Obviously, don't tell me exactly where you live, no actual addresses please! You can be as vague as you like.
I live in Central Missouri in the U.S.
Pros:
This is an absolutely beautiful place, green rolling hills, lots of rivers, lakes, ponds, and natural springs, cool caves to explore.
Lots of farming here, so great access to quality fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, and dairy.
It's relatively inexpensive to live here compared with other states, because it's a "flyover".
I'm close enough to three major cities, that it's an easy day trip, and I'm about halfway to anywhere in the U.S.
We have one of the best Conservation departments in the U.S. and this is one of the few things that is a bipartisan issue. Lots of awesome nature programs that are free or cheap, state parks, conservation areas, bird watching, hunting, boating, foraging available to everyone.
Cons:
Yeah, it's a big one, it is a RED STATE, while a lot of the cities are blue, there is a large rural population, that votes red. Abortion is not legal here. People often vote against their own self interest.
While I'm not against responsible gun ownership, lots of people aren't responsible, and people have access to guns that definitely should not.
We have very few employee protections here, while the cost of living is relatively low compared with other places, it's taken years to get to a $12 minimum wage, and it's still not enough.
@RickiTarr I’ve lived in Québec, Canada all my life.
Pros: We have wonderful nature really close to most cities. We don’t have deadly critters and the only real menace here is Lyme disease. We don’t have any tornado or hurricane.
Cons: All public infrastructures are falling appart.
This is a bit long, and I've talked about this a lot lately, but it's something I'm thinking about a lot in the wake of so much hatred of female Healthcare. When my female troubles got bad enough that I finally talked to my doctor about it, he referred me to a gynecologist. I had already had several ultrasounds and an MRI at this point, and she had put me on some oral contraceptives for several months, (which made sick to my stomach no matter what I did) and had just done another ultrasound. She greeted me with "Well, you're really messed up inside, Honey.", which already had me pretty stressed out. Then told me I would probably need surgery to figure out exactly what was going on. She then asked me if I wanted children, and I said No. I had taken my husband with me to the appointment for moral support, and she glanced over at him, and then talked to me for 5 minutes about how many women my age could still have children, and I could definitely consider it, and that they would do everything they could to make sure I could stay viable. They could freeze my eggs if I had to do a hysterectomy, just on and on. She probably asked me directly 4-5 if I was sure I didn't want kids. Finally, I said, "Ma'am, my husband got a vasectomy over a decade ago, we are absolutely sure we don't want kids." After hubs had found me crying on the toliet, because my period was late again, he went to his doctor and said, "Hey doctor, I'm thinking about a vasectomy." The doctor gave him a pamphlet to read, and made him an appointment. The whole thing was done in a few weeks.
Anyhow, she finally referred me to a gynecological surgeon, and I was not looking forward to dealing with this again, and was just generally terrified of having surgery for the first time. I met with this woman and she was so efficient and practical. It is the longest doctor appointment I've ever had, since this surgery would be exploratory, she went over every possibility of what could happen when she was inside. She did a thorough exam, she went over all the scans that I had, and explained why she thought this needed done. Then she said she would like to put in a Mirena IUD during surgery. She said, "You're in pain half the month, and there's no reason for you to have a period if you don't want to have kids. You'll have some erratic bleeding for six months, but by a year most women have a very light or no period at all, there's no reason for you to needlessly suffer if you don't end up needing a hysterectomy."
It's interesting to me still, that one doctor was so focused on what my body could do, and another so focused on how I felt. I came out of the first appointment feeling scared and confused, and the second feeling heard and cared for. Feeling valued as a person and not a baby maker made the surgery much easier to go through, and the Mirena has been great btw. Women don't have to needlessly suffer.
Have you tried peanut butter and cheese sandwiches? I’ve been eating them since I was a teenager, and got to wondering how common it is (I don't know anyone else that eats them).
Boost for reach, please.
The kid's grown six inches in two years and still isn't tall enough to be seen over the hood of these ridiculous death machines prowling our neighborhood streets.
@DrTCombs It's really dangerous in itself but a point people often forget is that vehicles with wheels this large can easily climb curbs making them even more dangerous to pedestrians.
Germany. Third biggest economy of the world. Airports are bright, clean and quiet. Fast trains only slightly less comfortable than a living room. Incredible levels of wealth wherever you look. The world is coming to Germany and is marveled. Yet, have a look into the newspapers and all you see is doomerism. How can one explain this?
@dmoser Answers I read here correlates with what I've been seeing where I live (in Canada) but I have German friends and they are astounded to hear about all the power outages we have here. I am too because it was not like for most of my life, it's a new thing. Hope I made at least one German feel better about their country!
Does anybody else ever think how messed up it is that unless you go out of your way (or live in a very rural area), you are bombarded with ads for the entire time you are awake.
Ads on your phone
Ads on your TV
Ads on every place they can buy outside
Ads on almost every website
It is honestly exhausting, and I wonder what a world with heavily limited ads would look like.
Incidentally, the lack of ads is one of the very nice things about self hosting things, and being on fedi.
@ainmosni Even before I came here, the only ads I got were the ones on the side of the roads or my neighbour's radio in summer. I've always hated ads on the side of the roads but now that they are LEDs? I loathe them.
@ainmosni Maybe you are right, but going out of my way one time and then I never have to deal with it ever again is not that bad compared to having to take another route every single time to avoid it.
