II didn't know that Catholics had the sign of the cross put on their foreheads in ashes during Ash Wednesday until I was in my late 20's and someone came back from lunch on Wednesday with the smudge on her forehead

For restaurants I generally eat in the bar, where it is more normal to be alone. Before smart phones I always brought a book, so I had something to do. Movies? When once the lights go down no one cares.
I admit that travelling alone is hard - I only do it when I go to work conferences and then do tourist side trips.…

Not all of us play video games 24/7 or binge watch Netflix all day. Some of us actually, you know, go outside.
And when you have $300,000 invested in a house, you are very aware of other peoples property around you.

Yeah I admit that some HOA’s have rules that are pretty restrictive. Maybe a most people in a neighborhood like it to be a sleepy bedroom community (where people only come home to sleep). So they might have rules against having too many guest park cars out front, or restriction on backyard BBQ smoke, or something like…

When you have toys that haven’t moved in weeks and have weeds growing up through them, then the house looks like an abandoned property. It’s ugly. Its not attractive to live next to. And if you want to sell your house, it turns off buyers.
In contrast, a house and yard with maybe a swing in the front, and the…

I admit I didn’t understand how HOA’s could “keep minorities out of the neighborhood”. My experience with HOA’s has been that they never had a say in whether or not you could buy a house in the neighborhood.

I’ve lived in 2 HOA’s and they have both provided more benefits than drawbacks. Maybe your problem is in the mirror.

You don’t have to be white to keep up your property. I don’t care what the color of my neighbors skin is. I just want them to replace that rotting fence that is falling over.

I have lived in 2 neighborhoods with HOA’s. And maybe they are the exception, but both were great.

Ooooo I’m hungry now!

I agree with having a radio, but not necessarily a hand crank radio. If you have one, thats great. But just a battery powered radio is fine.
It used to be that everyone had one of those. But if you look around your house, I bet you would be hard pressed to find a radio that doesn’t plug in.
Thats what I discovered…

If you have a natural gas furnace, the car generator could run the fan, which shouldn’t be more than 400 watts.

But I am the “Master of my domain” ;)

We have a FixIt app that Plano TX uses. It does take months sometimes, because they batch everything in one area together.
I was actually surprised that not all municipalities own the sidewalks.  You learn something every day!

As the antisocial person I am, I am amazed that this is really a “thing”.

Go where I want, when I want , for as long as I want. Granted, this applied more to when I was single, but still..

Well, married here, so no sex anyway (that’s another issue)
As for friends, there’s no need. I just do what I want to do by myself.

Easier to just not have friends. Less drama. Less effort. More freedom.

I remember being alone one Thanksgiving just by chance and I thought it would be fun, since I’m an introvert and I don’t need to socialize.

I have tried this, and it doesn’t work for me.  I think I’m just one of those people who is overly sensitive to bitterness.  I don’t like IPA’s either.