find one that fits for you, but don't make me wear your shoes

1. How much of a bargain hunter are you? 

    not much. I've reached the point where convenience is often worth paying for. Wasting money is foolish, of course, but so is obsessing about saving pennies on cans of soup and spending hours to do that.

2. How tolerant a person are you? 

     I'm tolerant of nearly everything except intolerance. Not sure why, but it infuriates and disgusts me when someone I otherwise like is stubbornly narrow-minded on certain topics. I don't need everyone to agree with me, but in the people I like, I appreciate (and in some circumstances require) their acceptance of the existence of differing opinions.

3. What's your fancy: bird watching, butterfly collecting, flower hunting, shell gathering, or star gazing? 

    great timing on this one! I've reached that undefined but specific point in life where birds are inordinately fascinating. I don't "watch" them, per se, but I do feed them—both a finch feeder (tube), and a glass hummingbird bell. Also started using Merlin Bird ID, a phone app to "collect" birds via sound recordings (identifying their songs and calls), photos (AI species identification) and step by step descriptions. As of this writing, there are 55 birds in my life list!

    Butterfly collecting is mortifying to me; the idea of killing bugs so they can be pinned and displayed is morbid. Flower hunting is a waste of time (except to the extent that I like to photograph them). Shell gathering is funny—there are no shells for collecting within 500 miles. Star gazing is fine, but it doesn't rise to the level of 'fancy.'

4. How mechanically inclined do you consider yourself? 

    not bad. At least half the time, I can figure out mechanical problems on my own. I've rehung cabinet doors, replaced the battery in my car's key fob, taken apart and cleaned a dryer, and lots of smaller sorts of things. Living alone—and, for many years, hours away from my mechanically-inclined male relatives—made me self-sufficient. I'm a pro at assemble-it-yourself furniture, even at disassembling it again for moving.

    I'm never going to rehab an entire house. I don't get near electricity, plumbing, or fire. I don't try to build stuff from scratch. But I'm also not going to pay (or wait for) someone else to do something I can handle on my own.

5. Have you ever served jury duty? If so, what was the case about? If not, would you like to be on a jury in the future? 

    I've been called for jury duty (meaning, I got the initial notice to be ready to serve) 5 times and selected to serve three times. The first time, I was released because during the 3-month service period I would be taking my last undergrad finals, graduating, and getting married. That time was a logger accused of poaching someone else's stand of trees. The second time, I was released without knowing any details because the jury was selected before my number came up. 

    The third time, I served, but as the thirteenth picked I was only the alternate. I had to attend the sessions and would deliberate only if another juror was unable to complete the case. It was a groundbreaking OUI criminal case: Operating Under the Influence. That state had an established DUI law, but it only covered driving under the influence of alcohol. The accused in my case was alleged to have been under a debilitating influence of marijuana, and the state's attorney (prosecutor) decided to try to expand the existing OUI—which had thus far been used for operating a vehicle other than a car, such as a boat or train—to include pot, and cars.

    It was a two-day trial, held in the county courthouse which happened to be across the street from the library where I worked. We were sprung each of those two days for a lunch break, and I ate at my desk while catching up with work email. That way I could be paid for a regular work day plus the $15 or so we made each day as jurors. 

    The legal challenge didn't fly, though not because of the OUI element. It was just a bad test case, there wasn't substantial evidence, and the defendant had a highly skilled legal team... which included the animal-brained lawyer, Reed, with whom I've had a prickly and amorphous relationship ever since.

6. Which do you prefer: the hustle and bustle of city life or the quiet and serenity of country life? 

    living in the "quiet and serenity" of the country doesn't strongly appeal to me, mostly because there's a flip side to everything. With this, the flip is access to services, and safety and security when living alone. I also want accessible walking options, and for me that is not a gravel road or creepy, howling, bug-laden woods. 

    Living in the "hustle and bustle," though, is not a goal. The closest I came to that was during college when I stayed at a boyfriend's apartment, which was downtown amidst a bunch of bars. Being within stumbling distance of bars and liquor stores was a definite plus at the time, but now—ugh. I was also on what passes for a main drag when I was first single again, and seven years in that place, with associated middle-of-the-night drunken visits from acquaintances, revving motorcycles at the biker bar, and fistfights at the sports bar. No thanks.

    Isn't there always a middle ground? A small town, or suburbs? The sort of place where the other 95% of this country actually resides?

7. What bores you? 

    • Zoom/Teams meetings

    • relentlessly hot and/or sunny weather

    • fiction writers who use implausible sex scenes as a distraction from paltry stories 

    • unsalted snacks

    • business casual attire

    • modern music 

    • people who talk but cannot (or refuse to) listen

 

[from The Complete Book of Questions : 1001 Conversation Starters for Any Occasion; the title quotation is by George Carlin]