That lady in Cherry Hill sounds like she knew exactly what she was talking about. I had almost the same thing happen with a customer in Maplewood who begged me not to back-roll her living room. I thought she was crazy too, but I gave it a shot with just the power stretcher and a good kicker. Man, the seams were almost invisible and the whole room looked flatter than anything I'd done before. Now I only back-roll if the carpet is super cheap or the padding is really thin and soft. Your mileage may vary, but for most medium to high-end carpets, skipping the back-roll makes a real difference.

Guess I'm kind of the opposite though @jason752. I'll spend three days reading reviews on a $40 toaster but then impulse buy a $300 jacket without blinking. Maybe it's just me but the little things feel lower stakes so I overthink them more somehow. Like a $5 coffee is whatever but I keep second guessing a $30 water bottle for months.

Two weeks rebuilding a bash script? Sounds like a vacation compared to my "perfect" code phase lol.

$42 in one month? That thing basically paid for itself before you even finished your coffee. I swapped out a 20 year old water heater for a tankless model and my gas bill dropped like it was on a diet. I felt like a genius until I realized I just spent $1,200 to save $15 a month. So congrats on actually being smart with your money, I guess.

Oh come on, I have to push back on this. I've been going to that same spot for years and I actually find the light dome worse from the north and east, not the south and west. Williamsport is bad but there's a lot of small towns and scattered development to the north too that throws off a surprising amount of glow. And honestly, winter trips are terrible for light pollution because the bare trees don't block anything, the sky is clearer and drier so the light carries further. I'd take a summer night with heavy humidity any day over a crisp winter evening. The leaves might be off but the haze in summer actually scatters and softens the worst of it more than people realize.