Lookin

I'm not a Los Angeles resident but a quick Google brought up this web page from the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works. If they're not the ones, they should be able to tell you who is. Very kind of you to help him with this. 👍 Best of luck!

I think it helps to have an idea of what something is worth. Sometimes you can ask a local what would be a reasonable price. When I lived in India, bargaining was part of the dance. If someone marked me as a Westerner and quoted me a price ten times too high, I'd just walk away. I'd always get called back and we'd start somewhere more reasonable. I didn't mind paying a little extra and I sure wouldn't grind someone down. The idea was to buy at a fair price. If you run into a similar situation, you might try a little bargaining, get the item for $17, and then give the guy an extra five bucks because you had a good time cutting a deal. Everyone ends up with a smile. 😁 😁 With personal services, it's a whole different story. For me anyway, it's all about the fantasy. Ten seconds talking about price is ten seconds too many. I want the best experience possible and I don't want someone feeling he's been shortchanged. If I walk away because I can't afford the person's best, I just keep walking.

Whatever you do, don't try vertical camping! 😳

Last time in a polo shirt, but only because I'd knocked at the wrong apartment.

I don't suppose you still have his number.

That's a very sad story. According to this article, most lithium-ion batteries are made in China. I wonder what kind of oversight there is to ensure these potentially dangerous products are safe and reliable over time, rather than merely cheap at the point of sale. I'm also not sure Amazon focuses on quality as much as they focus on low cost. And that's assuming the product even comes through one of their warehouses. I recall reading that Amazon often acts as a 'marketplace' for products that ship directly from other resellers who may be individuals rather than companies. This would be even more likely for a second-hand product. Bottom-line, I'm not sure there's anybody who can vouch for the safety of some of the products showing up on our doorsteps. If there isn't a trusted brand name on the product and a company reputation at stake, it could be a crapshoot. If I had to suggest a fix, it would be to hold the US distributor (in this case, Amazon) liable for damages caused by products they sell. Once they have to pay out a few million-dollar judgments, I expect their quality control will improve. And, yes, their prices will go up, or their profits will go down.

. . . which usually develop as one is being orally serviced. ((😍))

I live in a semi-rural area with spotty cell phone coverage. My best bet is being discovered by some locals. 🌲 🌲 🏡 🌲 🌲

Just for grins, I checked to see if there were a check-in service for seniors, and I found this website: Daily Check-In Services for Seniors Living Alone. There are smartphone apps, and free services offered by local fire and police departments. There are also private companies that offer this service for a fee, including Amazon's Alexa Together service. The perfect solution, for me anyway, would be the one provided by @pubic_assistance and his mother, which was offered with kindness as part of being a caring community member. I've got friends and family who stay in touch, but not on a daily basis. I'm not even sure I'd want anyone checking in on me every day. But it's worth thinking about and I'm grateful to @Cooper for asking the question. 👍

Always good to have happy gardeners. If you don't mind my asking, just how often are you getting your hedge trimmed?

I think it's the media focus on rainy spells and dry spells that makes it seem like drought is a short-term issue but, as others have pointed out, water supply is a long-term issue. It takes years to get into trouble and it takes years to get out of trouble. The area where I live is currently enjoying full reservoirs with more rain on the way. If we have two dry years in a row, we'll be fine. But it would be much better to have a three-year supply and, with expected climate variations, it wouldn't hurt to have a four-year supply. And that's what our local water district is studying now. They've got five options on the table, all with their own significant issues to overcome. One source of water supply they haven't been taking as seriously as I believe they should is demand reduction, or water conservation. In the few months since I've been poking my nose in their deliberations, I've learned that forty percent of our residential water is being used for outdoor watering. I can't imagine that ten or twenty years from now we'll look back and say it was a sensible way to use a precious resource. So I've been spending my time trying to figure out how we can use less drinking water on our landscapes. That will involve incentive programs for landscape conversion, along with increased use of non-potable water for heavy outdoor water users. In my opinion, these programs deserve just as much investment as desalination or new reservoirs. I believe in the years to come many of us are going to have to evolve our relationship with how we use water. Even when it's raining, as it is today, we still won't have the luxury of installing a nice new green lawn this summer.

. . . which, left untreated, can lead to more serious consequences such as closure of the Politics Forum. As for diabetes, I've been in the pre-diabetic category since I first started tracking the numbers fifteen years ago. My glucose numbers rose very slowly for the first ten years but never quite reached the level for full-blown diabetes. I didn't want to take any pills but my GP had learned that Metformin might help with another condition I had, so I started taking 500mg once a day. My numbers leveled off at that point, just under the level for diabetes. About three years ago, I started paying more attention to my diet. I wasn't overweight, but decided it was time for a healthier diet so I started eating more fruits and veggies, whole grains and, yes, even more beans. And I've noticed that my glucose and A1C numbers have been trending down - not to normal levels, but no longer approaching the level for a diagnosis of diabetes. I still enjoy my chips, cookies and ice cream, but try not to overdo. One other factor I've heard may affect diabetes is stress. I quit my last high-stress job twenty years ago and I don't have any test results from those days. I wouldn't be surprised if my numbers were worse then. And, just to be on the safe side, I've done my best to keep aggravation at bay.

I'm sorry to see it go. It was one of the few places where I could always find a variety of viewpoints. But there were some divisive posters who somehow never got weeded out. Very grateful to the mods for trying to make it work. Daddy once asked me if I'd like to be a moderator, but I wouldn't have been very tolerant: Pin the rules, one-month block for the first violation, six months for the second and permanent for the third. Low threshold and no discussion, just as children learn boundaries and socialization skills. Or not. If the mods ever feel like giving a streamlined, less stressful, approach a try, I'll hope the Forum may come out of retirement one day. In the meantime, it's been a real pleasure to interact with so many fine folks over the years! Thanks for the great discussions! 🤗

Ah, yes, but you don't need to go around talking out of it. If you're asking a rhetorical question, you've got your rhetorical answer. If you're trying a response to my post, I'll respectfully ask that you read and comprehend it first. It says I don't know of supportive research about the effect of a first sexual experience on subsequent preferences. It sure doesn't say I wouldn't believe it if it exists. I'd very much like to read it. Of course, yours is a different point entirely. Concerning my post, if you know of any research on initial sexual experience as a factor in future preferences, I'd very much appreciate a reference. I don't need a ton, even one relevant link would be helpful. I've got my own first experience, which is an experience I enjoyed repeating. And the OP shared his first experience, which is one he enjoys repeating. That's only two data points and I'm wondering if it might be more common than that. With your broad, science-based expertise, you may know the definitive answer and we can all put our opinions and assholes to rest.

Seems to me this is one of those nature vs. nurture questions that nearly always end up with an answer of "both". Whether it's 50/50, 90/10, or 10/90, it's really unlikely to be 100/0 or 0/100. Not only that, but smarter folks than I am will tell you that genetics can affect behavior and, conversely, behavior can affect genetics. Given the range of possibilities, it's not surprising that, even in a forum oriented to gay sexuality, there's still a wide range of viewpoints and experiences. (I also happen to believe, although I know of no supportive research, that one's first eye-popping sexual experience will have an outsized influence on future sexual desires.) Personally, I've always found guys more sexually attractive than girls. However, I realized that my life would be a lot easier if I lived it as a straight man. My coming of age was in the fifties and sixties when opportunities could be and were denied to gay men, and it was important to me not to be shoved aside. So I chose to date girls when my attraction was to guys, and I had straight sex a few times. It was only after falling in love with my male partner that I made a clean break. If you'll pardon a little editorializing, I believe that either/or questions about human behavior almost always end up being "some of each". For me, the question that always springs to mind is, "How could it not be?"

He may have thought you were from the IRS.

Saw it a couple days ago. With a pee break, three-plus hours of great special effects isn't too long for yours truly. But, sadly, there was no reason for it to be that long. Many of the special effects were repeated and the storyline would have benefitted from much crisper editing. I kept thinking of the old wheeze that Cameron made a three-hour movie because he didn't have time to make a two-hour movie. Even odder, I understand he shot a sequel or two at the same time he shot this one. One of the actors commented that he watched himself age from fourteen to sixteen during the course of the film. In fairness, the film has already come close to breaking even, so what do I know?

. . . . . . . . Has it been another seven years already?

Edna, these candles smell awful . . I know, ever since we got back from Newark

No ED in that family. 😳

This is why I always lay off the bean dip on date night.

Judgmental 'Christians' are real head-scratchers for yours truly. Even after seventy years, I can still recall a Sunday School passage saying "Judge not lest ye be judged". The apostle Paul had more to say: “You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat… So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister” When I come across a self-professed Christian missing this most basic of Christian teachings, it makes me wonder what else he's missed. Truth to tell, I went through my own judgmental phase in my thirties. I'd achieved many of the middle-class dreams and figured if I could just get everybody to follow my lead they'd be much better off. It took me until my forties to realize that, not only had I been given advantages that many others had not, but I also had plenty of my own shortcomings to deal with. That's true to this day and, whenever I get the urge to judge somebody else, I realize that I'd be much better off turning my sage advice inward as there's still a bit more work to be done.

Sounds like he's not doing it right.

I've participated in two Invision-based sites for a number of years and one thing I've learned is that the site Admin has a lot of control over the user editing panel. A couple months ago, I asked what happened to the center-alignment button and @RadioRob , who had removed it, kindly put it back in. I guess over the years we find our useful editing tools and then someone comes along and wonders who would ever need such a tool and -poof - it's gone. 💨 The happy times for me were a couple years ago when the other Invision board I infest allowed HTML commands. Even the little I knew would usually get things in my post looking and acting the way I wanted them to. Not sure if this board had them briefly after the conversion, or possibly has them right now in plain sight and I just haven't seen them. 🧐 I like the blue-text-as-hyperlink function too, and hope it comes back.

Even though it is not easy To be poor and also sleazy When I have to I can fudge it And be vulgar on a budget