climbing the stairs, which also means no 3am stair climbing when my dog has to pee
- moving is easier
- sooner move-in day for me (I’m excited to get there)
- doing HIIT/getting a treadmill is more doable
- I don’t have to worry about my dog being loud for downstairs neighbors
- there is only one door, so it feels safer (upstairs has a separate fire escape door)
- quicker in and out of my apartment when I’m alone at night

CONS:

- more expensive
- feels less safe as far as possible break-ins on 2nd vs 1st floor
- possibility for more bugs (the apartment isn’t known as the cleanest AND I’m in FL)
- might have noisy upstairs neighbors
- has NO upgrades ($1,200 one has upgraded countertops)

OR a 3rd option of getting a 1st floor, upgraded apartment for about $300 more than my current rent price.

I recently signed a lease before doing enough research and I’ve now found MANY reviews saying the apartment complex is infested with German roaches 😅

I’m trying to get a game plan for treating it.. I need something dog friendly. Due to time constraints, I need to treat it the same day I am moving in with my dog. I am on the second floor, so I’m hoping that will help a bit with bugs, but I just wanna buy the best stuff to treat it as soon as I get in there. The dog won’t be there for 3-5 hours, so i have a little bit of time. But I’m not sure where to start with the most effective and pet-friendly treatment..

I also live in Florida, so I know that palmetto bugs and some crawlies are unavoidable.. I just mainly want to be SURE I don’t get a roach infestation..

So I have pretty good credit for my age (780-790) and just paid off my current credit cards. I still have a car loan and student loans. But I have steady income and I’m looking for a card that I can put all moving expenses on (furniture, tv, initial food costs, etc.)

My goal is to get a card that has the longest possible 0% APR period but that I’m still guaranteed to get a high limit (I’m hoping for like 5k+). Currently, all my cards have a 3k or more limit, but they’re out of that 0% APR timeframe.

What’s the best card for this situation? So far, I’m looking at the Wells Fargo Reflect. Thoughts?

So I know this question has been asked a lot but I’m scared of getting caught and being banned, so I guess I’m just looking for some real stories on how everyone has snuck some alcohol on board recently without being caught?

It’s a short cruise in peak season. I don’t have any qualms paying for the drink package cause I WOULD use the 15/day, but the person I’m rooming with doesn’t drink AT ALL. So having to buy both would just be a total waste.

I had someone on my last cruise get some on with just plastic bags wrapped in clothes. But that was a longer cruise where boarding was WAY behind. I’m scared a short cruise, they’ll check more.

Right now, I’m considering resealing a wine bottle and then maybe checking one bag with like a mouthwash bottle filled with vodka and blue food dye.

I’m deathly afraid of being caught as this is the person I’m going with first cruise AND she completely paid for my portion of it 😬