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Frank the Tank would often propitiously bellow, “You my boy, Blue!”, at his favorite pledge in Old School, and thus I too bellow, “You my girl, Jersey!” And so, in the spirit of the board’s liberté, égalité, and fraternité spirit I’ll offer a respite from our ‘forever war’ and just chit chat.

My wife and I just put the bow on the sale of our SLC residence and have landed in Small Town, USA here in a corner of Utah. After her sister’s death in February, and some subsequently hurtful behavior from her brother who we showed nuthin’ but love, we went for a walk in SoCal. During the hike we talked extensively about a variety of things going on inside our brains and inside our hearts. This was really my first hike where I didn’t really have a goal in mind, I just needed to be on the trail, as did she. We walked up mountains, through snow, deserts, wind storms that made my balls find refuge in my chest cavity, saw a guy get a gun pulled on him, met trail hobos, a dude who believes in lizard people, made friends with the most balanced out woman we’ve ever known, talked with trail angels, stayed in a teepee, and a few other things I can’t quite recall as I’m tapping away on my tablet in a hotel room. Throughout our literal ups and downs we discussed and then decided to turn the volume down and move to this place.

Unfortunately our general contractor overseeing the reno either had a hard time getting subs lined up or we weren’t a priority and upon seeing a house still semi-gutted we found ourselves renting a room for the week, possibly more. I jacked up my back in the move and she jacked up a knee. So, between dealing with life and death and not being able to occupy our place we both sort of hit an emotional wall today. Luckily there’s a respectably priced dispensary nearby so my lay-dee is chillin’ and playing Animal Crossing, and I’m on a couch with some Animal Planet on while I do this. Not gonna lie, I had a small amount of thc (about 3.5 mg) and 10 mg of cbd and I feel alright. If there ever were a time where my wife and I would’ve drank ourselves into a stupor it would’ve been today after seeing that house in that unfinished state, but I’m happy to report my 4+ years of no drinking is still in tact - ditto with my wife.

So. Yeah. If you feel like posting something that isn’t political or religious, the floor is yours.

- Doc

Thank you so much! I'll get back here. I'm currently cutting up hundreds of pieces of ribbon.

Congratulations to you and yours on the new home, Doc!

canpakes wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 3:38 am

Congratulations to you and yours on the new home, Doc!

Thanks, man. I mean, it’s actually just a tiny house we’re dressing up - we call it ‘modern cabin chic’ because we’re up our own asses. We’re more excited to be in what can only be described as Truckland. No crap over half the vehicles here are trucks, and these good ol’ boys like ‘em loud. I have to hand it to the county, though. The community center is like, got dayum. Kino.

- Doc

Grats, Doc. Sounds nice.

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 1:37 am

I’ll offer a respite from our ‘forever war’ and just chit chat.

Awesome and thanks for the thread CAM. (Congrats on the new house)

So. Yeah. If you feel like posting something that isn’t political or religious, the floor is yours.

Not a real important or interesting story but it just happened a few days ago and I thought it was really cool.

A few days back, I was checking out at a grocery store - I was about 4 people back from the register. The person who was at the register checking out didn't have that many items - He placed his item on the belt and a young lady started ringing him up. When his items were all scanned he put his card in the machine to pay. This is when I noticed some conversation/confusion between the employee and the customer. A few minutes go by and then they started removing things from his bagged items and placed them on a counter behind the register. Because of this, I now could see that the items that were removed were about 8 cans of Enfamil (Baby formula) - I don't know this but I am pretty sure that the customer was paying with a "government food card" as this is the only thing I can think of that would cause the computers technology to not accept this type of payment for these particular items (I could be wrong, perhaps it was something else but either way it doesn't really change things - the man was leaving without his baby formula)

Then, almost instantly, this happened: The next person in line (a young man I would guess to be around 25 or so) said to the man who was starting to leave "Hey, wait a second" - He told the employee that he wanted all the baby formula that was just removed from the other guy's bags. He paid for all of the formula and proceeded to place it in the other man's cart, didn't say a word about it, and walked out of the store.

When I thought about this young man (who ended up paying about $90.00 for his gallon of milk and a frozen pizza) I smiled.

I wish I could have met this young man - but he was quickly gone.

Anyway, that's the cool story.

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 3:52 am

canpakes wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 3:38 am

Congratulations to you and yours on the new home, Doc!

Thanks, man. I mean, it’s actually just a tiny house we’re dressing up - we call it ‘modern cabin chic’ because we’re up our own asses. We’re more excited to be in what can only be described as Truckland. No crap over half the vehicles here are trucks, and these good ol’ boys like ‘em loud. I have to hand it to the county, though. The community center is like, got dayum. Kino.

- Doc

How are the gardening and planting opportunities? If I recall correctly, that was a big part of your last home, and lots of fun to read about, if you’re interested in sharing again.

Lem,

Why does your name look like it's a different blue than everybody else? It looks like a different shade of blue. Brighter.

ceeboo wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 12:19 pm

Lem,

Why does your name look like it's a different blue than everybody else? It looks like a different shade of blue. Brighter.

Because she was more valiant in the pre-existence?

ceeboo wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 11:38 am

He paid for all of the formula and proceeded to place it in the other man's cart, didn't say a word about it, and walked out of the store.

When I thought about this young man (who ended up paying about $90.00 for his gallon of milk and a frozen pizza) I smiled.

I wish I could have met this young man - but he was quickly gone.

Anyway, that's the cool story.

It is a cool story. I always like hearing about ‘in real life’ altruism moments. There’s actually a relatively smallish philosophical movement called “Effective Altruism” that I first heard about in a Lex Fridman youtube-podcast-whatever-it’s-called when they interview one another. While they were discussing it Fridman said something to the effect that if you have the means and ability to make someone’s day, even if it’s just buying them lunch, you should do it it because that small act moves all of us collectively forward. He had some sort of philosophical reasoning for it that’s beyond my ability to recall and pare down for a post, but it’s along the lines of Christian charity done for the sake of doing good just because you can and by doing so the act echoes and affects others as they do the same. For example, you sharing that story makes me want to deliberately do something altruistic today, and that’s the unintended consequence of his distant, to me, act of charity.

- Doc