My dad said he used to watch one episode of a show a week and that was it

My neighbor's kid asked me why I have tape over my laptop camera

I was working on my porch in Denver last Tuesday when my neighbor's ten year old came over. He pointed at the black tape on my webcam and just said, 'That's weird, my teacher says our cameras help us learn.' It hit me that for him, being watched by a device is just normal, even good. I tried to explain my side but it felt like we were from different planets. Has anyone else had a simple moment that showed a huge gap in how people see privacy?

Update: a 4-foot section of my cedar fence collapsed after that heavy rain in Tacoma last month.

I'm debating whether to just replace the rotted posts or redo the whole run, since the rest of the panels are about 8 years old... what would you guys do?

I just realized I've been ordering my burger wrong at Wendy's for years

I always got the Dave's Single with cheese, but last week my buddy told me to ask for it 'fresh off the grill' instead of from the warmer. The patty was actually hot and juicy for once, not that dry puck I'm used to. How many other places have a simple trick like that to make the food way better?

A customer in Boise asked me to clean his gas fireplace flue last week.

He said his old guy always did it, but I had to explain there's no creosote buildup like a wood burner. This happened a few times last month too. Are more folks just mixing up the maintenance needs for different fireplace types?

Remembering the week a local race team brought in 12 bikes for a full pre-season tune

It was about eight years ago, before a lot of shops got into the team service game. They rolled in on a Monday with a dozen carbon road bikes, all needing cables, housing, bar tape, and a full check. We had three of us in the shop and we just went heads down for four days straight. The best part was the quiet focus, just the sound of cable cutters and degreaser, and seeing a whole fleet lined up perfect by Friday. It felt like real craft work, not just fixing flats. Does anyone else miss those big, focused jobs that just filled the shop for a week?

Appreciation post: A snapped bolt in a Detroit 60 series made me rethink my whole approach

I was doing a head gasket job on a Series 60 about a month back and snapped a head bolt. I'd been torquing them in the factory sequence, but just going straight to the final spec. An old timer at the shop in Billings saw me and said, 'Kid, you're pulling them down too fast. You're supposed to bring them to half torque first, cycle the sequence, then go to full.' I'd been skipping that step for years because I thought it was a waste of time. That one snapped bolt cost me half a day of drilling and a new insert. So, is the multi-step torque sequence a must-do for you guys on big diesels, or do you think the single pull method is fine if you're careful?