“Having fewer close friends is associated with loneliness, and loneliness is linked to a variety pack of negative health outcomes, from high blood pressure to depression to cognitive decline. Compared to women who lose their husbands, men who lose their spouses experience a much more pronounced and long-lasting spike in loneliness and depression; they’re more likely than women to die by suicide. Researchers attribute these differences to women having more diverse systems of social support.”
“Now, Supreme Court justices have become caught up in the debate over whether America is a Christian nation. While Justice Alito is hardly openly championing these views, he is embracing language and symbolism that line up with a much broader movement pushing back against the declining power of Christianity as a majority religion in America.
The country has grown more ethnically diverse and the share of American adults who describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated has risen steadily over the past decade. Still, a 2022 report from the Pew Research Center found that more than four in 10 adults believed America should be a ‘Christian nation.'”
Guess that means almost 6 in 10 grasp the profound difference between being a country with many Christians and being a “Christian country”.
And I can’t help but wonder if the “4 in 10” crowd has any real understanding of the persecution experienced by the earliest Christians, let alone believers in places like China and North Korea.
Yesterday was an especially nice Saturday. The sun broke out at the end of the long, wet run with great friends who uncharacteristically didn’t complain about the elements. The YMCA hot tub was glorious. Fully recovered, I picked up some raspberry chocolate and deep chocolate chocolate gelato and other essentials, before heading home for a late breakfast and hit of caffeine.
Then I put an ass groove in the couch watching the pros flail at Pinehurst #2. “How do you like making double bogey sucker!”
Then I connected with the GalPal and got fully updated on the Coffee Klatch. Then we rolled down the hill to Well 80 where I ate an order of brussels sprouts and a whole pizza. And maybe a little of someone’s Impossible Burger. Of course I positioned myself so I could watch the Mariners win again and further extend their American League West lead without the GoodWife suspecting a thing. “Yes dear, you don’t say.” Inner voice, “Come on Julio, where’s the power?!” The American League West is one sad (sick) division, but I digress.
Then I prepped a giant bowl of popcorn and watched episode 3 of the second season of Netflix’s Tour de France documentary which taught me sprinters are not likable.
But of all of those highlights, one towered above the others. It was this discovery.
Are you shitting me? Kirkland Rolled Oats (KRO)?! I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Good riddance Quaker Oats, oh ye of the .62 cents per ounce. These babies are .50 cents per ounce! For the numerically challenged, that’s .12 cents an ounce cheaper. I eat 8 ounces of oats about 6x/week. The Kirkland Rolled Oats nutrition info says 1/2 a cup is 40g. So when we convert my 80g into ounces we get 2.8. Then we multiply that by our savings of .12 and get a grand total of 33.6 cents saved. Every damn morning. Costco for the win! And Ron!
In a few days, after I’ve finished all the remaining Quaker Oats, I will launch Operation KRO which consists of three phases. Phase one, invest my KRO savings in NVDA. Phase two, in a year or so, sell all my NVDA. Phase three, buy this.
‘member when I said one huge advantage of the new crib is the time I’ll save maintaining the much smaller yard?
The truth of the matter is, I kinda like yard work because the results are immediately visible, the exact opposite of my efforts to educate the next gen. Or my efforts to contribute to the common good more generally.
Right now, I’m bouncing back and forth between the old, still unsold house, and the new one. Yes, as a matter of fact, it does take real muscles to lift the mower in the back of the hatchback.
Yesterday, post shitty weather, I hit the Nature Park hard. There were an infinite number of brown pine seeds, leaves, branches, weeds, overgrown shrubs, but they were no match for me. First, blow. Then recharge batt. Then, pick up branches, pick largest weeds, toss pine cones over the outfield wall. Second, trim bushes front and back. Third, take recharged batt and blow a second time, moving bush clippings, leaves, and pine cone seeds into yard. Fourth, suck up said detritus while mowing with bag (verus the usual mulch). Fifth, pick up small branches that mower missed. Sixth, blow again because you can never blow enough.
It looked like like a million dollars. Or more.
A friend in North Carolina referred to “Mow, blow, and go” guys with derision. Screw that. It’s all about mowing, blowing, and going as fast as possible. Get the heart rate up and don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the pretty good.
Maybe when I close the classroom door for the last time, I’ll start a lawn business. Running between two houses is fun, but I imagine running between 10 would be 5x as fun. I’m workshopping names, let me know what you think. I saw a sign/advert yesterday while cycling for Lawn Boys and immediately thought of “Lawn Boy”,” a “take that” to that evil woman at Burgerville. Or maybe,”Mow, Blow, and Go”? Catchphrase, “Let me mow, blow, and go for you.”
The best part of this plan is I’ll have to buy a pickup truck. Well, that and what the GalPal is going to do when she sees my sweaty self get out of the truck after a long day of mowing, blowing, and going. Hubba hubba.
“The nearly 150-year-old University of the Arts in Philadelphia will close its doors June 7. Many of its 1,149 students and about 700 faculty and staff members got the news from an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday or on social media, only later getting official word from the school.” The New York Times.
Less than two students per faculty/staff member. How did UAP last as long as it did?
“Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won her nation’s elections on Sunday in a landslide victory that brought a double milestone: She became the first woman, and the first Jewish person, to be elected president of Mexico.
Early results indicated that Ms. Sheinbaum, 61, prevailed in what the authorities called the largest election in Mexico’s history, with the highest number of voters taking part and the most seats up for grabs.
It was a landmark vote that saw not one, but two, women vying to lead one of the hemisphere’s biggest nations. And it will put a Jewish leader at the helm of one of the world’s largest predominantly Catholic countries.” New York Times.
One detail left out of the Times coverage. Zero felonies.
Pressing Pause 