I am tallish for a woman, at least where I live, but not for a person. Countertops are too low for the average height person, they are still built at the 36" height that was in my old house, built in the 1920s. We are taller on average now, and both men and women use the kitchen now.

Stove vent hoods that don’t actually vent outside are fucking stupid. My over the range microwave basically just takes smoke from my stove and blows it back out over my head almost directly at the smoke detector.

Amen. The one non-negotiable item when we eventually renovate our kitchen is a vent fan so powerful you should be afraid to bring your small dog into the kitchen when it’s on.

We had one of those downdraft ones and it was similarly useless, worse than useless even though it technically vented outside because it got so disgusting, the vent grate right in the middle of the stove so things fell in, and heat doesn’t go down, it didn’t pull anything when it ran.

Countertops should be just a couple of inches higher, they are calibrated for a 1930s housewife but most of us aren’t 5’2" and it’s easier to stand on a stool if it’s too high than to stoop because it’s too low.

OP I hate those low ziploc bag openings too, they are so stupid.

Caffeine I have quit a few times and that has the worst physical withdrawal of anything I have quit (hard drugs & alcohol I have never used enough to become physically habituated). Speed probably the most difficult emotionally/psychologically.

I don’t worry about caffeine anymore, just maintain the habit.

Yes, my mom made us take swim lessons up through lifeguard lessons, and some of my brothers were competitive (like very competitive) swimmers. I got my kids lessons through the drownproofing, not more.

Kids drown here every year, it’s not important to have paid lessons but very very important to know how to swim.

It takes exponentially longer to heal from physical injury. That’s it so far, except for feeling calmer - older people are exceptional at emotional regulation, which oddly enough is why they are easier to scam, they don’t freak out as quickly.

But mostly it’s the slow healing. I am still strong and flexible but have to be careful and moderate because getting hurt will set me back much more than it used to.

My mom once made plans to come up here (she lived near Miami) to see Tab Benoit with some of her friends - by the day of the concert two of them were dead! She said “if you want to see your friend when you are old, go see them, don’t make plans.”

I find coffee to be the best replacement but never liked sugary sodas, only the sugar-free ones.

I still have a diet soda now & then but not even once a week.

Gotta keep moving, then. Need a good information network, they can’t be everywhere at once, and there are more of us than them.

I think I’d stay in UTC -5 because there’s plenty here on the east coast of the US, can go to big cities, mountains, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico beaches; a lot of the populated part of Canada, Pacific coast in Peru.

I could make it the rest of my life with those options.

Immediately, I don’t have any same-sex spaces or activities. I guess if I was in the bathroom at work it might take a couple of minutes.

I would miss sex so much, but car insurance would go down and a lot of the crime. Eventually everyone would notice though if all the males were snapped out of existence because there just would be half as many people.

Free will. I want to believe I can do as I please and am making decisions that could go either way. But I think it more likely that time is just unwinding, every action a result of some previous actions, all the way back to the big bang and it’s impossible to step out of this stream.

Amen.

It’s a racket. The government does receive enough information to automatically calculate taxes for 90% of us, but Intuit and HR Block lobbied congress to keep it complicated and not allow automatic filing.

My paycheck has deductions for tax, healthcare insurance, and 401k (superannuation) so net around 50% of gross like everyone else, and we don’t generally have to pay more at year end.