I use it too. Tried a few different ones and like boost the best. I finally just paid for the non-ad tier. One time cost of 3.99. I would have been turned off by a subscription.

Some places are. I looked around until I found a community care clinic for people who don’t have insurance. It’s free. The university near me also offers free/low cost therapy. Years ago before we were married, my wife and I found couples counseling from an intern who was gaining experience at no cost to us.

I know everyone doesn’t have the same resources, but just wanted to point out that if someone gives up because they assume it’s expensive, they may not find the affordable options available to them.

I haven’t read through comments yet so I may be redundant.

Hey… So sorry. Pets are a personal relationship. That loss is a grief just like any other. It’s hard because others don’t have the relationship to that individual that you have.

Grief is something you carry through life. It isn’t linear, but it does get easier. Grief will come in waves. You’ll be fine and then it hits you out of the blue.

Do we just live and suffer and die? Well, yeah. But we also love, and get excited, and feel, learn new things, explore. We fall in love; we experienced heartbreak. We have moments when we notice the light coming through the leaves in the forest, or the sound of water on rocks in a creek, an interaction between a grandparent and young child, the smell of a newborn’s head, that first time a cat settles in your lap, coffee when no one else is awake, the first sign of success in a new hobby, I could go on and on. So many things. Observations that have a visceral yet intangible emotional reaction. So so many things.

Let grief make you tender. Let grief remind you that everyone will deal with it in different ways. You can connect to others through vulnerability. Don’t let it make you hard or resentful; there’s so much beauty and love in the world. There’s so much love in the personal relationship with a pet. There is love you can’t describe.

Engage with the grief. Don’t bottle or avoid it. Feel it. You’re grieving because of the depth and complexity of the relationship. That’s totally okay. That’s healthy. It’s gonna hurt. It hurts.

I’m so sorry you’re feeling this right now. Take your time and feel it. Don’t feel like you ever have to let that go. That’s life.

Live, suffer, and die? Yeah, you could say that, but it’s in the most beautiful way, and there’s so much in between.

To remember that we’ve spent almost 18 years together and that we’re best friends. That we’ve carried each other and comforted each other through so much.

There was that time I had to climb fifty feet up a tree with hardly any limbs with ropes and a harness to get him when the crows goaded him into climbing higher. The rusty antique farm equipment below would have mangled him had he fallen. I had to lift him with one hand, balanced, hoping he would roll out of my grip, and put him in a cinch top bag with a rope attached to lower him to my wife on the ground. Once he reached her hands, I broke down and sobbed while I made my way to them. I was so scared. I woke up the next day and he was curled up around my hand, holding tightly. He didn’t want to go outside for months.

He pees on me regularly now. Sometimes when I come home with my hands full and can’t give him attention immediately. Sometimes when I’ve been home all day and he didn’t get a snack fast enough. Maybe his kitten baby sister is trying to play with him or he’s stuck on the other side of the door while I’m brushing my teeth. He has hyperthyroidism and kidney disease. We give him everything, do the best we can for his health care, but it’s getting close to the time we say goodbye and it’s breaking my heart.

I just wish he’d remember me the way I remember him.

I lifted him onto my lap yesterday morning, out of the reach of his gentle but playful six month old kitten sister. He peed all down the front of me. I didn’t scold; I just held him until he was done, knowing the last time I hold him isn’t far away.

Keep experimenting and refining.

Pine can be stained and finished. Oak, cherry, and maple can sometimes look like crap. It’s a matter of preparing the wood properly. Try making sample boards. Sand consistently, don’t skip grits, don’t apply much pressure to the sander (let it do the work,) experiment with a pre-stain conditioner. It can help minimize splotching and some tooling marks.

Traditional (penetrating) stain needs to be applied evenly and benefits greatly from pre-stain conditioner.

Gel stains (sometimes called wiping stains, but that term gets misused) are wipe on, wipe off excess about five minutes later if you weren’t already doing that. They are made to sink in a certain amount and stop.

Urethanes don’t typically do well with back brushing, especially fast dry varieties. Spread urethanes thick and consistently and try not to go back over it. Lightly sand at 220 or 320 between coats and remove swarf with tack cloth or lint free cloth lightly dampened with alcohol.

Tung oils are rubbed in. Danish oils are applied thinly. These are relatively similar. Lightly sand between coats like above.

The book “Understanding Wood Finishing” by Bob Flexner is an astoundingly comprehensive book on the subject.

Don’t give up on pine just yet. Hemlock, heart pine, many others can all be quite beautiful in the right setting and application. For rough stuff, try the pre-stain conditioner

It doesn’t have to be strict. Some people make too big of a deal out of it. Most of us are used to eating in certain combinations anyways and our bodies have adjusted. One small example that you’ve probably heard, turmeric’s beneficial components are more bioavailable when eaten with black pepper. The body digests foods in varying ideal circumstances depending on what it is. Ultimately, you’ll probably be just fine eating a varied diet, but there are combinations that are better or worse for nutrient uptake, gastric comfort, blood sugar spikes, etc.

Poor food combinations can give you gas/bloating, indigestion, fatigue. Good food combinations work together and can help with the uptake of certain nutrients.

Don’t you think mental health is stigmatized enough without using it to make fun of people you don’t understand?

Look up books and info on food combining. Some foods interfere with the digestion of other foods while some help, as you probably know.

Storytelling is not your thing.

My wife found one huddled in the middle of the road earlier this year, probably only five or six weeks old. Our attempts at fostering have failed spectacularly. She loves it here.

The FL situation sounds messed up, absolutely.

I think we can mostly all agree on “paying” the debt to society. I put that in quotes because I don’t think we’re taking about fines which make it the cost of doing business for those in an upper income level. I think we both agree we’re talking about punishments for serious crimes.

With voting, I don’t think it should be taken away at all from citizens. We should have a say in our representation even if we have violated a law. I can’t think of any reason to take away voting rights as payment for a crime, can you? It’s been used to control and disenfranchise minority populations since it’s implementation. It continues to encourage systemic racism

If I understand the first part correctly, you don’t think they should have the right to vote (the right to representation) if they haven’t fully repaid their debt to society? Why not?

Edit: What I’m getting at is why even strip the right to vote to begin with? What purpose does that serve?

Geez, who invited this wet blanket?

You say you’re not entirely against it, can you think of a good argument FOR disenfranchising felons?

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This is similar to what I thought in response when I read the question, “I created my own job. Perks!” I don’t have to come in early and found I really enjoy working in the middle of the night. All kinds of freedoms, but also all the responsibility. I also found I’m not that great at wearing all of the hats, but that’s just part of personal growth.

Doesn’t look like oak to me. For oak, I look for medullary rays that would appear running perpendicular to the rings on the end grain. I don’t see any of those.

Skilled work often is an art.

You consider that “the most hateful kind”? Internet responses, really? Toughen up buttercup. Other people can run their mouth just as much as you. Don’t be so fragile.