I haven't tried their recycled, but we did use a different brand of 100% post-consumer recycled before which became worse and worse over time to the point that we had a tp roll trial and vote in our house to find a new brand. Of the brands in the running (found at our local food co-op grocery) the majority selected BimBamBoo. We bought a case, but the rolls were so small that we went through it way too fast. I decided to try the Bamboo WGAC on a whim, and we all love it even more than the BBB. So there you have it. I order a new case when I open the one in the pantry, so we had just opened a case AND received a new one when the tp shortage hit. We are on our fifth case now, I think.

I went to a pelvic floor physical therapist last winter for a different problem. She was a pelvic specialist, very calm and gentle. I 100% recommend going to see one in person.

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2021/09/your-favorite-toilet-paper-may-be-making-climate-change-worse/?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=naytev&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR0qnjlJqgg_Zqa5VLx84YSNNXdh1WprgeMKfsHjiBdgGxfrCyKMq-Kc5mQ

I haven't read any of the other responses... Longer-term benefits to me? Yes. Longer-term benefits to my children, who did not ask to be brought into this world? No. IMO, choosing to have children means that I am no longer the most important focus of my own attention. Morally, having children is about choosing a lifelong practice of selflessness and unconditional love. I feel that I can live without regret knowing that I have done the right thing.

Interesting... a quick google search indicates that Omega-3 alters dopamine uptake...

A dopamine booster? I've read a bunch of stuff that's made me think ADD & ASD could be related to a dopamine deficiency.

I sold a bunch on FB Marketplace earlier this year, and a couple of items on ebay too.

I haven't been a victim of unemployment fraud, but I lost my full-time employment contract job with the US-DOE last winter (got notice on my birthday!) due to COVID and I couldn't figure out how to file for unemployment or if I was even eligible due to the fact that it was a temporary job with an out-of-state employer. I can only imagine that for every person fraudulently collecting, there is someone like me who should have but didn't.

Zombie thread.

A nor'easter blizzard is just a winter hurricane.

Came across I90 from Rochester NY today, and passed at least 3 dozen utility trucks from all different states - all headed east.

I would be fine with all of it except the driving, which I would do myself to ensure my dd be able to participate. Experiences like this can be important for group or team building, and if my dd was having trouble connecting socially with her teammates I would make sure she could attend.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6549/1439 https://today.duke.edu/2021/06/research-finds-masks-can-prevent-covid-19-transmission-schools https://www.kxan.com/news/coronavirus/do-face-masks-work-here-are-49-scientific-studies-that-explain-why-they-do/ https://www.bbc.com/news/health-57636360 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2776536 https://www.pnas.org/content/118/4/e2014564118 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7883189/ https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30293-4/fulltext

The immune system affects inflammation in the body. The immune system is also tied to the menstrual cycle via inflammation. It makes sense that an individual would have menstrual changes due to disruption of that inflammatory/immune response caused by the vaccine based on where in their cycle they are when they are vaccinated. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/what-covid-vaccine-side-effects-can-and-cant-tell-you-about-your-bodys-immune-response https://helloclue.com/articles/cycle-a-z/the-immune-system-and-the-menstrual-cycle

https://www.uab.edu/news/health/item/12143-three-things-to-know-about-the-long-term-side-effects-of-covid-vaccines?fbclid=IwAR1nLK8QhHlXMUKd_5QDJwzznK0Y5gsIp8Bdx7YA9isEV_vKNeDs75F6ncs#.YRJ0aq-uscu.facebook

I went to the Denman website, and their brushes really don't look any different than the Goody brushes I buy at Walmart every couple of years. What makes them so superior?

A case of "The Twisties"? Copied from FB: Hannah Renno The US women won a silver medal in gymnastics in Tokyo today. By many standards and opinions, this will be considered a "failure." I would like to share my perspective on why this is a massive victory. Many have heard the media reports that began emerging exactly five years ago, while the women were competing in Rio. Since then, the depth and breadth and staggering quantity and severity of the abuse--sexual, physical, psychological, emotional--has been exposed. Some of it has been punished. Much of it has not yet been. But "the system" that allowed this, perpetuated this, and directly caused this needed to change. The system has changed. Some. A new national team coordinator was named, and he has tried to foster openness and mutual respect. I had a lot of hope for his tenure, and the majority of national team gymnasts would testify that the culture is improved. Progress! But, without losing my non-gymnastics audience in details and nuance, his leadership skills have been severely lacking. He has not adequately outlined the selection criteria for Olympic or World Championship qualification. When asked to identify his strategy beforehand, he said one thing, and literally did another. When asked by media why he made this change, his answers were dismissive and uncompelling, and his tone was disrespectful. In short, his strategy was, "Well we don't really need to worry about it, because we have Simone." Imagine being 24 years old and being labelled as the greatest of all time. Admittedly, she has endorsed that branding with Goldie the rhinestone Goat on her leotards, but frankly, it's justified. Imagine breaking record after record at Olympics and World Championships and US Championships, and literally re-writing the Code of Points (she has four skills named after her already, and will have a fifth if she decides to compete her already-famous Yurchenko Double Pike). Imagine being the face of NBC for months leading up to the Olympics. It's all an honor. It's all deserved. It all comes with lucrative endorsement deals. And it's all A LOT of pressure. Does the common man know how badly gymnastics hurts? Or do they make it look deceptively easy so you don't think about their pain? So if we treat this as a math equation, so far we are adding together: - Surviving sexual abuse by the doctor that your sports federation hired, plus - Competing for an organization (USA Gymnastics) that has lied and withheld and destroyed documents that would be incriminating in these cases, and still in a legal gridlock with a massive lawsuit and bankruptcy, plus - Giving repeated interviews that say a primary reason you are still competing is to hold the governing body accountable for its abusive actions, plus - Being "led" by a leader whose whole strategy is "Don't worry, nobody can beat us when we have Simone," plus - Being led by a leader whose wife can't refrain from being a keyboard warrior whining about all the (justified) criticism of her husband on the very eve of this epic meet today (don't look, it's sickening), plus - Pressure amplified by media outlets and social media, plus - Real physical pain, plus - Real physical exhaustion, plus - Real physical DANGER (I can't describe to you how complex, impressive, and downright dangerous these skills are that she is competing), plus - Her own self-imposed goals and pressure, equals... A very stressful life indeed. Under the Olympic microscope. With three of your best friends by your side, really hoping you can all hack it and earn the gold medal that is expected, and is even being treated as a foregone conclusion. I read a quote from earlier this year that Simone couldn't wait until the Tokyo Olympics. Not for them to start; she couldn't wait for them to be over. What a mindset to be handling all this multifaceted pressure under. My guess--and admittedly, this is purely speculation based on what I saw and what she said in interviews afterward--is that she lost air awareness in her vaults. Some people call it "The Twisties." It's like an inner ear equilibrium problem when you are flinging flipping flying twisting through the air at 100 mph. If you don't know where you are in your twist, then you have no idea when/how you will hit the ground. If you don't know how to prepare for the landing, it can hurt you. Very badly. Usually it stems from stress and lack of confidence in a skill. But once it happens once, it is very difficult to just "go back to normal." Sometimes it takes weeks. Or months. My old teammates will remember this story, I'm sure. On December 1, 1998, I was training whip-two-and-a-halfs on floor. I was almost 15, and I had already competed 2.5's for a year, but the whip into it was new. I remember struggling with it, and I remember being frustrated and scared. I remember that I had done nine of them, because normally we stopped after about five repetitions of each tumbling pass. I couldn't wait to be done with them. The next thing I remember, my coach was spoon-feeding me jello. It took me quite a while to orient myself, but I finally concluded that I was in a hospital. My hands were tied to my bed. An IV was running. Monitors were beeping. And my coach was feeding me by spoon. I remembered going to gymnastics the night before (was it the night before?). I thought through the rotations I had done, remembered tumbling, and thought, something must have happened on floor. I didn't have the energy or clarity to ask for more information. I remember very little of the next few days. Final exams were the following week, so I asked for my parents to bring my textbooks so I could study. When I opened my Biology book, the words were literally swimming on the page, and it felt like someone stuck a knife in my skull. I closed the book, and went back to sleep. I was discharged from the ICU after three days, when my brain swelling had subsided. I slept for most of the next week. I had colossal headaches and crushing fatigue. Somehow, I completed my exams, and two weeks later, I was cleared to go back to the gym for conditioning. Long story short, I underestimated how painful that would be, and while I ended up having a very successful season, it was MONTHS to regain my confidence on twisting skills. I simply didn't trust my body to know where it was in the air. (On that fateful day, instead of 1 flip and 2.5 twists to my feet, I had done 1.25 flips and 2 twists flat to my back, completely missing my feet on the floor.) Simone looked lost in the air. The same thing had happened in her last warmup vault before competing, which she had crashed into the ground. Instead of 1 flip and 2.5 twists to the left, you can see that by the end of the first twist, her head is at neutral, and in the last half of the twist (she did 1.5 total), her head is toward the right. Your head should never be to the right if you are twisting left. She was completely disoriented. Miraculously, she landed on her feet in a deep squat, and touched neither her hands nor butt to the ground. She saluted, walked off, and looked stunned. I've already seen several armchair gymnasts today calling her cowardly. That she's not mentally tough enough to handle the pressure. That she caved. That she gave up. That she wasn't willing to risk/sacrifice for her team. That she failed. I'll tell you one excellent thing about the new gymnastics regime in the United States. Simone said she was not safe to compete. And they listened. And they supported her. They did not shuffle her off the floor to hide her. They did not pressure her to continue. They did not relegate her to permanent banishment and judgment. They listened. Who knows what would have happened if Simone competed the rest of the meet today. She says she was not at all confident that she could complete her routines safely. I think most people think, like, maybe her ankles are in jeopardy. Or she's just trying to avoid the embarrassment of a fall. Or the embarrassment of not winning a gold medal. I hope my example provides insight that losing air awareness is literally life threatening. Her brain and spinal cord are genuinely at risk. Nevermind an Olympic medal. So in my eyes, today was a victory. Simone had the privilege of thinking, feeling, and deciding. Her teammates had the privilege of rising to the occasion on the biggest of stages, under the brightest of lights. Jordan Chiles, who was not slated to compete on bars or beam today, stepped in and NAILED IT when it mattered. Grace McCallum has now hit eight for eight routines in the Olympics, with a silver medal to show for her courage and consistency. Sunisa Lee crushed the world's hardest (literally) bar routine when the pressure was massive. And she excelled on floor as the last American competing, when their "defeat" was already almost certain. I hope people take advantage of the privilege of watching this 24-year-old's life unfold on their TV screens. She's tremendous when she soars, and she's tremendous when she speaks. Every day until today, she's showed us that she *can.* Today, she told us that she can't, and I respect her all the more. It remains to be seen whether she will compete in her remaining FIVE events this Olympics. She's due up for the all-around competition in two days, and for all four event finals in the days after that. She is allowed to compete, and she is allowed to withdraw. Or she can choose some of each. I hope she feels respected, empowered, admired, and love. I hope she feels confident in her gymnastics and in her decision-making. I hope she leaves here with heaps of perspective and no regrets. And I hope she forever cherishes what that silver medal today means for her, her teammates, the gymnastics community, and anybody who has EVER felt that the external pressure to "carry on" is too great to survive. GO TEAM USA! Olympic Silver Medalists!!!!

DH has been having his clients pay for an on-site storage container for building materials so that they can order ahead to make sure they don't run into supply shortages, and also to make sure things don't disappear from the jobsite. Could you do that for your appliances?

I use Rainbow Henna based on recommendations here. I use a combination of Persian Blonde & Light Brown, and I'm very happy with the natural looking color and highlights look I get from it. At first I found it to be clumpy, hard to get the color to take, and hard to wash out, but now I've figured it out. Here are the steps that work for me, with long hair: Make hot chamomile tea in a pyrex measuring cup ~1 c water, add a dash of vinegar ~1 Tbsp Add ~1/2 C henna powder and mix (I use 2:1 blonde/brown). It will "fluff" up and thicken on its own within a few minutes, or I add a bit more powder until it does. Let cool until warm. Comb out hair before getting into the shower. Wash hair with shampoo x2 to strip out oils, concentrating on the scalp. Shut off the water. While still in the shower, work henna into the scalp one section at a time. Use leftover henna on the ends, then roll hair into a bun and clip on top of head with a shower cap over it. Run hot water over the shower cap to heat up the henna and hair. Turn water to a normal temperature to shower and shave as usual. Remove the shower cap and clip. Work lots of conditioner through the hair. Sitting on the floor of the shower with a wide tooth comb, comb through a section of hair and rinse. Work through sections of hair with the comb, rinsing as you go. Stand and rinse well until henna is gone. Hose down the shower. It sounds like a lot of work, but it's worth it to me to not be using harsh chemicals and dumping them down the drain. Henna is all natural plant dye. It's really not that more involved than dying with regular dye, based on my experience with kids stripping hair with bleach to color with bright Manic Panic, etc. I think this would be much harder to do if we didn't have a pull-down shower head. You can get Rainbow Henna in lots of colors, and they even make a "clear" to brighten gray hair if you decide to keep the gray.

DD did an online homeschool ornithology class this past year which was fabulous! Except the guest birder told the group of middle/high schoolers that the term GISS for "General Impression of Size and Shape" is actually spelled jizz.

Even in our rural location the area senior center has a transport van. There is also a for-hire taxi service...

Men in general have a higher mortality rate than women, and unmarried men have twice the mortality rate as compared to married men. This leads me to posit that in the elderly population the great majority of men are married, spouses are able to take care of each other at home longer than singles, resulting in few men in residential elderly care placements.

Funny to be given a one year badge when I've been here nearly 20 years! 🤣

Have you heard of Wet Bulb condition? I just heard about it for the first time last week. "Dangerous wet bulb temperatures occur when the human body can no longer sweat to cool itself down at humidity above 95 percent and temperatures are at least 88 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the study. At that point, even healthy people can be victimized, regardless of what state they are in. "Even if they're in perfect health, even if they're sitting in the shade, even if they're wearing clothes that make it easy in principle to sweat, even if they have an endless supply of water," Lamont Research Professor Radley Horton of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory told Vice. "If there's enough moisture in the air, it's thermodynamically impossible to prevent the body from overheating."" https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/environment/562165-scientists-now-racing-to-study-heat-conditions Be thankful it's only 69F?

I don't think anyone is suggesting that anyone should get worked up or make a fuss because someone announces they are a sapiosexual. I guess the test of your integrity comes in what you do if you see that someone being persecuted or discriminated as a result of their sapiosexuality. That's where allyship comes in. I really doubt that anyone expressing their sapiosexuality needs an ally, but "common decency" and "polite behavior" seem to have gone out the window in some places and been derided as "political correctness" and "special snowflake" behavior by people who do persecute and discriminate against otherness.