Horses are great but require a lot of resources. I think most people would be trudging on foot and cars would be housing not transportation.
Mike Carey The Girl With All the Gifts, that book seems realistic in its approach to transportation.
Not power but our hot water heater went out in the dead of winter and we had a well. Our coldest winter is near freezing, not insane but those showers were awful. Ice water shower. I couldn't adjust ever. The one upside was that I was warm stepping out of the shower, oddly much warmer than after a hot shower.
One of my kids is a genetics scientist and she explained this as - it's not that older women have a higher rate of conceiving sick kids, but our immune systems do a worse job of figuring that out and aborting them. So 22 year old gets pregnant, embryo is not healthy, body yeets it before she even knows she's pregnant. 42 year old body doesn't screen as well and it might stick.
Anecdotally - I had one set young & one in late 30s and there is no difference in their health or intelligence. The one difference I think the older ones got was watching me go to school and get a better job, they were around for that economic arc and sort of internalized the belief it can be done. Well, and the second set were bigger because I was, as the midwife put it, better nourished as we were not so poor.
And I cannot with confidence say that my kids harmed my economic situation as they were the reason I had to get a better job. Probably wouldn't have bothered otherwise.
But delicious. Only done as espresso.
And yes I am not a black coffee person but do love coffee. As my friend says - people who love chocolate usually don't like straight up squares of unsweetened baking chocolate but nobody doubts their love for chocolate.
Psst! Wanna make some money?
I like both. With milk.
Light roast is especially good as espresso. My usual coffee is Cuban style, either from the cafe up the street, cafe con leche with espresso from the big machine or at home moka pot and milk - in both cases made with this dark roast:
https://navieracoffee.com/collections/frontpage/products/cafe-naviera-cafeteria-blend-2-lb
But even the Starbucks latte is good if they do the "blonde" one and you get 2x the espresso.
Make it strong and you will probably get it. Or not, and you will still learn something.
Looked at my library history YTD. Maybe
The Lies of Locke Lamora
But I'm not sure, have been reading a lot and a lot of it good.
Yes. Say you make $20 an hour and can get a takeout meal for $20 or ingredients for $15 and cook for an hour to make something better and healthier. I enjoy cooking, and am in a multi income household, but if you need to maximize work hours to make it, better to spend more time on what you are good at & pays the most.
I had to get that electrified acupuncture to induce labor with one of my kids (the water broke and I was 'on the clock' but labor did not start) - the needles just felt weird but getting acupuncture to INDUCE pain was a mindfuck. It did work. Baby 2 hours later.
Being stitched for a tear after childbirth was bad. As someone else mentioned - IUD insertion is done with no pain medicine, that was bad. I think the worst pain related to literal medical procedures are those women's ones, for whatever reason they are done without anesthesia and really do hurt.
Worst PAIN I have ever felt, though, is migraine. Hands down. Worse than childbirth.
I live close to work, and have never lived alone - but living close to economic opportunities costs more, not less. Not having to drive saves some money, sure, but probably not enough to make up for the difference in housing cost.
Cooking from scratch at home is more a quality of life thing, I do that so we can eat well & reasonably healthy. The more money we make, the more I cook from ingredients. Have a garden now, even - it's a luxury of having space for one, not a cost saving measure.
Nothing you can do on the expense side will ever make up for the depressed wages - productivity and costs have increased much faster than pay, and nobody can save their way out of that.
Waiting until I'm sleepy to go to bed & sleeping until I wake up.
Yoga, it's shocking how healthy that keeps me.
XLookup.
https://makemeacocktail.com/en/cocktail/9953/banderilla
Equal parts tequila, mezcal, Apricot liqueur and lime, half part Aperol works best IMO, any more Aperol and it gets too sweet.
This is a pantry recipe for me as I keep Giffard Abricot in stock always. You want a good apricot in this, I think passion fruit or peach would be equally delicious but make sure it's made from real fruit. Also can sub Campari for the Aperol if you want a little more bitter.
This was a test-and-adjust drink. I was looking for something with Fernet & Mezcal and everything I saw were stirred very boozy things, I was not in the mood for. I saw one though with cachaca and lime so tried a margarita approach.
Started with these, shaken:
1.5 oz tequila
.75 oz each Fernet and Mezcal
Juice of one lime.
Nope. Too flat, too sour. Added about 1/2 oz Pineapple Amaro, and a squirt of Agave, shook again and THIS is a keeper. I guess Fernet does like sweeter drinks more. This one is balanced and I can taste all the ingredients but they did cocktail into a new taste. I usually don't taste the pineapple in the pineapple Amaro but it's shining in this drink - I may try another Fernet-Mezcal-Pineapple Amaro variation (when I am in the mood for stirred and boozy) as I think those together are the magic here.
So, I saw this recipe that inspired me.
https://punchdrink.com/recipes/green-mango-martini/
But don't have mango eau de vie and not about to make it, and I think as written it would be too sweet for my palate. And of course everything needs ice here in the summer. I did make the green mango tequila.
So far I can vouch for tequila, green mango and sauternes - it's a surprisingly good combination.
This is:
2.5 oz green mango infused tequila
1 oz Sauternes wine
.75 oz lemon
.25 oz Giffard Apricot (because I have no mango liqueur right now and did you hear Chinola is making a Guava liqueur? I am excited for that.)
Squirt of honey.
Shaken with ice.
My thoughts - the green mango tequila is tart and I think the lemon sort of muddies the flavor. I would try this again with more Sauternes and a splash of mango liqueur, leave out the honey and if it was too sweet adjust with citric or malic acid not lemon.
I would also like to try the green mango tequila with ginger beer but not today, this is a one and done.
And I was thinking to convert the recipe into a punch or sangria, a pitcher cocktail using a whole bottle of Sauternes, but I think that it might need to go in a different direction. Again, I do love the combination of the green mango with the Sauternes, and tequila - the main flavor combo is good. I've tried amchur and tequila - the green mango infused tequila worked so much better to get that flavor.
1 oz tequila blanco
1/2 oz each mezcal, Campari, passion fruit syrup, ginger syrup and lime.
Squirt of fire tincture
Shake these together and add 1-2 oz IPA beer.
I had to substitute apricot liqueur for the passion fruit and it's really good so I suspect anything fruity would be fine. Beer I used is Jai Alai and only 1 oz, I don't like it but as an ingredient in here can't taste it, must add something though. This is bitter in a great way, somehow not too sweet, I went a little heavy on the lime but close to the 1/2 oz. If you do like beer I think you could safely increase it past the 2 oz and still have something really nice.
The rainy season is finally here too. So happy to be out here watching the rain.
Biker kitty!
Biker kitty!