I did Chicago to Dallas and back.
Never again. On the way down I had coach seats only and the trip was about 20 hours. Trying to sleep in those seats was hell.
The moment I got off the train, I walked to the ticketing desk and immediately upgraded to a sleeper for the return. “That will be an extra $400, sir.” Don’t care, just do it.

The sleeper was slightly better in that I got to stretch out, but actually sleeping wasn’t as restful as I thought it would be.

The number of delays while waiting for freight trains was the worst. Before arriving into Dallas, you could see the city. We were 15 minutes away from arriving into the station, but had to sit and wait for about 90 minutes. I could have gotten off and walked and gone back for my bags later.

I did meet some nice people, as you’re forced to sit with others in the dining car when you’re traveling alone since there’s only so many seats. And the food was better than expected. That was probably the only real plus.

Same. I read a few subs that haven’t yet fully grown here on Lemmy, but I don’t post.

Physical buttons in cars for radio and environment settings.

There used to be a time when I could have my hand on the gear shifter and just reach out with my fingers to change radio stations or adjust the heat or a/c without needing to look down at all.
Now with modern touchscreens in cars, you can’t do any of that. I have gotten used to playing with the radio via the steering wheel buttons, but anything else requires hunting around, looking for the correct spot to touch the screen.
And yet they say, “don’t take your eyes off the road!”

There has got to be a way to disable that. Not being able to bump start a manual transmission car is a sacrilege.

I’ve said for years, if it weren’t for Halloween, the Christmas season would start in August.

Can’t say I feel bad at all.

I had a Sanyo SCP 7400 (clamshell) for a number of years during the mid-2000s and it was solid as a rock. Loved that phone.

I wore a standard wristwatch all the time until about 25 years ago. I began noticing that I was conscious of feeling something on my wrist and I couldn’t stand it.
I then carried a nice pocket-watch around for a while until I got my first cell phone.

I support Biden not because he’s an anti-Trump, but because he’s a genuinely good man who gets things done. He knows how to work the system and gets results.

As do I. The problem this time around though will be the number of younger independent and third party runners that might end up pulling votes from the “Biden is too old” crowd. And unfortunately, every vote not for Biden is a vote for Trump.

All, the, fucking, time.

This is a bit misleading.
Workers that are laid off do get unemployment pay. They’re not just thrown into the wind.
But this was definitely a calculated move by the union with the targeted strikes, forcing the auto companies to dip into their unemployment funds to pay those workers who were laid off rather than let the union foot the whole bill with a wholesale strike.

“Plane crash” must be another term for “lead poisoning of the brain”, which likely occurred weeks ago.

Lock Up (1989).
Yes it’s a generic prison movie with quite a few standard tropes, but I’ve always liked it.