12 minutes ago, Paul852 said:

Which concert?

It was a Manchester Orchestra concert at an indoor venue in downtown Richmond. 

19 minutes ago, Paul852 said:

I mean, at what point are you no longer a victim and just an idiot?

When you don't insure your stuff and blame it on the POTUS after the fact.

8 minutes ago, Kz! said:

It was a Manchester Orchestra concert at an indoor venue in downtown Richmond. 

Those guys are awesome - I would imagine a concert of theirs would be quite an experience.  

I don't know which aspects are due to the President or COVID effects or what. But here you go.

Worker shortages are affecting my company so we're understaffed and over worked. 

Bus driver shortages affecting families in our district.  They have 1/3 of the needed drivers so buses are hours late, and parents are having to drive kids to/from school instead.  

Gas, lumber and other items are higher prices. 

Vaccine mandates are causing issues with less workers, flights delayed or cancelled.  A friend of mine is an ER nurse and was traveling to see family via Southwest and got stuck there unable to return for a few extra days and missed work trying to get back home.

A friend of mine is a truck driver who owns his own truck.  He needed a repair part and had to wait weeks for it to arrive and he was not able to work and make money during that time.  Supply chain means some items are completely out at the stores but it's not a big problem of empty shelves, it's usually certain items low or out and then they get a shipment in (like toilet paper and hand sanitizer last year).  I had to order a part to repair my dryer and due to driver shortages it took weeks instead of days.  Some Amazon deliveries take additional days to arrive.

Restaurants are understaffed causing long wait times to get seated or get food, and the quality of the food and service has gone down.  One night we had a number of bad experiences with a lot of things going wrong and the manager didn't care much, she shrugged and said they can't get anyone to work so they're short staffed and doing the best they can.  

I got my annual cost of living increase at the same percent as the last 2 years so that hasn't changed.  Our company is doing well financially and actually acquired some other smaller companies during the pandemic who were struggling.  I recently got a promotion and salary increase, but that also happened under Trump and Obama so it feels unrelated to whoever is POTUS.

Dealing with COVID has gotten better.  The vaccinations rolled out well and everyone had the opportunity to get them after the initial priority groups.  Kids in school and not virtual has been great, virtual wasn't working very well.  Being able to go places without masks, have meetings at work, go to lunch with co-workers and things like that feel like getting back to somewhat sense of normal.  My company is hybrid so we go in a couple days a week but my boss doesn't care if there are no important meetings or anything I just stay home rather than commute to sit at a desk and do what I could just do at home.  

My house has doubled in value since we bought it 7 years ago.  The Nashville housing market has been crazy, people were moving here at among the highest rate in the country before the pandemic and it's continued to be high.  People fleeing more expensive areas like CA, TX or NY have moved here and because they can continue working remote at the salaries they got in those areas, buying a house here is cheaper than where they come from so they're outbidding locals and driving housing prices way up.  People I know who try to buy are not getting houses because there are multiple offers and people from out of state are going way above even buying before moving and only seeing photos and video tour.  People who are selling are able to get ridiculous deals way over asking price and realtor friends I know are saying how competitive it's been, but it's slowed down a lot in the last 6 months or so.

The people I know who whether in person or on social media would complain non-stop about Trump have mostly gone quiet and don't talk about politics anymore.  It seems things have gone back to what it was like under previous presidents with partisanship;  the party in power their voters don't talk about anything negative or controversial they do they just put their heads in the sand and ignore it, but the opposing party screams about every little thing.  Each side points their finger at the other and downplays anything their own side does, so politics as usual.  Except many Republicans still have delusions and think Democrats are evil and they are the real patriots.

My die hard Democrat friends who had TDS and posted daily about Trump don't bat an eye at anything negative Democrats do.  The ones who were vocal about supporting Trump mostly stopped talking about Trump or politics altogether when the Jan 6th Capitol Riots happened.  I don't see the Trump flags or bumper stickers as much anymore.  I think they went back to being silent...other than the ones who go to school board meetings to shout and threaten school board members.  

7 minutes ago, mikemack8 said:

Those guys are awesome - I would imagine a concert of theirs would be quite an experience.  

I've seen them live twice including at the venue I'm currently banned from, which is a pretty small indoor venue. Very intimate, really cool place for a concert. They put on a really good show. I was bummed about the requirement.

3 hours ago, SNOORDA said:

Nobody care about your personal finances jacktard. Just like nobody cared that I’ve been robbed of my tools (4 times In 2021 so far) and 2 work trucks

Kindly, carefully, and deliberately go pound sand.  Thank you byebye

dude, I was actually one of the people who posted that it was ef'd up that people were going at you about that. 

I wasn't trying to volunteer anything about my personal finances. I was merely asking if people's experiences were consistent with the media narrative, or if the consensus here was that the last year was financially positive for most. It seems for most the latter is true. 

I'm just trying to have a conversation. 

so why don't you go pound sand instead of going after one of the few people here who actually empathized with you.

8 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

dude, I was actually one of the people who posted that it was ef'd up that people were going at you about that. 

I wasn't trying to volunteer anything about my personal finances. I was merely asking if people's experiences were consistent with the media narrative, or if the consensus here was that the last year was financially positive for most. It seems for most the latter is true. 

I'm just trying to have a conversation. 

so why don't you go pound sand instead of going after one of the few people here who actually empathized with you.

No one cares about your bragging. You probably don't even own a zero turn.

1 hour ago, NOTW said:

I don't know which aspects are due to the President or COVID effects or what. But here you go.

That's a healthy perspective to start with.

Bus driver shortages are definitely an issue. Our district seems to be doing alright, but Council Rock - the district south of us - has been having a lot of issues.

Supply chain also has been an impact at our company, though as I think toastrel said mostly it's resulted in us keeping older hardware in service longer. So we're ok on that front - for now. 

I can't say vaccine mandates have impacted me much, but I don't fly all that often and have been fortunate not to require advanced medical care. Nor has anyone on my extended family. I count myself very lucky there.

Restaurants seem hit and miss. Many that I frequent seem to be at least reasonably staffed, though many are open shorter hours. None seem open Mondays, and many are even closed for lunch - only offering dinner service.

I don’t have to worry that the President started a nuclear war and I have to seek shelter every time I get a news alert on my phone. That’s been a nice change.