Man I feel that pain HARD. I stripped one on an old Ford Focus in a Meijer parking lot at like 10 PM and had to do the same thing with a cheap tap from AutoZone. The key is to go slow and use plenty of oil so you don't mess up the threads worse. I'd also recommend getting a new drain plug and a crush washer after that fix because the old one might not seal as tight. Just keep an eye on it for the first few hundred miles and check for drips every time you fill up. Honestly a lot of those quick fixes work fine if you take your time and don't rush it.

Little bit of a correction there, checking u-joints by putting it in gear and listening is actually more of a pinion bearing or carrier bearing test, not a u-joint thing. U-joints you can feel by grabbing the driveshaft and trying to twist it, or looking for play at the cross. The old trick with the truck in gear and a curb is solid for finding bad carrier bearings or pinion noise for sure, but it won't tell you much about a u-joint that's about to let go (if that makes sense). Grabbing wheels in parking lots is a whole different ballgame too, that's checking for wheel bearing play or tie rod ends, not really driveline stuff. Still, your uncle's method is gold for diagnosing that specific thump, and its way better than laying on your back in a puddle of oil like we all used to do.

Man that 60cm dish is actually a sweet size for catching weather satellites. I started with a 90cm DirecTV dish I found in an alley and stripped the LNB off, twisted some copper wire into a dipole. Took me three weekends of adjusting the focal point before I got a clear pass of NOAA 19. One trick I learned is to use a cheap compass app on your phone to line up the azimuth by eye first, then fine tune the elevation with a protractor taped to the mount. The store bought flat panels just don't have the gain for anything above a strong local station.

Its funny how fast nature takes over the minute you look away... like the universe is just waiting for you to stop paying attention so it can reclaim everything. I've noticed that pattern in a lot of things actually, not just yards but relationships and even your own habits. You step away for a short time and everything gets wild and tangled up, and you spend twice as long trying to get it back to normal. Dandelions especially are just relentless, they don't care about your vacation plans at all. Its kind of a reminder that nothing ever stays the same when you arent looking.

Stop worrying about the back of a sign nobody sees. @wendy820 hairspray works fine if it bothers you that much.