There's a word for senior men who pass the time watching construction sites

Not even a mile. Just walk into a hardware store or auto parts store in a woman’s shoes/body. I don’t even want to imagine what those umarelli would’ve said to me if they’d passed by one of my work sites when I was doing construction.
And yes, before someone feels the need to state it, I know, “not all umarelli.”

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Congratulations on retiring!

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Frena il tuo entusiasmo, vecchio mio!

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This is what happens when, over the course of all our entire lives, women have been taught to expect a certain kind of behavior from men.
To you it is innocuous
To us,
if we have seen it once, we’ve seen it a million times.

You don’t want us to keep talking about it?
Start believing us the first time we say something.

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I’m a retired accountant, so mostly I just do drive-by ledger entries.

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Scott Adams is a lunatic, but still… one vintage Dilbert cartoon had a visiting tradesman force some “engineer pills” on Dilbert- they knock you out so the tradesman can do his job without the engineer hovering over his shoulder the entire time.

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Several years ago, we hired a carpenter to build us a pretty good sized deck at our old house. Because of a delay in materials availability, part of his work was going to coincide when my wife and I were going to be on vacation and my in-laws were going to be watching the house and dogs.
We told them very clearly - DO NOT BOTHER ANDY WHILE HE’S WORKING.
Every day that we were gone, my mother in law would tell my wife on the phone “you know, he was only here for a few hours today”. Yes, mom, he’s not being paid by the hour/day, we’re paying him for the finished job, don’t worry about it. Repeat…
Then my father in law, who fancies himself a real handyman (which is questionable at times) was asking him questions and offering advice. I had to call and apologize more than once.
Andy took it all in stride, and even said “yea, he’s like my dad. full of cockamamie ideas, but then one in 10 makes a little bit of sense.”

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And they would reply, “No but we still use VICTAULIC pipe couplings” and risk being dubbed Pedants!

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Spell check often fails on technical terms.I on the other hand, ALWAYS fail on proper spelling.

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Touche ! your candour is refreshing, 'nuff said!

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“You missed a spot over there…”

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Free hobbies that keep older people active after, possibly, a lifetime of work are important for their health and bring them into social contact with others. What’s the harm?

Or playing the bias.

As noted in the See also part of the Wikipedia article.

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The real story is because their wives are busy making lasagne bolognese and don want them in the kitchen saying wrong advice on how to make egg pasta.

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People from United Steps of America that are thinking the all the world is the same as USA. Imagine that!

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I thought it was more 2018, tbh. Because, you know, 2020 has the actual apocalypse

Odds bodkins! and I thought it had devolved into the Benighted States of America!

I’m really not sure how my comment could being interpreted as being critical of that particular “free activity”. My comment was solely focused on the terms used to describe it. :no_mouth:

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You are quite right, my reply to you was that it was noted in the Wiki article, I apologise for the confusing way I put it.

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S’okay. Forum apologies are refreshing! :slightly_smiling_face:

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In the time I have been working construction, I have seen this happen a few times, and it was always a 60ish white guy.

I never saw them offer advice, but some of them do get pretty close to the fence, which is a little weird when you are also working in that area.

Feels a little like being part of a museum exhibit: “And over this way, you can see how the primitive primates put pipes into the ground to carry away the shit of generations. Now, lets move along to the big machines that kinda look like metal dinosaurs…”

With the marvels of modern technology, one can now watch construction sites from the comfort of the closest screen:

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