I was this kid and my daughter (15) was this kid. My son is autistic and he has some food aversions too, but in many ways my and my daughter's are worse. If I had known about feeding therapy, I would have had my daughter in it. The food-chaining idea they use seems like a good one. She definitely pruned out foods around the age of your daughter. I didn't work on it enough as I was sympathetic to her being a picky eater as well. I once sat at the table crying, refusing to eat one bite of a string bean before I'd be allowed to leave the table (the one and only time my mom tried to do something about my picky eating). I finally ate it, it was just as horrible as I suspected, and I projectile vomited my whole meal onto the table. After that, my mom let me eat what I wanted. But in my case, my few foods were a kind of well-rounded plate. My daughter was limited but well rounded, too, but then she got tenderhearted about meat animals and stopped eating meat. Generally, I would think this was a good thing, but she already didn't eat: nuts, beans, rice, soy, tofu, dairy products, eggs, or peanuts. So basically no complete proteins and down to about 8 foods--mostly fruits and vegetables and crackers that she would eat. I supplemented with vitamins and minerals. The doctor told me teenagers were "air plants" and survived on nothing. I am pretty sure her lack of fat and meat and the over-dependence on carbs in her teenage diet will catch up with her. But other than recently making a tradeoff that if she wants French fries, she has to eat a half cup of strawberry yogurt (with a Lactaid pill, because she is lactose intolerant). She loves fries more than any other food, so that was my only leverage. She does look a little bit healthier with some protein, but I am sure there will be repercussions in the future. Still, I can't encourage you enough to tackle this when your daughter is young. The teenage years are not the time for battling over food. Also don't do what I did. Once she refused foods she used to like long enough and they got wasted and tossed out, I stopped buying them. I think it would have been better not to worry about waste and present the formerly eaten foods on the plate every day so that she did not forget that they were once acceptable. Sorry I don't have a great solution. I eat about 10 more things than I did when I was young. Many foods just really taste very bad to me (they cannot possibly taste the same to other people). I liken it to tacos for my husband with the hottest hot sauce being given to a baby used to a taco shell and cheese. Thats how other people's favorite foods taste to me. I also can taste very subtle differences in ingredients, which is usually a bad thing. No substituting brands for me! I once drove 20 minutes to a store to get Heinz catsup for the 4th of July burgers because my parents had provided Hunts, which I tried and spat out. Hence the food chaining thing might be a very good idea.

Long walk on our road. Walking in the woods or on the beach. Driving with the windows open and music playing (not a good idea today--cold!) Warm bath. Trail ride (when I am living near a good stable). Going through the drive thru and getting some unhealthy fast food I almost never eat (such as a coke, hot fudge Sunday, and fries from McD's) and enjoying it without judgment. Listening to Canyon Trilogy by R. Carlos Nakai

I have done day hikes on the Appalachian Trail in ME, NH, and NY. My father has done the entire Maine portion, he often mentions the roughest patch in the hundred mile wilderness with the rock passage called "Fat Man's Misery" as one he's glad he did in his youth. By Fizgerald Falls in Monroe NY on the trail has a popular bathing hole in the stream above the falls. Several times I came across hikers, each one naked as a jaybird, having a bath there. Often bears along this portion. Also, talked to many clothed hikers there as they were passing by the falls, all commented on how much weight they'd lost. A much loved stop beside the trail is the Bellvale Farms Creamery in Warwick, NY for ice cream. Some times of year there were many through-hikers sitting on the ground against their backpacks savoring every bit of the homemade ice cream. I once abandoned good sense and picked up some young through-hikers and drove them to the post office in Pawling, NY. It was okay, they were a sweet couple. There is also an Appalachian Trail Metro-North NYC commuter rail stop near Pawling for hikers from more urban areas to access the trail. There is a canoeist who ferries hikers across the Kennebec River in Maine. Are you going to hike it then write? Or are you writing about the trail from a particular journalistic angle?

We just purchased a 2019 Honda CRV, which is a little different model than the 2014, but still similar enough to comment. We bought it rather than replacing my Subaru Outback (which I loved loved loved) because: 1. The base model Honda was $10,000 cheaper than the similar base model Subaru. 2. My husband has had a Honda Accord since 2004 that (other than a "possessed radio" electrical fault) has needed nothing but regular maintenance. It just goes and goes and goes. When we took it to a private Honda-only garage they had photos on the walls of Honda Accords that they had helped keep running for 300,000+ miles. 3. The CRV had more headroom than the Subaru Outback (though less leg room in the back). 4. Honda parts are cheaper than Subaru parts. 5. The CRV had excellent crash test numbers just like the Outback. Things we don't like about the CRV: 1. Since it is a taller car than the Outback there is significantly more body roll when cornering. My daughter has car sickness is particularly affected by this and actually hates the car for this reason. 2. Fog lamps are not available for the base model period. 3. The tire air pressure monitor is maddening because the light doesn't go off after you fill the tires with air. You have to take it to the garage to have them turn it off or teach you how to turn it off. So you never know if the tire is staying at full pressure until you get the thing reset. This is worrying especially on a long trip. 4. The base model headlights are terrible (they also suck on the base model Outback, but for different reasons). On low beam there is literal horizontal line above which there is zero illumination. I have never experienced anything as distracting as that line. Honestly, I know the decision to buy the CRV was the best economic choice considering our finances at the time. It is an equal safety choice. But the body roll is not okay for me. My son loves it because of the headroom. I am thinking eventually when we have more money to spare, I will be selling the CRV to him and buying myself another Outback. It is the perfect car for him, safe and economical. But I am willing to risk having to pay more on repairs to have smoother cornering and my daughter not vomit in the car.

Unless I am in heavy traffic, I sing in the car if I am alone. Everyone in my family hates my voice, but alone in the car I can experience the joy of singing without any protest.

I have published a nonfiction book on nature study and am finishing up an epistolary novel. I find it humorous that our historian leader SWB might also be a time-traveller because the Amazon listing of her book The Revolt has it published in 1615. 🙂 : The Revolt by Susan Wise Bauer (1996-09-04) Paperback – January 1, 1615

I broke my toe 6 weeks ago by dropping a huge tile-framed mirror on it (luckily my toe cushioned the fall so I wouldn't get seven years of bad luck!). They x-rayed the toe and found I had split the first little bone lengthwise. They gave me three Tylenol and a post-op shoe like the one linked below If you get one get it large enough so that there is a good 1/2 inch + at the end to protect your toe from further stubs. I iced the toe for the first week and then just elevated it periodically. In a few weeks they let me switch over to a hard sole shoe, in my case a stiff, substantial hiking sneaker, but I had to buy one a half size up because my toe still swells after walking. I did not exercise during this time. I am still wearing the post-op shoe when I sleep because it keeps it from being pressed painfully into the mattress. https://www.amazon.com/Vive-Post-Shoe-Lightweight-Adjustable/dp/B00ZNU6JIO/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=post+op+shoe&qid=1601989071&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFEOUFLODFQMUJTRkYmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA5MTEzNTQxM1g0NkJNSE9aMTMyJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAyNzk2ODgxTFBIUDdYUDhXRlFFJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

I had left/right confusion, difficulty navigating by verbal directions (unless by landmarks) though I can use a map, my initial instinct is always to go the opposite way from where I am headed (every single time I got off the subway in the middle of a block for 3 years!), am clumsy, and cannot put anything together using those visual diagrams that are so popular today (though I can do it from clearly written directions). I like to say that the grid/map function of my mind is offline and that I am a very verbal person not a visual/spacial person. I will second the person that said people are not all alike, you are not supposed to have a infinitely complete set of skills! That's what we have other people for. Also, human beings are not adapted to make split-second decisions with multiple distractions while going 30-75 mph! And guess what, many of them get it wrong a lot of times (have you watched people drive?). Most people just don't mention all their flubs and mistakes on a daily basis so your comparison sample size is smaller than you think.

Well, in the house we are signing the papers to sell tomorrow, the oldest appliance is 39 years! A Jenn-Air cooktop installed when the house was built in 1981. It worked great and could be easily repaired! However, the new owners are tearing out the kitchen to put in new cabinets and new appliances that will probably only last 7 years max. Oh well.

My kid with Asperger's managed five weeks at a tiny liberal arts college before dropping out. In part it was our fault, we assured him that college wasn't like high school. That there would be interesting lectures (we all learn very well from lectures), weekly readings, and maybe 3 papers or tests per semester. Well, things have changed in the decades since we graduated! This college was just like high school, with multiple daily assignments in each class and lots of group work. He hated it, and with his poor executive function skills soon fell behind. At the very end, I attempted to make a list of all the assignments he was missing and it took me 3 hours to look on every little online folder and portal for each class to find each separate assignment. It is definitely an evaluation system designed to primarily reward highly organized people. Anyway, the experience was so distasteful (and he is so rigid) that he has declared that he will never go to school again. We attempted to show him that a more technical college might be a better fit, but he's not having it. So my husband and I are so disappointed. He is creative and liked and understood much of the course content, including participating in class discussions which few other students did. Currently, he is just dabbling in creating a video game on his own time because though he wants to get a little job at the grocery store, we have too many people in our extended family with risk factors for the virus for him to do that and protect our loved ones. If there wasn't a pandemic, we'd try some other things, but with it, he's stalled and everyone is kind of sad. Hilltopmom: There is a nanny school that I have heard is only a three month commitment. Wealthy families spare no expense in hiring a nanny and many nannies make considerably more than school teachers do. http://www.nanny-governess.com/

I am closer with my high school friends than any other group of school friends. But it was a unique high school, kind of Hogwarts meets the Island of Misfit Toys. The enrollment was 122 students the year I graduated, there were boarding as well as day students, and the place was pretty much a second home to all of us. It closed in the 1980s. Recently, I just moved within 1 minute of one high school friend and we walk together three nights a week. Additionally, I keep weekly phone/email contact with about five other friends and casual contact with about ten more on a monthly basis. I am also one of the reunion coordinators. We have reunions every 5 years for anyone who ever taught, went to, or graduated from the school. New friendships have started from those reunions. We have been told by spouses that they prefer going to our high school reunions rather than their own. The type of student the school attracted and the freedom we had on campus and in class, I think was the key to this successful friendship formula. Contrast this with my "fancy", staid, liberal arts college with a very conventional, suburban, upper-middle to upper class population of students. There I did find a husband (who interestingly went to a similar high school as I did and is still friends with his high school friends), but otherwise the place was a desert of friendship potential for me (and I would never go to a reunion there).

My son got the same woman twice. He said that from the moment she got in the car her vibe was condescending and negative. He failed the first time (he was making a three point turn and someone came out of their driveway and drove right behind him as he was turning), and came home really shaken, more about the attitude of the tester than the "mistake". The next time he went up, he got the same tester! He immediately got flustered and made a small mistake before getting out of the parking lot. The driving instructor told us that this woman had a bad reputation with the driving schools and she failed many more kids than other testers, so we should go to another town to avoid any chance of getting that same woman again. We drove 30 minutes to another town and the guy put him immediately at ease and he passed the test. My son said the woman had so reminded him of the discouraging, condescending, angry math teacher he had once had and that he would have never passed if she was the only driving instructor in the state.

The DMV in NY and I are old enemies. I have easily spent 5 hours at a time in several DMV offices there, once I had to go back three times for a car registration, another I had to go back three times for a driver's license. I have literally had nightmares about the place. My husband thought I was overreacting until he had to go register the car that was only in his name. He came back sooo apologetic. When we moved back to Maine this summer, my town office handled the car registrations so only the driver's licenses were left for us to get. At the time (a month or two ago) the Topsham BMV was making appointments to switch an out of state license for a Maine one. Appointments were for 15 minute increments. I had the first appointment of the day. I went in, handed them the proofs and showed them my NY license and was out in 15 minutes! It was joyful, almost unbelievable experience. But my son and husband procrastinated. Now they are not taking appointments at most BMV locations and from Zebra's descriptions they might have to wait in lines for hours in a pandemic. My husband can fend for himself. I told him to make an appointment back then and he didn't. But my son has Asperger's and I know standing outside in the sun with potentially infected folks is going to cause a problem for him. I can't see any reason the 15 minute appointment system wasn't workable. They aren't doing REAL IDs right now, so just a few proofs needed. (This does of course mean in the future I am going to have to go back with the 50,000 proofs needed for a REAL ID... shudder.) Of course, taking a road test and a getting a first license is more involved, but still. I am so sorry you had that experience. I won't post it because it has a celebrity in it, but look up the meme "The Stages of Waiting at the DMV presented by Leonardo DiCaprio." It captures the pain perfectly. (Warning: there is foul language.)

I am going to be a killjoy and ask you to read up about the negative effects of landscape lighting on the health of the trees and on insects. For something that you are going to mostly sleep through, it seems to me at the very least unkind to the creatures in your neighborhood. These resources are from Perdue University and Smithsonian Magazine. There are tons of articles by landscape lighting companies saying the opposite, but one must question the source. https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/fnr/fnr-faq-17.pdf https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/light-pollution-contributes-insect-apocalypse-180973642/

I second the Clarifying shampoo.

An inexpensive shampoo scrubber like one of these helped my son. He wasn't really getting the shampoo down to the roots (long hair). https://www.amazon.com/Bossman-Shampoo-Scalp-Massage-Shower/dp/B07MTPJZL9/ref=sr_1_36?dchild=1&keywords=head+scrubber&qid=1598293960&sr=8-36 https://www.amazon.com/Dandruff-Cleaning-Shower-Shampoo-Massager/dp/B0837WMC5X/ref=sr_1_10?dchild=1&keywords=head+scrubber&qid=1598293867&sr=8-10

I kept chickens in a place where it got down to twenty below zero, but never sixty below zero! We did lose two to the cold (the two that always refused to remain in the glow of the heat lamp). I am not sure it could be done without heat. That being said, the risk of a coop heaters and heat lamps burning down your barn is real as well. There are breeds of chickens that are more cold tolerant than others. You could research the most cold tolerant of all, and renovate your coop to local conditions. Remember, chickens need good ventilation even in the winter. And if confined for long periods of time over the winter, they appreciate windows with natural light. Here is one link to cold tolerant chickens, but it might mean New England cold--not, say, Nunavut Territory cold. https://www.thecapecoop.com/6-chicken-breeds-perfect-for-cold-climates-and-2-that-are-not/ Here is a chicken blog from Alaska: https://akchickens.org/getting-started/recommended-breeds/

The only reason I am on FB is high school friends. I am 51. That is the only way they communicate. There is even a FB page for our high school. You could try contacting the reunion coordinators for your high school class.

The moth is actually a skipper butterfly. Not sure which exact skipper species. They hold their wings in this odd position when settled.

Mine really liked pumpkins and squash, halved. I saw them kill a chipmunk and eat it. They really are tiny bloodthirsty dinosaurs.

Mindless eating. A bad thing for people who want to lose weight. A good thing for those who want to gain! Set the child down in front of a video (if you allow videos) and a few moments later put a bowl of tasty food in his/her lap. Most kids will just start eating, mindlessly. It worked with my kids for getting them to eat vegetables.

I am going to the grocery store a little more frequently (was going every 14 days and now every 7), and we moved... so there's that big one. But the overwhelming feeling of fear (and one minor panic attack) I had going to the grocery store in March and April is gone. The That doesn't mean I think I am at any less risk, in fact probably more as COVID is transmitted to new areas. We lived through the daily doctor's updates on my BIL and every horrible symptom and suffering he went through while in the hospital with COVID. So we know how bad it can get. So you'd think I would be still just as panicky, but I am careful but calm. Not sure how that happened mentally. Maybe some kind of fear fatigue? Can't sustain that level of alertness for months?

My brother-in-law was hospitalized with COVID for 87 days, on a ventilator and ECMO machine for all but the last 3 weeks of that. His heart stopped twice during that time. He is home now, unbelievably weak, short of breath, has nerve damage in his foot, he may have lost some of his fingertips to micro-clots, and has bedsores the size of oranges on his back. He is really lucky to be alive. He was the sickest patient in the ward and his is relatively young with only being overweight as a risk factor. Thankfully he was in a world-class hospital. Also a friend's mother (in her late 70s) died of it and an older acquaintance of ours (in her 80s) passed away from it. All were in the same city, but did not know each other. We came back from New Orleans in February and had something COVID-like in late Feb-March, but there were no tests available then so I am forced to assume that it was the other virus that was going around (even though Mardi Gras was a definite spreading event) and continue to take great precautions.

Unlikely, but worth checking. You mentioned that protein was not a problem. Is she getting a lot of her protein from fish (tuna, sushi, etc.)? High mercury levels resulting through the excessive consumption of some fish have been found to result in hair loss. https://www.karger.com/Article/Fulltext/485749

I actually wrote my master's thesis on the differing home ranges of boys and girls and how they'd shrunk between the 1960s and 1990s. It was so long ago I wrote it that I can't remember the precise details, but while children could range unsupervised from their homes (in town and in the country) for a much larger distance in the 1960s than in the 1990s, in both time periods girls had a much smaller home range, about half that of boys. This significantly impacts their overall sense of safety (past these limits there be dragons!) and limits their life experiences compared to boys. While I would never go on the water alone, I am quite comfortable being in the woods alone. A lot of this is due to being raised in an eastern, rural state with few people and very little crime. Also I was of the generation that parents shooed out the door until lunch and then again not to come back until dinner. Often I was outdoors with my sister or friends, but just as often I would walk the wooded paths on our property alone or with our dog and sit under a big pine for an hour or so. I became less comfortable walking alone in some places we lived in the mid-Atlantic because the population and crime rates were higher. In these areas, I usually go hiking with friends. Definitely, as someone mentioned, near the trailhead/parking area seems to be the place where there can be people "just hanging out" and not actually hiking, once you are in the actual woods there are few people and most of them are polite hikers. (Though I have never lived in a town where illegal pot farms are on state land or other drug smuggling activity is taking place in the wilderness. If there were that kind of risk, I wouldn't even go there with other people.) I live in the northeast and don't worry too much about wildlife. Black bear attacks are rare. The two black bears I have seen on the trail have just run off. A moose in rut could be dangerous, but I never see moose when I am trying to see moose in moose heavy areas, so I don't think I have much to worry about there. Cougars may be silently returning to the east and Mid-Atlantic, and a proven viable local population of those would deter me as would grizzlies. So location is a factor in feeling safe. To feel safe in terms of being prepared: I'll take a walk with just a jacket and water and my phone, but for an actual solo day hike (2+ hrs) I bring my phone, hiking poles, a backpack with food, water, change of clothes and extra layers, first aid kit including supplies for twisted ankle, walkie talkie and extra batteries (husband has the other and if they were searching he would bring it if no cell signal), fire-making supplies, one of those metallic emergency blankets, knife, a whistle, a tarp and rope, and dog food if I am bringing the dog. This bag stays packed except for the food and water so I can just grab it and go. But I think the number one way to reduce anxiety about being alone walking in the woods or hiking in nature is to bring a dog. Now, my dog isn't some sort of fluffy cutie, he's big and black and has a deep bark and is and very protective of me. When I walk with him, any concern I have when meeting people on the trail evaporates (well, I am concerned with having to pull him way off to the side to let the other hikers feel comfortable to pass--but that's normal now with social distancing.) The risk vs reward of solo walking or hiking is a calculation only an individual can make. Rewards are many: exercise, learning about nature, mental wellness, relaxation, spiritual peace, etc. As for risks, I think location is the key factor. But most places are really safe! Sometimes worries about what could happen ruin what actually was a good, safe walk! That may be something a person could work on by choosing a very, very short walk (5-10 minutes) to a beautiful spot (maybe overlooking a lake or under a huge tree) and just resting there with lunch or a good book, repeating that walk often until any anxiety evaporates, then going a little farther down the trail next time and having lunch at the new spot. If the person finds that the anxiety does not lessen, and solo is not an option, they could put it out there that they are looking for walking/hiking companions or they could join already scheduled walks run by nature centers, Audubon chapters, or hiking clubs. The rewards of getting out in nature are not diminished by doing it with others.