Cargo e-bike. Errands are fun now and I get way more exercise. It's hands-down my favorite way to get around town.

Cucumbers need a lot of direct sun and a lot of space, either vertical (trellised) or horizontal (along the ground). Put them in a wide open sunny part of your yard. They're also fairly susceptible to powdery mildew so keep an eye on them if the weather is rainy.

You mentioned you're in Maine, which means you have a relatively short growing season. You might want to start your cucumber seeds inside to get a jump start on the season in the spring. Otherwise just make sure you get them started right away once it's okay to plant outdoors so that you don't run out of room at the end of the season.

Good luck and let us know how it goes! Cucumbers are a very rewarding plant, right up there with tomatoes for me as far as bang for your buck. Homegrown cucumbers have a crunch that totally knocks store bought ones out of the park.

Other vegetables I like growing that grow well in my corner of New England: Basil (grow enough to make several batches of pesto and freeze it) Tomatoes Sugar snap peas Leafy greens, especially collards and Swiss Chard Potatoes in 5-gallon buckets Hot peppers

My mother in law lets her cucumbers grow along the ground and they do great. Not sure if she buys a specific variety that's not for climbing but it's definitely possible to grow cukes without a trellis. Same as you would squash.

That said, a trellis saves a lot of space.

Basket of old t-shirts cut into washcloth sized squares. The used ones go in a basket beside the toilet to be washed with the rest of the laundry.

If we're out of rags I just use TP. But you only need a few squares to dry off so it ends up using a lot less paper than if you didn't use a bidet.

You seem to be implying all people and countries are on a scale moving closer to some single ideal.

I mean that's definitely how some people interpret it but at least for me, patriotism encompasses the idea that my country should be best for me and the people in it but that other people in other countries get to think the same thing about their country and work towards their own version of "best."

But I'm not gonna argue that everyone does patriotism this way because that's clearly not the case 🙃 plenty of "patriots" out there willing to wreck their own country in a war over bringing their own ideals to a different place.

I take issue with the first panel.

To me, patriotism is "I'm going to work on my house because I love the people who live in it and I want them all to have the best house."

If you start from the assumption that your country is the "best" that's nationalism and straying too close to the roots of xenophobia.

What could possibly be in your browser history that you don't want people to see?

I'm sorry, do you live in the same world as the rest of us? Seems like half the country wants to murder gay people and thinks porn should be illegal and you can't fathom why someone might want to hide perfectly acceptable parts of their identity?

This would basically disallow any closeted gay/trans person from ever running for office, for example. People deserve their privacy.

I'm a huge fan of Nabokov's and have read Lolita several times... But I've never heard it described as horror before and you are so right! I guess before I'd have classified it as tragedy but horror fits so much better.

It's basically a horror story told from the point of view of the monster.

The only "tragic love story" is maybe Dolores' mother trying to warn the world about Humbert being a pedophile only to be hit by a car and killed, unable to save her daughter. Or maybe Dolores' tragic battle to love herself and escape from all the men who want to take advantage of her.

Rowling with another steaming hot garbage pile of an opinion on sexual abuse, no surprise there. What an awful person.

Cisgender woman here, I just wanted to add that if my husband were to come out as trans, that would not be a tragedy or something I wished he'd gotten figured out sooner for my sake. In this hypothetical scenario, if it somehow managed to make us incompatible as married partners we'd deal with it but people have gotten divorced for much worse reasons before. The worst part for me would be worrying if he'd been miserable during our marriage, because I love him and would hate for that to be his experience of our time together.

It's really hard to imagine because AFAIK we're both cis but personally I'd probably prefer to stay married to my spouse even if he changed his gender identity. I mean he's still the same person I married and we still love the same things and have a wonderful life and child together. I dunno, maybe it wouldn't work out in the end but I sure as hell wouldn't be mad at him for something he couldn't change.

Anyways, my point is you don't have to assume that your relationships with cis people will all get blown up if you do happen to be trans. I appreciate the urge to have your ducks all in a row before embarking on significant life events but the truth is that marriage and adulthood is super messy anyways. If you marry someone and have a kid with them the odds are good you will have all sorts of chaotic events to deal with- physical illnesses, mental illnesses, kid stress or illness, weight gain or loss, money trouble, job changes, changes in personality with age, the list goes on and on. The trick to being happily married is rolling with the changes, working hard at your partnership, and being committed to your partner, not having it all perfectly lined up at the start.

Audiobooks+ some other mindless activity shuts my brain off really well. Find a series you love that your library has and pick up a new sudoku or other puzzle app and go to town.

If you're having trouble finding books I recommend a long sci fi or fantasy series. The Expanse is great, or Dune is also fantastically long. If fantasy is more your style maybe someone can recommend something but I know the wheel of time has a ton of books.

As for mindless things to do while you listen to audiobooks, either find a puzzle game or pick something up to do with your hands that requires few materials and is calming and productive. Here are a few that work for me:

Coloring (you can print out free coloring pages from the Internet like the ones here: https://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/adult-coloring-pages/)

Color by number

Crochet or knitting (lots of good online tutorials and making a scarf is a good first project)

Modeling clay (just reuse the same clay over and over again if you want to save money/supplies)

Yoga

Walking on a treadmill or riding an exercise bike

Weightlifting with free weights at home

Tai chi

Best of luck, I know this type of thing is tough. Try to stick to regular wake/sleep cycles as much as possible and get outside during the day if you can, it definitely helps. Sending hugs and hoping things get better soon.

Most useful off-road vehicle I've ever driven was a lot like this thing: https://www.offroaderie.com/new-models/kawasaki-side-x-side-mule-sx-2036834140399698232475668

Or just a regular sized pickup truck, which I've also used for plenty of sites. But honestly I prefer the mules because they hold all the stuff I need for work and can fit through most forest understory. And in the rare chance that you happen to turtle them it's possible to pull them off/out of whatever they're stuck on. If you get a giant truck stuck in the mud you're donezo.

I also took my Toyota Prius to plenty of sites, although I'd never off-road with it when the ground is swampy or sandy it did fine on plenty of rough roads and open fields. I'm sure a Subaru or other small all wheel drive sedan could handle lots of off-road work sites.

Not to mention they don't even fucking fit in off-road situations half the time. Unless you're in a wide open field or have giant cleared roads (in which case why do you need an ultimate off-road machineTM), most off-road situations in the eastern US are going to involve trees. Try driving around trees in that thing and you'll be stuck in a matter of minutes.

For all the actual off road work I've done, the best vehicle has always been those little utility off-road vehicles (we call them mules or gators but I'm sure they have a real name) or just a regular-sized pickup truck with 4 wheel drive and low gears.