Where I grew up in rural texas: these are current times as I still go there regularly to visit.

Convenience store: 10 km down a major highway

Market: 20 km

The nearest Walmart : 58 km <-- this used to be the only option until they built … The nearest chain grocery: 21 km

Train: 60 km (Amtrak)

Park: 8km. Down a road with a 60 mph (96 km/h) speed limit. But definitely walkable.

Bus stop: ??? There is no public transportation in the town of under 2000 people. Google maps won’t even give me a suggestion so…I have no idea. Does a greyhound count?

Library: 21 km

Syphilis can hang out for something like 30 years. Maybe they were on a break, or he got infected before they got together.

Wow! Thank you for such a detailed answer. Even without some weird law, it’s good information to have, and with a little elbow grease, it sounds completely doable. And if it keeps people from getting in trouble / protects privacy, I’m all for it!

I find this interesting. Does one just install software and buy a domain? I would assume theres somewhere you have to register with in order to federate. I mean, if theres no one to go after, this would be a nice work around. At least, until theres a site for every Texan that figures it out.

I think semi public would be like setting your facebook profile to private. It shows your name, and basic details, but doesn’t show all your posts or interactions.

Edit: haha, you kinda answered this somewhere else as I was typing.

Or, like, not allow registration for under 18s at all, I suppose.

Problem is, one would still have to find a way to verify the registrant is over 18.

Its getting more dystopian by the week. I would say day, but a lot of brains don’t move that fast here.

That’s the vibe I’m getting. No problem.

This is a fair view. I’m not sure anyone has gotten that far, especially outside the country.

Heres an article about a similar bill in Utah, that hasn’t gone into effect yet.

What’s not clear from the Utah bill and others is how the states plan to enforce the new regulations.

I mean if the general consensus is that it doesn’t apply, then, cool.

Maybe someone is better equip to answer this question. As far as I understand, it is up to the social media company, as it is operating in the state. Sort of the way the corporate office of a national grocery store can be sued.

https://www.texaspolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023-05-BillAnalysis-HB18-Updated.pdf

First, it prohibits digital service providers from entering into an agreement with a known minor unless they have verifiable parental consent.

It seems its up to whomever is registering the account. If the person is under 18 they see a scrubbed version, of the person is over 18 they have full access. I’m not sure an ISP has control like that. I could be wrong.

I know with pornhub, the ISP didn’t block the site, pornhub itself did.

Someone can correct me if im wrong, but, pretty sure its any social media. Similar to what happened with pornhub.

According to the Texas Office of the Attorney General, this new law will primarily “apply to digital services that provide an online platform for social interaction between users that: (1) allow users to create a public or semi-public profile to use the service, and (2) allow users to create or post content that can be viewed by other users of the service. This includes digital services such as message boards, chat rooms, video channels, or a main feed that presents users content created and posted by other users.”

Iol, I have no idea why this popped up on your feed either.

So, no. No resolution. We’ve never found anything, in or around, that could remotely be used in this manner. We could never replicate it.

I do understand where your coming from. I do, also, understand where everyone else was coming from as well. It seemed pretty wild, even to us. I admit, I was slightly suprised at the mental illness suggestions, but not totally taken aback. I expected people to think more along the lines of what you’ve brought up. That I’m trying to use a device like this, on someone else. Which I wasn’t and I’m not. Nobody really stood to benefit from this. There was no large sum of money, we all got along for many years, and we were always on relatively good terms. It was just thier mental decline that made them act in ways we really never expected.

Some type of conformation bias may possibly be the closest reason, second to it just really happening, and we did consider that, but it just got way to specific way to many times. Hell, at the beginning of the whole mess, they made some off handed comment that they were “a little psychic,” lol, So who knows. We really thought it was the radio, but like I said, we couldn’t replicate it. I just thought I would try my luck and see if anyone might have had some answers.

I will add that, a friend did get me some CO2 detectors. Mostly cause they noticed there werent any fire detectors either. They haven’t gone off yet, so…

This person was really close to us for a really long time. I may have changed some “names” for privacy reasons, but the situations and conversations are truly the way it all played out. In the end, they never came back and everything was left in limbo. We never got another change to recreate the situation and we never got any answers. I do admit, we haven’t made a huge super thorough sweep of the place. We figured that anything being used that frequently would be easy enough to find. The place has just been left, mostly as is, just like everything else that came out of this crazy situation. I wish there was something more final to offer, but there just is not. Maybe one day, when we finally get brave enough to clean it out, proper, and we’ll stumble across something. But until then, its just one of life’s mysteries, I guess.

Assuming you are in the US. We just went through this with a family member. Her mental decline happened in the matter of a few months, following an accident. They had a prior TBI, and something just snapped, I don’t know.

I can’t attest to how to get a dementia diagnosis. Their decline was completely atypical of regular dementia, but it did meet the technical definition. They were admited to the hospital and it took a long time for the doctors to really pick up on it. Instead of answering the questions, they would just get hostile. Eventually, things would slip, but we had a really hard time getting a straight diagnosis, even though staff treated her as a dementia patient.

As someone else mentioned here, you need to find out who, if anyone, will be granted power of attorney and medical power of attorney, if he is diagnosed. Technically, if he is diagnosed, they will have complete control over his finances and medical decisions. If he has made no plans to transfer POA / MPOA, you / your family will independently need to pay for any and all care. (Although you may have to anyways, as rules will vary state by state, for who is responsible for the bills). I would consult a lawyer that specializes in elder care. There may also be a regional government elder care department that maybe able to give you some information.

Getting a guardianship can take years, and emergency guardianship only lasts for a few days. If there is no one designated, and your grandfather is not willing / able to sign the forms… as someone told us, “Oh, your in a pickle.” If it comes to this, he will have to have progressed pretty far with the disease for any doctor to sign the paperwork. Guardianship means that all rights are stripped from them and given to someone else. Even though the guardian will have to submit to regular audits, people still abuse the position, and the doctors also have a responsibility to safeguard against this.

If he has dementia, medicaid will help cover costs, but you need POA to apply for him. If he has retirement money, you cannot access it without POA. If you can not pay, no place will take him. Full stop, unless someone takes pity on you and you can work out a deal of some sorts.

Medicare will pay for about 20 day in full, and up to 100 days partially, with stipulations, if there is a 3 day hospital stay involved. Fyi. Hospitals in the US must discharge to a safe place. If the home is “not safe” they cannot force you to take them home regardless of what they say. They will threaten to kick them out of the hospital, they will threaten guardianship, they will try to guilt you. If you can not care for them, then refuse to take them and tell them it is “not safe”. Do not sign discharge papers until you consult a lawyer.

Care homes will need to specialize in dementia, or they will not take him, so your options will be limited. Hobestly, I think it ultimately has to do with fire safety.

I’m sorry if this is scary, but it’s been a nightmare for us, and I don’t wish this on anyone else. The sooner you start preparing, the smoother it will go once the time comes. You really have to be at the top of your game to navigate the (again US) medical system, if your trying to care for someone else. Of course, in this country, it all comes down to how much money you have.

Good luck.

https://floor796.com/

Waste time watching pop culture animations.

We hung one of those uv light Bug zapper lamps outside for use on during the evening hours, as it’s too hot during the day for them to really come out. We also got a few of the smaller ones that plug into your regular outlets inside, from Amazon. This has cut down on the ones in the house drastically.

Of course remove standing water, and keep tall grasses trimmed. They actually make thier homes and can reproduce in tall grass esp when you have daily sprinklers (like our aerobic septic system) we have deer that stop by and trim our grass for us.

Our community was built on an endangered toad habitat, which is sad but also helpful. (We really try to keep everything as natural as we can around the house so as not to harm them)

But really the bug zapper were God send

This is interesting because while they do have ear / hearing issues, they’ve never gotten hearing aids from a doctor, but it doesn’t mean they never ordered them from some catalog, or whatever.

Like just because ive never seen them doesnt mean they dont exist. They maybe too proud to have them in while people are around, but might use them to watch TV or listen to the media.

I’ll definitely check into this. Thank you.