WTF-Beta

I put up our tree shortly after Remembrance Day here - we have a half day off for lieu time for parent teacher conferences on the third Friday of November, so I generally spend that afternoon getting the tree up and decorated. We don’t do much more than that, but I really enjoy the extra light at this time of year!

Act 2 of This American Life this week was reported by a Mexican woman living in Chicago (in Gage Park, if that means anything to our Chicago locals). While she has papers, one of her family members is undocumented. Well worth a listen.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/875/i-hate-mysteries/act-two-3

Corsetry was one of my favourite classes in theatre school! I have only made three start to finish - one for me and two for costumes for shows. The way we were instructed to make them in theatre school (which didn’t use interfacing, but instead four layers of muslin sewn together with very closely spaced parallel lines over the entire garment, except for the channels for the boning. At the time, we used metal boning that were cut to size then dipped in a highly toxic substance to smooth and dull the sharp ends of the metal. Now, some home sewers use heavy duty zip ties as an inexpensive substitute for boning for lighter corsets, but you can also buy plastic boning. Metal is still used for more rigid corsets.

My dad works for a motorcycle dealership that used to be a licensed HD dealer. The dealership has been around since the 60s. However, a few years ago HD pulled their dealership license because they gave a dealership to a big shiny new showroom that was closer to a small city and right off the highway so easier to get to. The dealership my dad works for is back of beyond, and definitely isn’t shiny and new. But they do have a great reputation and sell bikes to customers from literally all over the world. So now they sell used HD that they buy from people all over North America. The business is still doing well, it’s just changed the business model a bit. However, I know that this idea of closing down small shops that have been around forever but who don’t have the big fancy glassed in showrooms hasn’t only hit the shop near us. It’s been a common practise over the past decade or so. Maybe it isn’t working out as well as they’d like?

@Daniel Not just in the US. Canada has a similar housing crisis. I bought our house in 2011 for $150,000. The (conservative) estimated value today is $450,000. Nothing about our neighbourhood has changed. No new services or anything that would have increased the property value.

My kid and his girlfriend pay $2400 a month to rent a small two bedroom apartment in a nearby small city/large town. That’s almost twice my mortgage payment, yet even if they could save up enough for a down payment (while also paying that ridiculous amount in rent), they would never be approved for a mortgage because paying rent does nothing for your credit score.

I’m really sorry you are going through all of this. Having mobility compromised for any reason is so hard and to experience that setback must feel so discouraging. I hope things get better soon!

I have had an on and off migraine for the past week. No idea if it’s related but the frequency is higher than normal.

I just finished The Time Traveller’s Passport (only available on Audible). It’s a collection of six short stories all related to time travel. I picked it up because one of my favourite authors (John Scalzi) wrote the first story. I absolutely loved three, liked two, and hated (DNF) one. Not bad for a short story collection!

I know that this pasta company is made in the US (and the ones I have had have been excellent!) I’m currently not buying from them because I’m trying to support non-US companies here in Canada, but it might be helpful to US based folks here: https://www.sfoglini.com/pages/contact-us

Phew!! I was really worried about this going the other way.

@wtg Thanks! We had our typical small family gathering. It was lovely! In the past I have taken a day off at US Thanksgiving so Rob and I could do something but the last few years it has fallen on parent teacher conferences so I haven’t done that. I just checked and they don’t conflict this year so I might have to revive that tradition!

The storm was supposed to miss us but the models have been all over the place so I’m not surprised that it’s been snowing all day. Not much accumulation though.

@Axtremus you might enjoy browsing https://thekidshouldseethis.com/

Got mine today (Moderna) So far just a slightly sore arm, but barely noticeable.

Shiro - for what it’s worth I had my flu shot last week when I was already trying to recover from a cold. No side effects other than a bit of a sore arm for a couple hours.

I haven’t had my new covid shot yet - I’ll probably go in later this week.

I just saw this on social media: Nobody adds a ballroom to a house they plan on leaving.

We use tangrams in my classroom as part of our spatial reasoning work in math. I have always struggled with spatial reasoning so some of the kids are better at it than me!

That sounds absolutely terrible and I’m sorry you are going through it.

I met her when I worked at a bookstore where she was doing a signing. She was absolutely lovely and gracious and spent far more time than she needed to chatting with all of the folks (like me) who worked there.

For what it’s worth I also wear Hanes quarter ankle socks (in women’s size) and love them. I order them from Amazon in packs of 10 pairs.