Ah, the hilarity of Craigslist. If you’ve been around the block enough times you know just how silly Craigslist was and sort of still is. Craigslist used to be the place to get basically anything you wanted, and I mean anything. Look, I’ve even used to use the dating section of Craigslist, which really was a thing. As it turns out, you can still get weird stuff from Craigslist.
Today, Jason wrote about some person on Craigslist giving away bags of gasoline. There are so many questions, but one of them is how the heck is the gas not getting through? Frankencamry helps us out here:
Everything about this screams “had to drain a large gas tank and had no plans to use the old gas.”
As far as why it’s not eating through the bags, they’re probably contaminant cleanup bags. If you’ve ever seen the after effects of someone screwing up pumping at the gas station and dealing with the specialized kitty litter, there are similarly specialized bags it goes into that are impervious to liquid fuel.
A quick search confirms that in some locations WM will dispose of gas and other automotive fluids and supplies polyethylene bags when they do so. Looks like what’s in the picture.
As for the rest of the comments, all of them were hilarious, but several of you made the same joke. KYFire:
I think I saw this on TV once.
“Wildcard!”
StillPlaysWithCars:
All we need now is a sketchy van, an oil tycoon, and a fire breather to sell gas door to door.
Wild card b*tches! Yeee-hawwwwwww
If you have no idea what these folks are talking about, you should watch It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia:
When you are a teenager, you’re under immense pressure to make sure you choose a good career. If you were like me, you were told that if you didn’t go to college you would be a failure. Reality is much nicer than that.
Today, David remarked on how much respect he’s gotten by simply walking around wearing a Mercedes technician coverall. I did write a similar COTD to this back in 2023, but I think it’s worth repeating, and Tbird is going to help:
Engineer – I have worked in industrial maintenance for 25+ years now. I will not discourage ANYONE from looking at a career in one of the trades. You will work for your living, but you can make a damn good living anywhere in this country if willing to do the work. For too long society has pushed college on all youth as the answer, and it is not. The trades can offer security and job satisfaction for many, especially in modern society where all are looking for skilled labor. My 2 cents for what it’s worth.
Many of the smartest, most ambitious people I have ever met were electricians, ironworkers, welders, pipefitters, millwrights….
I fully agree. If you want to flex your welding skills, do it! If you want a desk job, do it! Besides, you can make loads of money either way. Have a great evening, everyone!
Topshot: FX/FXX
I’ve relatives in the trades.
They struggle with boom-bust of the industry whims. Whilst they would never give it up, being at the mercy of every downturn is frustrating and the majority of them have become very embittered, especially in their political leanings, and heavily cling to negativity rather than any string of hope or opportunity out there. There’s a serious echo chamber in some of their work environments.
It’s always sad to see it repeat when there’s economic headwinds, but they’d never look to other options when things inevitably get slow again (incl even options of temporary relocation to other parts of the country).
On one hand, respect. On the other, there are some deep holes.
My recommendation to kids all the time is now “Go check out the internet, see what the world claims they need for workers, and go do the absolutely fucking opposite thing.”
Seriously, go find something you can bear to learn about and do that doesn’t have a massive billboard with lit up arrows pointing at it. I understand we have a need for tradespeople, but I’ve watched waves of people follow this style of advice, only for those waves to realize that they’ve devalued themselves by being what increased supply. I’m one of those kids back in the early 00’s that was told “our infrastructure is failing! we need civil engineers!” Turns out, the only thing people want more than engineers to fix things, is to not want to actually pay for engineers. Add a complete economic meltdown in ’08, and I graduated into a pit so deep I’m still slowly extracting myself 15 years later.
Timing is everything. But do yourself a favor and try to be a few steps ahead.
Some of us are just not built for manual labor.
FTFY
I personally hate it when they make me work for a living..
I used to wear a t-shirt in our corporate meetings that said “subject to cruel and unusual employment” 🙂
If you haven’t seen the South Park special where tradesmen are all super rich, and go to Home Depot in the morning looking for daylaborers in consulting, programming, accounting, etc….well, it’s worth the free trial to Paramount+ just for that. Some of their best work ever, and I’ve been a fan since Day 1.
My youngest brother designs high speed telecom chipsets and integration logic. He got tired of trying to explain to people what he does as well as being asked to solve their computer problems (he doesn’t own a personal computer) Now he tells them he does mufflers at Canadian Tire. Apparently people lose interest in speaking (bothering he says) to him.
I am a software engineer and I get asked if I know how to fix a printer or email. I don’t know, I write code… It’s quite disturbing how many people don’t really know what that means. I have met a few people who didn’t understand that thier phone runs software and that people have to write that…
I used to be a mechanic and that had it’s own problems with people wanting you to look at thier cars, Even had strangers knock on my door asking advice as they have seen me working on my own cars. My advice, Take it to your mechanic.
I wonder what other professions get this ?, I bet doctors do.
“Not that kind of doctor” is definitely a thing.
Contrariwise, making dinner with an ex, I was giving her shit about butchering an onion. “I can perform surgery!” she said. “Yeah, but you can’t dice an onion at all.”
Prince Philip apparently once asked a famous actress for help setting up his DVD player when he found out she was in the movie business
Counterpoint to anyone who says working in the trades is a great idea…
I’m 60 and I’ve been working my trade for 35+ years. My body is broken. When I get home from work, all I can do is take 2 Tylenol and lie in bed for a couple hours until I feel okay enough to fix dinner. Then back to bed so I can (hopefully) get enough sleep to do it again tomorrow. There’s no real path to an early retirement until I’m 62.
Every morning I wake up angry that I chose this path.
I work in a fabric covered box and I don’t see the sun shine for 5 days a week. There’s someone in India who would do my job for half the pay and Elon Musk wants to see that happen. If I’m lucky to still be able to find work, I’ll die in my cubicle.
Grass is always greener.
Yeah, as much as the world is “countercyclically” glorifying trades (and I understand), I’ve talked to enough guys out there (yes, mostly guys) who basically say you’ve for 15-20 years to start your own company and hire people, or it can be a quick path downhill if you’re doing manual labor.
When our A/C was installed, it was 120 in the attic and one of the two HVAC techs was in his mid-60s and had just recovered from heart surgery….3 days earlier.
Desk jobs may be soul-sapping, but I’m not pretending the other grass is perfectly green. I’m happy to DIY on the house and the car, but huge respect for people who do construction or mechanical work all day long.
There really are no perfect careers, unless you’re getting paid to be a travel writer or something. I will say that, while having an email job is definitely soul-sucking, at least I feel physically okay enough at the end of the day to go for a walk or get some kind of physical activity. It’s somewhat easier (at least for now) to have a life balance in the white-collar world, which is why so many go for that route.
Trailer Park Boys did it better.
Dang, I was hoping my Band reference on David’s post would catch your eye.
Congrats to the ASIP crew for a well deserved bag of gas!
Admittedly, I’m only slightly better on references than David is.