Weekk

After several days of working on my car, Jeff the mechanic conceded that he could not figure out the electrical problem that kept popping fuses when he tested the wipers. He charged me something reasonable for labor, I thanked him (because I knew that *I* could have done no better) and I drove home.

I verified that *I* could operate the wipers in intermittent mode, which is plenty for my purposes. I drive very little as it is.

Briefly I had thought about shopping for another car. A Facebook ad promised a KIA small car lease for $99/month, which sounded acceptable. I had always rejected leasing but this may be the time; I realized that I may have been incorrectly applying my housing logic to cars because cars lose value as soon as you buy them, and houses (usually) gain value.

I responded to the ad with an expression of interest; the web page it sent me to took my information and said someone would be in touch. I guess they sent my information to several dealers because I started getting texts requesting permission to talk about this. Fine.

One dealer asked what trim package interested me, another asked when I could come in so they could show me cars. To all I responded that I wanted to know the terms of the agreement first. No response came  to that!

The next day someone called to talk. I asked about lease terms and ultimately got that the $99/month was only if I put done $5000 first - in addition to the monthly lease payment. That strikes me as a bait-and-switch but I don't know if I have the bandwidth to follow up. I'm done with KIA.

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Box Collection to Give Away via Buy Nothing

Miner's Lettuce and Deadnettle

Pink Flower at Hannah and Julie's

Rainy Day Morning Walk Flower

I was relieved that I could get my chores done, and get back to morning walks.

Saturday I helped at a Toastmasters contest (having little to do except observe hour the Zoom Host acted). I then talked with a friend who was distraught about being sued again by her ex - they have been at this for years and it's very unpleasant for them. I have no solutions to offer but sympathy.

I went to Hannah and Julie's and helped move dirt around their garden. We are all of use a little creaky from strains from exercise so I think it was helpful to have the extra hands. I enjoyed the company on a beautiful day outside and they bought me a nice dinner at Locol.

Evening was DnD, which went well except the servers were distractingly lagg.

A Busy Day

My car is still in the shop because of the electrical problem associated with wipers. It's not safe to drive a car in this area without wipers because it can rain just about any time - especially in this season. But it is a bummer not having transportation; I am not ready to go to another car but I think about it.

Julie and Hannah offered to come over here for the morning walk, which was great!

We Welcome All Kinds Here!

Henry Art?

This takes some explaining. Due to the slope of our pronounced north/south ridgelines, some streets split like this; here the left split connects to the next street, the right split runs out. Evidently the residents felt the "Dead End" sign needed some creative improvement!

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Around lunchtime, I hosted the seminar "The Intersection of Human and Nonhuman Rights" featuring Professor Stephen Wise. I was really worried about this because we moved from On24 to Zoom, but it all worked out. There were various issues that some of the participants had, but all were problems I could field without impacting the program. I got to ask a few questions at the end, e.g. "What is a person"? "A person is an entity with rights or duties" - and a discussion of the important of that "or" in the context of Wise's litigations over nonhuman rights in the context of the common law (since statutory law is not very helpful) and getting a write of habeas corpus, and a focus on such persons for which there are more humane alternatives to their current confinement, e.g. there are elephant sanctuaries, but no orca sanctuaries.
In the evening, I hosted the SPEAKOUT Seattle Advanced Toastmasters Club meeting because the usual host was scheduled to be out of touch, but I was late because I have it stuck in my head that meetings start at 6:30 - not 5:45. Fortunately I got the call and started the Zoom. I practiced my 20x20 speech about Arthur quite a lot, and it showed. There were a few very helpful comments - which I have already editted into the script - but I think I can develop this speech into something really helpful. I had originally written it as an expression of grief, but for this program I wanted to end with a positive note, and I feel I succeeded.

Webcomics

 DAILY:

Girl Genius: mad science and relationships https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/

Questionable Content: relationships and occasionally AI: https://questionablecontent.net/

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: Smart Philosophical and Science Humor: https://www.smbc-comics.com/

XKCD: Smart Humor: https://xkcd.com/

WEEKLY OR BIWEEKLY

Hunter Black: Fantasy Noir: https://hunterblackcomics.com/

GrrlPower: Relationships and  Superheroes https://grrlpowercomic.com/

Order Of The Stick: Ultimate D+D Comic: https://www.giantitp.com/Comics.html

Puck: Demihuman 20somethings:  https://www.puckcomics.com/

Daughter Of The Lillies: YA Fantasy https://www.daughterofthelilies.com/

Goblins: XP fodder turn adventurs: https://www.goblinscomic.com/

Giant Girl: currently retelling TSR's "Against The Giants" http://giantgirladventures.com/

Terminal Lance: USMC from the bottom looking up: https://terminallance.com/

The Middle Age: comic fantasy https://steveconley.com/the-middle-age/

The Specialists: WW2 USA builds superheroes: https://thespecialistscomic.com/

Use Sword On Monsters: worthy successor to "Nodwick" http://www.useswordonmonster.com/

Zombie Roomie: modern layabout fantasy https://www.zombieroomie.com/

Coffee At The New Highland Park Corner Store

 

Meaghan and the customer after me

"Doppio" is Italian for "Brain Blaster"

The new Highland Park Corner Store is giving out free coffee (or tea) this week, M-F, 7a-2p and note the code "Neighborly" for a beverage on the house. Corner of 9th and Kenyon! I got mine this morning: the aptly named Doppio - it hits your brain like a brick made of caffeine! Welcome to the neighborhood, Meaghan and Kevin!

Sunday As The New Normal

Mt Urbanite is slowly shrinking,
One rock at a time

The raised be is slowly raising,
But picking the right stone takes time

 I got my walk in today refilling the pantry at 14th and Roxbury with what little surplus I had left, then on to Target for cat food. The cats had decided they are not interested in the Purina anymore, but will consider Fancy Feast. It's more expensive, but I suppose they're allowed to have good taste (whatever that means for a cat) and there's no sense setting out food to dry out and be thrown away.