u/sushinestarlight

I super dislike Paxton, but wish we were getting the 28 miles of light rail we were promised when voting instead of under 10 miles.

If it went down to Slaughter or up to 183 as originally envisioned and presented to voters - it might have gotten cars off the road... the current $8 Billion plan really doesn't move people.

When I say it doesn't "move people" I'm suggesting - students on West Campus are not daily commuters, people that already live downtown are not commuters - the only commuters would come from Riverside Drive, but I'm not sure the volume supports a $8 Billion line that isn't federally funded yet.. and it doesn't even go to the airport anymore.

I wish we could pause and reset and get a new vote based on the <10 mile plan.. the 20% CoA tax increase really hurt a lot of people - an extra $500+ per year isn't chump change for people that don't live near the line - which is most people unless you live on Riverside/downtown/West Campus - and if you live downtown or West Campus you probably aren't commuting elsewhere anyway.

I have a Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic and haven't had any issues after initial setup running it via my CN Vivo 100 Ultra phone....

I realize it's still preorder and perhaps most people don't have it yet, but wondering if the new Galaxy Watch 9 will work with CN Vivo 100 Ultra???

I would think if the older one works the new should too - but then thought I'd better ask here rather than risk wasting the $230 extra to upgrade watches if it won't work.

Perhaps Watch 8 people could chime in.

So I'm redoing my bathroom and I'm hoping my contractor is as good as they claim to be - they aren't inexpensive and project manager came out with the tiling people who seemed fairly competent and pretty easy to understand while discussing (slightly older guy and a younger guy - could be father and son - father seemed to speak English fairly well and son seemed to fully be fluent - seemed like father might have be 75% fluent and son 100%).

Anyway, I'm redoing a 1972 bathroom, and while it may indeed be a 54 year old tile failure - I'm wondering if I'm stressing too much over waterproofing.

I'm in a condo with only 1 adjacent unit and the bathroom is on the ground floor - the adjacent unit hasn't complained despite my issues with a clearly failing bath - which I'm going to turn into a shower.

I'm using epoxy grout and quality porcelain tile throughout...

Guess I'm saying that I overanalyze all this stuff and perhaps I shouldn't - my understanding is1972 they didn't have any decent waterproofing, so anything I do will be an upgrade!

I don't know what the exact plan they want to do, I doubt it will be a super "high end" solution and would more likely to be a Redguard type solution.

I'm not sure since they just haven't thrown out brand names as a waterproofing solutions, i'm thinking they aren't proposing a super high end solution.

Perhaps I'm overthinking this. I'd hope my shower lasts 30 years without major issues.

FYI - outside the shower pan area is a concrete slab.

So a bunch of hoopla around the budget cuts and local CBS writes "Attention shifts to classroom impact: modest class-size increases, less planning time"

But then no one clearly states the new (or even old) class size in Austin... no details ever - so weird

When I was a kid in public school we had 30 kids per class and that was standard - but the news doesn't mention what it is in AISD

Just odd that no one bothers to report actual facts or numbers anymore - lazy reporting and/or lazy disclosure by AISD

At over $1k per page, I certainly hope they didn't use AI for the actual 74 page report despite KXAN running it through an AI detector that indicated 100% use of AI (and image admittedly was).

I read the report and it basically says "City of Austin should give us more dedicated money so we don't have to rely on any federal grants" - so $80k possibly up to $110k consultant's report says to give them more money... sigh.

Sadly there is a lot of word slop indicative of AI - and frankly the report doesn't really say a lot other than to give them more money - so they can "equitably help communities somehow prevent violence" hopefully with increased reporting, but again mostly nonsense.

Looking for other people's experiences growing Verbena in Austin...

My native prairie verbena with zero supplemental water looks great.

My moss verbena with zero supplemental water looks pretty good.

My homestead pink verbena from Natural Gardener looks "okay" but not wonderful.

My 4" verbenas from Shoal Creek look like they have chlorosis and are dry and yellowing despite what I would think would be enough rain... maybe I should have hand watered them but I thought our rain this year was good so far for a plant that isn't big on watering.

Since they seem to have chlorosis issues I added some sulfur products to potentially lower the PH in our crappy alkaline soil. Seemed to help and they were looking good after last rain...

A week later they look like crap and potentially dying - and maybe should have watered them but thought we were getting rain today/tomorrow so I held off..

Perhaps non-native or non-moss verbena has a tendency to look like crap??? Wondering if I should rip out and just replace with vincas that seem to thrive with nothing?

I'm helping our HOA plantings so it kind of effects a community by a sign rather than a personal garden.

Does anyone here grow more typical verbena successfully (other than native prairie or moss verbena)? Is it just a plant that doesn't do as well in Austin? or is it I should water more?

I honestly believe that many people with mental health issues are subject to rumination (or worse obsession) via their default mode network - they are wired to a certain possibly negative frequency that is unhelpful and downright negative in potentially believing in more positive outcomes in life - like their belief system is geared towards the worst outcome all the time.

I've struggled with this issue and believe ketamine has potential to "lift" the default mode network to more positive places. Like it can allow you to believe that things might actually get better, rather than worse. When you are "down" this may not always be obvious.

I'll acknowledge that ketamine is a bit "weird" in the sense that you can listen to music and visualize semi-realistic changing vortexes of consciousness of brief reality shifts (like suddenly you are in a forest, etc,)... enough to know that your daily default mode network may not be the end-all of reality... and perhaps we need to shift our default beliefs to more positive belief systems.

I mention all this because I believe it could help people struggling with their negative viewpoint on life in general - it won't miraculously solve your problems but it may give you a new perspective!

Best of luck - seek a qualified medical professional familiar with everything.

Sometimes "hope" and the belief that things might get "different than what you are experiencing now", is all that is needed to help people struggling with depression. The belief that things might change for the better instead of the worse!

I'm doing a bathroom remodel, and have to pick my own vanities and finish supplies.

I'm not (majorly) moving any plumbing - largely just updating drain for a walk in shower instead of a tub - plus updating to more modern fixtures and underlying plumbing in the shower...

My QUESTION is about changes to the plumbing and potential vanity selection - currently I have a 2 door cabinets on basically a 36" and also 31" vanity in a Jack n' Jill that are essentially "wide open in the back with no shelves or drawers." - the sink drains currently sit in the CENTER - and the hot/cold supply line shutoff valves are just wildly half hazard - it's not like they are lined up perfectly or even logically - they enter at slightly differently levels and positions in both cabinets (again, not like a standard positions - just almost random) , and I think shutoffs might extend into the back of the existing cabinetry like 4" rather than something lower profile at say 3" (which might interfere with drawers??? can they be shortened to not stick in so far?)

I guess what I'm asking is "do my new cabinets HAVE to have sinks also in the center"? when they add drawers to cabinets (which would be nice to have) - they sometimes shift sink to the left side and make it not center anymore... Is this a large or complicated adjustment if you currently already have a center 36" sink vanity???

Are making the supply line shutoffs more normally positioned or possibly not extend so much into the cabinet fairly easy for a plumber??? I just don't want to necessarily have to go for a wide open 2 door cabinet with zero drawers, but obviously that is most similar to what I currently have.

I just don't know how "big a deal" such changes are... do plumbers regularly reposition drains for vanities from center to a side?

I'm doing a bathroom remodel, and have to pick my own vanities and finish supplies.

I'm not (majorly) moving any plumbing - largely just updating drain for a walk in shower instead of a tub - plus updating to more modern fixtures and underlying plumbing in the shower...

I believe they allocated like $4k towards plumbing in their overall bid (basically what I would pay for that portion after plumbing stuff is complete - not specifically broken down, but figure it's enough that they have a qualified plumber do what is needed)...

My QUESTION is about changes to the plumbing and potential vanity selection - currently I have a 2 door cabinets on basically a 36" and also 31" vanity in a Jack n' Jill that are essentially "wide open in the back with no shelves or drawers." - the sink drains currently sit in the CENTER - and the hot/cold supply line shutoff valves are just wildly half hazard - it's not like they are lined up perfectly or even logically - they enter at slightly differently levels and positions in both cabinets (again, not like a standard positions - just almost random) , and I think shutoffs might extend into the back of the existing cabinetry like 4" rather than something lower profile at say 3" (which might interfere with drawers??? can they be shortened to not stick in so far?)

I guess what I'm asking is "do my new cabinets HAVE to have sinks also in the center"? when they add drawers to cabinets (which would be nice to have) - they sometimes shift sink to the left side and make it not center anymore... Is this a large or complicated adjustment if you currently already have a center 36" sink vanity???

Are making the supply line shutoffs more normally positioned or possibly not extend so much into the cabinet fairly easy for a plumber??? I just don't want to necessarily have to go for a wide open 2 door cabinet with zero drawers, but obviously that is most similar to what I currently have.

I just don't know how "big a deal" such changes are... do plumbers regularly reposition drains for vanities from center to a side?

There are plenty of places to buy stylish affordable vanities online - but often I don't see matching storage cabinets for above the toilet.

I really don't want to lose the storage space, and open shelving probably won't work for the volume of stuff I have to store.

Are there any recommended websites or vendors that sell attractive vanities (possibly with quartz type tops) that ALSO sell matching upper cabinets for above the toilet???