Rural life is wonderful until you run out of something, or until you can't stop the bleeding.

I grew up ten miles from the nearest stores etc. It was quiet and peaceful and beautiful and I'd go nuts if I had to do that again. I need the sounds of people around me.

It was pretty quiet in our farm house. We could barely hear cars go by on the highway in front of our house. In the winter we'd hear snowmobiles along the highway, and occasionally copulating cats or cows giving birth.

We lived about a three-minute drive to the grocery store in town. But we had to drive 45 miles to see a movie.

We do live about a 7-minute drive from a Kroger, but it's too far for residents of the neighborhood to walk (though some do), and navigating it by bus is oddly difficult. The planned co-op will be right in the middle of the neighborhood, so much easier to walk to for virtually everyone, with a bus stop on the corner.

It is definitely a luxury to be able to choose to drive 15 minutes to go to the grocery store we like (or even a little further to stock up at Trader Joes), and we're well aware it's a luxury not everyone has.

We both bought owner shares in the co-op so we can both vote for the board and such, and we'll probably shift the bulk of our shopping there when it opens.

Can You Solve the Math Problem That Has Torn Singapore Apart?

A question on a quiz for teenage mathletes proved so tricky for Singapore newscaster Kenneth Kong that he posted it to Facebook to find a definitive answer. Now the problem has driven the entire country mad, and it's spreading to the rest of the world.

It's gone viral enough that even the New York Times compared it to The Dress , the asinine social media argument-starter by which all asinine social media argument-starters are now measured.

I solved it.

I was kind of horrified to realize that I'm living a fairly standard middle-class lifestyle at the moment. My standard of living is actually improving. I'm not obsessively checking the bank balance right before payday, I can contemplate the death of the washing machine with equanimity.

Relax and enjoy it, Connie. You've built enough character.

Dear transfusion nurse:

Why are you talking to me? Do I look like I want to be your friend?

I get the cognitive dissonance, Connie, but those are all good things.

And in I'm-not-fasting news, first breakfast was uber-Westside mom meal of yogurt with some chia seeds stirred into it, and second breakfast was nachos with avocado and salsa. Because first breakfast was just enough food to get me to the mechanic before 9 am, but was never gonna no how get me to lunch.

I live in the opposite of a food desert when it comes to grocery stores, and my sleepy neighborhood is finally gentrifying enough that there's some tasty restaurants and bars moving in. All to the good.

It could be that I think about food way too much. My students are writing their research papers right now and some of them are so fantastic! I tell you, I am so blown away by them. Winner for most exotic topic is the one on entomophagy (eating insects) and why it's such a nutritious and environmentally-friendly source of protein.

Back off, transfusion nurse.

I live like I'm in a food desert, though I really am not.

Well, comfortable walking distance for groceries puts me at a high priced organic boutiquey place (which is awesome, don't get me wrong, but not a real grocery store). But I have a) a car and b) plenty of places w/in 5 or so minute drive. And yet I pick up food on the way home from restaurants or fast food places, or live off Costco snacky stuff for the most part.

And I have three weeks worth of produce share stuff sitting on my counter/fridge being barely touched.

And the clouds begin to lift as the snow eases. It'll probably all be melted by 5 PM. 70s on Saturday.