u/tooOldOriolesfan

I'm retired now but from my earliest memories up until 2018 I had intestinal issues. A ton of food items would trigger stomach cramps. As a kid you didn't know what was happening except you were reluctant to do road trips and would need to keep an eye out for bathrooms.

As I got older I would avoid most foods while flying to avoid issues. At one point I think lactose was my issue and tried various supplements but it didn't seem to help much and some foods didn't fit the dairy profile.

I never visited doctors since the gut is a tough thing to deal with, medications can cause other issues and I ended up with a diet that sort of worked for me and allowed me to do some travel and live life. Also most people don't want to spend a lot of time getting tested and visited doctors if they don't have to.

Anyhow, to my point, somewhere around 2018/2019 things changed and I went from frequently having stomach cramps from many foods to now dealing with constipation. For me the stomach cramps were preferable. Now I'm frequently taking Miralax.

Several life changes happened in the 2018/2019 although I don't know if any of them were the trigger for the change.

1. Started my blood pressure medication

2. Had my first upper/lower endoscopes

3. Took VSL#3 for nearly a year

4. Started my path on removing diet soda from my diet.

Anyone else ever had a transition like this? Going from almost one extreme to the other?

My understanding is that probiotics don't last long term if you stop them. My BP medication isn't supposed to have any effect. I suppose the diet soda didn't help but I didn't drink that stuff as a kid and I had the cramps throughout my childhood.

Besides my gastroenterologist do people sign up for any studies or other tests? I have no interest in testing medication but blood or other testing would be ok. I have been tested for celiac disease.

Going through the bills today and I asked my wife about these Apple charges.

Further investigation showed that they were started on August 4 and included:

Apple News+

Apple Fitness+

Apple Music+

and one other item.

She didn't intend and has no idea what she might have done to start the subscriptions up.

My two questions:

1. Is there any way to trace or find out how they were started (like from which app) ?

2. Anyone ever get refunded?

We went through the subscriptions and made sure to cancel all of them so they won't renew.

Just gets frustrating where all of these companies either offer free trials or other things to sign you up and don't make it obvious that you have subscribed.

I guess you need to check at least weekly if not daily on the subscription page to see if something got started somehow.

I'm a bit paranoid with subscriptions and try to avoid as much as possible and especially avoid freebies since most all convert to $$$.

Thanks.

Unlike XCOM2:WOTC, LWOTC usually is generous with timers to complete missions, at least on Veteran level.

Often the quickest path is not the best path to get to the objective (get data, escort VIP, etc.). Instead go far left or go far right and you can often achieve the objective and get away with fighting less enemies.

Might be obvious but if not, try it unless you want to fight through a bunch of enemies.

We just finished the 3rd and unfortunately final season of this series.

I enjoyed the stars and most of the people in the series although the one sister (Beth) was rather needy at times.

Does anyone know if season 3 was planned to be the final season and it was decided to end it the way it ended? Or were they planning (hoping?) for season 4 and unfortunately it didn't happen?

I just did a search and apparently everyone knew it was the last season.

Excellent series.

Just wondering if there is any stores that sell used Apple products, mainly computers?

If so, anyone personally have had any experiences with the store?

Thanks.

We've finished the 3 seasons and I really enjoy the show and the character.

>!And the best part of the last 2 episodes was no more of the annoying male DS who was arrogant, screwed up things, etc. and the lady (Miskin) was back. They are a good team.!<

I'll be curious what season 4 will be like and who will be in it.

Also happened to catch Bertie Carvel in the HBO series The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Enjoyed his smallish role there as well.

Neither of us are going to be running on a treadmill. The fastest walking would be around 16-17 minute miles (I'm guessing).

It seems like a walking pad might fit us better but the one thing that concerns me is that many (most?) of them don't have any handles which I think would be useful, especially as we get older.

Even years ago when I would walk/jog on a treadmill I didn't use handles often but they were useful to steady or catch yourself if you took a misstep.

We don't care about videos, programs, etc. Not interested in paying for that and we have a wall mounted tv in the room it would be used. Also part of the year we would go outside but the Arizona summers make it terrible to walk even in the early morning.

Thanks.

I have a relative whose infotainment screen blacks out and the module may be overheating.

Anyone replaced an HMI module?

Ever used White Automotive/Media to order a replacement?

This vehicle does not have a built in NAV system, uses io5.

Looks like if we type in the info (VIN,make, etc.) it will run around $460 before shipping.

Getting it via a dealer is over $2,500 which is a bit too much for a 10 yr old vehicle.

Any suggestions, warnings, gotchas going down this path?

Thanks.

I have an old Brother HL-L2370DW which can take 5-10 minutes to print some pages.

My printing needs are minimal. Mostly boarding passes and some medical information (I download/print most of my medical records and store in a binder, getting old!).

I realize the printer is old and has minimal memory but I'm not trying to print fancy drawings although some of the medical printouts do have some images. Ideally I really would prefer to skip the images but I don't think you can do that.

Any suggestions or maybe modes I could use to ensure only the text is being printed to speed up the printouts?

Eventually the pages all do printout but it is slow. At this point I'll stick with the slowness over wasting money on a new printer.

Thanks.

EDIT: The printer is connected via Ethernet and not WiFi.

Many of the policy changes don't really bother me but I'm most interested in the GAs/FAs performance/behavior and arriving on time.

Usually we carry on bags but on a last minute change to Southwest to come home early we had more bags than normal so we each checked one carryon suitcase which left us each with a backpack and then a small duffle bag for one of us and a small laptop bag.

We were in group 1. There were a decent number of preboarders and A-list people. We were in row 14/15 (exit row). I did notice a lot of empty baggage space above rows 11/12 even late in boarding.

I would say the FAs were functional. Unlike the friendliness you had in the past (I flew Southwest somewhat often in 2023-2025) they merely did their job.

For example my wife asked for a cup of water and never got it. I had to use the rest room and was trying to stay out of the way and the FA said I can't be in the galley. I could see that if they were doing something (food/drinks/etc) but she was just sitting there.

We did arrive on time from BWI-PHX.

My quick impression was that despite getting higher salaries than ever, their attitudes tended to be on the surly side compared to the older Southwest.

Obviously only 1 flight and 1 crew.

This is just an FYI in case anyone else runs into this issue.

Today I checked in myself and my wife for tomorrow's flight. While I use Apple wallet, I always like having a printed copy of my boarding pass.

I was using Firefox (on my iMac) and I tried:

1. Printing directly from the web site

2. Downloading PDF and then printing

3. Printing with and without ads

In all cases my wife's boarding pass printed fine but mine did not print, just a blank outline of a rectangle under "100".

I finally moved to another browser (Helium since I had it already running) and things worked fine.

Not sure if some ad blocker was causing an issue or what but it was kind of strange since the 2nd boarding pass for my wife always printed.

You can, and almost always do, win these missions but often there are 7 rebels to rescue but most are located next to enemy pods, often far away. This means the majority of them will die a quick death because it is impossible to get your soldiers anywhere close to them, or even close enough to draw fire from the rebels to your soldiers.

Then throw in a chosen and forget it.

For example I just had a moderate early game mission with the hunter, 3 pods of enemies, and 7 rebels to rescue. For those unfamiliar with rescuing rebels you have to move a soldier next to the rebel to release them from their "frozen" state.

Obviously priority #1 is taking care of the hunter which will take 1 or 2 turns. By then, since the enemy pods are often right next to many of the rebels, you will lose at least 3 of them easily.

After killing the chosen you can start moving towards to pods to take care of them but often another 1 or 2 so often best case is that you can rescue 2 soldiers. I think I've rescued more before but it requires some luck.

Just a mini-rant.

From what I've seen online I don't think it is possible to color code different events in Apple's calendar program which seems like a big miss.

Am I missing something?

Is there a cheap 3rd party tool that would allow this within Apple Calendar (I doubt it but...) ?

For at least a few weeks when I try to verify or sign up for the Premium Car Insurance the web page displayed says out of service. It provides a link which also does not work and a phone number.

I am trying to call in but after getting passed around I am stuck on hold.

Arizona hosts 15 teams in 10 stadiums (I think!). Most of the places are pretty nice and I love going to the fall league games. The rest of the year the parks just sit empty except for infrequent events.

I realize playing baseball outside in July/Aug is not practical for the players nor the fans but it would be nice if they could have some kind of league that starts after spring training in April and finish in June. June can also be hot but playing at night time isn't terrible unlike July/Aug.

It could be a 40-54 game season with 6 teams and playoffs in June.

Won't ever happen but I just cringe every time I drive past the empty stadiums (I live near the one in Peoria).

Just an impractical idea :)

I feel bad for employees that have to deal with people. My brother agreed that if I ever worked with the public, my career would be measured in minutes and not hours or days since I have very little patience :)

Last week we went to Texas Roadhouse around 330pm. It was fairly empty and we sat at a fairly empty bar. Behind us was a row of booths.

I was tired and just wanted to get some food and relax but some older guy sat in a booth behind us and had an issue with his steak. I couldn't catch all of the details but unfortunately could hear some stuff which just kinds of ruin the experience.

A young manager was talking to him and it sounded like he wasn't happy with the size or maybe thickness of the steak and the manager kept trying to tell him they could give him another one but it would be the same size and he would complain and say stuff like the last time this didn't happen, etc.

I just get uncomfortable in being near those situations despite not being involved. After a while I guess the resolution was for the guy to leave who had to ask someone to get his walker. He was pretty rude about it.

Then a guy who was seated with his family at the next booth turned around and let the older guy have it, telling him that was rude and not a way to talk to someone just doing their job.

I did hear one person say I hope he isn't driving so maybe he had some alcohol prior to coming in to the restaurant because he wasn't there that long.

No real point to this point except it is rough dealing with the public and even if you aren't involved in a situation it can still ruin a night out.

For quite some time there was a place to get eyeglasses at a reasonable price off of Scottsdale Road. I think it was east of the road and somewhere between Thomas and Indian Bend.

So far my searching is failing and I'm thinking it either went out of business or moved elsewhere. It had been there for decades.

Anyone remember or know what I'm talking about?

I don't think they did any eye exams but just filled eyeglass prescriptions at a good price. It has been at least a year since we last went there.

Thanks.

I've split living between Maryland and Arizona in my working career. We are visiting Maryland and was wondering if anyone has any strong preferences where to stay for a few days to a week?

We've stayed at Turf Valley and that is decent although at times it is booked with events.

Just wondering if I'm overlooking something in EC, Columbia, etc.

Thanks.

Generally I don't value the hotel credit that highly since it often is at inflated prices or just at a hotel that even with the credit, it would cost more than what I normally would spend. Last year I did manage to use it on a Europe trip and it worked well, highly dependent on your travels.

I had one that was expiring and saw a Hyatt Grand in Scottsdale and it was under $300 for the night. We could do a short staycation and hit a couple of restaurants we like in the area (I lived in Scottsdale for a decade but now about 30 minutes away).

The hotel was fine, low season, high temps, etc. as expecting in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area in June.

The guessing game is figuring out what fees the hotel has and what is covered by an $100 credit from the FHR program.

In this case it was stated:

1. $100 resort credit, no alcohol and must be charged to the room

2. Breakfast for 2

3. Room upgrade

4. Late checkout (4pm)

Room upgrades are seldom much unless you get lucky with a suite, room views are ok but don't do much for us. Late checkout is nice.

The breakfast was a bit confusing because at check in the guy said to talk to the restaurant. At the restaurant the host and the server weren't sure and said to talk to the front desk.

It ended up covering the buffet and a gratuity (18%). The buffet, as usual, was horribly overpriced ($32 per person) for its limited selection.

Turned out parking was $32 and there was a $50 resort fee. Somewhat maddening was that the resort fee was not charged at the time you paid for the room since the room was $230 and the $300 hotel credit would have covered it.

Then I found out on checkout that the $100 credit would have covered both the resort fee and the parking. Instead we used part of the credit for some gifts since we didn't want to throw it away.

Maybe it is common knowledge or maybe it just varies from resort to resort as to what is covered by the credit.

All of these games hotels play to get around paying taxes. If only taxes didn't include so many gimmicks to allow people/companies from paying what they should.

Still was a nice mini-break and the pool area was good.

The cheapest business class one way ticket I've been seeing is over 200,000 miles/points.

I have nothing urgent but am keeping an eye out for a flight from Paris to the US later this year (december).

Was just wondering if others have seen anything good miles wise lately?