I don’t mind really, just wish it was used for more things that helped society. And it needs to be a little more progressive, though it is the most progressive of the taxes we have here.

My ex MIL, who literally used WIC and welfare when she was a single mom, and leveraged that into a nursing degree, rails against welfare now and doesn’t want her taxes going to that, doesn’t want to pay. Not even in a pull the ladder up after herself way, she just refuses to admit she benefited from it.

No, political wife is not what I signed up for. Unless I was too afraid to leave, in which case I would try to secretly work against him. Which is also terrifying but at least useful.

I don’t get this. Not even high school girls find high school boys attractive. How could a grown woman? And what’s with the language, the word is raped or sexually abused/assaulted, 16 year old here is assumed unable to consent to sex with any adult.

I am actually living less than a mile from where I was born, like some middle ages peasant who never traveled, but have traveled. I’d like to have been born here, but in the timeline where Al Gore waited for the ballots to be counted and won.

I like to have a drink but hard NO to doing it before anything important. I strongly prefer to feel clear headed for those moments.

I’ve not been to many, but have had people repeatedly tell me our wedding was the best they’d ever been to, so I guess ours was the best by some measure. I have an enormous family, husband and I got together as adults so both had kids too, some grown, we ended up with 50 people only inviting immediate family (brothers, sisters, their partners and kids, our parents, our kids) the weather cooperated, we had open bar and only one person got too drunk, DJ not great but not bad, so much dancing, it was nothing super fancy nor bare bones, I would say nice enough so everyone could feel comfortable and not more.

If anyone is wondering, the things I think made it good - open bar, kids running around, good music, enough structure but not too much (a cocktail hour then ceremony then reception with music & a first dance, then food, then more partying, food left out for people to get more if they want, no assigned seating, tables pushed to edges so big dance floor and again I think open bar is a non negotiable, make sure there are plenty of non alcoholic options at the bar too)

It does feel like going out in underwear, to a place where everyone is in underwear, and the people wearing full clothing look out of place. I don’t even have a perfect body but grew up near the beach, saw every possible body type in swimwear. So I am comfortable enough looking near naked in public, since everyone is. It’s nice.

My kids call me Mom, step kids call me by my first name.

Oh and sometimes mama, in Spanish.

I guess I’d die. It’s never either of those where I live. And crops would fail either way.

In terms of personal comfort:

If the only triple digit temp was only ever exactly 100, then I guess triple digits.

If it can be Celsius, 9 is so cold but not kill you cold, I would be sad but not dead.

You know what’s funny? I have experienced the inverse of this. I run pretty cool so always take warm or hot showers, but one time there was a cold snap and my water heater broke. We had well water so it was very cold, and down here we do not really have heaters designed to handle actual cold so the house was freezing too. So I had what was probably the most uncomfortable shower of my entire life, shivering and teeth chattering so fucking cold, thought I would die, but when I got out? The air felt almost warm, it was so pleasant not just because it was over, but because it somehow blunted the feeling of cold. I don’t understand how chilling my core somehow warmed me (it usually works the other way) but it sure did.

At night here I do shower hot, I think the theory is that then when you lay down, your body temperature is dropping and that makes it easier to fall asleep.

You know, when I got my current job, the people in my department said"we tried to find your Facebook but couldn’t" and I said 'yeah that’s because I don’t have one."

13 years later, still don’t.

Though honestly even our work teams chat would probably be too spicy for these motherfuckers. They just want a pretext to keep out anybody. Like some law impossible to follow, that they can selectively enforce.

Of songs that other people like?

I hate Dust in the Wind, and House of the Rising Sun, and I never need to hear Stairway to Heaven again, I have used up my quota.

If I had them, I’d process the strawberries by generously cutting the tops off (don’t throw them away!) then putting them on a parchment lined sheet pan to freeze, then once frozen, into freezer safe bags. With the tops, make kvass. Put them in a pitcher with a lot of sugar and some spices, fill the pitcher with boiled and cooled water. Cover loosely with a towel and stir twice a day until fizzy. I have some in my fridge right now and it’s delicious!

OP, do you have an air conditioned library or a cold springs near you? When I was living without AC I found that getting really cold at some point in the day chilled me off for quite a few hours, made the rest of the day feel better. I had a friend who would get in a cool shower then not dry off just lay in the wind from a fan.

Huh? I sit outside, with a fan on, in up to 35/95F in the shade. And it’s humid here. Outside hot does not feel as bad as inside hot, and you do learn to be still and cool enough. It is not weather to go running, but sitting, in the shade, with a fan? No problem.

Not disagreeing but none of my kids are at all fat and one is so hot-natured, it’s not always just insulation. One of their cousins, too, she was just never cold and always hot.

I did always joke with my ex that I was built spare because I am from the hot part of the world, and he was padded because he was from Michigan.

Series-es that I found so much better than expected:

Preacher

Scavengers Reign

Warrior

Movie I found much better than expected:

Wicked Little Letters

I don’t think a family of 4 with 100k gross is buying a car a year. Even my legit rich FIL gets one every 3 years or so. Though he doesn’t play at trying to make them run forever like we do. Even having enough now to pay for maintaining an older one (11) feels so luxurious to me compared to my past.

Not arguing with anything but your numbers. Gross pay is not net pay. My net is 60% of my gross with family health insurance taken out , and taxes (but mostly health insurance).

So that could be closer to 5k a month, let’s say 6 to be generous. Rent here for anything that will fit a family is close to 3k. Another thousand on top for student loans, then electric bill, car insurance or transit $, more people means more food, I can see it might be tight.

Still not anything to really complain about money wise but legit IMO to complain about student loans in general. Education from K through university or trade school needs to be free for students, the economy would work better.

Smaller user base. It is both good and bad but the community for my city is dead (probably there were only like 8 of us on here).

Am old enough to know from experience that the early people on any platform are the computer geeks so expect the tech communities to thrive first - but as someone else said, music communities die, sports, arts, things that are pretty widely popular. Honestly happy with the slow and steady growth of the [email protected] so if it’s an indicator, the general interest people are joining just not quickly but some must be sticking. I would guess at some point it will be perfect then too big but who knows?

Personally I also miss the nonsexual nudes threads like nakedprogress and normalnudes. Again that’s a lack of users issue, you need a lot of people willing to post, to have even a few willing to post nude.