My big wool cloak is my absolute favorite winter garment. It is unbelievably warm and cozy, blocks wind better than any other coat I own, and as an added bonus I can wrap someone else up in it with me to keep THEM warm.
I am unabashedly the cloak girl. Bring back cloaks!
Not really. I haven’t looked into why it caused the issue it did. Presumably it is not actually intentional by MS, and there is some conflict going on that’s causing it. I’ll eventually get around to trying to let it install that update again, but life has been busy :)
I recently had to roll back a windows 10 update because as soon as I installed it all of my startup programs stopped starting up at launch. As soon as I removed it, the problem went away.
No Microsoft, you cannot ruin my Win 10 experience to coerce me into migrating. It’s gonna be a long annoying fight.
I’m of the opinion we just need to stop focusing so hard on raising the birthrate and focus more on taking care of the people and population we have. We don’t need more people on the planet - 8 billion humans is plenty. We need to figure out successful economic strategies that don’t require perpetual population growth rather than trying to breed our way into economic security.
Who knows, by then Broadcom may drive VMware into the ground too, making the whole thing moot!
My husband and I tried so hard to just let our lawn be what it wanted to be. All the clover, dandelions, wild strawberry, wild onion and ginger absolutely took over. In the back, it’s completely fine. We get a lot of brown spots and mud during winter when it dies back, but come spring it’s back to thriving. In our front yard though, enough of it died back that a heavy rain washed a lot of our yard into our driveway. We tried to manage it for a year before giving in.
So now, our front yard is an ugly but pristine monoculture grass hellscape. The back though is much larger, and still full of the awesome native plant goodness. I know nature is thriving back there because I pretty much cannot use my yard during summer due to the insane amount of bugs. There is a thriving ecosystem with all sorts of wildlife, from bunnies, squirrels and chipmunks to cardinals, robins and owls. Occasionally even a stray fox or mallard can be seen around the creek. And I live in the suburbs of a major metro area, and can hear I-35 from my house. It really is quite remarkable how natural ecosystems can thrive with just a tiny bit of encouragement.
Unfortunately the repercussions of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are already here. While not a human casualty, my dog died last year as a result of an antibiotic resistant staphylococcus UTI. We tried all possible medications that the cultures said might work, and nothing got rid of it completely, only reduced symptoms. In the end, our options were to put her down before she got sepsis, or after. (We obviously chose before, because we’re not monsters, but saying goodbye to a beloved pet who still wants to run around and play and is happy because you know you can’t save them is heartbreaking.)
Antibiotic resistance is a serious problem in both human and animal medicine. I hope we can reverse course on it, or make new discoveries to combat these bacteria. And if not, I hope we legalize human euthanasia before then so I don’t have to suffer the fate of a sepsis death.
My company is based in CA, and employs me remotely from the Midwest. They pay me above average for my area, but less than they would have to if I lived in the Bay area where they are based. I feel like this works out for both of us! They even go so far as looking at the zip code of every employee when considering raises, and thus far (3 years) I have received an annual raise which is higher than the cost of living increase for my area.
In my situation at least, me working remotely benefits both myself and my company. I just can’t understand why so many larger companies are so adamant about return to office, especially ones in larger coastal cities.
Many of the libraries in my area have all kinds of rental things you can check out! Books, audiobooks, music, video games and movies of course. But they also have a whole tools and homegoods section. Need a weirdly shaped pan for a 1-time birthday cake? Check it out and return it when you’re done. Need a drill to hang shelves in your new apartment? Same thing. It’s pretty awesome. For me personally I love to bake, but I simply do not have room for every type of pan. I only make angelfood cake once a year or so, and those pans are huge. I just use the library one and then I don’t have to store the thing all year!
If you haven’t been to your local library in years, you should make a trip there. You might be surprised what they have these days!
Dogs can offer fantastic companionship and help keep the elderly active longer. At 80, your mother could still potentially outlive the dog depending on the age/breed and both of their health! I do hope that I live to be 80 and still have a dog. Dogs, like humans, are pretty resilient. They can bounce back from grief and change. Sounds like the dog’s welfare is planned for, so I personally think it’s great! That dog might help give her more years herself!
In my opinion I think it’s important to always have a plan for your pet in case you die, as you never know. I personally have a beneficiary for a portion of my 401k that will get $20k of it and my dog(s) upon my death if my husband isn’t alive at the time. It’s a person I trust and has agreed to take on the responsibility, and care for them the way I would. I know not everyone is able to leave funds for the care of their pet, but having the conversation with friends and loved ones ahead of time to see who could and would take them is important.
You can do that in the US too, but if they give it to you in a hospital the line item charge is much higher.
I taught my dog weave poles and he loves them!
My question is, why are concentrated soaps not bigger for human use like they are for animals? The shampoo and conditioner to wash my dog comes in a gallon jug and dilutes 50:1. That gallon jug lasts me years, and I’m bathing a golden retriever that has a lot of hair. If shampoo came by default in a gallon jug we just had to mix once or twice a month with water in a separate bottle we would save so much plastic, so much cost, and so much transportation weight!
And concentrated products for pets are more common than diluted ones. So clearly we know how to do this, why don’t we do it for human stuff too by default?
I refuse to be part of that group. I’m a democrat living in KS and I vote in every single election I can. My candidate may not win, but damnit they will count my vote and know that I dissent.
…are you me? lol
Also don’t forget StumbleUpon! So many wasted hours!
I do actually. These are my favorite: https://www.tgertoggs.com/pages/cloaks_hats.shtml
As an avid cloak lover, I can attest that the reasons others state about practicality are pretty much spot on. That said, my 3/4 round wool cloak with a cotton liner is the warmest and coziest winter garment I have ever owned. I have three of them, and a lighter blue velvet one for dressy occasions in spring/fall.
Getting into a car with a big cloak though is tougher than with a normal coat. Once you get the hang of it, it’s not a problem, but it does take some practice! I do love my cloaks and I would love to see them make a comeback though!
Eh, I don’t think the two things have to be tied. I consider myself a coffee person, however I also typically have only one cup of coffee a day (and some days not at all.) I don’t drink caffeine habitually otherwise, with perhaps one soda a week, or maybe a pot of tea on occasion (which is sometimes caffeinated) when I’m in a cozy mood.
But that one cup in the morning is important to me because I love the taste and smell of coffee. It’s part of my morning routine and I enjoy it. If something happens and I get distracted and don’t have that cup it’s not the end of the world, and I only usually notice when I end work for the day and go to clean my desk off and the cup isn’t there. For me it’s not a caffeine addiction so much as a morning treat. To be honest if they made a decaf version of my favorite coffee I’d buy that instead - I’m just here for the flavor :)
Moats were cool until I learned that toileting holes were often positioned such that the urine and feces wash down into the moat. I’m gonna have to take a pass on that lazy river…