Currently just testing new jerky flavors, the ones in the works right now are...

Jerk Chicken

Mango Habanero

Additionally, on the Agora front, we had an AMAZING day at our local Outdoor Agora Market yesterday. We are planning another in September, and the final one will be held in October. However, we were approached by someone with a venue indoors, and are looking at a couple others, so we can continue our crazy anarchy activities thru the Minnesota winter. More coming soon, to https://tcfreedomcell.com/

Thanks :)

The mowed path through the meadow reminds me of something similar... my sister and cousins and I walked through a path like that in my grandparents' back yard as kids.

I saw this phenomenon of people withdrawing inwardly years ago, before the wireless earphones were even a thing (at the height of the iPod)

I do not see this anywhere but cities, which are congested with noises from traffic, trains, airplanes, etc., as well as human noise, people bustling through corridors and talking on buses/trains etc. and I noticed that I wear my wired earbuds and play music into them from my phone out of habit, whenever I board a bus, just because there's always people talking more loudly to their seat mates than they need to.

If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't wear them. For context, I'm a single woman over 50 who works from home (self employed in tech, as well as sort of an urban homesteader) and rarely need to go anywhere farther than someplace I can walk to, as I live in a very walkable area.

Oops, I voted no by mistake.

Cursive handwriting is important. It's now almost a lost art (not lost yet, going to be lost in future generations). There are a few younger folk out there who are discovering and learning it, hopefully they carry it on to their own kids.

Maybe they could be the same. I don't think it's fair to expect everyone to make music.

...but I think playing it or experiencing it live vs listening to albums might come first

To be fair, I grew out of concerts and I'm an old, so honestly it's whatevs

I also don't care that much

I'd counter, "Dance to music or attend live performances > Play instruments or sing > Listen to albums > Tracks/TikToks".

I think it's different for everyone. For those of us who had/have parents in our lives, we know that it's just down to nature that they're supposed to eventually die before we do. But the time left is uncertain, even if you prepare yourself, and even then, it's still somehow unexpected (like with my dad) and in other cases, the onset of it seems to drag on painfully (like with my mom).

With my dad, we did not know he suffered dementia for years before a diagnosis. It was barely 2001 when he had a car accident that should have killed him (he blacked out and slumped over, relaxed (so was like a ragdoll behind his seat belt, instead of tensing up upon impact, which would have caused more damage). While in the ER, they examined everything (not only found that the sutures holding up his pacemaker had slipped, but also having done a brain scan, and that's where they discovered brain tissue deterioration to where parts of his brain were physically missing/gone). He had either 1 or 10 years to live, the doctors just could not say...and we never knew that he was going through that before it all happened...he had just gotten more tired and slightly more brain fog-y over the past few years before, and we just thought it was aging/years of hard work (he was a baker from the time he was 14 as an orphan and barely took a day off). At not even 60 years old, he had spent the last 3 years of his life in a nursing home because we were unable to do everything a facility could. His language and behavior were that of about a 4 year old in the few months before he died. It's also important to note that at the time, not much was known about this type of dementia (Pick's disease), and doctors documented everything they could to be more familiar with other cases like it in the future. There was also NONE of the type of caregiver support and community for people who had relatives living with dementia/Alzheimer's, the way there is now...with the internet still in its infancy, and no such thing as social media yet, barely even discussion boards...just to give an idea of the lack of information or resources that could be found.

With my mother, she just had a lot of health problems due to lifestyle, and suffered chronic inflammation and pain as a result. You name the kind of painful disease, she had it. Multi-fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, numb/painful feet/legs, couldn't walk without assistance of a cane starting around age 57, then to a walker from about ten years later (until she died at 77) and either always on pain meds (we're talking TONS) or screaming & crying with pain nonstop about 85% of every day and not being able to help make it better. The number of times we would discuss with her some kind of either on-site or move-in care (moving to assisted living) and going back and forth was hard to keep track of. She refused changing her diet or any other health habits. It was hard to see that, and knowing it is your job to care for your parents in their last years made it even harder to the point you just weren't allowed to help unless you would like to have the silent treatment for months or be disowned. But after some time, she might come around to be agreeable to some changes, then to have it all be back (to just not happening) again. It makes you feel guilty and at the same time, you also feel a bit gaslighted but it's also hard because you don't want to admit your parent is manipulating you, because it was mostly out of desperation due to extreme pain, fear, and denial (that she did not have more time left than she did). Having to watch a loved one in their dying years and trying not to force them to realize they're not going to make it much longer is something I don't know how else to describe other than the way I just did, albeit a bit ramble-y.

The last days were not good ones with having to helplessly watch it all fade away in a hospital, which is the last place she wanted to be. Her last month on earth was spent there. We could not do anything, we could barely carry on a conversation, because she was on a ventilator which was keeping her alive, and her facilities had mostly depleted in her last few days, too.

In the end, you're sort of relieved to know they no longer hurt or suffer, but you also feel drained, extremely guilty, and yet every time the guilt comes up again, it hurts to have to forcibly remind myself that i did what I thought was right, and what I could, with my mom. She had the last word, and there was just no arguing. From her standpoint, I am her child, not her doctor.

It's not a comparison

AT ALL.

I just got an insider tip that we might have a food stand joining us! Pulled pork sandwiches & possibly also tacos!

Heartbreak

Parental death (even though it's part of life, it changes you in a way no one tells you about)

the code does not expire

Hmm. In 1995 I was 22 years old. I would have done what I did then. No regrets.

PS - I'm not sure where the info came from that I ship to Canada. I don't, and never have. Customers in Canada would have to make an arrangement with a proxy service or something. I have heard of people ordering for friends in other countries, but all orders are US-only (including AK and HI). Can you please edit that info? Thanks

I'm not sure how a promotion of this post mentioned that I ship to Canada. I don't, and never have. You'd have to make an arrangement with a proxy service.