Live long and prosper from now on from me.

To my great consternation, I cannot do the Vulcan hand thing. I've tried, practiced, taken tips. My fingers just won't work that way. Makes me so sad.

Oatmeal:

I did not know you lived in Japan for years. For work? Because why not? For love? Did you like it? ::props chin on hands, elbows on table::

I did not know that about Laura either!

Oh, I didn't. DH lived there several years because his dad was in the Air Force. He didn't live on base and even spent months living on a farm there in a student exchange thing. His dad spoke the language and tutored English to corporate exec types.

I wish! I keep encouraging him to reach out to his old friends and for us to visit one day.

His dad was determined that if they were going to live abroad that they get the full experience, so he also lived in a regular village in Germany too. He only lived on base when they were in the US.

I like that! I've known people who lived, worked, shopped, socialized on base ... might as well have stayed in the U.S.

Very cool! Where in Germany? We lived in Düsseldorf for six years until '74 (my dad was with Dupont, not the military; I mean, he had been in the Navy during the Korean War but not at that point).

My personal "so sick of" with the pandemic is people who say they're very serious about the protocols, or that health/safety is their first concern, and then...they want to fudge the rules.

So, now I get to have a drawn-out negotiation about things that I came into this activity with assurances I wouldn't have to worry about.

In this case, it's "people who aren't comfortable with masks off can leave theirs on."

My pandemic gripe is people who will NOT speak up. In a bakery, with big, glass cases between me and the customers, it's hard enough to hear people without masks!