Cornerstone Jewelers by Battlefield Mall. They've done work for several family members. I highly recommend them.

Hasn't traveled around very much, has he. Lol.

For me (and I get you 100%), I write it down. Something about a pen and a piece of paper is so focusing.

Whatever part of my brain organizes things for me is activated! A list, a plan, step by step, dates and deadlines.

It really feels like magic sometimes. And the little burst of endorphins from checking something off the list is sweet.

Crap. In the US of A, we (meaning the legal representatives of the society) CANNOT burn people out.

It's horrifying. I don't care who they are, where they are, whether you agree with them or not, human beings are not some sort of infestation.

You may not like their circumstances, but in the name of God, they deserve to be treated with dignity.

This is a repudiation of our values and beliefs as a society. If we can't recognize that and haven't experienced true hardship in our own lives, perhaps looking into our own family history provides some empathy.

Anyone's grandparents survive the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, just to name two?

Most have family tragedies that we survive, including poverty and death. It takes time and help to recover.

We tend to be overly critical of ourselves, making a comparison to an unrealistic standard.

When we get older, we compare our appearance to our younger selves!

Lol, this is just the traditional "January Thaw." Warms for just long enough to fool all the plants to start to bud out, then WHAM! the icy blast of winter.

We can't have nice fruit!

We need to formulate, as a culture, a universal response to strangers who walk up to us in public and say terribly inappropriate things.

I mean, more G-rated than "F***k off, pig."

Moved here FROM California. Certainly not for the politics! Whatever happened to holding different options regardless of where you live?

There is no litmus test of political opinion, race, ethnicity, gender, religion and so on to have the freedom to live where you want in the US!

Come on, Josh. Just try to knock down my marriage of 51 years.

Congratulations on your sobriety! I gave up Facebook in general several years ago, largely because of the aftermath of the 2016 election.

We only have family groups set up on Messenger.

I'm pretty happy with that. No Tik-Tok or Twitter either.

Old school attitudes are still hanging around, I guess.

Male physicians are trained that the cervix has no pain receptors and women can tolerate pain better than men. They are fools if they believe it.

Women physicians should know better. I had a cervical biopsy and was given an injection (lidocaine?) in my cervix and didn't feel anything.

Please discuss options for local anesthetics with your doctor.

Dentists don't even drill a cavity without novacaine, for heaven's sake!

I love Dr. Nitta. She's been our family pediatrician for three generations!

My parents owned rental property for years. My mom had to go in and clear out trash, scrub toilets, mop floors, etc. after people moved out. My stepdad was on call around the clock for clogged toilets, busted pipes, HVAC that needed repairing and so forth. Plus advertising and finding qualified tenants.

It was a lot of work! Plus tenants were late with payments or moved out owing money.

My parents had built up good credit to afford the mortgages on the properties they rented as well as all the skills needed to maintain them. And both of them put in a lot of work to maintain their hands-on business!

We chose to live here after living in various areas. It suits me fine. Beautiful countryside, reasonable housing, responsible people generally, multiple generations interacting, very little traffic, friendly folks.

The bad things are bad everywhere and worse in a lot of places: drug use, petty crime, and few people agree with my politics. The worst for me is racism and fascism.

I've never found a perfect place to live, but Springfield is more than just good enough, in the spirit of not making the perfect the enemy of the good.

By all means, travel, move, experience other places. I already did that.

Not recommended. Native Californian here! Go for a vacation, lots of fun stuff to do! While you're there, drive through ALL the neighborhoods, well not the ones controlled by gangs.

Look into places to live. View some apartments in your price range. Walk the streets a bit in SF. Check out how poorly tens of thousands of unhoused people are treated.

Drive some freeways during rush hour - from about 4 am to 10 pm. Imagine that to commute to work, you have to live hour(s) away from your job. That's to find a place you can barely afford.

Check out the schools - chain link fences and police guards.

Of course all of California is not like that. But go into it with your eyes open!

This is a great answer!

Thank you so much! Seemed to go right over my house and I couldn't distinguish between a weird siren, an odd plane or an impending plane crash!!!

I'll keep this in mind for my three year old granddaughter. She is crazy about dinosaurs! Pretends to be a T-Rex everyday. She sings, "I'm a big dinosaur that's big." And has quite the roar to match!

It sounds, from your description that her father has a reason to avoid contact with government officials. You have offered several reasonable accommodations, transportation, etc. to help him enroll his daughter and he does not want to be "found".

You are an angel to help her! Several people have come forward with contact numbers and legal information regarding help for homeless teens. I hope you can get some help. She is an at-risk teen and anything that can be done to rescue her is a blessing.

We don't always know the outcome or the "why" for quite some time due to LE investigation. I've lived here for a long time and I've never seen it like this.

It feels like disagreements that used to be settled with a shouting match or a punch in the nose, now instantly escalate to gunfire, usually one sided.

I'm not optimistic that this will change anytime soon. And Springfield is not alone in stupid shootings, sadly. It's one thing to defend your life, quite another to take a life needlessly. Tragic.

Thank you for the news link. It's so disturbing when you don't know where all your family are.

This is so horrible! It seems like everyday there is a shooting. Such tragedy for families.