Most useful off-road vehicle I’ve ever driven was a lot like this thing: https://www.offroaderie.com/new-models/kawasaki-side-x-side-mule-sx-2036834140399698232475668

Or just a regular sized pickup truck, which I’ve also used for plenty of sites. But honestly I prefer the mules because they hold all the stuff I need for work and can fit through most forest understory. And in the rare chance that you happen to turtle them it’s possible to pull them off/out of whatever they’re stuck on. If you get a giant truck stuck in the mud you’re donezo.

I also took my Toyota Prius to plenty of sites, although I’d never off-road with it when the ground is swampy or sandy it did fine on plenty of rough roads and open fields. I’m sure a Subaru or other small all wheel drive sedan could handle lots of off-road work sites.

Not to mention they don’t even fucking fit in off-road situations half the time. Unless you’re in a wide open field or have giant cleared roads (in which case why do you need an ultimate off-road machineTM), most off-road situations in the eastern US are going to involve trees. Try driving around trees in that thing and you’ll be stuck in a matter of minutes.

For all the actual off road work I’ve done, the best vehicle has always been those little utility off-road vehicles (we call them mules or gators but I’m sure they have a real name) or just a regular-sized pickup truck with 4 wheel drive and low gears.

“We’re gonna need a bigger boat, you piece of shit!”

Yeah… We’re talking about people who literally want us dead. And because it’s America, they likely own guns. Some of them are literal neo-Nazis or Christian fascists and might actually try to do you harm if you’re Jewish, Muslim, or gay. Making friends with them isn’t just painful and unpleasant, it’s dangerous.

Just to give you a sense of the type of things that you might have to sit through to be “friends” with these folks… My cousin had a kid in her Catholic school class write an essay comparing gayness to bestiality. Another cousin’s husband constantly misgendered my trans sibling on purpose. My parents’ neighbors hung a flag on their wall depicting a person pointing a gun at my parents’ house.

I’ll give you a pass since you’re from Europe and have no sense for the level of extremism embraced by our right wing political groups but trust me… If “just talk to your neighbors” worked we’d be doing it. As it is, your best bet is to avoid them knowing your politics and get out if you can.

This is actually the main policy stance of the Liberal Gun Club. That we’re spending all this time regulating guns and ignoring/underaddressing the root causes like mental health issues, domestic violence, toxic masculinity, income inequality, poverty, etc.

Not to say that guns shouldn’t be regulated to some extent, but with the way mental health is in America I’m pretty sure we’d just see a spike in knife and baseball bat crime and suicide by hanging if we somehow magically got rid of guns.

https://theliberalgunclub.com/about-us/root-cause-mitigation-2/

Ataulfo mangoes. At least in the northeast US, they are reliably delicious and ripen on the counter.

Cortland apples

Yeah I feel you on that, the fieldwork stage of the job can get tiring really fast, especially with the more routine stuff like asbestos and LNAPL spills. Vapor intrusion work is less of a bear, we’re doing a lot of that lately and it’s nice because it’s indoors in the winter. I work in a larger company with a variety of projects so I’m not always doing the same thing and that definitely helps. In my current company people do tend to graduate out of the field positions fairly quickly (like 5 years) and move on to a desk job or at least a partial desk job but those first few years when you’re in the field a lot can be hard and maybe impossible if you have any dependents that keep you from traveling.

I think it depends on your field of engineering and how much you enjoy the work. I find environmental engineering to be satisfying and a very dependable/lucrative income compared to many other non-engineering fields I might have been interested in.

Add to that most other fields that pay similarly or higher (doctor, lawyer, etc) require more/costlier schooling and it’s a pretty sweet deal to be able to go into the job market with only a bachelor’s or masters and making a decent wage right off the bat.

Of course the same enshittification/race to the bottom for prices affects us too but I don’t know if there’s any career that escapes that entirely.

I would also think maybe certain engineering fields are more stable than others. Mine is particularly recession-proof since we’re driven by regulation (and bipartisan-supported regulation at that), not the economy. Massive layoffs are not that common in many of the other more “physical” engineering fields like structural, electrical, or mechanical either and even if you are laid off there is usually another company hiring. The skills are pretty portable as well so if you want to change careers you have a pretty good chance at being successful.

Is it a field of rainbows and butterflies? No, but it’s a hell of a lot better than plenty of other jobs out there and it pays the bills.

Environmental engineer. I clean up chemical messes like oil spills, and make sure that the resulting land is safe enough for people to live on it.

It’s fun and challenging, if somewhat depressing at times. Some things take a LONG time to clean up. On the plus side, I have great job security.

You’re not missing anything, people are just weird about it.

Also the person who named it “toilet-to-tap” is an idiot. Reclaimed water is “toilet to tap” in the same way that a vegetable grown in compost is “garbage to garden.” There’s a host of sophisticated engineering processes in between the two, making the water just as clean as any other treated drinking water.

Mixing with river water or putting the water in a reservoir and then pumping it back out again simply makes people feel more comfortable about it and, like you said, reduces the “ick” factor.

Trike! Or recumbent trike. Or an e-trike.

Get an ebike. It solves several of your cons at once.

No need to wear spandex or neon to ride on an ebike (or any bike honestly I bike everywhere and the only neon thing I own is my rain pants) just put lights on your bike and don’t dress all in black.

Can’t help you with the helmet, that one’s pretty important but there’s lots of nice looking helmets out there.

No getting sweaty on an ebike unless you want to, because you can crank the pedal assist if you’re starting to sweat.

Have literally never had an issue finding somewhere to park my bike. Sure have an issue finding car parking though. At the downtown garage I park at, cars are $20 an hour but bikes are free.

You’ll probably go faster than the cars if there’s lots of traffic. We’ve done a car vs bike race a few times when we had both starting the same place and going to the same place and the ebike always wins or is like 10 minutes behind at most.

Bluetooth speakers and transparent headphones both solve the music issue.

Many ebikes have extra cargo capacity, so grocery runs are easier. If you’ve got a large family then you might need a cargo bike or to rent a car periodically for large trips.

The only real downside imo is the weather if you live somewhere extremely cold/hot and the safety from riding near cars. The rest is easy to get over once you’re zipping down the road at 20mph getting those sweet, sweet biking endorphins.

Dwarf/small plants for small spaces. I spent years trying to grow regular sized tomatoes on a balcony and having them go totally wild. Now with dwarf tomatoes I can easily fit them in pots in my yard. Same with sweet peas- they make varieties that grow shorter, which is great if you don’t have a super tall space to grow in.

In general find varieties that work for your space/garden and grow those. It’s okay to not grow the same stuff as everyone else.

Also, grow potatoes in buckets. Gosh darn it but the home grown veg guy is right. It’s just easier.

To build on this, just because something didn’t work one year, don’t give up on it entirely! Tweak something and try again. I had a terrible year last year with one of my dwarf tomato breeds, but this year they’re doing great because I kept them warmer as seedlings. Similarly my cilantro that never took off last year is going strong this year due to more watering.

Gardening is a learning process. Embrace what works for you and change what doesn’t.

Also I’d never heard of aeroponics but that is super cool!

Seriously, that stuff is delicious! Don’t throw it out.

Add it to cornbread, use it to fry vegetables, put it on popcorn, use it to season your cast iron… The list goes on and on. And it keeps almost indefinitely in the fridge thanks to all the salt. There is almost no reason I can think of to throw out bacon grease unless you eat so much bacon that you can’t possibly keep up with the grease or you don’t have a refrigerator.

I find it almost impossible to pick a favorite poem of hers, but if I had to it’d probably be “Tutaj” (“Here” in English) by Wislawa Szymborska.

https://medium.com/illumination/here-671e29357dcc

“Starvation Camp Near Jaslo” and “Foraminifera” are two other favorites and Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak have done an amazing job at the translations.

I get what you’re trying to say but Stephen Farrea is a member of NSC-131, an actual honest-to-goodness neo -Nazi street gang. Like sig-heiling, swastikas, sonnenrads, the whole nine yards.

Now these jokers get plenty of support and encouragement from the local Republicans and that’s a huge issue but it’s important to make it clear that when we call this guy a neo-Nazi we mean that literally.

If it’s slugs that are bothering you, the dish of beer trick does wonders for me.

Put a shallow dish next to the problem plant and pour in some beer. The next morning you will have a dish full of dead slugs. Repeat for a few weeks until the problem goes away.

Did his share of the housework. My dad didn’t know how to cook well, but you bet your butt he did laundry, vacuumed, dusted, washed dishes, whatever was needed around the house he did it. And he did cook at least once a week, although it was always stuff like grilled cheese or pancakes.

Growing up in a household where both parents put in equal effort at home really set up the expectation for me that this is how relationships work.

My dad was also very loving and openly affectionate to us all. He would give us hugs, tell us he loved us and how proud of us he is, even to the point of tearing up sometimes. I love that about him and see it as an admirable quality in men.

Girls learn what to expect from men based on what they see their fathers do. Be kind, gentle, and respect your daughter and that’s the kind of men she’ll surround herself with.

I would have had a local barbecue joint cater the wedding instead of getting a fancy caterer. The food was the most stressful part of our wedding and it wasn’t even that good for the price and trouble.

Would keep the strawberry shortcake instead of wedding cake though, that was bomb.

Other than the food I wouldn’t change a thing. I married the right guy and he’s just gotten more awesome with time. And we had a (relatively) low-key wedding to start with so there’s not much I have in the way of regrets.