Orgasm can help a migraine too, or occasionally cause one. In unscientific terms I think of it as all the blood going to the other end of my body. Sinus drugs and migraine rescue drugs are vasoconstrictors, so it makes sense.

Sex can also be a release of stress though, and sadly, relaxing after stress is a migraine trigger.

Income taxes - I do “the taxes” at year end not “my taxes” because we file as married. But when I was single I did “my taxes”

Sales tax, never. That’s just “the sales tax”

Property tax, also I say “the property tax”

I do use “my taxes” or “our taxes” (the collective group of taxpayers) when complaining, like “why are my taxes used to blow up little kids and siphoned into the pockets of people who don’t need the money?” Because it’s money we earned and being used in ways most of us would strongly object to.

Oddly enough, the fast food Greek place here (not a chain) gets the closest to what I had in England.

I have an electric bike for short trips but do enjoy driving my 6 speed car, and it’s 12 years old, paid off for 7 of those years. I cannot imagine it’s better to get another car and get rid of mine.

Can’t imagine I am unusual, either. It’s just a really big fleet and will take time to change.

And yeah this is probably my last but I will miss the vroom vroom and shifting the car myself.

Exactly, but the guy couldn’t even see him.

My brother had a funny story about this. His friend worked in IT and was doing one of those system things that take all day and take the system down. He wasn’t supposed to let anyone in the building during this. So an executive comes to the door, his key card doesn’t work, he buzzes the bell. The guy inside answers, and says he can’t let anyone in. Exec says “Do you know who I am?” and the employee responds with a tentative “well, do you know who I am?”

“No”

“Ok, I can’t let you in.”

Wow, New Orleans? I love that city.

Downtown Clearwater FL has been pretty much taken over by Scientologists and is quite creepy now.

This Twonks two panel is probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Anyone I show it to cracks up. He is a genius.

I think I believe this too. I have birthed 4 kids. 2 tech wizards, one average, and one who the computer hates. They just don’t work for her like they do for me & the average kid. I think the difference between average and the tech girls is interest and effort, but the difference between average and the one who has bad luck with them does not seem to be explainable in the same way. And it’s not a creative/logical split either.

Mind and body are very tightly bound (that is how placebo works) I don’t think you are wrong to be wary of speaking disease into existence. The only sinus infection I have ever had, came after reading a particularly vivid and detailed article about how they start. Like my body was following along.

I do give my work computer enrichment activities to keep it happy. Listen to music so that it can have music, browse occasionally so it doesn’t have only work to work on. I get far fewer problems than my teammates do, so it seems to work even though it’s superstitious nonsense.

Yes. Cats here should be indoor cats. Even in the city there are raccoons, coyotes, alligators, dogs in people’s yards, and CARS. I let them out briefly and supervised, sometimes, to catch a lizard if they are watching them out the window. Or as others say, occasionally on a harness to wander the garden, and eat a little grass.

Obviously that’s not always possible, there are feral outdoor cats that sometimes show up, the city has a spay/neuter and release program for those.

I mean, that is gardening though. I can’t baby things (well, except the jaboticaba I’m trying to bonsai), I just plant things and figure out what works. Winners stay and eventually you get a garden.

Okra and watermelon love the heat here, and the trees do fine. Most food plants I grow in winter though. Well from October through April.

It’s hard to say without knowing the first name, go with what sounds good together. Or use your first name as your last name. Olivia Olivia or Esther Esther.

WHAT?

Just kidding.

There’s a range of actual volume, my boss I cannot hear half the time because he is quiet but a couple of coworkers have voices that really carry, it’s not exactly volume or not just volume, it’s throw.

Talkative we are, overall. Not everyone of course, but there is a lot of talking.

And pushy and curious we are, overall, too. I think that can read as loud too.

If you are rich, you can self insure for everything. Home insurance costs us 4k a year on average, for 25 years now. They insure up to about 300k. No claims. Do that math. If I had a half million to escrow, no way would I be paying that. I would just hold onto enough to rebuild and let it make money.

Health insurance like I carry should also cost a lot less than it does, but I guess it’s the same kind I would have if rich, high deductible but insured against very high cost events.

When I was poor, though, no health insurance and overall we paid less every year, than I pay for insurance now. Yes even the years I gave birth and even the years there was an emergency room visit, not carrying insurance was cheaper than having and using it. But the problem with that here is that unlike home insurance, the possible cost of care is essentially unlimited without any insurance. You could get some disease and end up with tens of millions of dollars of bills. It ought not be like that but it is.

I can’t. One of my job requirements is that I need to work someplace I think is at least neutral, or is good. So far it’s only been neutral and I am ok with that.

I do think some people can be a force for good in a bad place but I am not strong enough to do that.

Edit to add an example - I heard a story about a guy working in corrections - a prison warden - who was working to change the system from punitive to remedial, and had reduced recidivism by a huge amount, like it’s 5%, compared to 50% in most of the nation. I think he is a good person in an evil industry (the American prison industry). Randy Liberty. Not kidding, that is his real name.

For me this has been a curve not a slope. Hard childhood, getting better in later middle age, expect a harder time later but so far things have been easier.

So I think “it gets better” is a reasonable thing to say to kids having a hard time. It can get better.

Old old? Yes I agree. Even healthy old people, your friends are dying around you, it hurts.

Well. Everyone has a balanced life that includes work, exercise if able, fun free time and rest. Everyone has enough to eat and the economy is more at the bottom than the top. All companies are employee owned.

I don’t think anything would collapse, there are enough examples of big and small employee owned companies to know it works.

We are not driving much anymore and the city is hella crowded because now nobody wants to live on the outskirts anymore, we all want to live close enough to everything to walk there. we will have to deal with it. But at least it would leave room for farms & wild spaces. Farmers would still want to farm but small farms only oh no everything is expensive but well, no more profits being funneled up and out so we can afford it, it will settle out.

I wouldn’t worry about being tan here, we are diverse. And I don’t borrow trouble. But those requirements are insane for someone just visiting.

If it’s for work and he has the return ticket he’d probably be fine - our European/Asian/Australian employees have been coming here for meetings no problem but -

They land in Tampa or Orlando not Miami or Jax

They have round trip tickets and an agenda for what they will be doing (not an hour by hour thing, but a purpose for being here)

I don’t think there will be trouble but why risk it, and why not vote with your dollars or Euros and not come? That is the only language the fuckers at the top speak.

(I do not think it’s nice to say Caucasian is a standard human though)

Like more vertical height in torso, not just long legs. Lots of room between crotch and natural waist. I am like that, but tall clothing seems to think tall women are short women on stilts. I do not need more inseam, I need higher rise because I’m long waisted.