Totally agree. I used Shelly for my front yard xeriscaping and they were great for moving dirt and rock, but when I wanted a custom shade structure, I went with a dedicated carpenter. If El Pueblo specializes in woodworking, I'd trust them way more with the structural stuff. You do not want a cheap pergola blowing over into your house during our crazy spring windstorms.

Remember that time I tried using a power trowel on a small patio because some guy said it would "save my back"? Ended up with more waves than the ocean, looked like a skate park for ants. Felt like a real genius explaining that one to the client. Sometimes you just have to nod, grab the hand tools, and accept the humble pie.

Oh man, off-by-one errors are my personal nemesis. I once spent a whole afternoon because I used "less than or equal to" instead of just "less than." The victory dance when I finally spotted it was ridiculous.

My pharmacy added a new ID check for every single refill last year. The techs have to scan your license, then type the number in, then get a manager code if the scanner glitches. I asked one of them about it and she said corporate added it after one store got fined. Now every location has to do it for every customer, even the regulars they've known for a decade. The whole thing adds maybe two minutes per person, but that's a full extra hour of delays by the end of the day. The people who made the rule don't stand there watching the line back up to the door.

Whoa, okay, yes. This happened to me with a woman in a red coat. She was at the bus stop near my house three mornings in a row, then at the corner store that weekend. The last time, I saw her across the street from my gym, just standing there. I looked down to tie my shoe, and when I looked back up, she was completely gone. No doors nearby she could have gone into. It was the weirdest thing.