Zelda Goats

My vote is on past trauma involving men. I know a cat dad whose 3 feline kids adore him, and I’ve had my cats be friendly to anyone who respects their space, regardless of gender. I’ve never seen them have a common predisposition to fear men.

Ditto. I vetoed Starlink at home for the exact same reason.

This right here. More poignantly perhaps since the Boomers (not everyone in that age group, obviously) ruined Gen X lives first, before they destroyed the futures of subsequent generations, so we’ve been watching this dumpster fire for decades and warning about how bad it could become.

What might be unique to X-ers is that we witnessed the social fabric in the U.S. falling apart in the 80’s under Reagan–when the likelihood of a blue-collar worker having a solid career at a good company for life, supporting a family on one income, and being able to retire without living in poverty went from being a common thing to more of a lost dream.

So yes, to be lumped in with the same generation that pulled the rug out from under us is adding insult to injury.

Generation X forgotten once again. Whatever.

(It was kind of expected at the time that the Millennials would be named Generation Y because they followed us, but that name never took hold. So they skipped Y and went straight on to Z, then continued with A.)

One of the greatest!

Beat me to it. I complain loudly and frequently to anyone who will listen.

in Texas

Such beautiful eyes. Great photo.

You could post (good old-fashioned) flyers around the most visible public places nearby (public library, grocery store, hardware/home center, church, etc.), advertising your IT skills.
Rural folks I know appreciate someone nearby who has even basic IT skills, saving them a trip into the city to a big box store that would charge them an arm and a leg to diagnose and fix the simplest issue.
If you charge less than they do and are conveniently closer, you could have a decent part-time source of income. Not sure how rural you are, how tech-saavy your neighbors may be, or whether you’re hoping to make a bigger shift career-wise, but it’s an option that has worked pretty well in my rural area.