I don’t use the sidewalk if pedestrians are using it. But do take it if nobody is walking on that stretch of sidewalk (and walk the bike across intersections) which is allowed - I am not sure if the electric bikes are, that’s what I have, so may be breaking the law, technically. There is no bike lane on my way to work, not even the painted line. So it’s either throw down with the cars or take the sidewalk.

If you are willing to make it yourself, kvass or ginger beer, those can be dry and sparkling. Water kefir or kombucha. All very, very low in alcohol, not intoxicating. Chinotto soda is something I buy for dry months too.

As someone else said, tonic water has a bitter edge that really hits the spot, I make a sweet non alcoholic cocktail called the Friend Zone, made with strawberry tepache (strawberry fruit kvass), lime, and tonic water, and I swear everyone thinks it’s a boozy cocktail. Too sweet for what you are looking for here but it’s certainly the tonic pulling most of the weight.

I ride my bike on the sidewalk and don’t mind taking the car road if there are pedestrians on it, but one week every day there were trucks blocking the sidewalk, to get out of the road. I do NOT like getting in the car road because a car is using the sidewalk. That feels so wrong.

I would be very sad but at least now have heard so much I think it would stick with me, and already get auditory hallucination sometimes, so might be able to imagine it. If you mean deafness.

If you mean some sort of music blindness, like it’s only music I can’t hear, it never sounds like music and I can’t remember any of it? That seems inhuman, and I am not sure at all whether I would miss it, maybe not - the only analogue I have is sex drive, I run hot most of my life, sex is something I enjoy so much and value that ability to enjoy it but when I was nursing kids, it was gone, entirely gone, I had less than no sex drive and while it caused problems in my relationship, I can’t say I missed it exactly? I didn’t care that I didn’t care about sex and couldn’t feel it. So if I became amusical in that way, maybe I would not care. It’s just hard to imagine, just like right now it’s hard to believe I didn’t care about missing out on the sexual pleasure.

That is so cool. I went to barber school when the curriculum was changing - we were not allowed to use reusable razors (height of the AIDS epidemic) but did have to learn how to sharpen them, and it’s helped me in general. Haircutting shears I have only ever allowed an enthusiast sharpener to touch, like y’all, an artisan.

My answer to the original question is probably food. I grow food, bake bread that would sell for $10 a loaf at today’s prices, design fantastic cocktails and cook for big enough parties that I could do it as a side job. I enjoy hospitality, it’s so satisfying, but as a job it is like a baby, relentless, no rest. The only way I would even dare is if we were so wealthy I didn’t need to make money and could hire great staff, pay them so well.

OMG I had an enormous cat with very similar look who did exactly that to drink. His sister, though, knew that you had to get the water out of the glass to drink it, she would just tip it over with her paw, and drink from the resulting puddle.

I saw them live twice and they were great shows.

Whole lotta Rosie is on my husband’s workout playlist and it is a jam. So good.

Well in some ways yes, and in some ways no. I never seem to get jaded, silly things still make me laugh. I still can read and shut out the world like when I was a kid.

But I am so competent in some ways? Can cook and hold a job, raised kids, gardens finally grow for me. All those seem adult qualities. And I have made so many mistakes and have been hurt so much, do feel the weight of experience. And while nothing hurts, and I can still cartwheel and do yoga, I have no bounce - can’t run well, can’t jump.

Jacks, and a Lite Brite.

Oh powerlifting, and I wouldn’t be competitive. Just lift whatever I could, and lose the competition, forever. I guess that’s amateur though? Hmm.

I cannot imagine anyone paying me to play any sport at all.

I commute on electric bike, literally work at a participation endurance sport company and have only gotten gentle teasing, no hate from the hardcore bikers. I tell them I literally hate riding a bike and that this one cost less than their racing bike, and I am comfortable on it, so use it for grocery shopping and stuff like that.

There is not enough infrastructure for bikes. I am careful and polite, if I have to take the sidewalk I get off and walk around pedestrians, walk it across intersections. If I’m in the road I wait for a big break in traffic or periodically get off the road so cars can pass (there is no bike lane going to work). I see bikers weaving through traffic and understand the frustration drivers have. And have had cars make illegal left turns almost into me and understand bikers being frustrated too.

It is newer, with a terrifying metal dough hook that looks like a sadist’s implement and a 1/2 speed setting. I do sourdough not dry yeast breads, and usually let it run on the slow speed for a couple minutes, rest, then on 2 for about 5 minutes or so, longer if all whole grain. (Then dump into a bowl, rest, stretch, evaluate if it needs another round or two of stretch and rest before bulk rise.) What I like is that or doesn’t struggle at all with that mass of dough. I have run it for over 10 minutes making brioche (it takes time to incorporate the butter) and it stays cool and comfortable.

I couldn’t stand the bread machine, it was like Schrodinger’s box. Put in measured ingredients. Will it be a brick? Will it be a bread? No idea until you open it.

I have to see the dough, feel the dough, be able to adjust the timing, give it an extra stretch if needed or an extra hour rest or go faster if it’s ready ahead of schedule.

With bread machine, 35% success, ugly bread

Hands and a bowl, and a pan? 95% success (never gets to 100%) and gorgeous bread.

Literal Gadget, the big KitchenAid mixer. I got one that can handle my 2 kilo of sourdough dough, it’s glorious.

MVP? The iron skillets, hands down. If I had to build a kitchen out of fewer than 10 items the medium and oldest one would be first on that list.

Go for it then! I was just thinking smoking pot wasn’t going to help you with nutrition. But you are right, it would have fats and protein in the seeds. Or could provide income.

Beans & rice would be my choice, and grow some greens (not marijuana. Collard greens, mustard greens, kale greens). If you can afford some onions, garlic, canned or fresh tomatoes, and spices, you are going to do fine. Cilantro grows in the winter here, basil in the summer.

Because flavor is important to me. If it was just for a week, I can do water and a bottle of electrolytes for like $5 total, not eat at all, but if it’s an ongoing situation I would need to enjoy the food at least enough to eat it.

With enough of a runway, buy one potato (if you are in the cold) or sweet potato (if you are in the heat) and plant it, those are not difficult to grow, don’t need fertilizer or anything. I do the Stokes Purple ones down here.

So yeah, I would buy beans and rice (and oil or nuts of some sort, can’t get around that, body needs fats). and try to grow some veggies to make it complete, if going for the lowest cost most healthy diet.

I don’t use a proofing oven, or rely on consistent temperature, even now but it does mean I’m sitting here at midnight baking the rye so it can cool overnight because it wasn’t ready to bake earlier so yeah even here in the subtropics I notice the difference in the winter, bread is slower to rise.

I had friends who moved to the bush and built a clay oven and they said all they could successfully bake was popovers because the oven started hot then cooled off, there was no way to keep it constant.

This reminded me of:

In a modern oven, sure. I make great bread from flour, water, salt. But without the ovens I understand? Without the fine ground flour? I dunno.