I feel for you. We have always had a lot of pets (4 cats, 2 dogs atm) and dealing with their end of life stage is heartbreaking every time. Just grieve your loss however you need to.

We always take comfort in knowing how much our departed friends brought to our lives, and, particularly for our rescues, how much love and care we were able to give them. Our relationships with them are a gift.

Take good care and trust that you will know if and when the time is right for another one in your life.

Like others here, I dumped Reddit and moved here (and to Mastodon) full time. I also moved to Linux full time on my home laptop and haven’t missed Windows one little bit. I’m looking forward to experimenting more with a couple of other distros of interest (currently Pop_OS) and am having actual fun using my computer again. Heavy emphasis on adopting as many FOSS alternatives as possible in ‘24, and starting to separate myself from the big G.

Not sure if your device supports connection to your public library, but I have been reading literally hundreds of books since Covid on my iPhone using Libby at first, and now the Palace Project. I still purchase the odd book if it’s one I know I will read repeatedly but I haven’t bought an ebook in some time due to using the library.

Good list, btw. I loved the Arkady Martine books. You might want to try Gideon the Ninth and the sequels.

You beautiful bastard! I had one of these and thought it was one of the coolest bits of tech I ever owned. Your post generated so much nostalgia over having to hold my watch in just the right aspect to complete the data transfer. I remember people watching me sync and being shocked (although that was perhaps at how much of a nerd I was to have one). I like to think they were reacting to the tech.

Very nice work! Now I just need to find my old watch…