I had a friend at work who would come to my office at lunch time and remind me to stop working and have lunch. I’d be stuck on a problem and want to keep working on it, and he’d insist that I stop. He say that if I took some time away, I’d come back with the solution, and he was usually right.

He would also stop by my office at the end of the day to remind me to go home. I worked with him almost 20 years.

He retired in November of 2023 and passed away in June of 2024. I still miss him.

I don’t have a flagpole. I want to put one in, but my wife objects.

The reason she objects is because she thinks it will make us a target.

I want to fly a pride flag under the American flag. The point being that the American flag stands for all Americans, not just the Americans who agree with the current regime.

I’d probably change the lower flag from time to time, depending on events, time of year, or my mood.

I don’t speak Portuguese, but sometimes I get in a mood to listen to bassa nova. I like the rhythm.

Mas Que Nada - probably my go to. I listen to that enough to annoy people around me.

I also like Águas de Março, particularly Elis Regina’s duet with Jobim.

Apparently nothing.

I think the point is that the two parties have both moved right to the point where they have become one right wing party.

I don’t think that’s really the case.

I think we have one far right party that is willing to break any law and kill any person for power, and we have another party that is secretly willing to let it happen as long as it means they can pretend to be against it to get donor money.

The Democrats of today are the same as the Republicans of my youth. The Republicans of today are the same as the KKK and Neonazis of my youth.

The first defense is always run away if you can. If you can’t run away, give them what they want. If they seem intent on killing you regardless, then you might as well fight. Get some DNA under your nails to help the DA convict them after they find your body.

Personally, I’ve always just been monstrously large with a resting murder face. That tends to encourage people to take their violence elsewhere, but it’s the kind of trick most people can’t utilize.

If you think there’s a real concern, get some self-defense training. Learning how to fight at a good school could help your confidence and preparedness. However, I’ll point out that any good martial arts school will also tell you that rule one is run away if you can. There’s no defense better than not being there.

if you can’t get a fire gun for your self protection because laws you can opt for a pocket knife with rapid deploy system

Keep in mind that “rapid deploy” knives, AKA switchblades, may also be illegal. Check local laws.

I always carry a Leatherman wave. If I was attacked and needed a weapon to defend myself, I wouldn’t open a blade on it. I figure I’m as likely to be injured by that as I am to injure an attacker. If anything, I’d just hold it closed in my fist to do more damage with punches.

My wife and I will have a quiet dinner together at home. At some point we started having lobster tail for New Years, and it’s become kind of a tradition.

I don’t spend a lot of time dealing with churches. I certainly don’t believe in any of what they say anymore. However, I have gone to some weddings.

When my youngest cousin was getting married, we arrived at church and were greeting family that we hadn’t seen in years.

The priest yelled at us because we weren’t behaving in a way he felt was respectful (hugging, laughing, experiencing joy). I don’t know what he learned about Christ, but the Jesus I was taught about would have laughed in his face.

When my wife’s brother was getting married, the priest lectured the entire wedding party at the rehearsal about his belief that children shouldn’t be at weddings. As the parents of the ring bearer, my wife and I felt a bit attacked. However, I just assume he didn’t want to be too close to temptation.

Freeciv

They shouldn’t, but they can.

It’s a really bad idea for them to do so.

It seems so strange to me that you’re focused on straps and ignoring the heels. There’s nothing about either of those shoes that make any sense.

We do about $300/kid. We haven’t increased that over the years with inflation.

Kid’s are all grown up now. A couple years ago we started having everyone make Amazon wishlists. It was too difficult to figure out what everyone wanted. The wishlists make it easier for everyone. Also, we can put all our purchases on an Amazon store card and get 12 months interest free.

(I know. Amazon.)

Last year I also gave each kid a $300 Amazon gift card because everything sucks, and I didn’t want them to feel pressure for the holiday. I’ll do that again this year.

It probably seems crazy, but it works for us.

OH MY GOD!!!

When I was in college, a computer lab coworker asked me how long I had been dating my girlfriend.

I told her 6 years. She said, “Shit or get off the pot!”

That was the moment I decided to propose. We’ve been married for 33 years, together for 39.

When people ask about the proposal, I tell that story, and end with, “…so I decided to shit.”

All those dirty fish swimming around…

The vacuum has no capability for an Internet connection and no cameras or audio recorders.

The quality of the vacuum wouldn’t lead me to choose anything else from Eufy. It’s just a good robotic vacuum.

We love Meryl.

I’m going to get a piece of wood, paint it white, and mount it under the fridge so she doesn’t get caught underneath.

Leo finds her a bit frightening.

Just when he thinks he’s safe, she turns around and goes on the attack.

I got a Leatherman Wave years ago and it’s almost always on my hip.

Fantastic thing.

I’ve got another one:

Long before COVID, I would go to a barber shop for haircuts.

The place I went to had one short, old guy who had arthritis. I’m tall, and long in the torso. When he was cutting my hair, he couldn’t lower the chair enough to be able to cut my hair, so I’d have to scoot down in the chair so that I was sitting with my ass at the edge of the seat and my spine bent so my head was low enough.

When you entered the shop, you’d write your name on the board, and if you wanted someone specific to cut your hair, you’d put the barber’s name next to yours. So, I started picking one of the taller, younger guys to cut my hair.

One day I was in a rush, and there was a line, so I figured I’d just take whoever was available and scoot down if I had to. The old guy skipped over me two times. When someone pointed out that I was there before him, the barber got pissy and said, “he doesn’t want me cutting his hair”

One of the other barbers apologized and took me next. I gave that guy a $20 tip.

When I got home I went online and bought a Flowbee. I haven’t been to a barber shop since. It does a great job, there’s no line to wait in, it takes me about 10 minutes, leaves no mess behind, and I haven’t paid for anything but electricity and shop vac bags ever since.

Eufy 11S Max robot vacuum.

We had a Roomba back when they were new. It did ok, but it wasn’t really that impressive. My wife had a rechargeable upright vacuum after that. When that died, I argued for going back to a robot vacuum because her health problems were both making it hard for her to use the vacuum and also leaving me too busy to do it.

She resisted because she was never happy with the job the Roomba did. However from day 1, the Eufy vacuum did a visibly good job cleaning and won her over.

We have it set to run once a day. There’s one chair it occasionally gets stuck under, and we have to block the base of the fridge or it gets stuck there. Aside from that, it’s very independent. It does the vacuuming and then finds its base to recharge for the next day. It needs to be emptied out every day and cleaned more thoroughly once a week.

We’ve been very pleased with it.

We named it Meryl Sweep.