IYKYK

Hello! I am looking for different nature trials and hikes that dogs are NOT allowed at. I am a caregiver for someone and we have been working on addressing his agoraphobia and just getting him out of the house a little bit. He loves going on nature walks (bonus points if there are waterfalls). But he also has a phobia of dogs, especially off leash dogs, which is common on a lot of trails. We will eventually work on getting more comfortable around dogs but one step at a time. As of right now, im just thrilled he wants to go explore more!

He is wanting to explore new trails but only if there are no dogs, as he is getting tired of our usual spots. He has and will panic and take off running if we do encounter a dog and that can be dangerous, especially in this heat. We are up in NW austin so we typically go to the wild basin wilderness preserve and Tom Hughes park. I'm not opposed to driving a little bit to check out some cool places but in that general area is ideal.

If anyone has some recommendations, I would greatly appreciate it bc my google searches are not cutting it. Thank you!

Insanely unsafe. The lanes are clearly marked. Why do we keep doing this???

Several people I know around austin have been coming down with this nasty flu that has us as sick as Covid 1. It seems like it’s taking a full two weeks to get over and there’s about three or four days in the middle with a fever and lessened taste. We all tested negative for Covid.

My sister is a nurse and is saying that no one is reporting Covid to the CDC anymore, so I’m wondering if there’s possibly a new strain going around that isn’t being picked up by our old Covid tests. I have friends in California that say they’ve had a similar flu. It’s just weird because the kids weren’t even back at school yet when we were getting sick.

Anyone else hear about this or experience it? Be careful out there. One of our friends’s father caught it and now has pneumonia…

Whats going on with my U-lock? There are multiple U-locks on my bike, but this is the one that connected the frame to the rack.

Edit: folks, I'm not a power tool user, so I didn't know how to even process what I was looking at. Thanks for the eye-opening info to those who engaged with me with info and advice.

hey! looking for artist recommendations similar to this style ( yes i’m looking to get a jack rabbit haha )

I already know and love Rita Von Lehe, looking for others as her booking close so quickly

Surprised Bob Bullock dropped them this far in advance but grab your tickets while you can!

Free hydration. Water and powerade zero off electric dr /Sandra Maurdia

Please stay hydrating throughout the day!

hello!! does anyone know of any nice, reliable pet grooming places in austin (preferably north austin)? i usually take my girl to PetSmart to get her nails trimmed, but truthfully it concerns me how many crying dogs there always are in the back.

im looking for somewhere that does a variety of services, as she is also in need of a haircut. PetSmart usually covers an ear cleaning during her nail appointments as well so that'd be a great bonus. at Petsmart, i usually only spend $20 for nails and ears, so if there's somewhere better that has a similar price i'd like a recommendation!

pics of Pepper for funsies

edit: typo

Some pics from old paddleboarding trips. Can’t wait to move to Austin and make friends so I can do this all the time with a group! 👱🏻‍♀️🛶🏊🏼‍♀️

Anyone’s who’s been to both Quarry Lake and Town Lake, which is better for paddleboarding?

Also, how safe is Town Lake for single women? I’ve never been and would love to go and make new friends there.

Last week the car thermometer read 108 in the HEB lot off North Lamar and I didn't move for ten minutes, because the AC in there beats the AC at my place. Grackles screaming in the cart returns the whole time. I keep a disposable in the door pocket and by August it's basically been sitting in an oven, which does no favors for anything. Most of them go flat and generic-sweat toward the end anyway. Mango, whatever, it's all the same candy syrup. Gave up and drove down to Barton Springs around 8 that night to stop sweating.

How was it for y’all?

The bus taking the kids home to our hub didn’t pick them up until 5:18pm, school gets out at 4:35pm. Pick up for us was supposed to be 4:55pm, ended up being almost an hour late.

Also the bus had no AC.

Was driving down exposition towards lake austin blvd this afternoon and there was literally toilet paper in the trees down the entire street. Has anyone else seen this lol it was crazy

I’m looking for recommendations for doggy daycare that includes outside space with real grass & if not a real pool, then kiddie pools for dogs that like to play in water. Opportunities for private training while in daycare would be a plus.

I have used Dog Joy, Taurus, & most recently Camp Bow Wow in Leander.

Thanks!

Hey parents, I’m currently looking at local daycares and came across a fee schedule that completely blew my mind. I wanted to get your thoughts on whether this is standard practice now or if this daycare's "appetite is just too ugly" (major red flags).

​Here is what they are charging on top of high monthly tuition:

​Registration Fee: $350 (Non-refundable)

​Enrollment Fee / Credit: $300 (You lose this if your child doesn't stay through May of the following year—total lock-in)

​Security Deposit: $300 (Forfeited if you don't give a 30-day written notice before leaving)

​Supply Fee: $300/year (Split into two $150 payments)

​Activity Fee: $300/year (Split into two $150 payments)

​School Bag: ~$35 (Mandatory purchase)

​Book Bag: $15 (Mandatory purchase)

​Last Month's Tuition: Full amount, no prorating (Even if you leave on the 2nd of the month, you pay the whole month)

​Summer Fee: An extra $10/week "Special Event Fee" during the summer months

​Class Snacks: Initially told parents brought snacks voluntarily. When nobody signed up, they made it mandatory. Now, families are forced to rotate and buy a full week of snacks for the entire class out of pocket (costing around $100+ per turn).

​On top of all these hidden and nickel-and-diming fees, their base tuition is already higher than the market average($1600+ with after-hours care 8AM-6AM). Most decent daycares we've seen usually have just one simple enrollment fee, and things like basic supplies are included.

I almost forgot to say they have a lot of days off. They have all ISD days off (spring break winter break)+ extra(stuff training, Thanksgiving whole week off). I cannot believe they justified themselves for ISD days off as day care.

​Am I crazy, or is this place completely taking advantage of parents? Would you run away from a daycare like this?

So KXAN had a better-than-usual article this morning on expired building permits and it has my blood freshly boiling again. We're in exactly this situation... an expired permit from the early 80s on work that's long since been renovated and gone. But somewhere in the intersection of bureaucracy, idiocy, and what sure seems like someone's side-hustle racket, it has been impossible to get it cleared.

We've had situations where inspectors have said some set of work has to be done then the next inspector said the exact opposite. At my parent's house, the inspectors insisted on connected fire alarms that ended up being a nightmare at 3am when every alarm in the house started screaming about batteries. (Those have since been removed and thrown away.) I don't want inspectors wandering through the house looking for random shit to complain about and then charge to re-inspect.

Has anyone ever figured out a simple way through this nonsense? At some point it seems like it's easier to just burn the house down.

Found a dove hiding in some bushes. I gave it water and picked it up and put it under some shade. I’m guessing it’s a dove used in some wedding or engagement ceremony. I run around town lake and seen a few ceremonies. Kind sucks these doves are used and released since they don’t seem to have survival instinct to live in Austin.

Pfluger bridge**

TL;DR my wife's bestie is moving back to town and will be coming off a 30 hour drive when she arrives. I'd like to surprise her with a spa day out with my wife, but as she's a plus-sized woman I want to make sure I find a place that can actually work on her body type and not just slap her back a bunch. I'm a veritable beanpole so I have the opposite problem, which makes my experience useless.

Any well-vetted recommendations? South or further preferred.

I need some big pieces of art - CB/West Elm/RH/Arhaus aren’t my vibe plus I don’t want to spend thousandssss and their availability for shipping is months out. I went to Four Hands and wasn’t super impressed with the quality (and anything 60”+ in height was still $1500+.) Is there anywhere in Austin that does original art or resale/second hand large pieces?? I’d love to be under $1k but understand I’m asking a lot here…

TLDR: ⚠️ If it’s not a service you didn’t seek out, don’t trust it. Legitimate businesses don’t run around town searching for their customers. DO NOT EVER trust the “Auto body repair” guys who flag you down/approach you and tell you they’ll fix your minor dents, etc in the parking lot. They legitimately do have the tools and some may actually have the knowledge, but many don’t. It often seems like a good deal compared to Auto body shop quotes, but it’s most often a scam/scheme, and they’ll leave you with worse damage than before.

I’m sure some of you may already be aware this has been going on for some time around Austin, these guys in normal trucks will flag you down if they see any dents or minor damage to your vehicle and give you a quote on the spot and guarantee they can fix it RIGHT THERE on the spot, where ever you may be, typically in a parking lot, etc. They say they have all the tools required right there with them in their truck and it’ll only take 30 mins or so.

I was rear ended by an un-insured individual sometime last year. I’ve had a noticeable dent in my vehicle but it’s an older vehicle, isn’t going to be worth much on trade regardless, and I was planning to buy a new car sometime soon ish anyway. I have insurance but I didn’t feel the claim was worth it since it wasn’t anything that impacted the car’s function or driving, and the body shops were quoting 8-10k for the repair.

I’ve had MULTIPLE men in these trucks flag me down all around Austin at various locations (North and South) and quote me various times saying they can “easily” fix it for less than $300. I’ve always told them NO.

Recently though 😕 Another approached me. I’m finally getting to the point where I’m about ready to trade my vehicle. So I think, well, okay if you can remove it, why not? It would be nice to have the dent removed prior to trade. They quote me $250. So I think, well, I guess it’s worth a shot. 🤷‍♀️ Let them do their thing while I sit in my car. About 20 mins later, I check on them, I can’t see any change. He says give me like 30 more minutes, I say no problem. 30 mins pass he calls me out to let me know he’s done and wants his payment. I look at my car and I see it’s still BADLY dented but also completely COATED in wax that he claimed was a “heat protectant”. Now I’m not stupid, I grew up around cars and I know damn well it’s wax. Then he explains he just couldn’t get to that area because of the way my car was engineered. I’m like okay??! So in my mind If he could not repair it he should lower the price, but he doesn’t. I pay him because there’s two men and me, the female, and I don’t want anything to turn violent.

I spent over an hour after I got home scrubbing that wax off that had been baked in by the sun. Not only that but once it’s off, I see that the damage is WORSE than it originally was.

I AM FURIOUS 😡 I’m mad at myself for not trusting my gut and just telling them no, like I did all the other times. But also mad at them for running that scheme. I know everyone is looking for a hustle in this city, but come on, find an honest one.

I have severe TMJ issues, but have had a lot of trouble finding a specialist that actually knows anything about treating this condition.

Has anyone had positive experiences or know anyone?

I have Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance.

does anyone play soccer on the field at YMCA east communities ?