The ultralight stuff is a whole new set of gear I’ve considered buying but don’t know if I’ll use it enough to be worth it. My old school ass carries about 50lbs on a weekend trip though it drops fast as I eat up the food and drink the beer. I managed this for decades while my body weight was about 130lbs. Now I’m at 170 with plantar fasciitis, mild arthritis and possibly Covid lingering effects.

Fishing. 5 bucks here and there, it adds up. Even more so, fly fishing. I have some many materials

Opposite with me. I’ve got 25+ years of hiking in, never been a gearhead. That shit’s expensive. I buy one and make it work until it don’t work no more

I haven’t known anyone to do this but I always thought managing social media accounts for small businesses would be a good side hustle. A steakhouse restaurant nearby went out of business in a year. They spent a ton of money on remodeling and a billboard with a logo but weren’t even listed on Google Maps. I’ll wager some businesses would be willing to barter in order to keep things simple

Getting paid for it crosses a threshold I’ll bet

Twister

The trick is to not think out loud

I hate buying something online then I begin seeing ads for it

Computer nerd me loved dialing up BBS’s on my TRS-80 CoCo with 16k RAM. My parents on the other hand hated getting the phone bill. 30 cents a minute in 1980 dollars was steep

When my little terrier/chihuahua mix was a puppy she would give me a “hug” first thing In the morning. I’d sit up in bed and say “time to go to work” and she would put her front paws around my neck and press her face against mine. She eventually would do it on command. Then she had surgery to correct a luxating patella (knee cap pops out of place) and never did it again.

She also used to drag herself across the carpet with her front legs, back legs dragging behind her. We would call it “swimming”.

Being part terrier she is very smart but also stubborn. When our senior dog passed, I taught her lots of tricks. One trick was to ring a bell when she wanted to go outside. I rigged up a donut shapped toy she could paw that was attached to a spring with a bell on it. She refused to ring it. I know she knew what to do, she just refused. When she wanted a treat she would paw the cabinet just like I taught her to paw the bell/toy. Eventually I gave up. Fast forward to a year later. We get another puppy and as soon as I try to teach new dog how to ring the bell she runs over and slams it. From that point on she slams the bell ten times a day.

Low effort patriotism

Don’t “both sides” this. It’s the kind of thing people use to justify voting third party. Off the top of my head the Biden admin has been working to restore net neutrality and has an antitrust case against Ticketmaster and Live Nation

They just gloss over the fact that the man helping Giulianni push the laptop issue turned out to be a Russian asset

Shit attracts flies

Seems like every time you use it you’ll end up having to explain what it means unless you’re playing D&D

Luxuries have a way of becoming necessities.

Colonoscopy!

I’ve donated blood and plasma and each time I’ve been offered rewards but don’t bother claiming them. I do it to help others. My job pays me enough to live on.

Maybe try to ween them off cable by cutting down to ultra basic cable. Still have access to local news.

Usually I warn my 81 year old dad about these scams. Don’t think I need to worry about this one, he wouldn’t be tech savvy enough to find the windows button