Get some good speakers. Install an ad blocker (for now) and play “Air conditioner sound, 10 hours” on YouTube. It won’t annoy your neighbors, you can just say, “it’s muh humidifier” if anyone asks, but they probably won’t. Barking dog? Not in your bedroom. Vacuum cleaner? Nope, won’t hear it.
And you’ll get to where you can’t sleep without it.
I’m in Virginia and about 6 months ago I had some guys pop on here trying to get me to install those slot machines. They told me how much money the store could bring in, blah blah blah. I told them I’d rather die than sit here with people drooling and throwing their lives away. I’d feel like shit for every penny it brought in. Funny thing is, not long after they came in with the big pitch, the machines were outlawed haha. They were trying to do a quick dump before the law changed, the assholes.
Fortunately my uncle (the owner) is very religious and principled about such things.
He sells the tickets, but he has little things in place these days that keep the hardcore gambler away. No purchases on credit or debit cards, standing and scratching is considered loitering.
I’m so happy to be in a wealthy community with very few gambling addicts these days.
I sold lottery tickets in a very very poor community and I swear they’d blow everything they had and then try to bum the clerk to keep going.
The difference is absurd too. I would sell 3-4k (that’s low too) in lottery tickets every day in a poor community. In a wealthy community I rarely sell 100 dollars in tickets in a day.
I know a man who would be living like a king if he wasn’t addicted. He retired from a pretty high position in the military and then the post office. Every time he gets his money he spends the first 4 days of the month spending at least 4k on tickets. His wife makes him keep just enough to live in their tiny beat up house and take care of the terribly mentally ill adult children (all in their 40s).
I was definitely scared as a kid. There were two openly gay men in our area (at least loud and social enough to be small town known that is). Their mannerisms seemed so unnatural to me.
As I got older though and spent more time around them it didn’t bother me at all.
The one guy (white guy, tall, very effeminate) was always hanging around partying at my exes house. He and I have been friends for over 20 years now. Legit one of the coolest and strangest people on the planet.
The other dude (black guy, very tall, very effeminate) came in my store all the time and he and I became friends. Around 2015 my car broke down. I borrowed my mom’s car and it broke down the first time I drove it. I was in a total panic because I couldn’t get to work. Dude overheard me dooming and glooming to my mom and freaking out. He walked up and said, “You’ve always been sweet to me so I’m gonna let you borrow my van as long as you need it.”
The van had N64 controller ports built in, so I put an N64 in there with a few of the best games for him. He was always hauling his entire neighborhood around in that thing and they were all stoked as shit when I gave it back.
I drove that van for around 4 months. My kids were devastated when I gave it back. All the rednecks had jokes, “hyuck hyuck, what did you do to get that van?” I came up with a good comeback. I’d look out and see what they were driving. “Let me take that Ford Ranger for a ride and I’ll show you, big boy!” Oh my god haha, they couldn’t handle it.
But yeah, back on topic. It was a fear because it was so unusual. I remember being horrified when the two dudes kissed in Big Daddy. It’s still a fear for a lot of people. They don’t want to see the world change, and it seems like a huge change when folks who barely existed in their reality are suddenly getting all of this representation in mainstream media. Because of the internet, everything is right there in our faces. They’re scared that their kids will be influenced into that lifestyle. I think that’s mostly because sexuality is more of a spectrum, and they’re afraid that it will awaken something in their kids that would have otherwise remained buried.
Then you got religion. That makes it even scarier because the preachers say they’re going to hell.
I worked in a small office with an evangelical authoritarian supervisor. For a time we had our music libraries on our computers and we were able to play music in our headphones. One morning we came in to find notes on our desks saying headphones were no longer allowed.
It was definitely December because of what was on that horrible little boombox.
This Christian group called Point of Grace had a Christmas album. I heard it over and over and over and over again.
I would probably go catatonic if I heard a single note from that record.
Mariah Carey was actually a relief when I heard it haha.
Fortunately we got our headphones back. My best friend for 20 years now (dayuuum) came up with an idea.
When the supervisor would leave we’d try to play Bela Lugosi Is Dead by Bauhaus juuuuuust slightly out of sync between our computers until everyone got sick of it and complained. We both threatened to quit unless we were allowed to use headphones when we were told “no more music in the office”.
Interesting, as someone who takes Suboxone, I avoid Tylenol because of potential liver issues. I was told during the pandemic that ibuprofen caused things to be worse. It was a confusing time and a very scary time.
It wasn’t just the vegan thing though. My kid is autistic and absolutely wouldn’t eat anything other than what she put on her list. Like to the point we had to get her help.
I guess that’s something I shouldn’t have left out. It just wasn’t something that even crossed my mind as I made the comment.