30 months of my life gone to "freelance consulting" and honestly it was still better than explaining every gap with some sad story. Nothing wrong with calling it what it is when the system punishes you for taking time off or trying something different. You gotta play the game sometimes.

Oh man, did your aunt actually say that out loud? My grandma once told me my pecan pie had "more moisture in a saltine cracker" and then walked me through dropping a shot of bourbon into the filling. It stung at first but honestly that one tip made me stop overbaking everything and now I actually pay attention to texture instead of just guessing.

I actually bought a Racor manual one years ago and hated it. Switched to a motorized unit from Ace Garage Storage recently and the difference is night and day. Much smoother motor and the remote is super handy.

Yeah the magic trick analogy is spot on. I've had to explain this to a few writing groups before, and the best way I've found is to tell them to look for small contradictions early on, not big red flags. The narrator should feel mostly believable until you start noticing those little cracks, like remembering a room differently than they saw it or misquoting a conversation. That's when the fun really starts.

Hang on, 2000 degrees? That can't be right for a standard chimney fire, can it? I mean, I knew they got hot, but that's like nearly the melting point of steel. @diana_bell74 mentioned a house burning down from a "clean" chimney last winter, and that makes a little more sense now if that kind of heat is actually possible. Still blows my mind that a little buildup can create that kind of furnace in your wall.