I did IT for decades. I absolutely refuse to own a printer. I would rather drive to the library or UPS store on the rare occasion I need to print something than to have one of these gremlin habitats in my house.

Oh, that’s nice. Well done.

It being 3D printed is the least relevant part of this. But it has to be in the headline to get clicks. But it apparently also has to be the lead? "Molecule based “suicide pod’…”, “Carbon neutral ‘suicide pod’…”, “Self actualized ‘suicide pod’…”, “Corporate sponsored ‘suicide pod’…”

There aren’t many things you could put in front of the real story here that change the story without creating an even bigger story. And 3D printed is definitely not one of them.

Do you know what the delivery fees are on a ton of gravel or topsoil? It costs more than the topsoil or gravel and the quantity is so small that some companies will refuse to deliver it. I literally live a kilometer from a place that sells topsoil, gravel, mulch etc. They refuse to deliver such a small quantity to me. Even though it’s seven driveways away.

…:

“No, but wouldn’t call delivering gravel high skill labor that couldn’t do.”

I do work that others can’t because they lack the time, tools or experience to do themselves. Gravel isn’t high skill. Prepping an area for gravel takes a little more skill. But being able to shovel a ton of it in 100°f temperatures is beyond the ability of most people.

I’m glad you know enough people to make uninformed opinions about my professional needs. Are you going to recommend, like another poster here, that I buy a second dedicated vehicle that costs more than I make in a year for the occasions where I need to transport stuff that you can’t load in a van? AC? You think I could afford to run the AC?

By the way is my 2005 Ranger with 200k+ miles that is worth less than $4k a pavement princess? Am I an idiot for owning one general purpose vehicle that covers all my personal and professional needs?

As a jack of all trades, I can’t afford a dedicated piece of machinery like that. 60,000 on the low end for a dump truck plus the insurance and a place to park it. That’s not a reasonable expense. I need general purpose, vehicles and tools.

I don’t like any of the new trucks. A 20-year-old small truck like a ranger or S series is a better choice.

I need someone to sell a 1-ton capacity truck with an 8-ft bed where the top of the bed is no more than 3 and 1/2 ft tall. The truck needs to exist but the understanding that it will be abused and so a lot of fancy features that will break won’t be included. Stereo and HVAC should basically be the only internal features. They keep cramming more and more features into trucks to sell them for more and more money instead of building trucks that are built for actual work.

The bed height is too tall to be comfortable. One of the other things happening on larger trucks is the bed length keeps getting shorter. A standard 8-ft. Long boards stick too far out the back end and we’ve reduced overall carrying capacity over previous generation small trucks. And by sticks too far out I mean way outside the bed. Drywall will break under those conditions. Do an image search for “Ford Maverick plywood” And you will see the potential danger here.

Edit, pretty much had to retype the whole thing because voice to text had badly messed it up and I didn’t realize that at the time of posting

But what would I care if gravel gets wet?

I know you tried with the whole empathy thing but since the subject here is my needs for a truck saying I lack empathy for myself kinda falls flat.

Really, you are coming off as a sociopath that thinks they know better than everyone what is good for them. I know my needs better than you. For some trades a van is perfect. But for my jack of all trades a truck is a better choice. A small truck. Literally the kind of small truck that doesn’t get made in America anymore. Modern trucks are too big to actually be useful.

But it’s got a roof which makes placing 20 foot ladders or a ton of gravel in it very awkward. The fixed volume natural of it isn’t compatible with the kind of work I do. But maybe you, a person that doesn’t do my job, knows more about my situation than I do.

Or they just get some storage bins. I find them to be highly effective. Allows me to load just the tools I need for a job so unloading and loading is very fast.

Well then I guess I need a new vehicle because I’m a handyman and I use a truck. Dealing with a van full of stuff and trying to slide drywall in is kind of difficult. However, I can easily snap them on top of the bed of my truck and get moving. And it cost me a whole lot less to maintain this truck than it would to maintain a van. You ever tried carrying a ton of gravel in a van? I wouldn’t. Takes much longer to load and unload that way.

And that doesn’t invalidate my statement.

Trucks are for every tradesperson that does the things you lack the time, training or tools to do when something breaks at your residence. Trucks help you move.

People that don’t want their location triangulated from cell phone towers.

One got transferred to a hospital last winter and eventually got into some kind of housing situation.

One tends to hang out at the Walmart.

Others are frequently in and out of one of the two hotels in town. We had three but they tore one down.

Each person that has ever dated me has understood that I will never react appropriately in a social situation. Not because I act out of spite but because I have zero clue as to what I’m doing.

I used to be a pretty famous ASCII artist. Actually made money from it. I made enough money to cover all of my art school education and every art supply I’d ever bought. Which means I’m a successful artist.

My ex had my old phone number. I got a message from her to check her voicemail. And then I got a message that she hated me. The voicemail was offering me a job as an ASCII artist. She hated me because I always seem to make money off of the absolute dumbest hobbies. I respected her for saying that.

I was on digging trenches in the yard for sprinklers when my then girlfriend came out onto the porch. She was kind of staring off into space. “What’s up?” " I just got a phone call. My mom died." “Congratulations.” “Thank you.”

She was a new girlfriend and I did not know anything about the history between her and her mom. But apparently my response was exactly the right one. Mom had slipped and died in her bathroom.