Ah yes, that! The near mystical quality of an ingredient known in our family only as "Grandpa's lobster sauce," which invariably tasted different when he made it than when anyone else followed

That's the thing about older things, isn't it? You get into the period I consider "the maintenance years," after which follows the decision of whether you want to just gradually rebuild, or start

Wow! Some things never change. We lived in San Pedro when I was a teenager (late 1970s) and I remember how my parents absolutely loathed going to Fuengirola whenever friends from Scandinavia or the UK

I can't speak to your specific situation @coinjoe, but I do relate to the loss of short term "retention" while having crystal clear recall of things from way-back-when. In my case, most is

For the most part, I don't either! Except it does seem to affect how much activity there is here in the community so at least I keep an eye on it. For my own benefit, I don't care.

I figure there's probably something to it. So many people talk about it and then there does seem to be a difference even if it's caused by all the people who believe in it and are talking about it.

Thank you! We like to surround ourselves with beautiful flowers... when everything else gets stressful they're nice to look at.

Hard to say. The "problem" always seems to have been that the majority of early joiners here joined on the premise of "money for nothing," in some version of that concept. That's perhaps

I'm so glad to hear that she's OK, and the outcome was better than expected! Tooth removal is not that unusual here in the States, either... but it costs a small fortune. When our friend had to have dental

When I first came to the US for college (1981), four of us shared a 1950s 4BR/1.5 bath house, rent on which was $385, as I recall. In Total. It was about 1200 square feet. Seemed normal.

I have a sense that the "enshittification" of the world started with Gen-X — we were the first group of people to grow up with the possibility that we would NOT be as well off as our parents.

Agreed. Just the basics. A while back, I read a (somewhat cynical) explanation for the way the "average" US home has grown as being primarily to be a "storage container" for eternally

😄

Without looking at the political side of it, the *sociological" side seems to suggest that we have created a very "ME focused" society. Nobody considers the impact entirely ME actions has

I don't know if there was a specific point at which it happened but it seems like we somehow measure everything in terms of dollars, including our sense of self. We even measure happiness in terms of dollars.

I've never been able to understand how they make it work. Some trinket is 99 cents and then they offer free shipping on top of that. As a seller online, I know full well but shipping costs more than 99

You said a lot here, @igormuba, I'm going to respond as I think up points... Let's start with market fundamentals for virtually anything: When demand is higher than supply, prices rise. When supply is

Getting old — or as we like to call it around here "olding" — is definitely not for the faint of heart! It feels a bit strange that our HOA has gotten as militant as it has, given that 60 years

In this day and age where so many things we're engaged in only produce intangible and invisible results, gardening is a lovely reminder of something that is very real and tangible. You sow some seeds,

Thank you!