Small Talk: "I'll Take Non-Show Chat For $400, Alex."

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, PBnJay said:

There was a discussion on the radio this a.m. about whether one should be early, late or on time to an appointment. (I wondered if someone was reading here.) It was agreed "on time" wins, hands down. One person said for family dinners at 5, one person would always get there at 3 so the host would tell that person dinner was at 7.  

I love this part of your post probably more than I should, @PBnJay, hee.

My 30-something daughter has a close friend since middle school who is generally 2 hours late for anything, so my daughter always tells her an event starts 2 hours earlier. I seem to recall that friend's wedding started late.

Before all y'all jump to any conclusions, the Tardy Friend is a lovely human being whose lateness is probably always for an unselfish reason. I believe this in part because, for example, 10+ years ago when my daughter got stranded in Chicago after the trains had stopped running after a night of dancing with a piece of glass embedded in her foot, the Tardy Friend drove to the city (30 minutes), picked her up, and took her to urgent care to get stitched up. 

Edited July 4, 2022 by shapeshifter

[chessiegal]

The discussion of the 2 pronunciations of aunt reminds me of woman who worked as a nurse in psych ward. She was asked by a patient if she was an aunt (pronounced ant). Nurse says no, but her sister just got married, and she's hoping they have children soon. Patient's response - well, are you a spider? 😅

The two pronunciations also play a part in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk and the Bully" that involves identical twin sisters who pronounce it differently and it helps Monk solve a murder. And I see a rerun of that episode is airing this afternoon. I'll go put on my tinfoil hat now. 😵

[Prevailing Wind]

2 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I'll go put on my tinfoil hat now. 😵

Be careful. It's a jungle out there.

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, PBnJay said:

One person said for family dinners at 5, one person would always get there at 3

That is mind boggling.  Truly; I cannot fathom the thought process by which one would routinely show up TWO HOURS early (or late).  You show up at the airport two hours before your flight.  Two hours before a family dinner?!

I'm really stumped by this one.  What would they do when they got there in the middle of the day?  Try to help get things ready?  Sit around expecting to be engaged?  Neither is okay, I'm just hoping they at least had terribly misguided notions of assisting.

3 hours ago, PBnJay said:

so the host would tell that person dinner was at 7. 

I have to change the time with one of my best friends, although not a two-hour span -- if I want her somewhere at 8:00, I tell her to be there at 7:30, because she knows that means I'll be there between 7:30-7:45, and try for that, but still be at least 15 minutes late, so if I say 8:00 and show up then, we'll get there around the same time.  But if it's something where being on time actually matters (if we're just meeting for dinner, it doesn't matter to me, as I'm fine to sit there with a drink and a book for a short while), I simply tell her the real time and say you have to be on time because [reason], and she is without fail.  That's respect, so I don't care if at other times I'm hanging out.

I'd be a hypocrite if I did -- punctuality is a major struggle for me, too, when it's not essential.  But when I'm late in those casual scenarios, it's of the 5-10 minutes, 15 at the absolute max, variety.  (And I have one close friend who's incredibly punctual, and it bothers her to wait more than five minutes, so even for a casual dinner I move her into the "essential" category.)  I find 30 minutes+ really rude unless there's a valid, one-off reason.   

[SoMuchTV]

4 hours ago, PBnJay said:

There was a discussion on the radio this a.m. about whether one should be early, late or on time to an appointment. (I wondered if someone was reading here.) It was agreed "on time" wins, hands down. One person said for family dinners at 5, one person would always get there at 3 so the host would tell that person dinner was at 7.

50 minutes ago, Bastet said:

That is mind boggling.  Truly; I cannot fathom the thought process by which one would routinely show up TWO HOURS early (or late).  You show up at the airport two hours before your flight.  Two hours before a family dinner?!

The "family dinners" part of that discussion makes me think that the guests felt a little more "family" than the hosts thought they were.  Although even for family, I'd probably call/text ahead and say, hey, okay if I come early and help?

And I have to say, I think there's a difference in protocol between being early/late to an appointment (15 minutes late? you have to reschedule, loser), vs to an event you're invited to (15 minutes early? what are you thinking?  I still need a shower!)

[MrAtoz]

I'm another one of the people who grew up using "anxious" to mean "eager," or "looking forward to something."

I remember in about third grade or so, I had a teacher who insisted that it meant "worried or nervous."  I wasn't having any of it; I figured it was one of those weird things that teachers say sometimes that don't make any sense.

I used it that way as long as she was my teacher, so as not to get bad grades.  As soon as I moved on to the next grade, I proceeded to ignore what she had tried to teach me, and resumed using it to mean "eager." 😀

[zoey1996]

I watched the 2022 American Rescue Dog Show the other night.  There were categores for best in couch potato, best in snoring, best in underbite, and more. All were representing their rescue organization for prize money. It was fun to watch, and the dogs were incredible! There was a French Bulldog mix named Sabre in the underbite competition!

[Clanstarling]

16 hours ago, zoey1996 said:

I watched the 2022 American Rescue Dog Show the other night.  There were categores for best in couch potato, best in snoring, best in underbite, and more. All were representing their rescue organization for prize money. It was fun to watch, and the dogs were incredible! There was a French Bulldog mix named Sabre in the underbite competition!

Is it on YouTube? Sounds like my kind of dog show!

[zoey1996]

7 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

Is it on YouTube? Sounds like my kind of dog show!

Portions are, don’t know about all the show.

[shapeshifter]

Is it cheating to write letter combinations down when playing Wordle?
I'm thinking that if I have to ask, it probably is, but I am hoping it's not.
I mean, there's no timer.
🙃

[Prevailing Wind]

I think anything's OK playing Wordle. Lately, I've been playing two other daily games, both geography-based.  Globle-game.com and Worldledaily.com

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

I think anything's OK playing Wordle. Lately, I've been playing two other daily games, both geography-based.  Globle-game.com and Worldledaily.com

I've been playing Globle-game.com to try to update my knowledge of countries. 
Since that's my main purpose, I don't feel too badly about looking up my country choices to see what's near once I've got an orange or a red. 
But I do think I'm cheating. 😉

My daughter and I have been exchanging Wordle daily for months now, which is why I wondered if it was "cheating" to write down possibilities. 
I asked her if she thought it was cheating (she does Wordle while breastfeeding in the wee hours, so pen and paper are not convenient for her).

Her kind reply did nothing to allay my fears about my possible age-related cognitive deterioration: 

Quote

I don’t think it’s cheating. I get that it feels like counting cards in Vegas maybe , but it’s not really the same at all. I do the equivalent in my mind, running through different available letter combinations, and I really don’t see why writing it down would be any different. It’s just an accommodation, like doing it in a different language or in braille. In my opinion at least. 

[Ailianna]

You don't even have to use pen and paper if you don't want to. Wordle will let you put in letters without counting it as a guess as long as you don't hit enter.

[MrAtoz]

The only thing I can think of that might be cheating in Wordle is somehow finding out the correct word in some other way, e.g. copying off someone else.  But considering different possible combinations before you enter them?  Of course that's allowed.

How else would you do it?  Enter five letters at random and hope for the best?

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Ailianna said:

You don't even have to use pen and paper if you don't want to. Wordle will let you put in letters without counting it as a guess as long as you don't hit enter.

43 minutes ago, MrAtoz said:

The only thing I can think of that might be cheating in Wordle is somehow finding out the correct word in some other way, e.g. copying off someone else.  But considering different possible combinations before you enter them?  Of course that's allowed.

How else would you do it?  Enter five letters at random and hope for the best?

For some of us, writing it down works better than typing. For me, that's often true after the 3rd word (if I get it in 3, then it's obviously not necessary).

I say for "some of us" because Googling revealed that many do find writing it down helpful, and there is some debate as to whether or not it is "cheating" to use pen and paper. 

Probably my daughter is correct in "It’s just an accommodation, like doing it in a different language or in braille. In my opinion at least."

For example:
IIRC, this got me to METRO

and this got me to VOICE:

Edited July 8, 2022 by shapeshifter

[Clanstarling]

7 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Is it cheating to write letter combinations down when playing Wordle?
I'm thinking that if I have to ask, it probably is, but I am hoping it's not.
I mean, there's no timer.
🙃

Absolutely not, and I don't think it's an "accommodation" either. This is a game about figuring out words from hints about letter positions. Sometimes I write it down on paper, more often I use my keyboard (since the "bad" guesses are blacked out - though that doesn't seem to stop me from using ones I know aren't right...sigh), and sometimes it actually comes to mind. This isn't an age thing for me - it's the way my mind's worked since I was young. But Mr. Atoz says it best.

1 hour ago, MrAtoz said:

The only thing I can think of that might be cheating in Wordle is somehow finding out the correct word in some other way, e.g. copying off someone else.  But considering different possible combinations before you enter them?  Of course that's allowed.

How else would you do it?  Enter five letters at random and hope for the best?

[30 Helens]

There’s no such thing as cheating in Wordle, IMO. (Unless you’re looking up the answer, and then what would be the point of playing?) However you get to the answer is your process, and is just as valid as any other process.

Now, if you really want to give that pen and paper a workout, try Quordle! That one has you solving 4 Wordles simultaneously. You get 9 guesses, but because each guess applies to all 4 words, the strategy is a little different. 

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I've been playing Globle-game.com to try to update my knowledge of countries. 
Since that's my main purpose, I don't feel too badly about looking up my country choices to see what's near once I've got an orange or a red. 
But I do think I'm cheating. 😉

1. Me too!
2. Me either; that’s often the only way I’d ever get it.
3. Me too, and I don’t care! 

Sometimes, cheating is just research. 😁

[SoMuchTV]

4 hours ago, MrAtoz said:

The only thing I can think of that might be cheating in Wordle is somehow finding out the correct word in some other way, e.g. copying off someone else.

1 hour ago, 30 Helens said:

There’s no such thing as cheating in Wordle, IMO. (Unless you’re looking up the answer, and then what would be the point of playing?) However you get to the answer is your process, and is just as valid as any other process.

Oh ye of little imagination.  Two words:  second browser.  Not that I would ever take credit for something I figured out that way.

[Prevailing Wind]

5 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Oh ye of little imagination.  Two words:  second browser.  Not that I would ever take credit for something I figured out that way.

Or blow it in six tries, get the right answer displayed at the top of the screen, delete your cookies, go back to Wordle, get it in the first try.  Doesn't seem like much fun, though.

I got a new computer and when it came to be midnight, I thought I'd play the next Wordle, having already played today's.  The screen kept displaying the game I'd already played. That's when I noticed the computer clock was set for Pacific time, when I'm in the Eastern TZ.  I corrected the time zone problem, and the new game appeared.  Which brought me to the conclusion if you want to go to bed before midnight, but still want to play Wordle before bed, reset your computer clock to an earlier time zone.

[Clanstarling]

14 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

 Which brought me to the conclusion if you want to go to bed before midnight, but still want to play Wordle before bed, reset your computer clock to an earlier time zone.

That's what my husband does. He's a late riser, and I'm an early one. This way we can compare notes "first thing" in the morning. 😁

[PBnJay]

On 7/6/2022 at 5:30 PM, zoey1996 said:

I watched the 2022 American Rescue Dog Show the other night.  There were categores for best in couch potato, best in snoring, best in underbite, and more. All were representing their rescue organization for prize money. It was fun to watch, and the dogs were incredible! There was a French Bulldog mix named Sabre in the underbite competition!

This was a rerun, it aired prime time a while back. It might be on the website of whatever channel hosted it, probably Fox. And speaking of, highlights of the Westminster Kennel Club are being shown today on Fox, 2 p.m. central time.

My friend SABER! appreciates your underbite comment! I loved the spotted Staffie Bull mix that won the Rescue Best in Show.

[shapeshifter]

TIL (Today I Learned) that eliminating 10 letters with your first 2 Wordle words is a good thing.
That is, there seemed to be only one possibility for the third word:

Wordle 391 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

[Clanstarling]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

TIL (Today I Learned) that eliminating 10 letters with your first 2 Wordle words is a good thing.
That is, there seemed to be only one possibility for the third word:

Wordle 391 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Good job! Took me twice that long. I was worried I wasn't going to get it at all.

[illdoc]

2 months home: 

[Trey]

The boys look wonderful.  Have they both settled in well?

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

...eliminating 10 letters with your first 2 Wordle words is a good thing....
Wordle 391 3/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

1 hour ago, Clanstarling said:

Good job! Took me twice that long. I was worried I wasn't going to get it at all.

Thanks!
If I was still teaching college students research techniques, I would love to use this as an illustration for not despairing when your search terms aren't getting you the right results and how a lack of results can inform your choice of search terms.

Why, yes. I wasn't supposed to retire for 4 more years. Why do you ask?
 

[Clanstarling]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Thanks!
If I was still teaching college students research techniques, I would love to use this as an illustration for not despairing when your search terms aren't getting you the right results and how a lack of results can inform your choice of search terms.

Why, yes. I wasn't supposed to retire for 4 more years. Why do you ask?
 

I'm newly retired, and don't ask questions. I just know I'm grateful to be retired - and to have spent my last two years of work operating out of my home office.

But it sounds like you have a story.... (notice this is not properly a question - just a statement😉)

[SoMuchTV]

Regarding the "singer" pronunciation (since I guess it was getting a little off topic in the main thread) - wherever I've lived (central east-ish coast), singer/bringer/zinger/ringer were rhymes, and finger/linger were different rhymes.  But when people say they don't hear a difference, I believe them.  I'm guessing it's similar to the Mary/merry/marry thing, or pen/pin, but I haven't seen as much discussion about it as I have on the other ones.

[Ailianna]

7 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

TIL (Today I Learned) that eliminating 10 letters with your first 2 Wordle words is a good thing.
That is, there seemed to be only one possibility for the third word:

Wordle 391 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I'm deeply curious about your two words. After my first two words, I had three possibilities, all of which rhyme.

[Prevailing Wind]

Do y'all know about Worldledaily.com?  A geography quiz. Same with Globle-game.com  And the National Gallery of Art's Artle? https://www.nga.gov/artle.html

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Ailianna said:

I'm deeply curious about your two words. After my first two words, I had three possibilities, all of which rhyme.

FRUIT
LOANS

[Ailianna]

12 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

FRUIT
LOANS

The L would have helped but still left me with two words. Hmmm. Thanks!

[shapeshifter]

19 minutes ago, Ailianna said:

13 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

FRUIT
LOANS

The L would have helped but still left me with two words. Hmmm. Thanks!

Just to clarify:

• FRUIT and LOANS were the first 2 words I used for
  Wordle 391 on Friday, July 15.
  --not as a rule.
  I don't care for repetition in general.
   
• And it was just coincidental that these 2 words gave me no letters for that day's word,
  which I discovered was helpful
  but not something I could replicate on purpose.
   🙃

Friday's Wordle word was

Spoiler

WEDGE

Edited July 16, 2022 by shapeshifter

[possibilities]

On 6/10/2022 at 5:56 AM, 30 Helens said:

I need to play fewer word games and more games like Globle. I am terrible at geography and could use the help.

Try worldle.

[possibilities]

Here's the link:

https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/

[Prevailing Wind]

I use worldledaily.com

It says not to google, but that's part of the fun - looking for clues in the picture that you can track down.  I got today's in the first guess. If I hadn't googled, I don't think I would have gotten it at all.

[zoey1996]

Remember I'm moving to Kansas in about a month? Our house here in Williamsburg was listed on Thursday, and we accepted the first offer today! Closing scheduled for mid-August, so fingers crossed that all goes smoothly!

[30 Helens]

29 minutes ago, zoey1996 said:

Closing scheduled for mid-August, so fingers crossed that all goes smoothly!

🤞🤞

I know moving is stressful, but it can also be fun. I hope this one is mostly fun for you!

[30 Helens]

2 hours ago, possibilities said:

Try worldle.

Thanks, but I don’t think I’m ready for that yet. Once I figure out where things are, maybe then I can start remembering their shapes! Lol.

I’m sure there must have been a geography class sometime in my school career, but either I was sick that month or I didn’t get invited. My lack of knowledge in this regard is really kind of tragic.

[shapeshifter]

8 minutes ago, 30 Helens said:

🤞🤞

I know moving is stressful, but it can also be fun. I hope this one is mostly fun for you!

Moving can be fun?
I have a running list of 37 moves in my life, and none of them were fun.
Maybe I've been doing it wrong?

[zoey1996]

8 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

🤞🤞

I know moving is stressful, but it can also be fun. I hope this one is mostly fun for you!

8 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Moving can be fun?
I have a running list of 37 moves in my life, and none of them were fun.
Maybe I've been doing it wrong?

The actual moving part isn't fun, has never been to me, but getting settled in a new place and getting acquainted with the area is. Not always fun, but interesting at least.

We expect this to be our "forever home," at least until we end up in assisted living, or die, whichever comes first. We've both been retired for five or six years, and decided at last that if we were ever going to move back to Kansas, now was the time.

@shapeshifter, I've made probably half the moves you have, all since I was 18 or so, and that was quite enough for me. How many different states/places have you lived? I've lived in 13 towns/cities in 7 different states, IIRC.

[Prevailing Wind]

10 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

Thanks, but I don’t think I’m ready for that yet. Once I figure out where things are, maybe then I can start remembering their shapes! Lol.

I’m sure there must have been a geography class sometime in my school career, but either I was sick that month or I didn’t get invited. My lack of knowledge in this regard is really kind of tragic.

Try the worldledaily.com game. You don't need to know geography.

When I was a kid, my parents had stuck a huge Rand-McNally map of the world on the hallway wall. My brother & I made up a game where one of us would name a country and the other one had to find it on the map. The one I remember most vividly was "Micronesia" - the letters spelling it out were so widely spaced on the map, it didn't even look like a word. I was so pissed at Joe for picking that one for me to find.

[30 Helens]

1 hour ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Try the worldledaily.com game. You don't need to know geography.

I do play Wordle and not to brag (ok, to brag a little), but I’m pretty good at it. Of the 122 games I’ve played, I’ve gotten 82 in four tries or less. I’ve only missed one, and that was my first game when I didn’t realize a letter could be used twice in the same word. I also like Quordle and Crosswordle.

I once put a map on a wall to learn countries, but it confused me with the distortion. I started getting false ideas about proportion and distance, so I gave that up. Globle is good, but I wish they would but boundaries around the countries because when I guess a few in proximity, they start to form a big, indistinct blob and I forget what’s where. I also like it when they linger in a certain area… there was once about a 4-day stretch where everything was in Africa, and that helped me build on what I’d learned the day before.

I’ve always found that puzzles and games are a great way to learn. If I were teaching, I think I’d make Wordle and Globle part of my daily lesson plan.

[Clanstarling]

13 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

I’m sure there must have been a geography class sometime in my school career, but either I was sick that month or I didn’t get invited. My lack of knowledge in this regard is really kind of tragic.

I remember geography in school - and that I used to be very good at it. Of course, the names of many of the places I learned about have changed since then. These days I really only solidly remember the places I lived in or driven through as a military brat - and it doesn't help that more than one of them have split into separate nations. And two became one.

13 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Moving can be fun?
I have a running list of 37 moves in my life, and none of them were fun.
Maybe I've been doing it wrong?

I think I have roughly that many moves - I haven't kept a running list. I only remember I went to 16 different schools before I graduated high school. (and registered at two different colleges without attending either because of moves). And inbetween/during those moves made many smaller moves within the cities and/or general area. (just counted them up - 32 unless I've missed one)

I hate moving, but I find I do miss the cleansing of crap that goes along with it.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Clanstarling

[shapeshifter]

6 hours ago, zoey1996 said:

I've made probably half the moves you have, all since I was 18 or so, and that was quite enough for me. How many different states/places have you lived? I've lived in 13 towns/cities in 7 different states, IIRC.

Not so many places, because I returned to some areas and often moved within locales due to rentals getting sold, etc.--so I won't bother repeating; it would be even more boring than this list, heh.
In more-or-less chronological order:
New Jersey (near NYC); Connecticut; New Jersey (near Philly); Lincolnshire, IL (near Chicago); Champain/Urbana Illinois; BC, Canada; Northern California (mostly Siskiyou County, but also Sacramento) and briefly Klamath Falls, Oregon; Lake Forest, IL (near Chicago); Rochester, NY. 
My parents lived in Hawaii for 30 years, so I visited there a couple dozen times, but never to sightsee.
So, unlike @Clanstarling, for someone who has packed and unpacked way too many times, I am "untraveled."
I am in the habit of saving boxes.

Edited July 18, 2022 by shapeshifter

[Clanstarling]

44 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Not so many places, because I returned to some areas and often moved within locales due to rentals getting sold, etc.--so I won't bother repeating; it would be even more boring than this list, heh.
In more-or-less chronological order:
New Jersey (near NYC); Connecticut; New Jersey (near Philly); Lincolnshire, IL; Champain/Urbana Illinois; BC, Canada; Northern California (mostly Siskiyou County, but also Sacramento) and briefly Klamath Falls, Oregon; Lake Forest, IL; Rochester, NY. 
My parents lived in Hawaii for 30 years, so I visited there a couple dozen times, but never to sightsee.
So, unlike @Clanstarling, for someone who has packed and unpacked way too many times, I am "untraveled."
I am in the habit of saving boxes.

We still do - but we've been here over 20 years now, so I think that it's because we're old and can't stand to throw away the great boxes that come with our deliveries. Some have been repurposed into drawer dividers, tool/equipment containers, etc.  

[30 Helens]

4 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

I hate moving, but I find I do miss the cleansing of crap that goes along with it.

Yes! That was a definite bonus of moving. I used to have a job that required me to move about once a year, and it was really easy to keep things pared down because when it’s a choice between tossing it or boxing/ transporting it, tossing is an easy choice. Now I’ve lived in the same place for 10+ years and I’m starting to feel like a hoarder.

For me, the fun part of moving was the setting up in the new place: arranging the furniture, hanging the pictures, etc. It was a clean slate, and a way to make everything feel fresh and new again. And then there was the exploring of the new neighborhood: discovering the restaurants and the best shops.  I definitely miss all that.

[illdoc]

My sister & her husband are currently going through their boxes in the basement, to see what they could discard (they are planning on moving here (Chicago) in about 2 years). He was in the Air Force, so the AF just moved their stuff (from Chicago to California to Arizona to Japan to Germany to Salt Lake City). They have stuff in boxes from the initial Chicago to California move 35 years ago that they haven't looked at in all that time!!!

[Clanstarling]

21 minutes ago, illdoc said:

My sister & her husband are currently going through their boxes in the basement, to see what they could discard (they are planning on moving here (Chicago) in about 2 years). He was in the Air Force, so the AF just moved their stuff (from Chicago to California to Arizona to Japan to Germany to Salt Lake City). They have stuff in boxes from the initial Chicago to California move 35 years ago that they haven't looked at in all that time!!!

I laughed, but then I realized that some of the boxes we have haven't been looked at since we moved here - 20+ years ago. 🤣

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, 30 Helens said:

For me, the fun part of moving was the setting up in the new place: arranging the furniture, hanging the pictures, etc. It was a clean slate, and a way to make everything feel fresh and new again. And then there was the exploring of the new neighborhood: discovering the restaurants and the best shops.  I definitely miss all that.

My last 2 moves were understood to be temporary, so I have a few paintings up, but most are either in closets or leaning against walls. Most of my art supplies are in opened boxes, waiting to be closed up again.

And these last 2 moves have been in a more redneck area during a pandemic, so even if I liked going to restaurants or shopping (which I don't) I wouldn't. 

I'm learning my way around the freeways and streets to do essentials, but that is always stressful for me when moving somewhere new. Driving is painful, so exploring a new town is too.

For quite a few moves it did seem like each place I moved to was an improvement. Then it started to be 2 steps forward, one step backward. Now I think I may have arrived at all backward. I can relate to why my parents resisted my sister's efforts to move them out of their home they loved when she thought it was too hard for them.