Well-meaning able-bodied neurotypical "helpers" firing off rapid-fire questions at me like "do you want this? How about this? Or this? Just tell us what you need" but not giving my neurospicy brain space to react, till I have to interrupt crying "please STOP!! so I can even think enough to form words, let alone figure out what I need-- and wait I didn't tell you to do THAT, give me a moment PLEASE!"
I swear, just now a "helper" tried to move the container I'd just set down within easy arm reach to put it back in the out-of-reach spot I'd just moved it from because they thought it was awkwardly balanced. I literally had to grab it out of their hand and put it back where I wanted it - and they even tried to question me about it! Arrggg!!!
If you didn’t know, mulberries grow on trees. This tree (foreground) sprang up from nowhere a year or two ago and is absolutely huge. (I did not plant the tree and have not seen any mulberries in the area. No idea how it ended up here).
@Melezioh My childhood home had a couple of big mulberry trees in its yard. The windfall berries would stain the ground purple, and then ferment, and then the bluejays would get into them and start behaving like avian drunken fratboys. 🤣
@mike My old shirts have faded slowly and gracefully, but a newer demand-printed shirt is a semi-legible mess in less than a year. I probably won't remember to turn shirts inside out but I sure will remember to stick to buying properly screen printed tees in future. 😅
After I put what I believed to be white chocolate chips into my cookies, I looked at the label and noticed that it just says "white chips". Checked the ingredients and ... no cocoa butter. These are palm oil and milk solids with vanilla and sugar.
It's on me for not reading carefully, but in my defense, the word "chocolate" is right there ... just in the Ghirardelli logo. 😡
@TonyaMarie I am deeply disappointed with Ghirardelli for sinking to that level of mislabeling shenanigans. That's right down there with American cheese-food product 🙄
@Raven_Ninjato Ooh! One of these days I mean to get around to making an Argonian toon, so I'll be sure to put this 'do on them because that sounds awesome!
Meanwhile, the big gorgeous tree at my riverside hang has now put out enough foliage that my plant ID app was able to tentatively identify it as a beech tree. Alternate opinions as to its identity welcome!
@DriftlessRoots Alas, since I am disabled (mobility impaired, falling risk), it is often, as in this case, not do-able to get out and get close enough to pick up leaves for ID purposes. Fortunately the plants app is able to work from photographs taken from my van, and I have identified parks where I can pull up my van close enough to nature to take photos.
And the sleepoveraning has begun. My house is slowly being overrun by tween girls. Pray for me. I will try to post when I am able. Oh god, I hear the shrieks. …. They’re coming.
@Cara Ah, you've fetched a memory out of the brainfile: back in the 1990s in Seattle, I was walking by the local Hard Rock Cafe where there was a huge line down the block awaiting a show by a current tween heartthrob. The screaming of all those kids at any hint of said heartthrob's approach, echoing and amplified by the nearby skyscrapers, was a truly insane sound.
Sigh. The friend-with-$$$ has gifted me a gorgeous duvet with cover, saying "oh it'll be so much easier to make your bed." It turns out to be heavier, hotter, and more difficult to move than the old smelly sleeping bag I was using, and I'll need assistance changing the cover to wash it. NOT disabled-friendly. Par for the course with this friend sadly, who does not get that decorator-think is often not disabled-friendly. (1/thread)
I love this friend and her partner, and they've given me some amazing help, but there's always this hole in their understanding of my disability needs. They generously bought me a new bed and mattress, and fortunately I got ahead of that order to make sure it was a height I could get into/out of easily, having struggled with their towering guestroom bed/mattress/boxspring setup and fearing they'd blow $$$ on similar excessive bedding for me. (2/thread)
Their house is huge and beautiful, and decorated gorgeously. While I celebrate their freedom as fellow queers to live well and openly and earn enough to have such a spread, the sheer upper-middle-class consumerism of their home (in a development carved out of a once-forested hill) rattles my political nerves. LOL at least they're being generous with helping their broke disabled friend! But the classism of it all frets my brain. (3/thread).
Still, now that I have this latest gift, as a broke disabled person I'm sure as heck not going to turn it down! I've managed to wrestle the duvet into a heap where the bed meets the wall, so I can unfurl it a little as needed when sleeping. But I've dispensed with daily making my bed just to unmake it again every night as a big spoon-waster years ago, so my friend's Instagram visions of me using the duvet as an "easy" bedspread will simply go unfulfilled. (4/thread)
But to any able-bodied folks reading this: PLEASE think long and hard, when buying gifts for disabled friends, as to whether the gift actually is usable by said friends! Buy it for your friend's needs for usability, which will often be less glamorous looking than your visions of household beauty but much more of a true helpful gift for said friend. (end thread)