Razors Edge

I find that hard to believe. A normal sized rooms like an office or a bedroom, I could have no problem filling with fumes for a few minutes or so. A courtroom would be harder as it is pretty large.

Yeah - it would have to be a sort of weird situation for anyone to randomly wander by your motorhome and check the lock and ignition, I would think. We park our trailer in a "secure" town lot for boats/RVs/trailers, but anyone who really wanted to could find a way over the barb/razorwire and wander amongst the stuff. I doubt police patrol the lot. Likewise, if we park on the street in the neighborhood, I could see folks doing a sweep for unlocked cars (drug users?), but more likely it is the organized "electronic unlocking tool" teams that seem to have a rotation across the area robbing nice cars (so my Hondas are safe!). I rarely lock the door for a walk, and often forget at night after taking the pup out. Every few months, one of us forgets to close the garage door overnight. If it was open for two weeks, it would cause an uproar in the neighborhood

SquareWheelsCycling World Tour and Meet-and-Greet!

In his defense, my dog farts in her sleep. I imagine I fart in my sleep. My wife, though, is perfect and does not fart in her sleep.

Doesn't the doctor/dentist PRESCRIBE the medicine and then you take it? What step am I missing? Either you NEED an antibiotic (so get it and take it) or you DON'T NEED it so don't get it and don't take it. It's not a pain med, where they give you more than you need and you have leftovers.

You live in CANADA!!!! Maybe they call it an outdoor ice rink instead?!?!! We did get to skate on the frozen pool in the winter. That was fun.

If any one can make it possible, it is @Square Wheels!

Aren't you always farting? How was that newsworthy?

No.

What part of "delicious" don't you understand? Starbucks is NOT delicious coffee - just "convenient" coffee!

Depends on your "news" source?

We always have had pools, but they were for "us" - the kids - as much as anything else. My dad, though, swam until his last year and loved swimming, so the pool was also for him. My mom, on the other hand, waited until my brothers were off in college and she was an empty-nester, and BOOM had her pool dug up/removed, and the area converted to more space for her gardens. She NEVER swam, so once her last kids were out of the house, she changed that part of the yard to what she most enjoys - gardens for her flowering plants and wildlife. My older sisters and my one brother who all have kids have gone the pool route. The sister whose daughter is now grown, though, didn't bother to go the pool route again when she moved after my niece was out of the nest. So, I definitely think things like pools, basketball courts, tennis courts, etc, all make less and less sense once they're just something extra you have to maintain, but aren't enjoying very often or ever. There's a cost to remove stuff, though, so you also have to balance it versus maintenance and future resale. Absolutely great when you have kids and are using them, not so much later.

Interesting push back on the "save more" mentality from the WSJ Opinion section. I do think there is a bit of both "scare people" into thinking they are screwed without $xyz in savings and also "you're a loser" shade thrown on the folks who aren't big savers. Seems most folks in the "system" of SS and Medicare are generally pretty okay with not too much in the bank and not having a mortgage as well would make it significantly easier. IOW, if folks can pay off their mortgage, that's the time when retirement makes the most sense (and is easier). Of the seniors with more than $10,000 in retirement savings, less than 1% said they were finding it hard to get by, while 93% reported they were doing OK or living comfortably. Among the subgroup with $50,000 to $99,999 in savings—a small fraction of what retirees are told they need—3% found it hard to get by, 11% were just getting by, and 86% were either doing OK or living comfortably. How much does a retiree need to feel financially secure? In the Fed survey, the median 65- to 74-year-old who reported “doing OK” or “living comfortably” had between $50,000 and $99,999 in savings. The median retiree who reported “living comfortably” had $100,000 to $249,000. It’s impossible to find any evidence that seniors need even a fraction of $1.46 million in savings to be financially secure. Why, then, do seniors report such high levels of security with seemingly paltry levels of savings? One reason is that Social Security benefits are more generous than people think. An average couple retiring in 2022 received total annual benefits of nearly $46,000, up from around $34,600 (in today’s dollars) in 2000. While hardly extravagant, a typical couple can expect an income more than twice the elderly poverty threshold before they touch a penny of their own savings. Conventional financial planning also overstates the income seniors need. That owes partly to planners assuming that seniors require the same amount of money throughout retirement. Yet as economists Michael Hurd and Susanne Rohwedder of the Rand Corp. have shown, average household spending drops by roughly 40% from age 65 to 90. Seniors aren’t running out of money—spending on gifts and donations increases with age. Retirees simply spend less on themselves than financial planners assume.

Heck, I see you living a LOT!

Stand up comedy! Open mic at the Improv!

After your first cup of warm, delicious coffee, you'll understand, Padawan.

Yep - coffee would DEFINITELY improve your morning mood!

Coffee would have been a better start to your day.

For many years the aisles for notebooks, sketchpads, and notepads have been pretty well stocked and diverse in places like Target, Staples, and even Barnes & Noble. Lots of really neat options, and I don't think I've ever known a time where "artsy" folks haven't wanted and needed notebooks, sketchpads, and notepads. Your store might have just had space issues they re-evaluated?

My dad died several years ago, but he was married. He and his wife had and his wife still has a home filled to the brim (not in a hoarding way, luckily) with decades of accumulation. His wife is limited in her mobility, and the home - with a pool - is FAR FAR FAR too much for her and was too much house/yard for them even when my dad was alive. There will be a LOT of work sorting out the house when she eventually moves and/or passes away, but most of that is on my step-sisters () to sort out as I don't think any of my dad's kids (including me) really want anything, so while the step sisters will likely get all the inheritance money, they'll also get all of the headaches of the estate.

Three bikes share an 11sp drivetrain. Two bikes have 7sp drivetrains. That sort of makes it easier to juggle/justify having a few spares on hand. If I just had one bike, having more than a single "back up" chain or tire would make less sense, but even so, it is a huge "nice to have" being able to swap on a new tire/tube/chain immediately rather than waiting for a part to come in (even if overnight). Buying a few at discount has upfront costs and storage (and memory) requirements, but have those savings and convenience upsides.

What time should we be there?

I get "free" Amazon books each month with Prime, and USUALLY they are free for a reason: not very good OR an unestablished writer OR a new multi-volume series they want to hook you with No real cost to me except my time, but whereas I used to read them through regardless, now I don't mind just saying "not worth my time" and moving on. You might consider this one from my Queued Up thread. It might "excite" your wanderlust I also enjoy the Donna Leon Brunetti books set in Venice and the Inspector Erlendur novels by Arnaldur Indridason set in Iceland.

Yep - I usually try to buy 2 or 3 pairs when they go on a steep discount and I don't care about color, just size and quality. I then toss the oldest 2-3 pairs, and the circle of life continues. Bike chains, too, I guess, but that's super rare. Tires and tubes as well. But since those are "wear" parts, and I know the general life of each item, it is easier to plan ahead. Food-wise, Costco has a fairly regular sale on 6-packs of sardines, so I will buy 10 or so and that lasts a bit until a few rotations of the sale later when I get more. Might buy more of my powdered bike mix as well, as they don't "go bad" for a long while and I will have worked through a lot of them in the summer months.

Good general advice. We're the opposite for eyeballing - ie salt early and often and taste. Most recipes err on the side of too little salt (and spices in general), so we generally end up with more. I'd stick with the "early and often and taste" rule as pretty much a hard rule, but you definitely can purposefully under-salt or under-spice if needing too.