Stick a sock in it

Is it possible to take a retreat from other people's opinions entirely?  I find myself responding, recently, to any opinions expressed in absolutes or generalizations or in any way expressed as if they were objectively True (as opposed to "What I liked about X was..." or "I find myself drawn to the candidate because of their position on Y")  with an immediate, visceral "Who the hell asked you?  Keep it to yourself, you old gasbag!"   I've never been a fan of the conversational style in which people make grand, sweeping statements or smirking, overconfident pronouncements or folks who express unsolicited opinions instead of asking illuminating questions, but this is a whole new level of complete and utter lack of patience with it.   I wish I could lure everyone I know (back) over to the slower-paced world of blogging (not that the world of blogging is free of gasbaggery, but it seems to have a lower percentage of it).  [note: this is not a reference to any individual -- it's the internet as a whole, right now]

In other news, my life overhaul is proceeding apace.  I've been tracking it with various paper journals and photos. Perhaps this weekend I'll put them together into a post here.

Short form:  Got the house back to baseline; morning routines are going well, evening routines have been overhauled and the new ones are *excellent*; got in 2 of the needed medical visits (they're all general checkup things, other than 2 root canals); anxiety and other perimenopausal stuff continue to be a struggle to deal with; seedlings are thriving and it's time to get them in the ground; stumbled on my plan not to volunteer for any more tasks at work (volunteered to work on the hiring committee because it felt like an important part of responsibly wrapping up my time at the school) but I think I can limit that job to about 15 hours of work, which is acceptable; this weekend I expect to wrap up processing the pile of paperwork so I can flip it from "in progress" to "maintenance".   I want to make more time to see friends and finish up the kitchen and paperwork stuff so that I can get to the next layer of tasks.