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Montana born and raised. CO now. RIP SPC Harley Andrews, CPT Matt Saltz, and CPT Doug DiCenzo. Forever young, never forgotten.

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Remember the fallen. Never forget. CPT Matt Saltz, CPT Doug DiCenzo, and SPC Harley Andrews.

CPT Matt Saltz, who tripped and fell on a twig during ROTC cadet training that penetrated the upper portion of his mouth, nearly penetrated his brain, and bled profusely. He refused treatment and continued the mission. After that I thought you were invincible, and knew you were just the kind of officer the Army needed. But only the good die young. KIA with two others in a HMMWV in Baghdad, IZ on 22 Dec 2003. The world is less without you. I love you man. https://t.co/or0hfHWVwW

CPT Doug DiCenzo, who helped me get my guys qualified on a live fire range in Germany and sparked an instant kinship. You were a West Pointer and a tanker, but I never held those against you. Rock solid like the granite of your home state of New Hampshire. KIA in a HMMWV in Baghdad, IZ on 25 May 2006. Left behind a wife and son. Gone too soon. RIP Brother. https://t.co/cAuqtDZ94L

SPC Harley Dean Andrews. Left behind a Son and lovely bride (you definitely married up my man). KIA serving his country driving an RG-31 on a route clearance mission turning into a dirty alley of Ramadi, IZ in the early morning hours of Sept. 11, 2006. I was your company commander and I failed you, your Son, and your Bride. I’ll never forget you man. RIP Brother. https://t.co/cPEnuoKnPZ

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@DWildcard303007 Baked potatoes anyone?

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@wontbeurdrug Tucks his shirt into his underwear. Red flag?

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@lifeoflivvvv Mating dance, drift style.

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I don’t find that tattoos enhance anything. Piercings - same. My favorite beers stay true to traditional styles. I gave TX a real chance to show me something to like (it couldn’t). I said what I said. Rant over.

[Ethan Brooks @alt_w_v_g]

My wife texted me to meet her at the Mattress Firm by the highway.

Arrived on time (5 min early) and she wasn't there yet. Typical.

She called me 5 min later and asked why I was late.

Apparently, she was at the other Mattress Firm across the intersection less than a quarter mile away. Same brand, same sign, same red logo.

Why there are two Mattress Firms within a quarter mile of each other is apparently a common sense question we are not supposed to ask out loud.

Drove across the intersection in less than 2 min. We were buying our daughter her first real mattress.

Walked in at 6pm on a Friday. Zero customers. One employee. His title, per my receipt, is Sleep Expert.

The Sleep Expert was excited when we walked in and said we were his first customer all day.

My daughter looked at me. Looked at my wife. My wife looked at the ceiling.

The mattress we bought had:
> An original price of $1,399.99
> A clearance price of $549.99

My receipt listed:
> Clearance savings of $850

Net result:
> Saved $300 more than I spent

Wrote that down.

My wife took our daughter to the car while we were checking out because she could see the look in my eye.

Texted my analyst two words: Mattress Firm

Immediate "Sir. On it." response.

Eleven minutes later he sent a model. Fully formatted. No gridlines. Taught him well.

Sensitivity table on mattresses sold per store per day across average ticket price. The answer is four to six.

The numbers, per the latest public filings:
> 2,200 stores in America. More locations than Whole Foods and Costco combined
> $886 million in revenue last quarter. $3.5 billion annualized
> $1.6 million per store, per year
> $4,400 per store, per day

Call it four mattresses per day.

Takeaways:
> A full showroom
> Staffed by one employee ten hours a day
> Lit, heated, climate controlled
> To complete four transactions
> In a category people purchase once every 8 to 10 years
> Gross margin: 31%
> Operating margin: 3.8%

For years the internet insisted Mattress Firm was a money laundering operation. The boring truth is more impressive:
> 2016: A South African conglomerate called Steinhoff pays $3.8 billion for it, a 115 percent premium
> 2017: Steinhoff is revealed as one of the largest accounting frauds in history
> 2018: Mattress Firm files Chapter 11 and closes 700 stores
> 2025: The company that makes Tempur-Pedic pays $5 billion for it, fights the FTC in federal court for the privilege, wins, and renames itself Somnigroup

The conspiracy theory was that the stores launder money.

The filings suggest the parent company was the wash cycle.

Delivery window is 9am to 9pm. A 12 hour window. For a mattress.

The store itself is open 10am to 8pm. The delivery window outlasts the store.

Got in the car and walked my daughter through the unit economics. The two stores, the four transactions a day, the savings that exceeded the price.

She listened to all of it.

"Daddy, it doesn't make any sense. Who pays for the lights?"

Smiled and looked at my wife. She looked at the ceiling.

Three years at the firm and the analyst has never once asked who pays for the lights.

My daughter is picking up on things quicker than expected.

Plz fix. Thx.

Sent from my iPhone

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@lifeoflivvvv Anything by John Denver. OD’d in Denver by Hank Williams Jr., Telluride by Tim McGraw, anything by Nathaniel Raiteliff, or The Fray.

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I’ve been using the same two bottles of shampoo for the last year, alternating. Am pretty sure they’re leftover from before the divorce… in 2021. I shower/shampoo daily and have a full head of hair but keep it short. Am reallllly looking forward to running out of shampoo.

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@merve77_ 254

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Disturbing.

[Olena Tregub @OTregub]

Apocalyptic bird nest.

A Russian glide bomb knocks down a tree in Donbas. From the shattered branches rolls out a tiny bird’s nest.

Made of drone fiber-optic cable.

Source: Oleg Malchenko

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@didem5654 110

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@lifeoflivvvv They must be a connection! Wonder what that might be.

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@greninger_r Which river?

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@jjkaplowitz You just got one more.

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For the last 2 years my 11yo son and I have been taking 30 min walks here every other week during the school year while we wait for his sister to get out of school. Today was the last of those and it marks a bittersweet transition. We talked about life, lessons, played frisbee golf, lost (and found) a boomerang, listened to meadowlarks, watched the clouds, froze, overheated, got muddy shoes, did pushups, and generally had a great time. As much as I’m going to miss these walks with him I’m worried that he will miss them more than me as he grows older. It can be lonely for men growing up. Summer will fly by, then he’s going to this school in the fall and I’ll pick him up at the same time as his sister. No more daily walks with my son. Change. Growth. Deeeep breath.

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@HailstoneChip That’s awesome!!

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If you’re wondering what quality is… this is it.

[🚫👁️Drinks on Saturday🇺🇸 @drinkonsaturday]

A quiet, solidly mounted anvil does make a meaningful difference in the quality of blacksmithing work. When an anvil rattles due to poor bolting, base imperfections, or instability, it absorbs and dissipates much of the hammer’s energy through vibration and movement rather than transferring it efficiently into the hot metal. This leads to less effective deformation with each blow, requiring more strikes before the workpiece cools, which can result in incomplete shaping, uneven grain flow, surface defects, or even cracks from rushed or insufficient hammering.

Precision also suffers because vibrations make it harder to land accurate, controlled blows, especially during detailed operations like drawing tapers, punching, or fullering. The smith tires more quickly, leading to greater inconsistency across pieces or production runs, while the excessive bounce accelerates wear on both the anvil face and tools.

In contrast, a quiet anvil—firmly bolted to a heavy stand, timber base, or concrete with a flat contact surface—returns nearly all impact energy to the metal. Forging feels crisp and “dead,” allowing cleaner, faster, and more predictable shaping with better metallurgical results, such as improved grain refinement and fewer internal flaws. Modern smiths often add rubber pads or reinforced mounts specifically to achieve this stability, making it one of the highest-return upgrades for consistent, high-quality manufacture.

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@SapperNacho Gotta have that nutrigrain bar for your health.

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@Pavement_news @MurrayHillGuy1 This is the way

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@Diana_Ridley Soooo much Arrrrrrrrrmy

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That sounds like a carbon monoxide detector in a location you haven’t yet searched. 4 chirps/second then a pause is the CO alarm pattern. It’s intermittent because of air movement around the house. UPS is a red herring and unrelated. Think like the previous owner and look where they’d likely place a CO detector (5ft above the floor, near sleeping areas, near the furnace, near the garage, on the ceiling).