Olivia Cooper (u/the_olivia)

Posts

Hit 50 nights camping this year and it finally clicked why my tent poles kept breaking

I do a lot of weekend trips up near Mount Hood and crossed 50 nights out this season last week. Took me until that exact number to realize I was storing my tent poles in the ground sleeve wrong and bending them every time. How many nights did it take you to figure out a gear mistake you kept making?

2 comments

c/backyard-chicken-keepers•

the_olivia•6d ago

Am I the only one who thinks chicken runs don't need to be giant?

I see everyone online building these massive 20x30 runs with fancy roofs and all that. Meanwhile I keep 6 hens in a 6x8 run in my backyard in Austin and they do fine. Last month it rained for 4 days straight and my run got muddy but I just tossed down a bag of pine shavings. Took me 10 minutes and the mud was gone. People act like chickens need acres of space but my girls free range for 2 hours a day anyway. The run is just for sleeping and laying. Has anyone else scaled down their run and found it works better?

2 comments

c/bicycle-mechanics•

the_olivia•7d ago

Fixed a seized bottom bracket on a 20 year old bike this morning

I picked up a beat up Trek 820 from a garage sale for $15 last month. Got the BB out after soaking it in PB Blaster for 3 days and using a breaker bar. Anyone else keep a project bike around for the satisfaction of bringing it back to life?

2 comments

c/book-club-debates•

the_olivia•22d ago

Hit 50 books read this year last night and I'm still surprised

My goal was 30 but I passed 50 after finishing that long sci-fi series. I think switching to audiobooks during my commute added 15 extra books alone. Anyone else accidentally smash their reading goal this year?

2 comments

c/corporate-litigation•

the_olivia•22d ago

Got burned by a vendor contract clause I missed

Was reviewing a supplier agreement in my office downtown Atlanta last week and realized they buried a 3 year auto-renewal term on page 14. Ended up paying $8,200 in early termination fees after 6 months because I didnt spot it. Anyone else ran into hidden auto-renewal traps in vendor deals?

2 comments

c/air-fryer-recipes•

the_olivia•27d ago

That $40 air fryer liner pack was a complete disaster

I bought a 100 pack of parchment liners on Amazon for $40 thinking they'd save cleanup time. First time I used one at 400 degrees it literally caught fire and melted onto my fries. Has anyone found liners that actually work without burning?

2 comments

c/budgeting-wins•

the_olivia•28d ago

My grocery budget blew up last Tuesday over a single bag of chips

I walked into the store for milk and eggs and ended up spending $47 more than planned because I grabbed a bag of fancy tortilla chips I saw on sale. The kicker is I ate the whole bag that night and felt terrible about both the money and the stomachache. Has anyone else had a small impulse buy totally wreck their weekly budget?

2 comments

c/fence-erectors•

the_olivia•29d ago

My $400 auger rental taught me a lesson about rocky soil

I figured I'd save time on a 50-foot run of posts by renting a one-man auger instead of hand-digging (like I used to do back in the day). Got it from the equipment yard for a weekend, cost me about $400 with the deposit. First three holes went fine, then I hit a patch of what looked like old construction rubble mixed with ledge. That auger bound up so hard it nearly twisted my arm off before the shear pin gave out. Spent half the next day with a digging bar and a shovel anyway, plus had to pay for the damaged bit. Did I just get unlucky with the ground, or do you guys always scope the soil before renting power tools?

2 comments

c/fix-it-together•

the_olivia•1mo ago

My neighbor called me out on using the wrong drill bit for my deck screws

He stopped by while I was fixing a loose board and told me I was stripping all the heads using a Phillips bit on those square drive screws. Has anyone else been making this mistake and just not realizing it?

2 comments

c/banking-and-payments-community•

the_olivia•1mo ago

I lost $45 on those cashback apps that promise easy money through bank linking

Signed up for three different apps that connect to your bank account to track spending and give rewards, but after 6 months I only got $3.47 back while they had full access to all my transactions and I'm worried about what they're actually doing with my data - has anyone checked their privacy policies lately?

2 comments