northernwalker: (Default)
Until yesterday, I had no idea that laundromats outside Alaska don't come standard with showers.

Just to explain, Alaskan laundromats have, along with laundry facilities, several shower cubicles. Basically, there are four or five little rooms along one wall with shower setup and changing space. They're private, cost about $5, and provide towels. There are also water filling stations for people who live in dry cabins, which are exactly what they sound like- no running water. You fill up your five gallon jugs and haul them out to the car.

Your other alternative is a gym, or, if you're University staff or students, then you have the student rec center and there are showers in several of the campus buildings. The building my dad worked at has a couple of showers downstairs that are used by staff or grad students, and have been very useful when our pump broke down at home (we have running water. Mom was not going for a dry cabin with two babies.) When I worked at one of the campus libraries, our building had a small locker room. One of my coworkers who lived in a dry cabin would come in and shower there each morning.

I live in Maryland at the moment, and apparently this is not a thing. A quickie FB poll agrees. It's interesting to see what we take for granted as normal.
northernwalker: (Default)
There are three kinds of people: those who learn by reading, a few who learn from observation, and the rest who have to test the electric fence for themselves.
northernwalker: (Naamah's Curse cover- prayer hands)
"If you want the very truth,
I'll lay it down before you:
everybody's got a story.
If you want the very truth
it's here before your eyes:
Every witch was someone's princess
in some other once upon a time."

SJ Tucker, Not the Villain
northernwalker: (Naamah's Curse cover- prayer hands)
“Lord, thou knowest better than myself that I am growing older and will soon be old. Keep me from becoming too talkative, and especially from the unfortunate habit of thinking that I must say something on every subject and at every opportunity.

Release me from the idea that I must straighten out other peoples' affairs. With my immense treasure of experience and wisdom, it seems a pity not to let everybody partake of it. But thou knowest, Lord, that in the end I will need a few friends.

Keep me from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point.

Grant me the patience to listen to the complaints of others; help me to endure them with charity. But seal my lips on my own aches and pains -- they increase with the increasing years and my inclination to recount them is also increasing.

I will not ask thee for improved memory, only for a little more humility and less self-assurance when my own memory doesn't agree with that of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be wrong.

Keep me reasonably gentle. I do not have the ambition to become a saint -- it is so hard to live with some of them -- but a harsh old person is one of the devil's masterpieces.

Make me sympathetic without being sentimental, helpful but not bossy. Let me discover merits where I had not expected them, and talents in people whom I had not thought to possess any. And, Lord, give me the grace to tell them so.

Amen”

Not bad advice.
northernwalker: (Default)
So, this weekend I was watching a lot of ID(Investigation Discovery, AKA the true crime crack channel) and it got me thinking about murder. More precisely, about family murders. I can't really picture how I'd react if one of my parents killed the other. Angry? Would I believe it? Would I try to pretend it didn't happen?

Trying to think about how to cope if you were a parent whose child had killed another of your children? I just have no idea how you'd process it. Say that your child is Karla Homolka. She comes to you and tells you that she and her husband have killed three teenaged girls. One of them is her 15yo sister. That death, she tells you, was an accident, caused by the alcohol and drugs they gave Tammy so that Karla's then-fiance could rape her two days before Christmas. What could you possibly say or do then? How do you cope? What do you do with your anger? Do you blame yourself? Do you try and defend her? All I can think to do is get a therapist and a lot of booze.
northernwalker: (Naamah's Curse cover- prayer hands)
Dear Alaska State Troopers Show,

I love the show- I get homesick every time I watch it. One tiny caveat- your narrator keeps referring to the "Alaskan outback." There is no such thing. It's the Alaskan Bush. Please correct this for my sanity- I keep grinding my teeth and it's worrying my dentist..

Love, Northernwalker

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