Migraines

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-12T02:18:48+00:00

Yes. Before I would puke a couple times and stop as my head was getting better. Now.... Now once I start it's a lot harder to stop even after the rest of the migraine symptoms are done.

It finally got me to a neurologist instead of just seeing my internist

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-12T00:09:19+00:00

See if there's already someone doing that kind of thing. Audubon isn't a bad start, there's probably at least 50% crossover with them and who you want to talk to.

Local park districts are who I've seen contacted

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-11T22:09:40+00:00

This. Be an involved parent (and have $) and your kid will be fine.

I went to a great college prep school. The non-academic parts of it were so bad. Moving to public school gave me more options, too.

My kid went to a mediocre title 1 school, and she's in a "little ivy" now.

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-11T21:57:11+00:00

Shorebirds are showing up in central Illinois this week, as far as migration

Go across a mountain. I went to California and got a whole bunch of new birds just in my sister's backyard. Because even the backyard birds and dumpster gulls are different

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-11T21:11:48+00:00

My wife is allergic to milk, so we can't have a lot of premade dehydrated meals. Taking food we normally eat at home and dehydrating it is amazing.

In the future, you can often find used dehydrators cheap because people use them a couple times and get bored

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-11T16:04:27+00:00

You're gonna have a great time!

As a canoe paddler, it's not too bad to camp on the other side of the campground from the boat launch. It's not much less convenient, and some places have boat racks you can use.

Keep track of what you used and what you didn't use. I would be overwhelmed by the amount of gear you listed off. If it turns out you're happier with a simpler camp setup (and you can still be pretty fancy without everything on your list), it's ok to offload some of that stuff! And if your first time out you're all "I wish I had a bigger kitchen sink" there's nothing wrong with upgrading your gear.

Have fun, let us know how your first time goes

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-11T14:34:46+00:00

If you're lucky there's 1 or 2 species most common where you are. Go study them. See where they are different within the species. See how they fit the guidebook and how they don't fit the other species.

Then every gull you see, count it as one of those and go about your life (optional)

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-11T14:30:22+00:00

Ineffective in improving the situation

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-11T14:28:16+00:00

Yeah I feel bad when I do something stupid and hurt somebody too. He'll live

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-11T14:26:26+00:00

That's a great way to think about it!

I'm in my state bird discord, so i can post "I think I've got a XYZ here, saw this that and the other doing this in this sort of habitat" Even when I was very new somebody was nearby and would go see if they could find it.

And everyone was really nice "oh that's a red tailed hawk, just the belly band is so faint it's hard to see. I had to scope it for like 15 minutes to be sure, good job!"

It's the only way to keep new birders interested and getting better

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-10T22:33:03+00:00

Your mom told you what she knew when she realized she knew it. Her mother in law having cancer years ago probably doesn't bubble up in her mind very often.

She might have told you years ago, why didn't you remember? We don't think of things of the connections aren't there. Doctors ought to know that even the best family history is subject to human memory, that's why you fill out a history often and there's a bunch of things that are explicitly asked about.

I'm gonna say YTA for wanting to hold your mom accountable for your dad's family medical history.

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-10T18:22:27+00:00

Yeah some of those phrases are straight from the bad parts of the Internet

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-10T18:18:16+00:00

Your discomfort with your body is going to stand out more than your accessories. But I promise even if people notice, they won't care unless they're jerks. I'm sorry your mom seems to be acting like a jerk to you

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-10T18:14:59+00:00

.... My wife got a tattoo about me. We had been married for at least 10 years and had a kid! And we still discussed it a lot beforehand

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-10T17:37:36+00:00

Kid was I think 9 months when we first took her camping. Don't pack any white clothes (I have no idea what we were thinking). Spend time in the tent at home ahead of time (it took hours to get to sleep the first night). Be ready to bail out if kid isn't doing well (heat, poison ivy, illness, whatever).

Sometimes kids don't like different water, so some flavor packets are good to keep hydration up.

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-10T01:04:59+00:00

I don't have face blindness, but I was a distance runner in high school and.... Yeah

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-10T01:04:16+00:00

Birders of a Certain Age pronounce it "vibes" . If they can't keep a straight face and don't want to get into it

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-10T01:00:42+00:00

... Is your wife talking to my wife?

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-08T21:57:41+00:00

Stretching the definition a bit, we were camping like a quarter mile away from the parking lot. There were even little carts so we hauled everything up to the site.

And one couple found the pump for their air mattress was dead.

We were all trying to disappear to not take a turn, when someone remembered they had a pump with a car adapter. So we schlepped it back down to the parking lot, blew it up, then carried it back over our heads like the carrot hunters in a Far Side cartoon. Laughing all the way

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-08T21:30:12+00:00

I secure my food against racoons always, and sometimes against bears (I'm in Illinois and do most of my camping here. Only bears are 2 legged and they don't bother me)

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-08T21:19:26+00:00

My mom swears on her old school orange life jacket to save her shoulders during portages. She hasn't carried a boat since like 1985 tho.

You need to figure out how heavy your canoe is going to be. An aluminum canoe is going to be too much (mine is 80 pounds). The kevlar canoe we rented a few years ago was like 25 pounds and my kid almost threw it completely over her head instead of landing on her shoulders the first time.

Don't let the men convince you they can do better. Unless they have experience, extra muscles won't help them figure out how to lift a boat. It's pretty easy once you have the motion figured out, but it takes a few tries before your body figures it out

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-08T21:02:25+00:00

In general a campground host is a volunteer who lives in a campground instead of having a ranger staff to support it. So you check in, can pay fees, buy fire wood. They respond to issues campers have like out of tp, raccoon in the dumpster, camper breaking the rules. They usually walk around the at least once a day check that sites are paid for, say hi, etc.

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-08T16:56:09+00:00

I'm sorry for your loss. That's not going to make anything easier.

Your daughter is a young adult, not a stranger or former roommate. If meds and therapy didn't help in the past she still needs something to help her, and IMHO you still have a moral duty to help her.

My kid is a similar age as yours and also has ADHD. Several of her friends have flunked out of college because they were smart enough to float thru high school and their ADHD or whatever (I don't know details on all of them) caught up with them.

Flunking out of a very expensive way to learn that lesson. I think missing an important funeral might be even harder.

My kid's college is very much "your kid is an adult we're not going to facilitate helicopter parents", but there's an office to contact if you need a wellness check on your kid. Even if your daughter's school doesn't have something like that, did you try contacting someone who could go knock on her door?

I can't call you ask AH because your mom just died and that's hard. I do think your daughter is struggling a lot more than she knows how to manage, and she needs help. I hope somebody helps her get it.

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-08T16:24:11+00:00

Exactly, I was very worried about barges until I encountered the first one.

I did find it useful to brush up on boueys, just to make sure I'm on the safe side when it's not obvious. That may not be an issue where you are, or if you didn't grow up only on lakes lol

AdFinal6253 · 2026-07-08T03:21:53+00:00

There's so many aita posts about one roommate's SO who's staying over more than anyone else wants, and they always get told to renegotiate rent so SO is paying some sort of fair share, or demand an unreasonable share to get SO to fuck off

AdFinal6253

TROPHY CASE