Oh my! I am so sorry.

Not wrong! We very occasionally get something like a hurricane on one of the Great Lakes but with snow. It is crazy! I hope all of you in the region are safe and sound, hunkered down, but well. Be safe everyone!!

I am so, so sorry! That is unforgivable disgusting. Just throwing this out there, some UMC's run food banks that are not based on donated items, but on either church budgeted money to buy fresh food or on getting food directly from the Department of Agriculture. Some also have community gardens and give away a lot of fresh produce. If you or anyone you know is food insecure, please call the UMC's in your area to see what they offer.

😠😠😠😠 $70 a day. Unfreaking.believable. So this is what communities think their kids are worth? Taco Bell pays better, and one does not need college student loans in order to qualify for the job!

This. One of our former 4H families has lost two grandparents and a nephew (college age) to covid but claim that the doctors were lying and it wasn't really covid. Sigh. You can't reason with cult followers.

Exactly!!!! I am a person who LOVES to teach. Loves it. Thrives on it. Brings enthusiasm to the classroom. Parents and students used to love it when I subbed because their kids were animated when asked, "What did you learn/do at school today?" Administrators were happy to someone who could be more than a babysitter and be productive. BUT, the bottom line is it is down right abuse to give me 115 algebra 1 students a day plus a study hall group, and grading and recording to do arriving at school at 7:15 am, not leaving until 4:30, and supervising lunch period with a group of students, while trying to find time to use the restroom once during the day for $105.00. To cut the pay is just the highest insult, and if you have to discipline a kid all hell breaks loose when their lazy freaking snowflake parent shows up to complain. I made more at my community fine arts program director job and with a hell of a lot less stress! I loved that job. And covid has stolen that from me since the program has been dissolved in the wake of no donations and less interest on the endowment. Staring at the possibility of another year of no live performances and gallery shows because people here refuse to wear masks and get physically ugly with our ushers, the board pulled the plug. I am getting so jaded. But here is the bottom line, there are a LOT of things I can do to earn money that do not include the sheer suckiness of what teaching as devolved to as well as healthcare. Shoot, I know a really good year round nursery and greenhouse that is a very nice place to work offering more than the school district. I am just not going to apply for such a job as I have the magical ability to kill green things just with my mere presence!!

She probably means off job...in their personal life. I have a niece in law who is a CNA and she masks at work because she is required, but is a full on conspiracy theorist (works at a nursing home so she is not seeing the death and destruction that she would if working in a hospital) , and does not mask anywhere else, parties on the weekends in large groups, some of the lake parties have had 100 people! She refuses to vax so I consider her nothing more than a bio weapon on the loose. I have cut her and my nephew out of my life permanently.

Agreed. Many will win Darwin Awards and I won't feel a twinge of sadness about it. My grief is reserved for the innocents they took out with them, the people they infected, the children who had no choice and lost parents, grandparents, best friends, got it themselves. Ugh! These people do have blood on their hands!

Yes the teaching is really implying that women have no actual relationship with god directly, but only through their husbands, and takes literally Paul's teaching that women achieve salvation not by accepting a relationship with Christ but through childbirth. So she is condemned to hell if she attempts to exercise agency from her father first, then her husband once married. It is a nice theological parlor trick for creating a subservient class by virtue of gender. Same old same old misogyny just dressed up in a sex cult. If Anna really believes it, she will never leave the Duggar compound much less Josh. The potential upside for her is that if he is convicted and sentenced to a good long term, this will be the last pregnancy for her which might be appealing so long as daddy Duggar keeps paying the bills. She doesn't have to get a job to support her family or lose the childcare benefits of all those little sisters in law. In some ways, she could consider this having her bread buttered on both sides. And she has a double win of being the long suffering ATI wife whom the devil delivered a horrible blow, but she prevailed and stayed the course. They could end up being the hero of the cult because that is how bizarre this group really is!

There is a lot of crap like that around here. And the help wanted signs are a joke. They are not actually hiring unless the person is willing to work for peanuts, full time, no benefits. Every single business, Wal-Mart too, is keeping people at 30 hrs so they do not have to offer benefits, and the "$15" an hour has, in fine print, "up to" in front of it. They do not actually offer that wage to anyone. It is just a ruse to get the state legislature to feel sorry for them, "Oh look, they can't hire anyone" and maybe funnel dollars their way even those these businesses are in no danger of going under. At the end of the day, just abusing the sh*t out of people for increasing profits. The schools are hiring because so much staff has quit. The local district is trying to staff mostly with substitute teachers. They want people to work the entire school year and the pay, wait for it $95 a day. It was $105, they had the nerve to lower it. That's about $17,000 a year and no benefits. Guess who has no takers! A bunch of parapros quit because no masking, no protocols, and even among eligible to be vaxed students, only 14% have immunized. Some other support staff have quit, and a bunch of bus drivers. It is pandemonium. The parents rioting outside school board meetings and calling teachers commies for wanting kids in masks and a vaccine mandate for 12 and up, do not connect their own irresponsible, disgusting behavior to the employee exodus. It is like mass narcissism out there. The kids pay the price. Only a few days to go until school is supposed to start. Classrooms are too small for 50-60 kids per teacher or staff member. I really think education this year will be a herd if students watching educational videos in the gym and getting a few minutes if reading and math in small groups. Online school is not being offered. Parents would be much better off keeping them home with Khan Academy and Magic School Bus plus a bunch of library books than sending them to school! But school is daycare so they will send them. I have been called by five districts begging me to renew my license. My response has been HELL NO. I do not sugar coat my feelings on this subject. I have considered accepting a few vaccinated high school students to my home for math and science tutoring so long as they and their parents agree to mask. I also thought about a book/literature club again only for vaccinated, masked students. I have a huge living room so if I put a hepa air filter in it, I think it would reasonably safe.

Sigh. Nothing. These people will have to suffer, watch their loved ones suffer and die, maybe die themselves, get long covid, or be really fortunate and have a very light case then go around proclaiming it is like that for all people. They have put political rhetoric and denial of reality above reason and rationality, and there isn't a thing anyone can do about it. I would be tempted to post to such a person that if they so radically distrust the medical community, then they should grow a spine and NOT use the healthcare system. Call them out as the hypocrites they are!

Yes. I agree. In my area it is low pay, high cost insurance, totally scrappy work conditions. But dd worked for a private company in New Jersey and it was way better. Still, even if she were there now, she would not be willing to work the job because of how people are acting during this pandemic, the rhetoric politically that puts HCW's at risk, the total lack of care or concern for overwhelming the system, and the fact that this has all exposed how fragile our system is and there is no will among leadership nor the public to make changes. The majority want to bury their heads in the sand, and don't care who they burn in the process. I think the exit will continue if not accelerate until there is a total collapse. We can't keep putting bandaids on this and expecting it to limp along. But I don't think that the powers that be and their followers believe it can collapse and every time anyone brings up the mess that our healthcare system is the battle cry of "socialism", " communism" gets thrown out, people lose their minds, and that is that.

We have rented a vacation home with a huge field and no light pollution in Arkansas in the path of totality. We have a sun filter on our 12" schmidt cassegrain telescope, and we have viewing shades left over from the last eclipse. I scoped out places on vbro back in April because I new they would soon begin filling up. It is reserved for nine people, our adult kids, two grandsons, and selves. We have a nephew and niece in law who really want to come, but we have maxed out the sleeping capacity so we encouraged them to find a hotel room in the nearest city, and then come hang out with us. The vacation house has grill, fire pit, horse shoes and croquet, horse back riding, fishing, fishing boat, and a few other amenities. So we are staying for a week, leaving the day after the eclipse.

Paramedics in my area only get $15 an hour. They do it because they love trauma field medicine, but the reality is it is unsustainable to work that kind of job stress and those hours for such crappy pay. Thus, lots of new medics work a few years, and then move on to something else because the pay raises are never going to come. Everyone here wants EMS, but no one wants to pay a damn thing for it. It is dysfunctional and stupid!

Well, takers with boundary issues will have their feelings hurt simple because they only consider their own feelings and not anyone else's. That is just how it is. I mean, when my brother hints that he and his snowflake wife want to go camping with us I don't say, "Hell no because you to are lazy asses who think Mark and I were put on earth to cater to your every whim, cook and clean for you and your kids all day, while you do absolutely nothing." But I do say, "No. We are not compatible camping families, and this is my family's special outing." And his feelings get hurt, but he learns to live with it. So I think you are up front. This is a no kids under age yada yada trip. We will see you when we get home. You don't actually owe her more than that. Yes, her feelings will be hurt but that is HER choice. You are not being cruel. And many times, we care takers burn ourselves to the ground not taking care of ourselves. I am 100% guilty of that. I am learning that I have to change that.

I think this is because it is U.U. which just operates so differently from regular church. I have noticed that on the Huntsville U.U. site, they are still taking a lot of precautions, and right now, back to doing zoom/stream church.

I think that you can say exactly this! I don't think it needs to be couched in other terms. It really is okay for you to state it as a matter of simple fact, and then follow with a pleasant phrase like, "We can get together some time when I get back. I will call when I am ready."

My hope is that even if the federal charges are thrown out because of this, the state will bring charges. The police officer that JB took Joshie to when he molested his sisters, was convicted himself on CSA and given 58 years for what appears to be less than what they have on Josh. So hopefully they will step up to the plate, lock him up, and throw away the key. 50 years would put Josh in his 80's if he didn't make parole, and given the level of absolute horror of the one video, I think a judge would consider sentencing him without the possibility of getting out. I hope. Fingers crossed.

I agree. Just be blunt. You are taking a break from all childcare duties, and are not planning a child friendly trip. You and other invitees will not be providing childcare assistance. It has been a very rough year so this is a decompress trip, many activities not being baby friendly. But by all means if they can work out their childcare issues separately and want to come without the little ones, then you would love to have them. We did a no kids family camping trip this summer. Beginner, whitewater rafting and lots of kayaking, late nights up with booze though no drunkenness, really very adult food like smoked fish dinners, crab spread, expensive stuff one does not provide to a large group, and some brewery and winery visits. We were blunt but not unkind when discussing this with DD and son in law. They didn't even suggest that they wanted to come with our grandsons. Someday I will take my grandboys camping and kayaking, but right now Marmee needs a little empty nest time. I went from children to eldercare with no break, and am mentally beat. So when opportunities to not be in caregiver mode pop up, I need to take advantage of them.

Yes, too many Americans do not take advantage of STEP, and even those just doing tourist excursions can register their travel so that if the fur hits the fan, the home country has an idea where in the world you are. We register all of our international trips. But I think statistics have shown that most Americans do not. Very short sighted. Bless Columbia for taking Afghanis!

That sounds really pretty good!

No. We travel to Detroit, Ann Arbor, etc. It is 1.5-2 hrs for everything. People who live along 127 in central lower peninsula do have the Performing Arts center at Alma, College which has a way better theatre department than CMU plus the Bagpipe band, and prior to covid, low tickets prices, and I think students were free or nearly free. my kids grew up on Alma College performances though we have to travel 1.5 hrs each way to get there. It is also 1.5 hrs to the Dow in Midland for us, but many a performance there for us plus the nature center and gardens, and for those who like baseball, there is a triple A ball team and their stadium and ticket prices are very family friendly. Our eldest ds also sang with the Flint Festival Chorus at the Flint Cultural Center for one season, an 80 minutes drives each way. Most of the locals though are averse to commutes like that so cultural events are not common for kids raised here and the schools eliminated field trips. We had kids on our rocket team whose first experience at a museum was when we took them to D.C. for competition and went to the Smithsonian Air and Space. This is very typical here. Our kids were the"weirdos" who had traveled a lot, taken in Young People's Concerts at the DSO, seen the Nutcracker live, attended several Shakespeare plays, heard Neil de Grasse Tyson speak at Alma, been to numerous museums and historical places like Greenfield Village, Fort Michilimakinac, etc. We have traveled a lot so they had been many, many places. But they grew up around kids who by the time they graduated from high school, had not been more than 30 minutes from home unless they played a high school sport because away games are spread over other class D schools in the trip county area. For many Michigandars, in order to live at low COL it comes with the price of not many amenities, and long distance from any kind of decent healthcare. We are a family of campers, kayakers, hikers, cross country as well as alpine skiiers, swimmers, beach bums, etc. We can kayak rivers just ten minutes from the house, hang out on the shores of Lake Huron in 20 minutes, same for camping and good fishing, cross country ski locally, but we do travel 3 hrs for alpine with chair lifts, and we can live on one income. But, the COL is rising, and the one income family is going the way of the dodo of necessity. Soon that will not be a draw though property values aren't really going up much. Auto insurance is just getting insane, property taxes are going up a lot for only minimal improvements and no real property appreciation, utilities went up, and without natural gas, heating is getting out of sight.

And the other thing people do not take into account is how much money must be saved fro maintenance of the home during retirement. My mother really has okay monthly income. In this low COL, she can afford to be in her home. But she can't afford the maintenance, the roof that is going to have to be replaced in five years, the septic field that is going to give up and cost $10,000 to redo, the furnace when it goes out, you name it. She has no way, in her health condition, to increase income and no bank is lining that money to a 78 year old in poor health. Reverse mortgages are terrible, and of course, her house isn't worth enough to begin with which many elders find out the hard way when they age in place and the local economy tanks. The other thing is that my parent's generation and a lot of Gen X had fairly stable employment. Even though we have moved several times, we've always been in one place long enough not to take a bath on home purchases. But, our kids' generation is predicted to spend most of their careers moving around a lot. Except for super, hot markets, that makes it difficult to recoup loan origination fees, closing costs, selling costs, repairs, etc. One of our boys is embarking on a career that will have him living out of a suitcase for twenty years. He is probably best off with minimal possessions, no house, nothing to maintain. He can build wealth by paying off his federal student loans quickly and then saving, saving, saving and safe investing from a young age.

Yes, no limit. This past year has taught me that in spades!!

Bill, you spelled it wrong. Freedumb!