I don't get out much

[thecfarm]

I work in a smalltown hardware store, closet city, is just about a ½ hour away about 45 minutes in another directions.
Women comes in and wants to drop off business cards, we have a place for them. Most times, handyman, contractors, painting.
This time it was to clean up behind your pet.
I need to get out more. 
I clean up behind mine, not the best job I like, but I do it.

[newoodguy78]

Cfarm just stay home with your rocks, it's much better for you. Going out will just lead to more stuff nobody but a select few will ever understand.
 I'm a big fan of not going out. 

[thecfarm]

I'm a Rock Hugger.   :D

[Kindlinmaker]

After a few years of quiet retirement and recently emerging from COVID hibernation, I have come to the firm belief that "getting out" is overrated.  

Cars and trucks (especially trucks) are too expensive to both buy and operate.  No matter where you are, it is guaranteed to be more congested than it was 5 years ago.  People are certainly no friendlier nor more helpful than they were when you were younger.  If I need something, I can probably make it, grow it or have it delivered.  Beyond that, I probably don't really need it anyway and will eventually regret acquiring it.

I think I'll just get another cup of coffee and see if my "central heat" wood stove needs another log yet.  Maybe I'll go out next week....but probably not.

[21incher]

Dirty jobs that people with more money then time will gladly pay for. I'm like you, we go out once a month to go shopping at Costco that's 35 miles away. Have seen some things in the local Walmart that make Costco seem like a safe space to shop.

[Roxie]

I do enjoy people watching but only if I'm sitting where no one will bother me. 

The best part of leaving home is coming back home. 

[moodnacreek]

After a few years of quiet retirement and recently emerging from COVID hibernation, I have come to the firm belief that "getting out" is overrated.  

Cars and trucks (especially trucks) are too expensive to both buy and operate.  No matter where you are, it is guaranteed to be more congested than it was 5 years ago.  People are certainly no friendlier nor more helpful than they were when you were younger.  If I need something, I can probably make it, grow it or have it delivered.  Beyond that, I probably don't really need it anyway and will eventually regret acquiring it.

I think I'll just get another cup of coffee and see if my "central heat" wood stove needs another log yet.  Maybe I'll go out next week....but probably not.

This is a very good post, like words of wisdom. I go out so little I am forgetting how to drive. [with the lovely n.y. people]

[SawyerTed]

There's money to be made doing "dirty jobs".  There are companies that specialize in doing the stuff others don't want to and they charge a premium.   

What's even more fascinating is the people who pay exorbitant prices seem to think there's prestige in paying for some of these services. 

I spent the weekend in Charleston with friends who were trying to one-up each other on how much they pay for yard/tree care, painting and carpentry services. They live in historic homes worth millions, $12,000 a year to "keep the garden" is more than I pay to keep the whole farm here!  One fellow just spent $15k to get the piazzas "redone" (looked like they were repainted to me). 

I'm included in this group because I've known some of them when they were "poor like the rest of us."  :D

[Sixacresand]

I would pay a kid to take my dogs and cats to the vet and to sit in the waiting room.  

[taylorsmissbeehaven]

This thread hits home!! Every day I go to work just to get through it and get back home. It is not hard to believe that our society is where it is when the general public acts the way they do. Im hoping to be "working from home" at my shop by the first of next year. Nice and peaceful(I hope!!) For now, I just keep smiling on the outside. Brian

[kantuckid]

After a few years of quiet retirement and recently emerging from COVID hibernation, I have come to the firm belief that "getting out" is overrated.  

Cars and trucks (especially trucks) are too expensive to both buy and operate.  No matter where you are, it is guaranteed to be more congested than it was 5 years ago.  People are certainly no friendlier nor more helpful than they were when you were younger.  If I need something, I can probably make it, grow it or have it delivered.  Beyond that, I probably don't really need it anyway and will eventually regret acquiring it.

I think I'll just get another cup of coffee and see if my "central heat" wood stove needs another log yet.  Maybe I'll go out next week....but probably not.

This is a very good post, like words of wisdom. I go out so little I am forgetting how to drive. [with the lovely n.y. people]

Wisdom, perhaps? Depends on how you're set up as a person! Some people just need more socialization than others. An overt e.g. would be those folks who thrive on going to a big outdoor concert, state fair or mega church sort of event thing. Others like seen above get by fine at home. 
We live independently rural retired and our typical venture into greater society (beyond a post office pick up, local farm store, etc.) is either a grocery run or a doc visit groceries combo run. There are times when one of two vehicles has sat for several weeks. We have zero desire to "join" retired work groups or to visit a local senior center. Neither have I ever been a corner cafe or courthouse hanger arounder. I don't need that stuff. I belonged to a civic club for some years and enjoyed meeting some folks there but overall tired of doing most of the work. You get that way after being the president, treasurer, or secretary at every club election. It became apparent that for some it was a hangers on event to eat a meal they sort of paid for under auspices of doing good. 
I've had enough work/hobbies in my life to self entertain for years & years. BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!what we have missed is world travel during this covid crap. Also has become tough to get RV campsites here in USA. None of our travel is toward group activity, others like that a lot. The day you see me on a bus with a nametag around my neck, thats the day I've lost my mind... :D

[K-Guy]

During the week my job is talking to mostly kiln operators, so pleasant people who don't their head shoved someplace it shouldn't be. Other than that I have the same problem when in the city. On weekends my preference is to head north and west to get away from those people. I find the further away from the city you get the nicer the people are.

[kantuckid]

For the sake of polite discussion I disagree, in large part. I grew up in a small capital city with a single main drag-so small-town USA not urban ghetto.
 Many of the nicest people I've ever encountered lived there and I met, was mentored by and knew far too many to ever do justice to their memory. OTOH, yes, I've been in many of the major cities of our world and all in the USA, so I get what your saying as the pace of life, effects of crime or whatever do make their marks on people. Traffic frenzy is obvious as we enter any USA city, what with crazy speed demons and lane switchers and fingers given as somewhat manic people head for wherever. 
I could point at a few large cities I've enjoyed being in and even more escaping them later, but I'll play nice here.  :D 

My looming, overall point is that there are lots of very nice people everywhere we go: city mouse or country mouse they come both ways. 
Now do I want to ever leave the rural life-not a chance! I was trying not be "in town" most all of my childhood, thankfully the woods & the river was right next to me and many of my relatives farmed so escapes were easy. Movies, swimming pools a bicycle lifestyle were also at hand-my wife loved riding a bike but in here area no place to ride and no money to buy one either. FWIW, Most rural livers in E KY think of themselves as farm based when truth be known not much of that goes on here. My youth farms were nearby in the valley and I worked on them from ~ 5th grade on-mostly potatoes grown on truck farms owned by classmates family. My Grandfather was the farm mgr at the Topeka State Hospital for years, which was then in middle of the town (until mental health delivery changed) about two blocks from my house-they raised their own eats and dairy'ed too. 

[SwampDonkey]

My work is at the woods and back home. Grocery shopping twice a month in winter and the quicker doing that and back home the better. :D In summer, weekends and a couple week day evenings at the garden. Busy enough for me. ;D

[WV Sawmiller]

  I think I am with Kantuck on this issue. I have been all over the world. I would never want to live in a big city but I visited many and met as nice a bunch of people as you could ever hope to meet there. And some jerks - but we have country jerks too.

  I will say the same for other countries too. Sometimes it is hard for us to understand their culture and belief but I have always tried to be nice and respect them and found most of them to be the same.

  Anyway, to sort of get back to the original thread here I certainly know there are jobs I can't or just don't want to do. I think if most of us look hard enough we can find some niche where we have the skills to do something others can't or are more than willing to pay others to do. I can cook a decent meal but I enjoy going out and eating a good meal from time to time.

  I think it is mostly our attitude that makes the difference whether we enjoy tasks that may be unpleasant to others.

  When I was in the USMC I would have to oversee the handover of buildings and equipment between rotating units and I'd walk through the barracks checking cleanliness and flushing toilets and turning on washers and dryers to make sure everything worked. My thoughts were if it were me coming in I'd want things working properly. I had a counterpart who had to come along and he told me after he thought that was the most painful chore he ever had to do. It all depended on how you looked at it. I enjoyed it because I knew it needed to be done and I was able to help others in the process.

[SwampDonkey]

This spring I've got to remove an old brick flu from the barn, cover with steel where the hole is and probably a piece of wood or two to be replaced around it. It won't be hired out, or it won't get done. The roof isn't that bad to work off of.

[Bruno of NH]

I'm lucky if I make it out of the mill yard (my home) once a month and that can be to much sometimes   :D

[K-Guy]

I will admit there are good people in the cities but the numbers of idiots seems to go up exponentially with the population size.

[kantuckid]

Note from Admin:  Inflammatory comment about vaccinations removed.  Please refrain from such comments in the General Forum.

In my area the typical hillbilly you'll encounter out near their home place might often come across as standoffish. It can be construed as not friendly but give people a chance to warm up to you. It works. Pace of life in cities is obviously often frenetic, insane traffic, waiting on customers, so on. I don't ascribe it to most of them though.
Bars: I've walked into a few here and there. Some can be downright hard core unfriendly, cities or rural both. A few I sort of got up slowly and slithered out hoping I'd get back to a safer space.  

[moodnacreek]

Yes there are good and bad everywhere but some areas, both city and country, have too many of one kind.