I’ve been using them since the 90s also, and my mom has been using them since the 80s, so it’s totally normal in my mind. My partner feels, but has backed away from actually saying so out loud again, that reusable bags are girly, and it’s just not masculine for him to take bags with him. FFS. Waste is SOooooo masculine. /s
And, I still get pushback from clerks, about meat. Yes, I know the packaging might leak, that’s why I ask that the meat be put in the washable bags. I even tell them that if I get sick, of things get crushed when bagged in the order I request, it will be my own fault, and I will not complain about them. I won’t be shamed.
At least they are no longer confused about why there are bags on the conveyor belt, but I am possibly the only customer of Podunk Hillbilly Grocery (not their actual name) who brings reusables.
This is just one reason I prefer driving to town to shop at Aldi or Food 4 Less, where I can just bag shit myself, and don’t get weird looks.
Toronto passed a law a few years ago that stores had to charge 5 cents for plastic bags. The environmentally sensitive Mayor Rob Ford made a point of scrapping the law as soon as he was elected, but the habit of bringing reusable bags seems to have taken hold. At least it isn’t unusual to see people with them. I prefer them, at least when I remember to bring them, because they can be loaded up without the bottom falling out, and I can carry several without severing any fingers.
Can’t say I’ve really gotten in the habit of bringing my reusable bags into stores yet. They mostly live in the secret Prius stash until we leave Costco or similar. What I did with a bunch of the plastic bags that were too hole-y for cat litter was crochet reusable bags. I’ve got 2 fairly large totes, and plan to complete a third this summer (after I finish my new winter hat and a blanket for grandKidd #2 who will arrive in July).
I was fixing some inconsistencies in my family tree when I went down a rabbit hole of new leads that ended up with my discovery that my Dad’s great-aunt Margaret was a pioneer in aviation and photography. She served in World War One, she was the first woman to receive a pilot’s license in Italy, and only bad weather and finances kept her from being the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
All of which is awesome, but I still don’t know where my paternal great-great-grandfather came from.
Molossia’s currency is the valora, which is subdivided into 100 futtrus and pegged to the relative value of Pillsbury cookie dough. Cookie dough is stored in an outbuilding called the Bank of Molossia, from which valora coins made from gambling chips and printed banknotes are sold.
Today (well, yesterday) I learned that I can transfer files between my phone and my tablet by pairing them with Bluetooth, selecting files, and choosing Share from the menu. I’m sure it’s nothing new, but I didn’t know that!
(They’re both Samsung, but in theory it should work between any two Bluetooth devices, right?)
I’ve also been learning that my tablet has all kinds of hidden features that can come in handy. Today I discovered that the Gallery app has photo editing abilities. They’re pretty basic: filters, stickers, text, and drawing on the image; stretching, skewing and transformation; brightness/contrast/saturation adjustments; and for gifs, there’s a frame-by-frame editing option. Again, this probably isn’t new… but I’m used to my 5-year-old phone’s version of Gallery, so extra features are a pleasant surprise!
(My tablet isn’t new either-- last year I managed to snag a refurbished Tab S4 at a decent discount. The newest are S6. But it’s good enough for me, and I adore the precision the S-Pen gives me in drawing and coloring apps.)
Last month, my wife bought me a guitar, a beautiful guitar.
I know nothing about music from the stance of how it’s made or anything. Never got the chance to learn in school (There was that half semester in middle school where they had us bang on a xylophone one day, blow into a recorder another day, and taught us to recite some letters out of order, but that really taught me nothing).
So since getting this guitar last month I’ve learned so much!
There are many ways to play a note or chord - 7 notes spread over only 6 strings but where you play them changes them, so many different ways to hit each one.
Being higher up on the fret bar makes lower notes, lower on the bar makes higher notes. That’s counterintuitive.
The cutout that some guitars have is so they can hit those really high notes more easily, but if you don’t have that you can turn your hand sideways to how you normally play and still hit them.
Dolly Parton wrote her songs to have only open and barred chords so she could play with ridiculously long fingernails.
Johnny Cash would stick a dollar bill between the strings so it could sound like he was playing both guitar and a snare drum at the same time. Combine that with tapping the guitar, and you get three sounds in one.
There are clamps you can get to basically play in a different tune without having to retune the guitar - just stick it in the right place and it sounds the same as if you’d retuned. Those were used on some famous songs.
Looking forward to what I learn next. And to actually being able to play something.
