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I don’t live anywhere cold now, but when I did it was in an urban area. Urban snow is pretty for a couple of hours max before the cars, people, pollution, shitting dogs, etc give it a disgusting tinge. It was also miserably cold to me, regularly getting down into the 10s and 20s F (-12 to -6 C).

I wouldn’t say I was dreaming of a green Christmas necessarily, but a white one isn’t all it’s cracked up to be if you’re not living in a cottage in the woods!

You can also do it the lazy (and cheaper) way and get one of those toddler fridge locks to hold it shut

I grew up in a rural southern baptist community with zero Jewish kids, Rugrats was literally my first introduction to Judaism that wasn’t through an evangelical Christian lens. So I’m glad that it wasn’t a terrible representation!

Feetsies!

Also could be a UTI or STI(s). Or he eats beets all the time and isn't particularly bright. Could be anything, spin the wheel of medical disasters!

My attempted translation as an intermediate Spanish learner:

The trees and the

forest, the brushstrokes and

The Mona Lisa. The important

things are lost 

in the details, not

in plain sight. 

When you  realize, 

you back up. You say,

I want  to read between

the lines, and you discover that

there’s much  more to 

discover - all the

sunset on the savanna

of Africa.  All the

drama and comedy of

life.

But as you pointed out, “te quiero mucho Africa” (I love you a lot Africa) is emphasized in the original Spanish, which isn’t really easily translated even when you keep the spacing the same on the words.

So far the council says it has spent $1,500 (£1,190) on removing googly eyes from seven of the eight sculptures affected.

I’ll do it for $1000!

Seriously, what is the cost involved in removing googly eyes from metal sculptures, other than wages you’d be paying anyway for the employee that cleans it up? I could buy maybe they have to use some special adhesive remover to protect it long term, but $1500 worth??

I just saw that! At the time I was making my comment I thought, “or they add federal charges,” but I didn’t think it was going to happen. Shows how useless it is to outlaw the death penalty on the state level when the federal government can selectively apply the death penalty in state level cases.

New fear unlocked!

Did you talk to whoever picked up the phone or a manager? A manager should be able to deal with the code issue, while a cashier probably couldn’t. If it was someone that could fix it and just refused or didn’t care, that’s indeed infuriating

To establish my surviving shitty states credentials: I grew up as a queer kid in the rural Bible Belt during the Clinton and Bush (both of them) years. The current environment may not be exactly the same, but IMO in many ways it’s very similar to the community I grew up in (extremely conservative, racist, and vindictive).

So, here are the things that kept me comparatively sane:

Watch subversive media, whatever that means to you. Being reminded that there is a wider world with people who aren’t like the ones surrounding you (whether it’s your family or wider community) is a powerful hope generator

Connect with similarly minded people in your local community, if you aren’t already. You might need to drive to a college town for this one, depending on your area. Having IRL connections with people who aren’t bastards will keep you sane

Find the joy you can, and make it when you can’t. If you don’t find things to be happy about it will seriously kill you. There’s always stuff to be miserable about, so don’t worry about overdoing it in the joy department

Do something you find meaningful. Volunteering, clean ups, whatever you feel drawn towards. Doesn’t even have to be anything official, like checking in on your loved ones

Get some healthy eating and exercise in when you can, too. If it doesn’t improve your mood it’ll at least let you sleep and poop better