Close quarters.

Reading all of your reminiscences about apartment life tickled something in my memory. This blog has been around so long I expect I’ve told all my stories. (God knows I’m not collecting any new ones.) But yeah, we talked about bad neighbors once before, in 2011. I don’t know if I ever told the story about how Jeff Borden drove out one tenant in the four-flat we all lived in, thereby transforming it from 3 cool tenants + 1 pair of tightasses into an entirely cool building.

The tightasses were a couple, as young as we were but born 70 years old, apparently. They hated loud music, but had a yappy dog they’d leave in the back yard while they ran Saturday-morning errands. They had the nerve – the nerve! – to pound a broomstick on the ceiling if Jeff and his girlfriend made too much noise in bed. They were awful. So Jeff started a campaign of psychological torture to persuade them they really needed to get a new apartment. He cut up a hot dog and buried the pieces, shallowly, in her flower garden; the dog did the rest. He had a mark on his stereo of the maximum volume they’d tolerate, and would crank it up. As soon as the door downstairs would open and the angry footsteps start up the stairs, he’d drop it down to the mark. There’d be a pause, and the footsteps would retreat. He’d wait 10 minutes, then do it again.

There were other techniques, but I’ve forgotten them; maybe Jeff will remember.

I, too, am probably too cantankerous to live in an apartment anymore. Many days I wish my current neighbors could only be seen with binoculars, but they’re nice people and I tolerate dual Albums of the Summer blasting on the Bluetooth speakers (neighbors to the north and west), not to mention the Maximum Volume Lawn Service on the east. Our house faces south. So far the street hasn’t offended.

That said, I expect we’re headed for condo/apartment life eventually, although I’m hoping for a ranch house on a slab.

A long weekend, sorely needed. Saturday was warm and cloudy, Sunday hot, Monday ditto, and tomorrow, more of the same. I’m happy that it’s warm, but I resent that we were denied spring, going immediately from early April to July. That also said, we may have to turn the A/C on tomorrow. Work + computers = a need for temperature regulation. And it’ll be cooler later in the week. Knowing the way things have gone for us lately, the A/C will refuse to start and hello, get out the credit card for yet another major system repair.

Journalists swarmed over northern Michigan this weekend, as it was the first weekend the region was “opened up,” as we say now. And what happened? Two idiots who were symptomatic traveled in from out of state to visit family. They tested positive, and now six people are in lockdown. Idiots. This stay-home stuff is going to continue because of people like this.

Meanwhile, Kate the vegetarian is away from the house for dinner and I’m making a MemDay splurge: A USDA Prime New York strip steak, brought to medium-rare in the sous vide and seared on the grill. I bought it, plus two pounds of ground chuck yesterday, with plans to turn the ground into Sam Sifton’s Middle School Tacos, so Alan can pick at the leftovers for a couple days. Total bill? Forty-seven dollars. For three pounds of beef! Soon we will all be vegetarians.

Now, to figure out the sides. A good week ahead, everyone.

Posted at 5:56 pm in Same ol' same ol' |
 

76 responses to “Close quarters.”

  1. David C said on May 25, 2020 at 8:15 pm

    Today’s our first hot day of the summer and the A/C isn’t working. This has been the year from hell. Ruptured disc, broken wrist, covid, pay cut, tRump, A/C, and probably something I forgot. Things will get better, won’t they?

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  2. Julie Robinson said on May 25, 2020 at 8:59 pm

    While Dennis was in Orlando our one year old heat pump stopped blowing cool air, requiring a $75 service call. Turns out there’s some regular maintenance that needs to be done, but they conveniently failed to tell our daughter when it was installed. He had them teach both of them and now we can take care of it ourselves. We did the same with the furnace/AC at our old house; if you get the right guy out they will teach you some tricks and you can avoid most of the annual calls.

    Other than one neighbor’s grandfather clock it’s very quiet here at the senior apartment complex, and we like it that way. We would have been Nancy’s tightass neighbors, ready to climb those stairs when the stereo went over the mark. I HATED living in a dorm.

    For the holiday today, we kept it simple with some apple bratwurst and homemade potato salad, then a lemon loaf with strawberries for dessert. We were kind of in heaven.

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  3. Sherri said on May 25, 2020 at 9:55 pm

    It’s been a long time since I lived in an apartment, but living in a detached home doesn’t mean you don’t have to put up with noisy neighbors at times. In California, one of neighbors had a deadbeat son who lived with them for a while, and he would spend hours on end driving an RC car out in the street, with its whiny little motor. We were also just a few blocks away from Caltrain, the commuter rail that runs up the peninsula to SF, with numerous at-grade crossings, which meant the train whistle had to blow for each one. We like trains, though, so that didn’t bother us.

    During quarantine here, our next door neighbor’s teenage son has gotten into the habit of going out into the driveway and shooting hoops at 10 pm at night. He doesn’t stay out there too late, though, and I know that in addition to the stresses of quarantine, his parents’ marriage is breaking up and they’re getting ready to sell the house he’s grown up in, so I can’t complain.

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  4. Colleen said on May 25, 2020 at 10:10 pm

    we had steaks today as well. For the sides I made potato salad, which my husband loves, and uborksalata…..Hungarian for cucumber salad. So good.

    Not ready to head back to work, but fully aware how lucky I am to have work to go back to.

    Can anyone explain to me why the whole mask issue makes people batshit crazy? People are just so freaking hostile.

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  5. Deborah said on May 25, 2020 at 10:25 pm

    Wearing a mask is an unavoidable symbol that one wears front and center on their face, it’s something everyone is hyperaware of right now, so some people object because they feel that if they wear one they’re portraying an image that their president cult figure says is derogatory.

    We had a good day in Abiquiu, a chore day, getting ready for summer. It looked like for a while there it might rain today but I’ve learned not to get my hopes up about rain out here in the high desert. Santa Fe is getting rain, which is great for the plants in the condo yard.

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  6. beb said on May 25, 2020 at 11:09 pm

    We did a little house hunting just before I retired. We were looking for a ranch on a slab because walking was getting bad for my wife. I would have settled for a 3 bedroom room with a basement if we could move the laundry room into one of the bedrooms.

    We needed up putting in a new furnace and roof on the house we live in and plan to stay here for a few more years.

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  7. LAMary said on May 25, 2020 at 11:28 pm

    With the menagerie I have now I can’t imagine moving to an apartment. I know one of my sons, maybe both, are very interested in living in this house eventually but they’re going to either have to support me in my dotage and wait for me to die or buy it from me because this overpriced piece of LA turf is my retirement income. It’s gone up in value nearly ten fold since I bought it in 1986. This is crazy. But it’s true. I think the fact it’s on two lots is the reason.

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  8. Julie Robinson said on May 26, 2020 at 12:58 am

    Our landlord asked if we wanted new carpet installed before we moved in, and our “share” would only be $500. Since the place is only five years old we asked if we could see it, did we have color options, and did the current tenant have animals. No, no, and no, so our answer was also no. What a racket, right?

    Then we moved in and my allergies went bonkers, and we found big wads of fur in the vacuum, and the neighbor said she had in fact had both a dog and a cat. Oh.

    I’m super allergic to animals and years of treatments brought negligible improvement. We vacuumed and vacuumed and cleaned the carpet and after two months I finally worked all the crud out of my system.

    With hindsight I would have happily paid to replace the durn carpet.

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  9. ROGirl said on May 26, 2020 at 5:20 am

    People are still wearing masks at the local stores where I shopped as of this weekend (groceries, Home Depot, Target, Walmart).

    In one apartment building, 4 units and a basement dwelling in a house, there was a woman who was operating an escort service, the basement dweller who vandalized my car and threatened me, and a single mother whose gang member boyfriend threatened a drive-by shooting.

    A few years ago I saw an obituary for the single mother, she was probably in her 40s/50s, it didn’t say how she died.

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  10. Dorothy said on May 26, 2020 at 7:01 am

    I’ve learned not to make eye contact at Kroger with anyone not wearing a mask. You just can’t tell how people will react these days so it’s best just to avoid any chance of confrontation. I needed milk, sweet potatoes and corn on the cob to go with our supper, so I dashed in wearing my mask made from Democrat fabric. I used the self check-out and the guy beside me said he liked my mask.

    I know it’s the day after the holiday but I’m offering a tip about homemade potato salad. Potato salad can be eaten year ‘round. If you’ve never had it with both white and sweet potatoes, do yourself a favor and try it. A few years ago I had a straggler sweet potato so I just decided to boil it along with the whites. We loved it!

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  11. Mark P said on May 26, 2020 at 8:47 am

    We live on 5 acres in a little 12-house, rural neighborhood on top of a mountain outside Rome, Ga. We have a view of town about 10 miles away and on a clear day can see Kennesaw Mountain outside of Atlanta on the horizon. We can hear our neighbors outside sometimes but not see them. The two biggest problems we have are the young people who party and sell drugs at the dead-end just up the road, and a couple of neighbors who shoot sometimes. It’s a really nice place but I hate Georgia summers. My nephew and some good friends of many years live in Denver. I want to move out to Colorado (we couldn’t afford Denver). There’s nothing keeping us here, but my wife doesn’t want to move.

    Almost no one around here is wearing a mask any more. I think most people have figured, well, we did the social distancing and masks, now it’s done and I’m ready to party. I wonder where they got that idea.

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  12. LAMary said on May 26, 2020 at 9:09 am

    Mark P, if you can convince your wife to consider Colorado take a look at Fort Collins or Grand Junction. Montrose is a nice town too. The winters in Colorado have some seriously cold weather but there isn’t the grey depressing sort of weather. I lived near Denver for five years and it’s a great place.

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  13. Mark P said on May 26, 2020 at 9:31 am

    LAMary, it’s the oppressive humidity that I hate here in Georgia. My friend from Denver occasionally calls to tell us how low the humidity is there and how pleasant it is as they drink their coffee in their back yard. If we did that we’d have to change our shirts when we came back in. It’s almost as if humans weren’t meant to live here.

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  14. nancy said on May 26, 2020 at 10:02 am

    Some years back I did a story on obesity in Michigan. I called people from Denver’s MSU alumni club, and they said the same thing — that the weather is cold in winter, but the sun is always out. The flannel-shirt-over-base-layer is sort of the casual uniform, with the sleeves tied around your waist once the afternoon arrives. The sun encourages outdoor recreation and exercise, which is why Colorado is the thinnest state.

    I’m always struck, when I look at a map, at how far south Colorado is. You think skiing = snow = cold, but it’s the altitude that makes it possible.

    A flatlander’s confession: Mountains freak me out a little bit. It seems weird to fall off the earth.

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  15. LAMary said on May 26, 2020 at 10:30 am

    It’s true. No humidity in Colorado and you can have a 60 degree day in winter. For the first few months I was there I was warm enough with an alpaca poncho. What’s also nice is you can get away from the city pretty easily. It’s not a three hour drive like it is in a lot of urban areas. Head out from Denver on route 285 and things get green and beautiful pretty soon, or golden and beautiful in autumn. Driving over the mountain pass west into Park County is a stunning sight. It’s a wide green valley with lakes, meadows and snowcapped mountains on all sides.

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  16. Mark P said on May 26, 2020 at 11:00 am

    I love the mountains. If I were 30 and rich, I would live someplace like Silverton, CO. There’s a little campground just outside Silverton called South Mineral. It’s down a valley with a stream and beaver ponds, at about 9800 feet. It’s so beautiful that it hurts not to be there.

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  17. Jim said on May 26, 2020 at 11:30 am

    I’m holed up in an apartment in downtown Fort Wayne. Staying to work another 12-18 months.

    My wife (lucky duck!) quit her job and moved to our new townhouse in Longmont CO. It’s a beautiful area (between Boulder and Fort Collins).

    Nancy: not mountainous, but the Flatirons every day is a beautiful sight.

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  18. Sherri said on May 26, 2020 at 11:31 am

    I was at the grocery store on Sunday, and almost everybody was wearing masks. Of course, we’re still under a stay at home order here, though our numbers are now lower than some of the places where everything is open and people are acting like it’s all over. (Narrator: it’s not all over.)

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  19. Deborah said on May 26, 2020 at 12:05 pm

    May I suggest New Mexico? Mountains: not as high as CO, low humidity, forested areas, always sunny, gorgeous big sky, less snow than CO and not as highly populated in the metro areas. Less water than CO but beautiful high desert views. It’s a blue state too. Probably more affordable than CO.

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  20. Charlotte said on May 26, 2020 at 12:20 pm

    January 1989, top of Lift 9, Telluride. Sun is shining. Sky is bluer than any blue I’ve ever seen. I’m skiing in just a sweater with my very fun dirtbag ski bum friends. Vowed then and there I was Never Going Back East Again.
    And I didn’t — went further west — UC Davis, SLC, Bay Area again before Montana. It was one of the biggest reasons I didn’t pursue an academic career. I didn’t want to move to Toledo like my buddy Lawrence.

    The Western slope is really nice — I thought about Montrose when I was looking to move back from Colorado. Durango has become quite a hopping town as well. Montana’s great — but housing prices have gone way up, and there are FAR too many white-flight retirees. See also: hostile people not wearing masks.

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  21. Sherri said on May 26, 2020 at 12:43 pm

    I’m never leaving the West Coast.

    Because of all the rain here, you’d think it might be humid, but it’s not. Summers here are quite pleasant, except when the wildfires are raging. Washington on the eastern side of the Cascades is dryer and more extreme (colder in winter and hotter in summer), and more sunshine, but also more white* and right wing.

    *It’s not just white, there’s a significant Latinx population, but all the power structures are white.

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  22. LAMary said on May 26, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    Wow, Silverton and Durango both mentioned here. You can take the narrow gauge train from one to the other. Eastern Washington does have a lot of right wing types and has for years. I spent a couple of weeks there in the seventies and it had plenty then. Near the Idaho border there was some sort of convention of scary types when I was there. I love New Mexico, but I always had the sense there was no real middle class there. Just very poor people and people who were comfortable and nothing in between. The opioid situation along the I 25 corridor from about Pueblo, CO south has done some damage as well.

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  23. Jakash said on May 26, 2020 at 2:10 pm

    “A flatlander’s confession: Mountains freak me out a little bit.” That’s a bingo! Love to visit mountainous areas, but don’t think I’d be comfortable living in one. I think we’ve been to Silverton, but I may be confusing it with Leadville. And we saw, but did not ride, that train going through Durango. Ft. Collins would be worth it just for the breweries!

    “What’s also nice is you can get away from the city pretty easily.” Well, from Chicago, you can drive 3 hours in any direction and be in a corn field, so there’s that. In an hour you’re lucky to get out of traffic…

    Sorry, Dorothy, but “so it’s best just to avoid any chance of confrontation” followed right up by “I dashed in wearing my mask made from Democrat fabric.” would prompt me to post that “pondering guy with hand on chin” emoji, if I knew how. ; )

    It’s no fun being in a place with as many Covid cases as Chicago, but on the upside, when we go to the store, *everybody* has been wearing a mask lately. Though I’m not wild about the idea that thousands around here fled to “open” areas like Wisconsin for a little R and R over the holiday and have now returned.

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  24. LAMary said on May 26, 2020 at 2:50 pm

    My recollection of Leadville is that it wasn’t as charming as Silverton, but that was in 1977. Things probably have changed significantly. Maybe I should have said you can go three hours and be someplace amazingly beautiful and you’re only people there? I’ve been to cornfields. I don’t find them as spiritually renewing as a mountain lake. Love corn, but for a break from civilization I’ll take a mountain.

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  25. Dorothy said on May 26, 2020 at 3:03 pm

    Jakash one can be non-confrontational and yet still make a statement about one’s beliefs without saying a word.

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  26. Jakash said on May 26, 2020 at 3:05 pm

    Gee, LAMary, that was just a joke. The lack of interesting places to go on a day-trip is one of the downsides of Chicago, not that there aren’t some. I wasn’t trying to rhapsodize cornfields. 🙂

    I certainly hope you’re right, Dorothy, but I wouldn’t count on it, myself, given some of the more egregious behavior I’ve seen reported with regard to Cult 45 members lately…

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  27. LAMary said on May 26, 2020 at 3:25 pm

    Sokay, Jakash. I wasn’t taking it as seriously as it may have seemed. That and I have close relatives in NJ who say things, like, “why would I want to go anyplace else? I can do or buy anything I want here.” Knowing where this person lives (next door to where we grew up) I’m a little saddened by stuff like that.
    I agree with you about the Democrat mask, though. There are loonies out there who might find that a reason to spit at you or worse.

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  28. David C said on May 26, 2020 at 3:43 pm

    I’ve never seen a mountain except the Porcupine Mountains in the UP. I know when we told someone we vacationed there they said they weren’t real mountains. I’ve never been further west than Minneapolis and anytime I’ve gone out east I’ve flown over the Adirondacks. We’ve thought about New Mexico for retirement but with climate change we may just move back to Michigan or stay in Wisconsin where we have plenty of water.

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  29. Mark P said on May 26, 2020 at 3:47 pm

    I like New Mexico. I have another friend who lives east of Albuquerque in Edgewood. He actually offered me a building lot if I wanted to move out there. But I really prefer Colorado.

    I have taken the train from Durango to Silverton several times. The scenery is worth the ride, even if you don’t care for steam engines. The last time, my wife and I took the bus to Silverton and the train back to Durango. The entire train was almost empty, so that worked out well. I don’t think I would actually like to live in Silverton. It’s too small, and in the winter, it can be pretty isolated. Durango is pretty, but also pretty expensive. If I ever get my wife to agree, we’ll probably end up in some place like Canon City. Can’t make those prison towns too expensive, you know. Prison guards don’t make that much.

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  30. Deborah said on May 26, 2020 at 3:56 pm

    We were seeing fresh snow on the peaks this morning but it’s melting fast. There used to be snow up there through most of June but it hasn’t stayed that long the last few years. We hardly have any wild flowers this year compared to last year at this time. We could use some rain.

    LA Mary, you have a point about NM. There is a middle class in Albuquerque, sort of. And there is an opioid problem in parts, it goes back generations. But northern NM has spectacular scenery and I love the climate. I like having both worlds though, the bustling city of Chicago and the quiet beauty of this place. I miss Chicago but I’m not anxious to get back there for a long while.

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  31. Scout said on May 26, 2020 at 3:56 pm

    Interesting discussion about downsizing today. That has been a topic of conversation here at Casa Scout lately. We have a fairly small home, a rancher built in 1957, on a huge lot. The house is mostly fine, although I am always bitching about closet space and the size of the bedrooms. There is no master, just 3 tiny, kid size bedrooms, no walk in closets, no en suite bath. The yard is just a whole lot of work and I’m tired of it. Anyway, during my work at home weeks I have been repainting the interior and it is almost complete. So it may be a good time to get our real estate guru in to take a look around to see what else we might need to freshen up to put it on the market and then we’d like to buy a patio home with 2 master suites and an open concept living area. I’m ready for a change. When we moved back to this house after the 2010 real estate crash we planned to only stay five years.

    We forgot it was Memorial Day weekend and on Friday we drove up north to Sedona to hike an obscure trail and we hardly saw another soul except for a few mountain bikers and two other hikers. When we left to drive home we decided to take the scenic route through Cottonwood and Jerome. Restaurants were open and crowded and people were everywhere on the sidewalks, 98% had no masks. We were seriously shocked by this; they must think it’s over because things were allowed to reopen. The crowd size seemed excessive until it occurred to us that it was Friday of Memorial Day weekend. Once we got on the I17 south back to Phoenix we saw the northbound traffic was bumper to bumper, so all of those places were about to get even more crowded. We are going to continue to lay low for the next month or more because it does not take a stable genius to realize things are about to get much worse here soon.

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  32. Julie Robinson said on May 26, 2020 at 4:27 pm

    I’m a flatlander too, and mountains are forever mysterious and beautiful to me. And terrifying when there are no guardrails and hairpin turns.

    It’ll be interesting to see how the housing market changes after all this, if city people really decide they need more space and suburbia becomes cool again. Will prices go down as the economy is depressed? That would be bad for us codgers looking to sell but good for young folks who have been priced out of the market, if they still have a job. I’m relieved that we sold our house at the end of the year before all this happened. We thought it wouldn’t sell in the winter and maybe we should wait until spring.

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  33. Dexter Friend said on May 26, 2020 at 6:01 pm

    LA Mary: Did you have the old standard police lock in NYC? The first time I saw one was while visiting my friend’s apartment up on 111 St. by Columbia. They work, except for keeping out wall-choppers. That shit is terrifyingly horrorshow .

    nance, In 1974 I drove my wife, her sister, and her mother from Indiana, headed for LA to visit another sister of my wife. We were in my new Ford Pinto wagon, no A/C. All was cool until we hit the mountains around Truckee. I decided to take a little detour to see some fantastic mountain vistas, not knowing my MIL had mountain sickness. We encountered some hairy turns, high elevation, twisty-turny over and over. Mom got sick, and kept feeling worse. We headed for a motel ASAP. Mom was slightly dizzy and a tad disoriented, and she got into a full-on hair-pulling, head-punching fight with my wife. Screaming…this shit was like watching an alien invasion movie. Well, that ended THAT happy vacation! Mom told me to get her and her young daughter to the nearest airport immediately, so off to Reno we backtracked for an hour. Luckily, a flight to Chicago was leaving in a short while. I left them there, back to the motel, dawn’s crack, off to LA, Eagle Rock, Pasadena, a visit with my biker buddy from Canoga Park, a trip to San Diego…so all was not ruined.

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  34. LAMary said on May 26, 2020 at 6:29 pm

    I had a police lock and I lived on 102nd street, so not far from your friend. I also live not far from Eagle Rock.

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  35. Suzanne said on May 26, 2020 at 7:27 pm

    I have, sadly, lived in the Midwest my whole life. Neither of my children do and whenever we visit them, or go west for any other reason, I wonder why I. The world we live here?!?!
    I was in AZ last July and everyone kept asking me how I was doing since it was over 100°. It was fine! I could breathe, my ankles didn’t swell up, and sweating cooled me off.
    Spring is lovely in Indiana but this year, it lasted about a day, so there is that, too.

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  36. Sherri said on May 26, 2020 at 9:04 pm

    A friend of mine is an ER nurse at Harborview, the Level 1 trauma hospital in Seattle. She also suddenly and unexpectedly lost her husband last fall, in his late 50s. I think of Linda when I put on my mask.

    She shared this video on her FB feed, about an ICU nurse at Harborview: https://m.facebook.com/harborviewmc/videos/1924266757872039/

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  37. Heather said on May 26, 2020 at 9:24 pm

    I like mountains, but at heart I’m a water person. I’d find it hard to live anywhere that’s not near a body of water, even a smaller lake or something. I’m finding the lack of access to the lakefront here really difficult. The lake, the summer events, and the great food are what keep me in Chicago. If we don’t have any of that, indeed, I’m not sure what the point of living here is. I’m sure it will all come back, but the question is when.

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  38. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 27, 2020 at 7:52 am

    Quick trip from Chicago: https://www.nps.gov/indu/index.htm

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  39. diane said on May 27, 2020 at 8:43 am

    Loving all the Colorado enthusiasm. Moved here 21 years ago because my husband loved the mountains. I am more of a ocean person but have adapted. The summers are indeed incredible and I hate traveling during the summer because they are also short. I do hope to figure out a way to spend some of the winter at a beach once I retire.

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  40. Deborah said on May 27, 2020 at 11:09 am

    I didn’t see my first real mountain until I was 37 when I had my first trip to NM, second mountains I saw were the Alps on my first trip to Europe. My current life started when I was 37, everything before that I call my former life. I saw plenty of oceans and bodies of water throughout my life, they don’t do it for me, they’re nice don’t get me wrong, I like being by the lake in Chicago, but mountains are special for me.

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  41. Jeff Borden said on May 27, 2020 at 11:34 am

    Just another day for a black man in America, right?

    In New York City, generally considered a liberal domain, a Harvard-educated black man who enjoys bird watching asked a white woman to please leash her dog in an area of Central Park known as the Ramble, which is popular with both birders and dog owners. The woman went full-blown Karen and called the police, claiming she was being threatened by “an African-American man.” Luckily, the birder was filming her antics, but still. And in a subsequent interview he has remarked how scrambling around the woods for a better view of birds is seen differently when the birder is black.

    In Minneapolis, a police officer knelt on the neck of a black man suspected of trying to pass a bad check, so it wasn’t exactly like he was a violent guy. The man moaned and begged them to let him breathe as a crowd gathered, many taping the scene and yelling at the coppers to stop. The unpreturbed cop doing the kneeling is so nonchalant, he actually has his hand in his pocket. After about eight minutes, the man was dead.

    There was rough justice for the Karen. She was outed online and fired from what sounds like a very good job at an investment banking firm despite her repeated apologies. She returned her cocker spaniel, too. Her life will never be the same, but how different would things have been if the birder hadn’t taped her accusations?

    Four cops in Minneapolis have been fired, but they’re already lawyering up, so who knows whether any justice will be done. Again, if not for the presence of bystanders taping their actions, would anything have been done about the killing of a non-violent suspect?

    The next time I hear a white person state that they are the ones suffering from discrimination, that racism in America is wildly overblown, that it’s so very, very hard being a white male in our society, I’m likely to have an aneurism.

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  42. Suzanne said on May 27, 2020 at 12:36 pm

    Well said, Jeff Borden.

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  43. LAMary said on May 27, 2020 at 12:45 pm

    I hope this url works.

    https://tinyurl.com/ycmegghv

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  44. Icarus said on May 27, 2020 at 2:37 pm

    so much to comment on but trying to keep two 5-yr olds entertained (and from completely destroying our household).

    this will have to suffice for now

    https://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2020/04/caucasity-karen-becky-susan.html

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  45. Jakash said on May 27, 2020 at 3:06 pm

    Jeff @ 38. Delightful spot that we’ve been to a number of times. Cool that it’s a National Park now.

    To accompany the piece Icarus posted, where they have their own choices, I saw this on Twitter. “New Rule: If obnoxious middle-aged women are called ‘Karen’, we need a name for obnoxious middle-aged men. What would be a good name for male equivalent of Karen?”

    My first thought was “Mitch.”

    https://twitter.com/GJabberbox/status/1264318637931986948

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  46. Joe Kobiela said on May 27, 2020 at 3:09 pm

    Jakash,
    Karen & Kevin
    Pilot Joe

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  47. Sherri said on May 27, 2020 at 3:21 pm

    And of course, white men protesting with assault rifles get no response from cops, but unarmed black people protesting get tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash bangs.

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  48. Deborah said on May 27, 2020 at 4:03 pm

    White male equivalent of Karen:
    Todd
    Chad
    Brad
    Tripp
    Donald

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  49. Dexter Friend said on May 27, 2020 at 4:26 pm

    Something I learned: The Ramble is a secluded area in Central Park created and kept “wild” to offer frayed-nerves city dwellers a token of respite. During the Civil War and even before, it quickly became a place for gay men to hook up however they desired…it’s still that today. Of course I am not saying it’s only that; apparently it’s popular there to exercise dogs and birdwatch.

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  50. Jakash said on May 27, 2020 at 4:29 pm

    Kevin and Donald get lots of votes in the comments to the tweet. Gotta say, Kevin has a lot to recommend it — alliterative, the same number of syllables and even the same number of letters as Karen. Plus, as far as I can tell, there’s nobody commenting here with any of the names suggested…

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  51. beb said on May 27, 2020 at 4:36 pm

    As for a name for the male equivalent to Karen how about “Jared”

    Trump, of course, has gone apoplectic that Twitter fact-checked onee of his tweets about mail-in ballot fraud. Threats to shut down twitter or some such. I think Twitter ought to mention that the POTUS has a full press office in the White House to deal with his communicatin needs, then shut down Trumps account because it violates their terms of service. Really they should have a long time ago but Twitter, Facebook. etc. are all right-wing aligned.

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  52. LAMary said on May 27, 2020 at 4:47 pm

    The ramble is also home to bird species that spend a lot of time on the ground. There are plants they feed on and good places to hide. An unleashed dog is not going to do anything good to the birds or the plants.

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  53. Icarus said on May 27, 2020 at 5:03 pm

    I mean otherwise speaking, Central Park has been so good to black people

    https://timeline.com/black-village-destroyed-central-park-6356723113fa

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  54. alex said on May 27, 2020 at 8:58 pm

    Trump made an ass of himself over the Central Park Five. You’d think he’d have weighed in already in favor of the Central Park Karen. Evidently too consumed with rage at Twitter to rise to the moment.

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  55. beb said on May 28, 2020 at 12:35 am

    Has Kellyanne Conway had work done on her face or is she wearing a plastic mask of her face?
    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/political-hack-kellyanne-conway-destroyed-for-condescendingly-comparing-standing-in-line-to-vote-to-buying-cupcakes/

    And the riots have started in Minneapolis. Goes to show, you come out dressed for a riot and someone will start a riot.

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  56. alex said on May 28, 2020 at 6:33 am

    Botox. Because her thick layer of concealer has never helped her keep a straight face when she opens her fucking mouth.

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  57. 4dbirds said on May 28, 2020 at 7:08 am

    Her stupid statement aside, that looks like Botox or photoshop.

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  58. 4dbirds said on May 28, 2020 at 7:15 am

    I live in the DC area and until I contracted sepsis earlier this year, drove Uber part-time. I drove by the cupcake place in Georgetown at least 5 times a week. It does have long lines, at least before they went to takeout only. However, the people in that line are tourists and it is one of many things tourist do to check something off their list. They don’t bring (at least I hope they don’t) their elderly, frail, disabled or otherwise unhealthy friends and relatives to stand in line for a fucking cupcake. However, asking these same people to stand in line for hours to vote is obviously no comparison but cruel.

    I so hope these horrid people are out of office come January.

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  59. Connie said on May 28, 2020 at 7:45 am

    I am quite sure that the name for a male Karen has already been determined to be Chad.

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  60. Andrea said on May 28, 2020 at 8:46 am

    Reading this morning about the scandal in the PA statehouse, where a Republican legislator tested positive, and the Speaker did not notify the Democrats for a week.Would give you the Twitter thread but I am using my kindle right now. Search Brian Sims on Twitter for his thread.

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  61. LAMary said on May 28, 2020 at 9:29 am

    There was a mean but funny photo of Bette Davis as Baby Jane captioned,” Kellyanne Conway at the end of the Trump presidency” online. No denying there was a resemblance.

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  62. Suzanne said on May 28, 2020 at 9:53 am

    Here is the story about the PA statehouse COVID-19 outbreak
    https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2020/05/27/pa-state-rep-andrew-lewis-r-dauphin-gop-lawmaker-tests-positive-covid-19/stories/202005270138

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  63. diane said on May 28, 2020 at 10:00 am

    My vote is for Brett for a male Karen.
    Second choice is Kevin for its alliterative value, etc.

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  64. beb said on May 28, 2020 at 11:44 am

    Hiding news that someone in your party has an infectious and potentially fatal disease is just plain criminal.

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  65. Joe Kobiela said on May 28, 2020 at 11:56 am

    Sherri@47
    The white males with guns while in my opinion looked totally stupid we’re not breaking any laws while in Minneapolis the police were so at fault and over the top causing this mans death that they should be prosecuted and jailed, the protesters were looting and rioting which is against the law. The people in Minneapolis have a right to protest no question but can you explain to me what good breaking windows looting stores and starting fires does? The other thing I would like to know is where are the protest in Flint over the dollar store guard that was gunned downed because he refused to let a person in without a mask, or the 3 McDonald’s workers shot in Oklahoma because they wouldn’t let a woman sit down in a closed dinning room or the 50 people shot in Chicago over Memorial Day? Anyone want to take a guess why?
    Pilot Joe

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  66. Jeff Borden said on May 28, 2020 at 12:15 pm

    Please elaborate, Joe.

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  67. Sherri said on May 28, 2020 at 12:28 pm

    Tear gas and rubber bullets and flash bangs weren’t being used on looters, they were being used on protestors. You can tell the difference pretty easily. Looters are the opportunistic aftermath of police using tear gas and rubber bullets and flash bangs on protestors; they take advantage of the chaos. They aren’t the protestors.

    The police in Minneapolis didn’t attack the protestors because of looting, they attacked the protestors because they were protesting against *them*. Just like in Ferguson, and in too many other places to name, where this plays out over and over again. Law enforcement kills a black or brown person over nothing, community protests, law enforcement responds with all their military gear to suppress the protest. Because they don’t serve and protect those people, they serve and protect those gun-toting assholes.

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  68. Sherri said on May 28, 2020 at 12:43 pm

    And Joe, let’s not forget the reasons for the protests. In Minneapolis, the protests are because yet again, police have killed a black man, not because he was a violent criminal, not because he was resisting in any way, but just because.

    Those white assholes with guns were protesting because the government was trying to keep the state safe in the face of a global pandemic, and because of that, even white men had some restrictions placed on them, and that was just unacceptable.

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  69. 4dbirds said on May 28, 2020 at 12:46 pm

    JTFP, you don’t or any white person, me included, get to decide what black people get outraged about. If you are concerned about that security guard or the three people in Oklahoma, get off your own damn ass and protest.

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  70. Sherri said on May 28, 2020 at 12:48 pm

    And I’ll take a guess why there weren’t protests over the dollar store guard shot – because someone was immediately arrested. When the system works, why protest?

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  71. Jeff Borden said on May 28, 2020 at 12:49 pm

    Boy, I remember the last time we had rioting and looting in Chicago. It was awful! The Chicago Bulls had just won another title and a wave of vicious white people swarmed out of the bars and taverns. They overturned taxis and set them afire, they threw bottles and glasses, they broke store windows up and down Michigan Avenue, including a beloved local bookstore. They laughed at and taunted and mocked law enforcement authorities as they surged up and down the streets, pulling down light posts and street signs. Oddly, none were killed or seriously injured. Oddly, most of those eventually arrested weren’t even from Chicago, but from the dark and dangerous area they call “the suburbs.” We avoid the suburbs. Too many of those crazy fucking white people there.

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  72. Sherri said on May 28, 2020 at 12:50 pm

    Isaac Chotiner interviews the head of the NAACP in Minneapolis: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-multiple-unfolding-crises-for-african-americans-in-minneapolis

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  73. LAMary said on May 28, 2020 at 12:58 pm

    Some of the looters here in LA during the ’92 riots were yuppies looting stores in a fairly posh area, smashing the windows of Banana Republic and J.Crew to loot preppy clothes.

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  74. Deborah said on May 28, 2020 at 1:29 pm

    Jeff B, that comment had me laughing, and I remember that bookstore, miss it. So good when you can use humor in response to inanity.

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  75. Dexter Friend said on May 28, 2020 at 1:39 pm

    Governor Cuomo just today signed an executive order allowing retail store managers or owners to deny entry to anyone maskless. During the Q & A, he was asked if he thought this might start arguments, and he said New Yorkers are argumentative by nature. This will be interesting to follow. He also hired/appointed Rosie Perez and Chris Rock to help spread the word about social distancing and mask wearing, in any capacity the governor’s office sees fit. They are both Brooklynites.

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  76. Jeff Borden said on May 28, 2020 at 5:11 pm

    Hey Deborah, Yeah, Stuart Brent’s shop was very cool. He was quite a character.

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