Paying someone that much for something I could scribble on a napkin is wild.

Actually paper's probably safer than you think, a sticky note under a register is way less likely to get hacked than any online service. What's the worst that happens, someone swipes a photo while 30 people are watching them take it?

Oh man, I feel this so hard. I had a crack in my kitchen counter that spread over like a year and it ended up looking exactly like the Mississippi River. I was so mad about the water damage at first but now I kind of love it. It's weird how something that's totally broken can become part of the place's character. Glad I'm not the only one who just let it go instead of fixing it.

Take the opposite side here, @eric_carr. That 50,000 word mess is actually proof you found a story worth telling. Most people can't even get five hundred words out of a simple prompt, but you hit a nerve and followed it.

That $350 could have bought you a good set of custom molded earplugs AND a basic snorkel mask for half the price. Unless you're doing deep commercial dives every week, a band mask is overkill for most people who just want to protect their ears in a noisy shop or at the range. A simple pair of foam plugs that cost a few bucks would've done the same job if you learned to put them in right.