u/acaifiend

I know, I know. Another year, another ants post.
But this year has been excruciatingly painful for us. We are officially at war.

We have scouts coming from every tiny nook and cranny of the house, non-stop. I’m constantly on patrol, but there’s only so much one man can do. Eventually, they breach the perimeter.

Before I know it, there’s a massive ant trail marching across my house like they’ve got a fucking reservation. Then it’s another 15–30 minutes of cleaning the trail, wiping everything down, and securing the perimeter… only for them to launch another attack two hours later from a completely different location.

We are meticulous about not leaving crumbs or food around. Yet somehow, these little bastards find something (or apparently nothing) and decide, “Yep, this is the spot. Let’s build a highway.”

At this point, I’m ready to surrender to the ants. I don’t even feel like it’s my house anymore. Every moment is psychological torture. It’s not a matter of if more ants will come, but when. I am ready to give up and go live by the train tracks at Wilson Park.

My family switched from T-Mobile’s lower tier budget plan (essential plan) to the Light Speed premium plan and have noticed we don’t have reception or only have 1 or 2 bars in several spots where we didn’t have issues with before while under T-Mobile. Has anyone else noticed this?

A few of us are on dark speed/warp and notice it too but have nothing to compare it too since we all came from T-Mobile

I was born in Torrance 30 years ago and feel like some of our facilities are lacking and have not progressed since then. Am I just cynical? For example:

I have not seen any improvements to the several libraries in our city since I was a kid. Not even dedicated study rooms, whiteboards, or new desks in the civic center library which has tons of space... I honestly prefer going to the harbor or lomita library because they look nicer and have better lighting and nicer desks/chairs. El Camino has facilities and better hours of operation but it’s not as accessible for non students.

Besides Wilson park, I haven’t seen many improvements to other parks and I feel like they’ve gotten worse. Parks like sur la brea, torrance park feel so sketchy. There are very limited public outdoor courts at parks and it feels like they haven’t really added anything to improve them.

It feels like roads are not being maintained as well as when I was a kid, and although they’ve never been that good, they’re still better than LA County roads lol. But when I was younger they would add a fresh layer of asphalt every 5ish years.

There’s been no increase or improvements in recreational centers like pools or places like the attic (for children).

Traffic is so bad and does not flow well, we desperately need traffic signal synchronization. It’s crazy hitting red light after red light on Crenshaw, Sepulveda, Hawthorne etc. Sometimes even on a Sunday at 6 am with no traffic I get stuck in red light hell while on a major road

Literally the only “improvements” I see are these useless little blue posts/signs telling me the street names or nearest landmark. But more seriously, the only really meaningful thing I’ve seen is that we’re planting more trees now.

Just got my first ebike, the mars 2.0. I had a few questions

1. Should I store my bike in the folded position or upright with the kickstand out? Or does it not matter?

2. When the bike is folded, I struggle to get it into my trunk because the front half sways too much. Where should I be holding the bike when loading and unloading it in my trunk so it stays in place?

3. When I try to toggle the throttle speed limit between on and off, I don’t notice much of a difference. It seems like the throttle is always limited to the PAS level I’m at, or goes only slightly above it. Is this normal? I wanted to be able to reach max speed with throttle while on PAS 1 with a speed of 3mph

4. When I use the bike screen to adjust settings, it lets me set the top speed to 39mph, but the app only lets me go to 28. Can someone explain why I’m seeing 39 mph in the device settings?

Is it possible to adjust the PAS sensitivity level on the Mars 2.0? I don’t see an option in the app and didn’t notice anything in the manual. I feel like the bike accelerates too fast after pedaling, even when decreasing my PAS

I want to surprise my wife with a relaxing day at the spa since she’s been stressed. After some research it seems like the general recommendations are the ones listed below. Has anyone been to these? Curious what the pros/cons of each of them are and if anyone recommends them. Thanks!

* Riviera Spa
* DuBunne Spa
* Burke Williams Day Spa
* Terranea Cove (might be too expensive)