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shawthorne44

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Posts posted by shawthorne44

  1. On 4/7/2023 at 5:01 PM, KSera said:

    Well, quite honestly, no. I've never been to the doctor for flu like symptoms and no one in my family has ever had a flu test 🤷‍♀️. But that's neither here nor there.

    I'm very glad that your husband had such a mild bout and was back outside working within 24 hours. Unfortunately, a lot of people experienced much, much worse than that. Hopefully eventually that's all it will be for anyone (as an aside, in February 2020, there was also a different non-covid illness rampant in the country with very similar symtpoms--even in Spring 2020, the overwhelming majority of people with covid symptoms who were tested turned out to have something else).

     

    Well, I got it from someone that got it from someone that caught it in China during their New Years celebration.  

     

  2. 5 hours ago, KSera said:

    😢 It was never “just” a non-flu flu, but most especially not in 2020, pre-vaccine when it carried such a high risk of death. That statement just makes me sad when I think of how many people we lost to Covid in 2020 😔.

     

    That is what the doc called it.   Haven't we all had flu-like symptoms gone to the doc, been tested for the flu and then been told it is a non-flu flu?   That just means they don't have a name for it.   Well, I did give it a name in our family.   DH is king of the man cold.   He was the sickest of us and I remember thinking, "This isn't a man cold."   So, that is what I called it, "Not Man Cold."   Even then he was back to working outside 24 hours later.  

     

     

  3. Almost never masked.   Pretty much since the beginning.  We tried to avoid places and activities that required masking.  Just before the lockdown we'd bought an annual pass to Universal Florida intending it for one long trip.   But we ended up using it a few more times since the vacations were so cheap, and there wasn't much else to do.   Masks were required there, so that is where most of our masking happened.    

    I think we all had SARS-2 in Feb 2020 when it was just a Non-Flu Flu, and haven't had it since.  No shots.

    I did catch a nasty bacterial infection Spring 2020 most likely from the mask when attending the funeral of my young niece who was killed by the lockdown.   

    ETA:  A friend of mine wears one outdoors because she said it mostly screens out pollen and she has pollen allergies.  

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  4. 6 hours ago, gardenmom5 said:

    I had an acquaintance like this.  She didn't consider me anyone worth her time, so I was generally ignored. (unless I had something she wanted.) But the day I was talking to someone she really wanted to get "in" with . . . . It was hysterical, well, maybe more pathetic.  She was prowling around in the background glancing over, then finally ran over and put her arm around me like we were long lost besties in her hopes to get an introduction.    

    I had a FB friend request from her recently - I was shocked.  She moved away probably 20 years ago.  (it was like ' . . . why?)


    I'd had a friend like that in high school, well in the church youth group.   She even broke off our friendship saying that "I was just a stepping stone on her climb to popularity."  

    A couple of years later, Senior Year, I was chatting with one of the 'popular' girls.   She said that they never could stand her and initially they'd tolerated her because they thought I was OK.  

     

  5. One thing that I'm not worrying about the prices of (at the moment) is groceries.   Not that it isn't painful paying at the grocery store.  But, if we have good stuff at home we are less tempted to eat out.   For example, I don't even look at the price of Blue Bell Ice Cream.   I just buy it.  That makes going to the local really really awesome ice cream place less appealing. Even though the local place has even better ice cream (which is saying something).   

     

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  6. 15 hours ago, knitgrl said:

    The price of DevaCurl has doubled, so we won't be getting that anymore. Dd8 has very curly hair. We are getting close to finishing up the last of the conditioner. What do you use instead?

     

    Well, I completely changed it up, and it has been working well.  Better than DevaCurl, in fact.  I stumbled on Katherine Sewing's Historical Haircare youtube videos.  I don't do everything she does.  I haven't made my own scalp treatment, or used the clay and I don't have a boar bristle brush.   But I have bought the oils and use those.   It is still early days for me.  

    Her hair photos from her past are pretty spot on to mine, except mine is red but same curl level.  Super bushy when I don't use products, and contained curl but split ends when I did.  The one unfortunate haircut, and long hair otherwise.  

    Some of the comments complain about cultural appropriation, because while she started down this path looking into historical methods (historical sewing is her thing) what she talks about is still being done in some groups, I think Indian is one of them because she mentions shopping at an Indian market.   The thing is, what made me pay attention was that her hair looked just like mine in the photos.  If an Indian woman said the same thing I wouldn't pay attention because my hair is curly.  


    Since it seemed to work fine on my hair, I gave the Black Aloe Vera oil a try on DD's hair.   It had been looking very dry in the back, and it looked tangled even when it wasn't.  It was amazing!   Her hair just soaked it up and looks healthy.  We use these for detangling (and they are amazing), so I used that for smoothing the oil on all the hair.  

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZRNF3W1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

     

     

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  7. 17 hours ago, Frances said:

    There aren’t any houses available here for $200k. You’d be lucky to find a mobile home. It also depends what you consider cheap for college. Not sure there are any private colleges here where you can get tuition and room and board for $25k per year. The only public one in commutable distance where my child could have lived at home didn’t have his major as they only provided service level STEM courses, except for in biology. So no physics, chemistry, math, etc beyond sophomore level. So any other public U would have included tuition plus room and board. And they are not in locations where living off campus results in much savings due to HCOL.

     

    I guess we are lucky.  There are many excellent colleges within commuting distance of us.  Including a good STEM one.   People also include room and board in the cost.  I don't.   I assume living at home, or since you have the money buying something near the college.
     
    I've known people whose parents bought a townhouse near the college, kid lived in it and got a roommate that covered taxes and food.  If the kid isn't living at home, there is no reason to go to school in a high COL area.  So, there would be money left to assist in upgrading the house for the kid's first job.   Of course, this assumes the parents have 300K set aside at the start. 

     

  8. 1 hour ago, Heartstrings said:

    Just for fun, $300k is $16,666 per year for 18 years, per year.  I made $25k when my oldest was born.  That would have been more than half my income.   The year my 2nd was born we collectively made less $40k, so that’s almost our whole income that year for the two.  
     

    I guess I wasn’t great at budgeting back then, I couldn’t have made that work.  

     

    Another thought.   Let's say you do have 300K to spend on your kids college.  Wouldn't it be a better idea to take, say 200+k of that money and pay cash for a house and have the kid go a cheap college?  Imagine never having to pay for housing.  One set of Grandparents were like that, and while they worked non-professional jobs they were rather wealthy.    

    We recently went to the wedding of DH's nephew, and when I was trying to find the extended zip code, I stumbled on the link for the house rental site.  It is the exact same floor plan as my first house, so I was admiring the photos.  Then it dawned on me, this is a starter home and the mortgage was 30K a year.  30K.   How does that work?   This isn't an area with high-standard of living salaries. 

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  9. 14 hours ago, DawnM said:

    Revenge Travel?   Is that the after Covid travel?

    And I have no idea what Trust Thermocline is......I feel like you may have thrown in a few non-English phrases.  😂

     

    Revenge Travel, similar to after-Covid travel, except that many people went big on their first vacation after the lockdown, so they 'vacationed with a vengeance.'


    Article on Trust Thermocline.

    https://therightstuff.medium.com/the-trust-thermocline-explains-how-companies-suddenly-lose-customers-and-employees-2657c9535e6a

    The general idea is that a company can cut back on quality and quantity of their product and raise the prices by a certain amount, and they don't lose many customers.  There is a lot of inertia in what people do and buy.   Then the bean counters notice that the changes weren't a problem, and they make more changes and more.   Then one change causes a huge drop-off in business and the bean-counters say "What happened?    Customers had no problem with all the other changes we made and then we added this one tiny change and now we're in trouble."

     

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  10. 9 hours ago, DawnM said:

    It is now well over $100 per day if you pay for regular tickets (not Annual Passes).   

    I have never gotten a Magic Band, it is just as easy to use my phone.

    That stinks.   We don't fly, but I didn't know that had been taken away.

    It does depend on the availability of RotR.   I was able to get up early (before 7am) and get us on in January, without having to pay extra.

    The Geanie Plus thing makes me mad.   I prefer fast pass.

    Oh man, we learned the hard way.   Well, we didn't end up staying, it was LUNCH and we were hungry but not $80 per person (plus tip, so roughly $400 for a family of 4 for LUNCH!).  

    That's weird.

    Yes, yes, and yes.   The parks were so much dirtier, the joke about dropping something and a CM picking it up within 10 seconds is LONG gone.   

    And yes, the park hopping rules are STUPID.   DH wanted to hop at noon and when I told him we had to wait until 2pm he about fall off his chair.

    Never mind that you have to have reservations ahead of time for the park you will enter and stay in until 2pm.   In some ways the tracking system was helpful to Disney to find patterns of which parks were the most crowded, etc....but it is no longer a "just show up on a whim and buy a ticket at the Maingate and have a magical day" place that it used to be.

    But the people keep coming.   The crowds are still there.

     

    There are grumblings that the revenge travel is nearing the end for them and they are about to hit the Trust Thermocline.   The recent boot of Cheap-Ek is a sign that corporate is recognizing that. 

    Disney benefited probably the most from revenge travel.   If you'd had vague plans for three vacations that you would have taken during the two years you spent in the basement, and you have kids, Disney is the first and most certain that you'll still do.   As long as you are still working, if you told your kid you are going to Disney, you are going to Disney.   

    I'd waited 40+ years to go to Disney World, and we had a great trip (with an extreme effort on my part), but I have no interest to go again.  But Universal Florida keeps calling my name.  

     

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  11. On 3/17/2023 at 11:44 AM, Quill said:

    Put me down as another who (mostly) does not eat out now. Also, if I do, I’m not getting an adult drink. 
     

    I was in Ulta yesterday, getting root touch up, when I looked at face sunscreens. I had one in my hand but when I looked at the price, I thought it must be mis-shelved. $48! Nope; that was the price. I figured I’ll scrape by on the old Neutrogena one I have. Sheesh.

    Thanks for the warning on the sunscreen.   As a sun-phobic pale redhead with a family that loves the outdoors, I BELIEVE in sunscreen.   I usually buy fresh every spring, I'll brace myself.  

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  12. Lots of expensive/wasteful stuff, we'd already cut out.  For example, I make laundry detergent, and we don't use paper towels.  We have chickens so we eat lots of eggs.  In fact I don't eat eggs in restaurants because they taste so nothing.  Because I love eggs I eat a lot less beef.  

    The recent cutbacks are eating out and fast food.  Also the DevaCurl conditioner.  

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  13. There is a reason Government Efficiency is a joke.   I am actually shocked when they do something efficiently.   For example, I was in and out of the SS office when I changed to my married name in 15 minutes.   It was a topic of conversation that shocked people.   Changing my driver's license took 12 hours cumulatively over three days.  

  14. Last summer we did a vacation that was just shy of three weeks.  It was an amazing trip BUT we were ready to go home after two weeks.   Trouble was, the purpose of the trip was a convention at the tail end and it started about when we were ready to go home.    Note though that we are pretty intense in vacations.  Although, if we weren't, I think we'd be ready to go home even earlier.  

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  15. On 2/21/2023 at 11:57 AM, HomeAgain said:

    Oh, my! 😄

    I'm honestly a little nervous about this restaurant now.  I took a closer look at the menu:

    Chicken (or veal) piccata: served with a side of pasta and red sauce

    I'm not even sure they know what Italian food is, only vague descriptions that have been modified to fit the expectation.  It will be an adventure, I'm sure! 

     

    I am convinced that there is a category of food called, "Italian-ish."   It lowers your expectations once you have that in your brain.   Some of the food can taste good.  If you find yourself someplace that isn't as authentic as you are used to, just add an -ish and you'll enjoy yourself more.  

    I am reminded of this Japanese restaurant I went to while in college.  Run by this Japanese couple that left Japan in middle age.  They had the most amazing house salad dressing.   Nothing Japanese about it, but it was pretty darn good.  

     

     

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  16. In my case, we pay for two hours for two people once a week $150.   They always do the kitchen and bathroom and dust and then what else they do rotates.  So, for example, after DD did a big clean on her room, the next few weeks the daughter did a deep clean on DD's floor.  Sometimes it is some windows.  The house is mid-construction, so there are areas they've never cleaned.  

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  17. 14 hours ago, Clarita said:

    This is a fantastic piece of advice. My mom gave me the same piece of advice (I was born in the 80's). Even though I'm a SAHM now, I felt like that piece of advice goes beyond giving someone financial stability.  

    I think the reason that my mom worked is that she preferred working outside the home to the cleaning the house.   So, we had a cleaning lady growing up and we went out to eat more than if she wasn't working.  She'd seen friend's marriages suffer because the woman felt trapped.   


    The advice worked out well for me.  DH is the stay at home parent, homeschooling and building our house and I bring in the money.  So, for us we only have one income and we live the one-income lifestyle.  I feel blessed.  

    • Like 2
  18. 37 minutes ago, Melissa Louise said:

    This is fascinating to me.

    I don't think y'all talking about marriage (to your own kids) are wrong, at all.

    It's just really, really different to the way I grew up, my cultural norms (Gen X, urban, 90's, secular).

     

    The only thing really from my parents was that I should be able to support myself before I married.  (GenX, born in '70)   My mom was the weird one in my neighborhood in that she worked.  They also said they wouldn't forbid me from dating anyone, since that was how they ended up married, so they know it backfires. 

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  19. 10 hours ago, ktgrok said:

    ...

    I do also sometimes listen to one book, and have a different one to read, but I don't like doing that. 

    ...

     

    Have you tried making them completely different books?  Like maybe the book is a Romance and the audio is a biography?   

    I am the opposite of you and internally laugh whenever someone asks, "What book are you reading?" because the question assumes only one.  One of the reasons I wanted to homeschool my child even when I was in school was how utterly ****bored**** I was.  Mind-numbingly bored.   So I'd read during school pretty constantly.   I always did fine on the tests and if they made me stop reading, I'd talk so they let me.  Carrying books around got annoying.  So I'd leave books wherever I was allowed to read and I've have 2-3 going at a time.  

     

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  20. You would have to know someone who has audible that you also trust.  

    This is how they would gift an audible book.  

    https://help.audible.com/s/article/how-do-i-purchase-an-audiobook-as-a-gift?language=en_US
     

    As far as the money, you send the money via paypal or cashapp or however you'd buy used curriculum.  
    I don't know what the price is.   It used to be $10 a credit to buy an extra.  But I think it has gone up.  

    Or you could look at the monthly price of a membership.   $14.95 per month.   I did annual when I've had it.   

    Also look into the Kindle price + audiobook.  

     


     

  21. Oooh, ooooh, oooh, I can add something.   

    Also check if your library has Kanopy.    That has a bunch of Great Courses on it.  Both Libby/Overdrive and Audible Plus have several too, but those are audio only.  I still use the older app, Overdrive so that is how I think of it.  Kanopy has mostly movies.   My library allows 5 credits a month.   I worried at first that one lecture would be a credit.   But daughter has listened to many lectures (it is just the professor talking)  and we still have 5 credits remaining.  So, yeah!   DD loves her History now.   She listens to an Ancient History lecture and I allow her to play a mindless game on the internet during.  

    This was mentioned already, but I want to stress this.  The recommendations on Overdrive are awesome.   I've been first to get things like Stephen King's latest.  If they buy something you recommended then you start out on the Hold list in the order that something was recommended.  So, for favorite authors, I check every few months if there will be something soon and I'll put in a recommendation.   

    With library audiobooks it is always feast or famine.   This was true even back in the dark ages when my dad got unabridged audiocassettes from the library when only people with certified sight problems could get them.   Nice thing about Overdrive is that you put a book on hold and then pause.   You move up in the queue.  Then when you are almost ready for a book, you un-pause the hold. You will probably be first in the queue and you'll get it next.  

    One thing that annoyed me recently with Audible.   They got rid of the Audible for Windows app.   Then they labeled that as a "service improvement."   No longer supporting software is never a service improvement.   They also used to let you keep the credits after the membership expired, but now they disappear.  

    Something you can do if you only want a few Audible books a year.  (That is true for me unless I find a long series I want to listen to that the library doesn't buy)   You can have a friend gift you the audiobook and then reimburse them whatever the "buy another credit" cost.   My Dad has had a membership for forever.  So we sometimes do this.

    Also, sometimes buying a Kindle book and then adding on the Audible book is cheaper than the cost of each credit.  For example, when I was listening to the Honor Harrington series (really really long books) I could get the Kindle + Audiobook for around $8 when the cost to add a Audible credit was $10.   I imagine both prices have gone up.   It isn't always true but something worth checking out.  

    I'd also tried Scribd for awhile.  It sounds really good for people like me that almost never re-listen.  Price per month is about the same as Audible but you can supposedly listen to as many books as you want.   Trouble is, after you listen to one book a huge chunk of the library is unavailable until the next month.   After listening to two books the only thing that was available to me was the Librox books (which are totally free for download from Librox.  I had been redoing the Dune series in Chronological order.   For the same price I could have done Audible and kept access to the books, since with Scribd I could only listen to one book a month.  
     

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  22. I know several couples who married their high school sweetheart but much later.   They broke up mainly because *everyone* was telling them they were too young for marriage, went different paths after high school, married other people, divorced, ran into each other again and quickly realized that they should never have broken up then married quickly and happily.   

    Not that I'm saying people should marry young.   I'm convinced that God kept us apart until we were ready for each other.  It is freaky the near misses we had.   

    Two things that I will tell DD when she gets to dating age.  
    1) Don't date anyone who isn't marriage material.  

    2) Don't go exclusive until you convinced that he is The One.  

     

    Somehow I got the idea that you only dated one person at a time.   So things got serious quickly.  Like by the second date I was exclusive. Shortly after I'd dumped Mistake, the bf before DH, I was chatting with my mom.   She said she'd accidentally made dates with three different boys on the day of her first date with Dad.  She didn't keep a calendar.   One date was to the Winter Ball, one date was for "Next Saturday" and another was for that date.   Dad lived on a farm and she couldn't reach him by phone, so he got the date.   So, I decided to give that a try, which was good because DH was my third favorite bf for a few months.  
     

  23. It can be a problem even when one of them isn't devout.   I'm Christian and I'd been engaged to a very non-devout Jew.  Since he wasn't devout, I didn't think it would be a problem.   But for our kids to be Jewish, I'd have to convert and that was something I didn't know - that the mom has to be Jewish.  I saw converting as denying Christ.   

    The rest of the story is that he married the next girl he dated.   She said she wanted kids but just not right away and was willing to convert.  Many years later, she confessed that she'd lied and never wanted kids but wanted to be married.  They divorced.   His only sibling, a sister, also never had kids.  His mother hated me with a purple passion when we were dating, and apparently she was behind the conversion "My grandkids must be Jewish" thing.  She regretted that since she ended up with no grandkids.  I know all this because he stayed friends with my dad and it was a blow to him when my DD's photos appeared at my parents house.  

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