I agree. But the lack of lane reflectors (I’ve learned the British call them cat eyes) and the terrible state of the painted lines makes the brightness problem even worse. Rain plus bright lights everywhere makes the road a free for all in lots of places.

Only 1? I feel like I'm losing my ability to see at night. Granted, I'm probably driving for a longer time than you on account of doing uber/lyft. Still, yeah, the bright headlights are a real problem, especially on a night like this when I can't see the damn lane lines because of the rain and the lights and the fact that Philly/PennDOT does a horrible job of repainting lane lines.

> just take the El in Port Richmond

?

I saw several cars double parked and off/empty (so presumably parked overnight) along Aramingo at 5:30am this morning. Parts of the street were basically one lane. Not usually up and out at that time so it was surprising.

No transfer with cash is ridiculous. This sub reflexively downvotes complaints about SEPTA. Sometimes it's valid, but something this basic is dumb.

Perhaps you did not read my post? "As luck would have it, I couldn't find mine." Mine here refers to my key card.

Other cities allow transfers from bus to train or vice versa with cash. This isn't a crazy thing to expect. It shouldn't cost $10 for two people to go from Port Richmond to 5th and Market on SEPTA.

I've been given wrong information by drivers before.

Reasons why I don't put up outside decorations. at this point in my life. I did my first Christmas here and had them stolen or destroyed. Not fun after a COVID layoff the month before.

I was able to do this in New Orleans several years ago...

A beta app doesn't help my visiting family today. When it functions well, I'll use it.

Alas, yet another reason to avoid SEPTA unless I'm absolutely sure it's the best option and preferably not transferring. I've been dependent on public transit in a few places, so it frustrates me to not use it here. But seriously, I don't have the patience to jump through hoops given the inefficiencies.

"Titanic arrival in Ghostbusters 2" vibes

This is a good mile from Stocks, so not sure. Have not gotten over there this season, but possibly next week when family is in town. My wife is gluten free, so I don’t go often unfortunately.

Definitely the plan going forward! Just want to cover the initial puppy expenses upfront and save the insurance for long term and emergency stuff. All the initial puppy stuff is generic enough. If an emergency happens, I have some credit space to handle that if need be.

My father in law and his wife (mother in law is passed away) are in their 70s and having an absolutely joyous time taking care of them.

Also, they are mostly (75%?) weaned now and mama is soooooo happy.

Thanks for this balanced comment, by the way. I signed up for it the wellness plan. We are going to sign up for pet insurance going forward, but we just want a budgeted plan that takes care of the first puppy year. We're stable, but our specific circumstances (employer, neighborhood) could change in the next 6-12 months and we just want something that is consistent and available and takes care of all the first year things.

This option just looks like a good short term thing to make sure we're covered and consistent. I just wanted to dig for some more reviews of the South Philly and Cherry Hill locations. I am happy to budget and pay for most expenses up front and keep the insurance and/or credit options for emergencies.

This is Moose Moose, aka "Moosie" and this is the rest of the litter.

If you happen to know anyone that is interested in a pit shepherd mutt pup, we are looking to help out my father in law. He's a dog rescuer (8 dogs of various sizes and issues) who is very happy to have this joy but can't add 7 more. Mama has no major issues, she was just left on the side of the road by someone as far as we can tell, probably because they found out she was pregnant :-\

I don't mean to dismiss the issue of suicide. However, if it's a larger issue in the industry, it doesn't really tell me about the experience of going to these particular practices and suggests that it's not Banfield (or Mars, Inc) in particular that is the problem. As a former psych stats researcher (well, undergrad/grad assisting my advisor once upon a time), I suspect there's a third cause (or multiple third causes) related to this unfortunate high correlation.

(Side note: give me a moment, I'm working on the puppy pics)

------
Edit:

This Time article does a bit of clarifying:

Dr. Will McCauley had just finished his shift at a small Dallas animal clinic when he went home, fed his pet pot-bellied pig and then held a loaded handgun to his head.
The 33-year-old veterinarian was wracked with student debt and worn down by the daily demands at work, which included euthanizing dogs and cats and being vilified by pet owners for not meeting their expectations. “I was tired in this miserable state of mind,” he says. “It just drained me so much.” For reasons he attributes to either fear or hope, McCauley didn’t kill himself that summer day in 2016, and he quit his job later that week and stopped practicing.
“I knew I had to make a change,” McCauley says. “I was dead on the inside.”

I work in a field (libraries) that isn't as stressful, but still deals with the general public that treats my co-workers and I like shit very often and we often enough get thrown under the bus by management, who've typically risen to their position by proving how much of a dedicated people-pleaser they are.

I'm not trying to claim it's on par, but my experience with demanding and entitled people makes it easy to imagine how some (too many) pet owners can be. I've had animals put down before. I've done nothing but thank the vets/technicians for their help. I don't know what makes some people so evil in these situations.

Thanks. I appreciate getting an opinion based on direct experience...which is what I was looking for :-)

I probably won't stick with it forever, but I'm basically equidistant to the South Philly location and the Cherry Hill location, so just curious if I could find info that could sway me. The South Philly location has the upper hand by default, just hoping for no horror stories.

I didn't ask for anti-superstore opinions, I'm asking about direct experience with the vets and services in the locations I listed.

I went to The Pet Mechanic's site to see if I could find info on pricing, but could not. However, I did discover that their wellness plan is administered by "Veterinary Care Plans (VCP)".

VCP, a Covetrus solution, is the veterinary industry leader delivering cloud-based care plan program solutions. Partnering with both single and multi-location practices, VCP manages more than 450,000...

Covetrus, Inc. is an American company providing animal health products and related services.[6] Until 2019, it was the animal health business of VetsFirstChoice, and Henry Schein, before being divested.[7][6] In 2021, the company ranked 593 on the Fortune 1000 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[1]

I'm sure you've had good experiences with The Pet Mechanic, but it's still a business.

Edit: gotta love the downvotes when the truth pops the righteousness bubble.

I asked for personal experience with the vets and services here, not an opinion about corporations. I read through a bit of that article, and honestly, it's a bit of garbage journalism. Plenty of people have issues with their HR. Plenty of people work tough jobs of various kinds. Most do not commit suicide or even consider it. Framing it through a single person's suicide or the rates of vet suicide is just a weird angle that says more about the writer's intent and skewed hypothesis than the larger reality. Adding your own judgment of people choosing services based on price rather than this writer's opinion is ludicrous.

I have CareCredit, but I'd rather just use it for emergencies at this point. I signed up for it earlier this year--for dental work--and was given a meh limit, put $400 on it, started paying it back, and then without warning the limit was dropped to $400. I called to find out why and the customer service representative was not helpful at all. About the only thing I can think of is that we took out a car loan in August which likely dinged our credit, but that just makes me wary of CareCredit as a solution if it's that volatile.

I paid it off soon after and that hasn't increased our limit in the last few months, so I'd rather just treat it as a backup for emergencies, not as a go to for regular shots and such.

Yeah, I'm leaning towards this solution, getting the whole pillow. We just like to limit the amount of stuff in the house (950sf row house). But I did buy vacuum storage bags once upon a time, so that helps.