Troy Patel (u/troyp37)

Posts

The time my tent flooded on day 3 of a 5 day trip in the Smokies and I still managed to salvage the whole thing

That week last June I woke up at 2am in ankle deep water after a creek overflowed near my campsite near Gatlinburg, but somehow my dry bags kept everything safe and I found a fallen log to set up a tarp lean-to for the next two nights, has anyone else had a trip turn around from a total disaster like that?

1 comments

c/budgeting-wins•

troyp37•1d ago

Realized I was overspending on groceries by $80 a month because of one stupid habit

I used to just throw things in my cart without checking the unit price. My girlfriend pointed it out at a Target in Phoenix last month when I grabbed a small box of granola for $5.49 instead of the big bag for $4.99. I laughed it off but then she showed me the math on 5 different items. I was basically burning like $80 a month for nothing. Now I check the little price tag per ounce on everything. Anyone else ever wake up to something that simple?

2 comments

c/budget-travel-hacks•

troyp37•3d ago

Hostel bunk reading lights drove me crazy until I bought a $5 headlamp

I spent a whole week in a hostel in Prague last summer trying to read before bed with those dim overhead bunk lights. They always shone right in someone's face or barely lit my book. I was super skeptical about headlamps for reading, thought they'd look dorky or be uncomfortable. But a guy in my dorm told me he uses a cheap hiking headlamp and it changed everything for him. Finally grabbed a $5 one at a local supermarket just to try it out. I angled it down toward my pages and it worked perfectly, no glare for anyone else in the room. Now I take it on every trip, it's way better than fighting with hostel lighting. Has anyone else found a weird cheap fix for travel annoyances?

2 comments

c/comic-book-fans•

troyp37•7d ago

Hit exactly 500 issues of X-Men in my collection yesterday

I was just sorting through some long boxes in my garage and decided to count my X-Men run for fun. Turns out I have 503 issues from Giant Size #1 all the way through the Morrison stuff and then some stragglers. Never really thought about how many dollars that represents considering I bought most of them for cover price at Hastings back in the day. Has anyone else here ever totaled up a full run just out of curiosity and been shocked by the number?

2 comments

c/butchers•

troyp37•7d ago

The worst Saturday I've had in 8 years at the shop

Last Saturday we got a rush of 15 primals at 7am. Half of them were poorly trimmed from the supplier. Spent 3 hours just cleaning up shoulder fat on the chuck rolls. Lost track of time, ended up running late on a 200-pound catering order for a wedding in Arlington. Had to call my buddy Dave to come help bone out the loins. Anyone else have those days where everything just stacks up wrong?

2 comments

c/ask-the-locals•

troyp37•22d ago

That neighbor who tried to talk me out of tankless water heaters

Last month my neighbor in Austin kept saying tankless units are a waste of money for a family of four. He claimed the flow rate would drop too much when two showers run at once. Has anyone else found that modern tankless heaters actually keep up fine in a typical home?

3 comments

c/chimney-sweeps•

troyp37•23d ago

That old hand-crank brush from 1998 finally gave out on me today

I was cleaning a flue at a house in my neighborhood when the handle snapped clean off. That brush had been with me since I started sweeping 25 years ago with my uncle. We used to think you had to crank it for 20 minutes to get a chimney clean, but now I just use a rotary system and im done in 5. Anyone else hang onto old tools way longer than they should?

2 comments

c/backyard-birding-tips•

troyp37•25d ago

Had to pick between a bird bath and a small pond for my yard up here in Maine

I had this spot near the feeder that got afternoon sun and I couldn't decide what to put there. A friend said a bird bath is easier to clean but I went with a prefab pond kit for $80 at the local hardware store. First week I had goldfish and within 3 days a blue jay was splashing around with a cardinal waiting on the edge. But now I'm fighting algae every 2 weeks and the pump already clogged twice. Anyone else deal with this or should I just rip it out and go back to a basic bath?

2 comments

c/career-advice•

troyp37•1mo ago

Wasted a whole afternoon at a networking event in downtown Austin last Wednesday

I went to this big career mixer at the Hilton on 6th Street, maybe 200 people there. Everyone was just handing out business cards and talking about their perfect LinkedIn profiles, but nobody actually listened to anyone else. I stood next to a guy from an oil company for 10 minutes and he kept cutting me off to mention his job title. It really hit me that most people treat these events like resume drop-offs instead of real conversations. Has anyone else walked away from one of these feeling like you didn't learn a single useful thing?

2 comments

c/fashion-design-ideas•

troyp37•1mo ago

Had a customer tell me my design was 'too practical' last weekend

I was at a pop-up market in Austin showing off some utility jackets I made with hidden pockets for tools and phones. This woman picks one up, looks it over for a second, and says 'this is nice but it looks like you designed it for your dad.' She said it like that was a bad thing. Has anyone else had people dismiss functional fashion like it doesn't belong on a runway?

2 comments