A native Californian transplanted in southern Illinois.I had a large silver maple along my back fence dropping large limbs in my neighbor's yard. I had it removed this week, along with 4 much younger trees which were all too close to my house. I'm glad to have it done but it set me back $4500. I used my credit card to pay and will pay the balance from my Roth IRA in 3 weeks, when I am 59.5.
I am planning some other expenditures as well. New siding is next. There are a couple of spots with dry rot; we will see what removing the siding reveals.
I have discovered Chat GPT. So far I have used it to critique my retirement plans, pick a flattering hairstyle, choose colors for my siding and trim, and coach me in my exercise regimen. It is an incredibly handy app to have.
July 24th, 2026 at 02:59 pm 1784905182
I use AI frequently now and find it incredibly helpful. I use Claude Incognito so my chats are not saved by anyone. Most often I use AI to fine-tune my workout routine and talk about plants.
July 24th, 2026 at 06:29 pm 1784917779
I wonder how people who are incorporating chat/AI feel about a data center being built in their town and any concerns about the impact to local electricity cost and/or impact to the water supply.
July 24th, 2026 at 11:18 pm 1784935102
LOI: Though I’ve dabbled with ChatGPT, I ended up mostly using Gemini (Gemma) that they’ve embedded into Google’s search engine. They make it way too easy, and currently do not cost me anything either.
While the AI services can indeed make quite the positive impact, no doubt the way the major companies involved in the current AI arms race is handling things negatively affects many local communitites. In an ideal world, the federal government would step in and help regulate these companies to make sure that data centers are built in a more sustainable way, but uh clearly that is not the government we are getting here.
Personally, that is why I also like running mine locally, because my personal computer can do it efficiently enough, with very, very little electricity costs, and all without touching any services that require data centers. Plus it’s just kind of fun as a hobby? I haven’t even done it in a while though. When I do, it’s usually over help with cooking and recipe tips.
July 25th, 2026 at 06:41 pm 1785004860
I use ChatGPT as well. I type the church's newsletter and have been using it to make a photo into a black and white drawing for the front cover (we print in black and white to save money) as well as for some of the cards I make. It is limiting as to how much you can do for free, but hey, I'll take free!