I have a car wash membership that is just basic wash + undercarriage. This time of year, I make a dive through it twice a week to get all the crap off, especially the bottom.

Car is 11 years old, has 142k miles, never garaged, and if you look underneath, other than the typical galvanized exhaust surface rust you would never guess the car was more than 2 years old.

> Cold as hell yet somehow still drizzling, not snow, so the windshield kept icing up. So cold that the defroster couldn't keep the whole windshield ice-free unless i turned the thermostat to 90.

This is when heated wiper blades are a godsend.

>And then salt... i went through a whole gallon of wiper fluid.

If it's New England, should always have an extra jug in the trunk regardless.

>And then my damn headlights iced over.

This is the biggest downside to LED headlamps; just like the LED traffic signals that get caked with snow, LED headlamps lack that little bit of warmth that comes off of a halogen bulb which keeps things clear.

Thankfully, there are some ways to fix that depending on your vehicle. For example, if your vehicle uses the old school 4x6, 5x7 or 7" round lamps, you can get heated LED units. These are very popular in trucking applications and permanently solve the problem of icing over. I have several large refuse customers that use these and love them.

Is it still Young Christo running Florence Pizza? Well, he isn't so young anymore of course, but Old Christo was A-1 Pizza around the corner back in the day.

Village Pizza in Easthampton is by far the best.

No, A-1 in Florence not Chicopee.

As teens we used to hang out at Village all the time while growing up there (80s-90s). That was back when Gus was still running it. Now it's his son John's place.

After this year, we're going to move away from La Nina and back to El Nino weather patterns which will cause the usual amounts of snow to fall.

We have gotten plenty of precipitation, it is just because of the wind currents that we've been spared the level that the rest of the country has been shit on this winter.

My favorite will always be Village Pizza in Easthampton, MA. It is as close to pizza perfection I've ever had; wife insists we make the hour each way drive at least once a month for it. Unfortunately, this pizza does NOT reheat well (could be the unbrominated flour mix they use); it is by far the best fresh and hot.

The same Greek family also owned A-1 Pizza and Florence Pizza in Northampton, and there used to be a Parthenon Pizza up in Greenfield but I believe that closed a very long time ago.

> Bianca’s Pizza in Rockville.

Bianca's or Bianna's?

We only use Green Man in W Hartford.

It's the Holyoke part that's bad, West Springfield did major work to multiple sections over the past decade.

They're about to start a new portion this year as well:

WEST SPRINGFIELD – State officials are planning to repave the northern end of Riverdale Street (Route 5), the town engineer told West Springfield’s Town Council on Jan. 3.

The council voted to approve several utility pole relocations that are necessary before the work can begin. Town Engineer Connor Knightly told councilors that “a few miles” of potholed stretches from the Holyoke city line almost to the Interstate 91 ramps will be resurfaced.

He also said the heavily traveled street will gain some new sidewalks and a reconfigured intersection with Brush Hill Road.

“They’re simplifying the intersection a little bit to make it more conducive to traffic making U-turns,” Knightly said. “I know there have been issues at this location, vehicles using the wrong turning lane to make that maneuver, and ironically enough, colliding with each other in front of Red’s Towing.”

Currently, northbound drivers attempting to turn south at Brush Hill Road are expected not to make a tight U-turn, but to make a gentler left turn and enter a jughandle lane, merge with traffic coming from Brush Hill Road and wait at a traffic light to join southbound Riverdale Street.

Knightly also said the state is allowing West Springfield to set a school zone speed limit on Piper Road in front of West Springfield High School, in the area where a car struck and killed a pedestrian last month. He said the town is looking at applying for a state grant to install school zone signs with flashing lights and a radar display that shows each driver’s speed.

Also on Jan. 3, councilors took no additional action on their Dec. 5 order to ban heavy trucks from Larone Avenue, a side street connecting Elm and Riverdale streets. The council had been expected to vote on whether to override Mayor William Reichelt’s veto of the ban, but following a subcommittee discussion on Jan. 3, the mayor agreed to rescind his veto, Sullivan said.

Residents of Larone Avenue had requested the truck ban to prevent commercial vehicles from using their street as a shortcut to Route 5. They also complained about large trucks parking on the street and blocking traffic, but under state law, the town is only able to ban through trucks. Trucks making local deliveries to businesses on Larone Avenue will still be allowed to use the street.

The same extended family also used to own A-1 Pizza and Florence Pizza in Florence, but I haven't been there in many years.

Village Pizza in Easthampton, but you have to eat it while it's hot and fresh to be best. It's fine cold, but because of the unbrominated flour they use in the crust, it never seems to reheat well regardless of method.

My employer-provided insurance, I pay $106/wk. According to the required MA disclosures, my employer's portion for the year was ~$23,000 ($442/wk). If you go to the proper providers, it's a $0 deductible after copays.

What did this insurance get me? In December 2021 I had a blood clot in my shoulder. An ER visit and 3 inpatient stays later (8 days total, 4 procedures including thoracic surgery) racked up a ~$200k medical bill.

My total out of pocket: $1200.

This past year, even though our total rate went up by about $3k for health coverage (family plan), they ate the entire cost of it. That is like giving everyone a $1.50/hr raise across the board.

You can never have too much insurance. After an accident before the clot, I jacked up all my coverages including UIM to $500k; the cost to go up to that and even 1M from 100/300 was actually quite reasonable, a lot less than one would expect.

Depending where you are in the State, the Farmington Canal Rail Trail is 81.2 miles, I believe at the northern end it connects to the Southwick Rail Trail in MA.

Just off the Southwick Rail Trail is Southwick Acres Campground which has a lot of good reviews.

I grew up in the suburbs of Western MA.

In 1980 at 5 years old, I was walking 5 blocks to school and back.

By 1983, after school I was walking 2+ miles in the OTHER direction after school to one of my parent's businesses, which included traversing the center of a town of ~25k people.

1984, I was riding my bike 2.5 miles to my little league game, another 2.5mi afterward to get ice cream with the team, and ANOTHER 2.5mi after that to get home, usually well after dark on a BMX bike with no lights and no helmet. The 2nd and 3rd legs had to go through the center of town as well.

By the time high school rolled around, instead of taking the bus I would bike 7 miles to school in a neighboring town, followed by another 2.5mi after school to the other parent's business to work. Bike would then be tossed in the back of the van for the ride home. It was also nothing to take 15-20 mile rides without a second thought.

There's probably tons of them in my attic and basement as well. Wife's family has lived in Vernon for at least three generations, GMIL had dozens of slide carousels stacked up, plus some albums around. That's not even counting all the ancient vinyl records I need to sift through. A lot of the stuff is going to end up either at the Vernon Historical Society or to UConn; a good portion of the latter are recordings of the UConn Band going back to the 50s and 60s.

Going and making myself a cup of my own. Iced coffee is disgusting.

The police station lobby has a bunch as well.

From Vernon to Enfield there is no rep showing on their site.

If you use the distributor search on their main page for a shop that isn't served by them, you'll then get a button that will allow you to shop online instead.

Big Y, at least north of Hartford. I usually go to the Ellington location.

Their gas station right across the street is typically $.20-$.30/gal cheaper than in neighboring towns as well.

Mandatory Infographic

They pay fast, will not pay as much as it is actually worth, and is typically financed by conglomerates who intend on turning it into a rental property.

My in-laws used to have a condo in West Palm Beach, right on the water (multi-generational ownership). Going down there, got to see the "nice" section of town as well as the "COPS" sections.

Happy in New England.

> I also said that I just vacationed in the south, and everyone there was so friendly and chatty. Small talk everywhere, literally everyone was social. I said I couldn’t wait to get back to CT where I could be ignored again.

People in New England are Kind, not Nice.

Nice is what you get in the South and Midwest/West. They'll be all smiles and chatty to your face, but will get the claws out the moment you turn your back.

In the Northeast, Kind is a crotchety old bastard calling you every swear word in the book (and probably making up a few new ones along the way) as they're help you change a flat tire on the side of the highway in a torrential downpour.

USA Hauling has a presence, being based in E Windsor. All American Waste has some Tolland County contracts, Ellington and others I believe.