On a trip to Iceland, was hiking with my mom. I see a spot I want a photo in so I hand her my phone and trek out there. It was a small outcropping at the same height of the trail, overlooking some gulleys. Others had been out there because there was a worn path.

I’m standing out there for my photo, and some wind blows through. It picked me up off my feet. Like, I was weightless and severed from the ground for a few seconds.

I knew in that moment I was going to die. The wind would carry me over the edge and down to the gully below. Luckily, it didn’t last long enough to do that, and dropped me back on my feet, but I was so close to death, I could feel it.

People, the Icelandic wind is no joke. There was no uptick to warn me, no dirt or grass or whatever whipping around. It wasn’t A windy day. It was just no wind, then sudden wind strong enough able to pick up a 190lb woman clear off the earth.

I kept to the main trail after that.

CAD for sure. I can pretty-up any substation drawing you throw at me.

You’re correct that it’s not grammatically wrong, but a subtle semantic mis-match. Let’s bring in the difference between “every time” and “whenever”. While “when” and “every time” are interchangeable, “whenever” and “every time” are not. “Every time” is exact and without fail, while “whenever” implies unpredictability or indifference to the exact location.

“When (strongly implied every time) I go to the theater (exact location), I get popcorn.”

“Every time (explicitly) I go to the theater (exact location), I get popcorn.”

“Whenever (unpredictable, indifferent) I go to the theater (exact location -mismatch with unpredictability) I get popcorn”

Does that make sense?

You’ve used it correctly! An incorrect usage would be:

“Whenever I go to the cinema, I get popcorn.”

The now ultra-common usage of “whenever”, when they actually mean “when”.

I can’t fucking stand it. But it’s everywhere now. I have no idea how it got so common but I’m surrounded by people who use it incorrectly.

NJ would like a word with you.

This is one I can get behind.

9/11, 2008, MTHFR diagnosis, COVID shutdowns.

Idk, it sounded pleasant.

Just learned from my neighbor that the back door of the house I just bought floods during summer monsoons, so I’m going to spend the next few weekends digging a trench out to the street to give any future downpours a path away from my back door.

Nice! You planning to celebrate?

My parents chose each other. Are they good people? Sure. But they had a ton of problems and split when I was in high school.

My grandmother, my dad’s mom, she was a terrible person. Very difficult to be around. I’m sure that’s why my dad has the issues he does. He ended up abandoning our family, and he’s very… Well, he’s passive-aggressive and will do almost anything to avoid conflict. Which doesn’t sound terrible, but that means he avoids us when he thinks we’ll confront him with anything. It was frustrating for a very long time but now I just accept that we’ll never have a close relationship because of it.

He remarried about 10 years ago now. We get along okay except she’s an alcoholic and has a really awful temper. After a specific incident in which she screamed at me over something very minor, I decided I was done trying to foster a relationship with her and now it’s very at arms length. Oh well.

My mom, she and I are close but her issues are very much wrapped up in my brother, who also has issues. They’re very co dependent, and my brother takes advantage of her. He sucks her dry of resources and refuses to do anything on his own. He’s in his late 30’s and it’s still going on.

No, people who choose each other can be very toxic.

Well, no, there are clinical forms of depression, which are reoccurring forms, and then there’s bouts of depression, which generally are caused by a specific event or change. Those types usually have fixes, but they’re worse than “general sadness”.

There’s a major push coming to ban depression meds. I had long, drawn-out conversations with people who genuinely think exercise will fix things.

Yeah, for people without clinical depression, maybe.

Re filling my emergency fund after buying my house. It’s mostly depleted now, so I’m working on getting it back up!

I have a fear of being wrongly accused/arrested for something horrific, like murder, and then when I’m taken in for questioning I do what you’re supposed to and refuse to speak and ask for a layer, but that just makes everyone suspect me more and I end up in prison.

Oh yeah, he sure showed Elon. 🙄🙄🙄

If you pay attention to politics, you’ll start seeing a pattern of “we’re keeping you safe” as an excuse to rob you of your freedoms. This really ramped up in the USA after 9/11. It’s when spying on Americans by our own government became legalized. We were afraid, and we gave up some freedoms for the idea of safety.

…and now we know we’re no more safe than we were before.

The more natural light the better.

I’m really good at making friends. The reality of that is, I do most if not all of the heavy lifting in the beginning. I suggest the hangout first, I push to make it happen, and I do that over and over until the other person feels like we’re friends enough to start inviting me themselves. Even then, I make sure to reach out if time lags.