We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
It is enjoyable and satisfying to do even if your greedy wallet screams in pain.
Suggestions: Replace all bad wood and stone. Get house painted expertly (costs more). Re-point your chimneys. Install a new gas furnace. Get a lawn service. Get new outdoor lighting. Replace and expand outdoor stone seating or decking, and throw in a nice stone outdoor fireplace with a pizza oven.
Those things are good starters for getting rid of money:Middle English: from Old French moneie, from Latin moneta ‘mint, money’, originally a title of the goddess Juno, in whose temple in Rome money was minted.
I think it does help me with weight-lifting. Could be just an effect of imagination or suggestion. Anyway, it can't hurt. I take a dose an hour before lifting.
The idea is that it can help you somewhat over-stress muscle. That's a good thing, because a goal of weights is to micro-damage muscle and then let it repair in better condition. I tend to work towards muscle-failure, or close. I wish I could say that I like it, but I do not. I'd rather read a book.
Why do I do heavy weights twice weekly? To try to avoid sarcopenia and osteoporosis. Plus to be appealing to my wife. Three times might be better, but I spend times on calisthenics too.
Creatine supplement makes no claims for aerobic exertion.
My House Wrens returned yesterday. I need to quickly finish my re-painting and refurbishingof their birdhouses because it cheers me to have them around ye olde cabin.
We have two pairs nesting each year in our wren houses, and their cheery chatter is a sentimental springtime pleasure. I can hear them right now. Once they lay their eggs, they tend to go silent so as not to draw attention to their eggs and babies.
With wrens, "If you build it, they will come." They lovewren houses. They like to appropriate mailboxes too, or anything else with a hole in it. For many years when I was a kid we had them nesting happily in an old horse feedbag that hung on a nail in an open shed.
Problem with House Wrens is that the males will fill boxes in their territory with sticks to keep competitors from using them. Filthy Capitalist slime.
Susie Linfield: The Israelis pulled out of Gaza in 2005—which was accomplished by a super-hawk, Ariel Sharon. There’s criticism on the Israeli Left for how this was done, and criticism on the Israeli Right that it was done at all. Nevertheless, Palestinians were now in control of a territory. A small bit of territory, true. But you have to start somewhere. (Look at what the Kurds have accomplished in the areas they control in Iraq and Syria.) There was a lot of hope, among Israelis and Palestinians alike, that Gaza would turn it into a thriving entity, which is to say that energy would be put into the development—economic, civil, etc.—of one’s own people and society, not into destruction of the Other. A Middle Eastern Singapore! Under Hamas, the opposite happened. David Grossman told the New Yorker that, had Palestinians chosen peaceful development, withdrawal from West Bank settlements would have commenced. Instead, Hamas began lobbing rockets into Israel and, eventually, turned the whole Strip into a terror base while enriching itself. You can begin to understand what effect this had on Israelis, including those who desperately want two states.
15:9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.
15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
15:11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
15:13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15:15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
15:16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
15:17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
Abigail Shrier: There Are Two Sets of Rules for Speech. Frat parties with offensive themes are swiftly punished. But publicly contemplate murdering Zionists? That’s a different story.
It probably does, because any lawn benefits from it.
How Motherhood Liberated Me -
Re Hysteria: 
Death Of Self-Checkout, Walmart
My rhubarb patch is ready for the first harvest. There are all sorts of things to do with it, but this is the simplest olde New England thing: