Cecil told us that a generation or more ago.* BTW, for your own peace of mind, I suggest that you do NOT Google Trix.
*ETA: My mistake, SDSAB member VegForLife told us.
These are pretty good:
Avatar and product check out.
Oh, I have known about most of my, oh let’s call the conditions, for some time now. I knew I had ADHD in the second grade. Anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder were obvious to me. A , more or less, death phobia was very obvious to me from since before I could read. OCD, yeah I knew I had that as soon as somebody told me what it was.
I didn’t realize i was a hoarder until a few years back. This was complicated by the fact that a lot of the stuff I have built up over the years was bought very cheaply to be resold for a much higher price. I was successful at this for a few years. Then, I sank into a chronic depression that lasted about two decades. I didn’t have the mental resources needed to do sell at physical shows and conventions. I didn’t have the resources to sell online when that became an option. For many years, hoping that recovery was just around the corner, I kept buying stuff to resell. My anxiety was also much worse then. The thought of donating all that stuff to Goodwill made me panic about how much potential profit I would be losing. I had no job and relied on government benefits and loans from family to survive, so money was already a constant worry. Since I joined a virtual hoarding support group, I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff. I still cannot bring myself to throw away perfectly good collectibles. But now anything with a low resale value gets donated to Goodwill. I have also just given some of the high ticket stuff to friends who I know would like it.
I am honestly unsure when I realized I was somewhere on the autism spectrum. I knew I was socially awkward and had trouble reading some cues. But, most nerds have those problems whether they are autistic or not. I knew I didn’t follow many unwritten social rules. This was not because I was unaware of their existence, or that I did not know what I was supposed to do. It was because I found most unwritten social rules pointless, stupid, outdated, or based in classism. This is still the case. When a friend told me that her son was likely on the spectrum and had sensory processing disorder, I had look that up. I had a textbook case of sensory processing disorder until I was fourteen or so. It is not remotely as big a problem as it used to be. I am still unable to stand the texture of crunchy plants and vegetables. I realized that when I was on foodstamps and getting a box of non perishable food from the Jewish Relief Agency each month. I was out of food. The box included a jar of apple sauce. I tried some hoping I could keep it down. I loved the stuff. I checked the label and ingredients. No sugar had been added. The ingredients were basically pureed apples and water. I continue to love unsweetened apple sauce. The thought of biting into a fresh, crisp apple is revolting to me. I also don’t do well in restaurants that are crowded, too noisy, and dimly lit. My Gobhi has expressed a desire to go clubbing. I have made my refusal absolutely clear.
It also didn’t help that most people I have known to be on the spectrum, have been much much worse in social situations than I am. As I have often said, back in college I met a man who thinks he is a werewolf. Once you get past the many odd habits and behaviors, he is a true friend and a wonderful human being. But, he was so socially awkward that even I was qualified to help him follow social expectations.
Thank you. I’ll have to look for those. Where do you buy them?
…and his name… was Warren Zevon…
I get them from our local co-op, but Whole Foods has them as well. You’ll find them in the ‘health food’ type stores.
No health food stores around me. I looked online and they are a bit … expensive.
Everything’s expensive these days.
Absolutely correct. Not sure if peanut butter cereal fits into my budget just yet lol.
Well, phooey. Looks like I might have to go back to my grown-up bran flakes.
This has been a bad year for me.
In twenty four years, I never had a thread ban. I had two this year.
In the many years of living alone and having my computer set up on a desk, I have never spilled my drink on my computer. Today, it happened for the second time this year.
I spilled cup of tap water with Mio all over my personal laptop, the attached mouse, the mousepad, the bag of Nintendo handheld systems and their games, and on my router. My laptop is fine. My mouse is fine. The mousepad has dried out and is fine. The Nintendo stuff is fine. The router got enough water through the many ventilation holes in the top that it died instantly.
I tried unplugging it and plugging it back in. After that, I tried unplugging it and leaving upside down to drain and dry for a while. None of this did any good. I called Xfinity. The recording repeatedly asked if I wanted to text with a chatbot. I kept saying no. Eventually it got the message that I was having connection trouble. It suggested unplugging my router and then plugging it back in. I had already tried this repeatedly. It did not work. The recording asked if I was willing to do this. I said no. It repeated the question. I said no again. It then told me that my call was over. After a pause, it said I could go back to the main menu by saying “main menu”. I did that and eventually got a human agent. He confirmed that my router was a goner. He said that there was no Xfinity store in my area. They would ship me a new router. I would get it in three to five business days. I need the internet to work remotely. I asked about expedited shipping. He transferred me to a supervisor. She was telling me about expedited shipping. I interrupted. I asked if she could just tell me where the closest Xfinity store was- even if it was miles away. She gave me an address near City Hall. I asked when it closed today. She said six. I told her I would pick up the new router there today.
Once I got home, I connected the new router to the coaxial cable and power cord. Some lights came on. It did not connect. It turns out that you cannot set up a router without the Xfinity app and a smart phone. I have an iPhone and had previously downloaded the app. I changed the wifi name and password. Things went quickly and well. I was surfing the web again, when the wifi kept cutting out. On a hunch, I turned off the wifi on both laptops and my phone. A minute later I thought to turn off my smart tv. I waited a while. My router and wifi are fine now. I do not understand why the last step on the app said ‘Wait while your router restarts. This could take up to ten minutes.’ did not say ‘turn off all devices connected to wifi during this time.’.
On the upside, I was not charged for a new router and nobody at the store asked what happened to cause my old router to stop working.
I found a solution to this: keep the laptop a few feet away from you, so that it is never near your immediate workplace. And connect a keyboard, mouse, and external monitor to it. That way, if you spill something, then (worse case) you’re replacing a cheap keyboard and cheap mouse.
That is a good idea. However, after todays spill which was a lot of fluid into the keyboard of my personal laptop and the last spill which was a lot of fluid on the keyboard of my work laptop, I’m not very concerned about them. I’m also not sure just how such a set up would work with my current desk. I will look into the cost of an external monitor and keyboard.
Unfortunately, this will not work for my work laptop. We were repeatedly, strongly and expressly forbidden from connecting any equipment not supplied by the company to our laptops. As tech support sometimes needs to take control of our laptops, I feel they would eventually find out.
Originally, I had my router on top of the shelves attached to my desk. It nearly fell. So, I moved it onto the floor next to my desk. The new router is perched atop a stack of three boxes of stuff I am donating to Goodwill. When my Gobhi hauls away the boxes, I will probably replace them with some kind of shelf.
Welp, they ARE better for ya …
Eureka! If I buy cheap set of shelves to put the router on, I can just keep my drink on a lower shelf. It will take some planning. But it should work. I need more shelf space anyway.
I went outside & my car was gone! 
Now here’s the weird part. Where I swore I parked my car was an identical year, make, & model of my car, just it was yellow, ALL yellow; not just the painted metal but the windows, too.
Stoopit tree orgies!
I ended up getting one of these at my desk.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0BKFMBDBM
It just clamps on and has a slot for mug handle if needed. If I bump my desk it won’t spill. It fits every size of cup I own.
It’s not a life-changer but it gives peace of mind, and since it clamps on you don’t need tools, it doesn’t put holes in anything, and you can relocate it easily if you decide to put it somewhere else.
Also, even though it’s made of steel, there is rubber inside so your cup won’t chip or anything when you put it in.
Thanks, but I don’t think that’s the solution for me. The first spill happened when I was trying to untangle the cord on my work headset. The cup holder would have prevented that one. Yesterday’s spill happened while setting my cup down on the desk. With a cup holder clipped on to the side of the desk, it could still happen. Finally, this thing costs how much? If I buy online, I can get the shelves I was thinking of for the price of two, maybe three cup holders. If I can find shelves at a thrift store, I would pay less than the price of a single cupholder.
But, sincerely, thank you for your help.
You’re welcome!
Let us know how the new shelves work.