I am bad 'about' starting a collection. I'm great at stopping it but always seem to find another beautiful thing to collect. Sometimes I only have two or three of that collection. You can see what can happen though with lots of two or three collection things. The only lucky thing is most of my collections are secondhand. Therefore cheaper.

Weed whacking--just can't do it!

"Once I had to drop him off and to get directions back. It wouldn't work. We realized he has to leave the car, then I have to shut the car off. When I turn it on it converts back over to me."

My guess at an explanation is that the connection from the phone to the car uses Bluetooth and that this car can only have one phone connected at a time. His connected first, that blocked you. Simply turning off Bluetooth on his phone would have allowed your phone to connect if your Bluetooth setting was On. With many cars, that happens only when the car is stopped and with others, the transmission also needs to be set to Park.

The car has no way to know where he was or wasn't. When he walked away, when he went past the distance limit of the Bluetooth signal, his phone disconnected and allowed a different phone previously set up to connect. For explanation purposes, the same would have happened with him sitting in the car and turning off the Bluetooth signal on his phone.

When I lived on the coast, I could get anywhere in the state. I knew what freeway would take me wherever I needed to go. Since moving up here, I stay lost about half the time. I knew north, south, east and west when I lived down there. Up here, I am always turned around. Down there, everything was flat....roads mostly ran parallel. Up here, very hilly and roads meander. Since I live in a rural area, not very many freeways....and none close to where I live. I've been here for two years...and I can get to Walmart. Fortunately, Tractor Supply and Sam's are in the same parking lot. I can also find Goodwill because it is on the same road that takes me back towards home. I guess that is all that I need.

For those of you who need to parallel park with some regularity and have trouble doing so, consider getting a car that has a parallel parking feature. I have a car that does and it works surprisingly well - it uses the front, back and side obstruction detection sensors to do so.

I don't use it regularly, usually only when I feel like playing with it, but it once proved invaluable. One evening I was parking on a very dark street - no street lights, no ambient light from nearby buildings, and a not very generous space to get into. It worked flawlessly and got me into a spot I likely would have struggled with and may or may not have been able to get into on my own.

At hint for nighttime parking - some cars have side lights that activate when the turn signal is on. You should use your turn signal indicator when p-parking anyway, but if you remember to do so, you may find you have more illumination to help you.

Elmer, my daughter hates driving my car. I hate driving downtown and she is more familiar with the roads so I suggested she drive us to an event downtown yesterday. My car is old and bulky compared to her newer Veloster. Parking and backing up are the worst in my car, it doesn't make sharp turns so it's difficult in tight parking spots. Her little car has a back up camera and every time she has to back up in my car she mentions it. The next car I buy with be brand new. I hope I can figure out all the new technology.

I like backup cameras, they're very useful in so many ways. Including, being sure no one is passing by when backing out of a parking spot in a commercial lot where cars are side by side. One thing, though, is that they have wide angle lenses and distances are distorted in the view. You need to see and calibrate for yourself where your back bumper is on the display relative to what's behind because it may look like there's more distance than there is. I do that when I first get a new car by putting different objects in a line behind the car so I can see how the different distances show up on the display.

Not only maneuverability but also visibility can vary substantially from car to car and that can also affect parking. My wife's last car had simply awful visibility, front and back. She's shorter, I'm taller, but neither of us could easily see front or back limits and corners when parking or even pulling in and out of the garage. She got tired of struggling with the problem and we got a new car with much better sight lines. It does make a difference.

I'm bad at sports that involve projectiles, i.e., tennis, baseball. Hand-eye coordination is not a strong point, and I'm afraid I'll get hit in the face.

Elmer, my previous car had the parking feature, I was too scared to use it.

Too bad. I'll agree the first time or two when I tried it for familiarity, I proceeded with skepticism and but also with faith it would work. What to do and not do were clearly spelled out in the Owners Manual I had and after twice, it was comfortable and easy to use.

Some people feel the same way about using cruise control or the now more common adaptive cruise control. A little use and it similarly gets comfortable (and like parking, most useful).

This thread has lifted my spirits because as I read through it I realized I've been somewhat good at lots of things my whole life. (Can't sing as well as I used to though.) But I've been consistently dismal at organization and housekeeping. It still bothers me.

Alisande I am the same with organization and housekeeping. And it bothers me as well. I am working on that as that takes time away from enjoying life. It seems like such a shame to have a double thing of not being good at something and plus lamenting it or reprimanding ourselves for it as well.

I don't know if you can manage it financially but it really does work to pay somebody to help you with your weaknesses. Everyone has weaknesses it's just acknowledging them and doing is something about them is what turns them into strengths. At least in my mind.

This is more for business people but I still like the article.

https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/how-the-most-effective-leaders-turn-weaknesses-into-strengths.html

I drive a Honda Pilot, 17 yrs old. It came with a backup camera which I use all the time when backing out of a parking space. SUV's are high and using mirrors do not catch people or cars fast enough. SUV's are high and long. The back window is high. Has always made me nervous backing out. I use the backup camera plus the mirrors and turning my head. The backup camera is tricky because it is on the rear and makes it a bit difficult to tell how close you are to cars parked behind you. But you truly need them in SUV's.

I'm a NYC girl and know how to parallel park with ease.

Jane

About 15 years ago, i was hanging out with the moms while our kids played on the school playground. My little Civic coupe was parked behind a Chrysler Behemoth or somesuch. I saw another parent fixate on my car and heard a collective gasp, then a ”munch”. I turned to see the Behemoth had backed OVER the hood of my car. It had a detction system, but my car was too low for it to pick up!

I think the systems have gotten much better since then. And, actually, the Civic was okay.

I am bad at getting old ...

I'm terrible at waiting for things to happen, I have zero patience.

I am very mathematically impaired and am grateful for calculators! I am also impaired at keeping possessions down to a minimum and tend to be somewhat of a pack rat. I admire my sister's house where her closets contain only the clothes she regularly wears and her cupboards only store currently used items. No storing something on the off chance that it might be required "one day."

Any sport that required great eye-hand coordination and speed - such as tennis, softball. The speed issue was a problem when trying to become very good at playing the piano - I could sight read anything easily, which always impressed the teacher, but getting my fingers to move quickly enough eluded me despite hours of practice, which thoroughly befuddled them. This has made me slower at typing as well. That brain-finger movement connection is just weak, it seems. Or maybe it's a sort of movement dyslexia - because in a group aerobics class, I always wanted to go in the opposite direction from the rest of the attendees (they would move right, I would go left...)

I was great with algebra, but struggled with geometry for some reason.

Parallel parking was never a problem, but it has now been years since I have had to.

A friend of mine in Mexico City told me that when she wanted direction to someplace, she would hire a taxi to go there, and then she would follow the taxi in her car.

I wish GPS were more reliable - it does not work well in certain mountainous areas and does not work at all in the national parks here - at least the GPS that relies on cell phone towers. GPS that uses satellites does work in national parks, but it does not have traffic information to help you take the fastest route.

I'm a bit surprised at how many people say that they are bad at sewing. I think that anyone who wanted to could sew reasonably well. However, I used to give sewing lessons to university students who were majoring in fashion merchandising, and they were pretty terrible at it, but I attributed that to lack of motivation or some kind of mental block.

lars, the starting point of determining a location is a satellite signal. Nothing else. One way to do it is with a standalone GPS device, they're pretty cheap these days. Or, you CAN use your smartphone anywhere.

I think I've mentioned before that it's not necessary to have a cell phone connection to use GPS navigation on a phone. All that connection is used for is supply current map information as the device moves. An alternative that works EXACTLY the same way when outside of cell phone range is to download an "offline map".

How? Start the Google Map app. Touch your image (or the icon) at the upper right, at the right side of the search bar. (On my phone, it's just to the right of the microphone image). Then touch "Offline Maps". You'll be given the opportunity to move a window frame around a map of the US, and to zoom in or out, to define an area for which complete map data will be downloaded to the phone.

Once its downloaded and you switch to "offline map" as the data choice, you can use GPS navigation to your heart's content without any cell connection at all. You can prove it to yourself, turn off the data signal connection on your phone and then see how it works. I've used it exploring Death Valley and places in the Sierra (where there's mostly no cell signal at all), in European cities (when I don't have a data plan for my phone but want to use it to get around), etc. There's one small difference - when using an offline map, you don't get current traffic information and potential rerouting. But if you're off in the boondocks, it doesn't matter. It otherwise works exactly the same way as if there were a cell connection. Exactly.

The area covered by a local map can be very large indeed. I just looked at it and an area spanning Los Angeles to San Diego and inland to Palm Springs was just 500MB, a quick download when on a Wifi connection. With that on your phone, you can drive anywhere, in the mountains or other boondocks, and use GPS with the same precision as if you had a cell connection.

Sometimes I'm bad at taking offense when not necessary. Luckily I'm good at realizing my error and hitting "delete comment" rather than "submit comment", most of the time!

I am bad (no, terrible) at reading and understanding anything technical. I also have a bad sense of direction.

For those of us who may not be math wizards. Not only does it make me feel better, it's absolutely true, in my case.

Lars, you have a gift with your sewing. An artist you are, who has good technical skills in regards to sewing. I've tried: made my own maternity dresses for example. People and clients would ooohhh and aaahhh over my maternity dresses. I would wink and say, just don't look to closely! haha. I think I could do better if my cheapie modern machine would work. We don't have a repair shop anymore within a 2 hour drive and self-repairs have exhausted my patience. Anyhow, I made my materinity dresses on my must be close to 100 year old Singer. Makes a straight line, and that is all. But a talent as yours, is a gift. One of my kids has the cooking and baking gift. It is amazing what she can do with food in the kitchen. The other kid can't boil water well, but is exceedingly good with kids. Thankfully, this one is a teacher.

There are probably a lot of things I am bad at. Housework is one of them. So often it seems like wasted effort, needs to be done over and over again. I neither need nor want my home to be a showplace, I prefer the lived in look. But right now it looks entirely TOO lived in! I'm also bad at cleaning as I go when cooking or baking. The kitchen is always a disaster area when I get through cooking or baking. Unfortunately one of my sons inherited this trait, he does all the cooking for his family and his wife does the cleanup. She often makes comments about how many pots & pans he can dirty up for one meal. I told her once that that was a talent he came by naturally.

Have always been bad at sports, especially team sports. Never have liked them, still don't.

I'm bad about accumulating supplies for art and crafts. And hanging on to odd items that everyone else in my family considers 'junk', because I can see a future use for them in craft items. For example, I recently saved the shells from some clams I had in a restaurant to use as wings for some angels I want to make.

I'm bad about wanting to know stuff. I read a lot and often go off on a tangent after Googling a word, phrase, location, etc., that came up in what I was reading.

I'm sure there are a lot ore 'bad ats', but that enough for now!

Rusty

I'm bad about wanting to know stuff. I read a lot and often go off on a tangent after Googling a word, phrase, location, etc., that came up in what I was reading.

Rusty, Um, no, that is an, I am good about learning and am curious. Few things worse for this world than the incurious.

PS I am bad at so many things, it is not worth writing about. Team sports and crafts are good starting places, though.

"For those of us who may not be math wizards. Not only does it make me feel better, it's absolutely true, in my case."

Algebra is one of many subjects taught to children not because it's something all adults need to understand and use but rather because the learning of it instills thought processes and skills that are useful for critical thinking in areas far afield from math.

I hope and I'm sure you're not saying that a day has passed during which you weren't required to think about something.

I’m a very bad gift giver. I so appreciate people who select ”just the right thing” (especially when it is for me!’ I tend to be too practical, and that is the doom of a true gift.

Oh please Elmer. Nonsensical response.

Not at all, it sounds like it's something you're unaware of.

Musical instrument instruction, or even music exposure but to a lesser extent, also has a consistently demonstrable long term effect on brain and cognitive development of children in ways quite unrelated to what's involved with the learning processes of the music itself.

Putting names and faces together. The struggle in real.

Holding my tongue. I do it but it is painful! Although sometimes my inner voices escapes and goes on a rampage. LOL

Housekeeping because I hate it.

Singing. I can't stay on key to save my life. Worst part is I sing all the time. Something will remind me of a song lyrics and I am off to the races. My children said they felt like they grew up in a bad musical.

Teaching. I tend to omit steps because my brain gets ahead of me. If I prepare a presentation or write a how-to, I am fine. To adlib and teach something, I am not great at it.

Baking. I tend to take poetic license when I cook. That doesn't work well with baking.

This is my last post on The Kitchen Table. I'm very sorry for you Elmer that you lack a sense of humor and have to turn many threads into a squashing contest, where you are the only participant. You have singled me out more than once with aim to disqualify comments I post and it's gross. Very similar to the boy in class that behaves poorly and pulls the ponytails of the cute girls. He thinks he's being clever, but it's a sad attempt to gain attention in any manner. See ya!

Oh please don’t go, sea sea. Rise above it.

This is my last post on The Kitchen Table.

You a stronger than that, Sea Sea. Don't give someone else the power to make you miserable and chase you away. Stay with us.

Sea Sea - I hope you rethink your decision. It shouldn't  be up to others to determine who does and does not participate here.  Your absence would be a loss.  And trust me, if you choose to stay, you will have plenty of support.

SEA SEA:

I do understand why you are leaving and am sorry to see you go. A person can only turn the other cheek or rise above insults so many times. Even nice people have their limits. May I suggest that there are other forums here ( where many of us belong )that you might enjoy.

@SEA SEA (and all of us): nothing wrong with taking a break for a while. And nothing wrong with coming back after a while passes :-)

For me, it helps to repeat to myself: It's just (fill in name) being (fill in name). People who've been here long enough understand -- although they might not cite the same name(s) I would, lol!

Thank you Dedtired, Lucille, jmm1837, Elizabeth, and nickel. I appreciate the words. Really I do. So much. You are all correct, of course. What you all don't know, is that when I found this forum a while back, it was a very nice thing for me. It was like the aunties I didn't have where chit chatting here. I enjoyed it very much :-) How I found the forum was when I would ask the website's search box for answers to life's little questions, the search results brought me to The Kitchen Table often. Some of these threads went back quite a few years. I got see people who don't seem to post here anymore and many of you who are still here. It was a really nice experience. All while I was trying to learn how to cook sweet potatoes or advise for a friend who was having a trouble at the time for example :-) Very refreshing. Eventually, I added this forum to my lineup of topics. But, there was a dark cloud that hung over the Kitchen Table with a certain someone who would denegrade other posters, for seemingly no reason. Just to get his kicks from this bizarre and sometimes cruel behavior.

For me though, it's not about rising above 'it', as I've been doing just that for a long time now with this poster. Ignore ignore ignore. For me, it's about not wanting to be in the presence of a predator. As he does purposefully make disqualifiing types of comments about posts that I or others may make. He even did a minor backhanded one of these on the gas prices thread. He simply could not reisist. There was no reason for him to even ackowledge my comment but he just had to throw a dig in there because it feels oh so good to him. Not that it offended me, because it didn't. Rather, it qualified him as an online predator per my experience with him on this site and he has me (and others) in his crosshairs.

When he and I first crossed paths, I was warned, strongly, privately about him; his history here, and past incarnations, going back many years. Immediately after our first seemingly innocent online meeting, if you will, that is when the warning was delivered to me, basically in all caps to emphasize what was to follow. It went just as I was warned about.

It has pained me to see him, on repeat, treat other posters with disrespect. It's one thing to be having a discussion and an exchange of ideas; different points of view. It's a whole 'nother thing to be condescending and or disrespectful and disqualify other peoples experiences and point of view and sometimes even simple comments. If he was a drive-by troll who makes a cruel comment and then is never seen again, I would not give it much thought, but he pulls up a chair to this group and is allowed to treat others in the manner that he does.

I'm newer to the group than most of you. I am seeing this through fresher eyes. I do find this behavior to be gross. Not something I want to be knocking around with, or dodging the word bullets and putting up the shields every time I make a post. That's not healthy.

For me, I make a deal with myself that my time spent online, outside of working, is to be rewarding, uplifting and enriching. Basically, a positive experience! If the time spent is not those things, it is time not spent well and I've done myself a disservice. This person with his digs, jabs, down right offensive behavior is not time well spent for me.

I still will be a part of other forums on here and he'd better not mess with me there. I see him for what he is. I will say he's consistant.

This whole thing makes me feel yucky and gross. I've dedicated my life to helping others both professionally and in volunteer work. I used to run a support group website, for free to help people navigate through specific difficult times. Cost me about 40 hours a week. This on top of my professional work. I had a total of three moderators, myself included. The reason I chose three mods was that if something such as this behavior were to come up, I would have three different points of view to review, so that our conclusion as to what to do and how proceed would be fair to our members and we could all get back to the business of supporting each other in a welcoming manner in stead of fighting off bullies. Seems that this website does not protect against bullies.

I'm very sorry this happened on thread Sal. I really enjoy your threads :-)

Sigh.

Very well said, SEA SEA. I, too, am sorry to see you go, but I completely understand. Hopefully you will pop back in occasionally in the future. For the most part, this forum is a fun and informative place, with mostly kind, helpful and interesting people. It is sad that someone can be so disruptive so often and is allowed to continue the bullying behavior. It's also very sad when others stoop to his level trying to retaliate. And so unnecessary.

Rusty

People will have whatever views they want to have but I do feel the need to offer a different perspective. I don't typically comment in a thread if I have nothing different to say. What I find more interesting is to offer a different point of view, or additional information or experiences not on the table. My comments are rarely of a kind one would describe as "auntie talk".

I don't ever deliberately bully anyone, stalk anyone. I'm not influenced by anything other than what people say. A pattern of consistent disagreement from me suggests it involves someone whose views or perspectives differ significantly from mine and again, it is when I have a differing view that I speak up. It's not a personal pattern of pursuit. Written words read without personal knowledge or contact can be easily misinterpreted, whether it's me misinterpreting something someone said (which may have happened in this thread) or others misinterpreting my words or the intent behind my words.

I don't believe only auntie talk is acceptable in this forum and not in addition more interesting exchanges involving the sharing and discussions of diverse (non-political) views. There is some diversity in this group (though that much) but we learn from hearing ideas of others, even if not always agreeing with them. There's nothing to be learned from speaking only with like-minded people with whom one has the same views and opinions.

"I don't ever deliberately bully anyone, stalk anyone."

Your lack of self awareness is astounding.

Aunt Lucille would really like to see you here from time to time, even if it is a 'cameo appearance'. You are uplifting and worthwhile.

"A pattern of consistent disagreement from me suggests it involves someone whose views or perspectives differ significantly from mine and again," I disagree with comments, not with people.

I would say everyone here has felt the wrath of that certain poster, I hope many will take my suggestion - this is what I've been doing for years. Skip over and never read that person's posts, a bully has no power when they are ignored. The fun ends for them when no one responds to their taunts.

Diversity of opinion, diversity of how we express our opinions, these are goods. They enrich the conversation. If the accusations against this poster held any water, he would not be here, as per Houzz rules.

Time to grow up, folks.

PS As for people who feel sought out, you are flattering yourselves.

Thanks zalco, I think you get it, but please make a U-turn to get away from the specifics of that particular road. ;-)

I do try to abide by the rules. And they do mention that differences of opinion are to be expected in public forums and are acceptable so long as comments relate to opinions and not to people specifically. Which, ironically, is a line several of the above comments have crossed.

Brava, Sea Sea.

Never underestimate the wisdom and power of aunties.

Time to grow up, or time to wake up? hmmmm.

You sound like a decent person, Sea Sea, and I hope you continue to participate here. I think you have a lot to offer.

I have posted this before: some persons are simply unable to see others’ point of view and are compelled to share their opinions in a dominant no-holds-barred fashion. That’s just the way they are. I should know: I’ve been married to one for more than 40 years. My solution: do not engage. It’s like trying to put a dress on a pig - it just makes the pig mad and you get hogsh!t all over you.

Littlebug, hahaha ^^^^^^