The part about feeling dumb for fighting them for 2 years hits way too close to home. I spent a whole Saturday once cussing at a filter with a strap wrench, knuckles bleeding, and my neighbor came over with some no name band wrench he got for like five bucks and it popped right off. I just stood there in my driveway looking like a complete idiot. The fancy tool catalog stuff is mostly just pretty packaging if you ask me. Half the time the cheap one works better because it can flex and bite where the expensive one just slips.

Wait, 40 down to 3? That is a crazy drop.

There's a weird rule in our heads that being alone in public means something is wrong with you. Like the only reason to sit at a counter by yourself is that your plans fell through. But you see the same thing at movies and parks and even walking down the street. Somebody on their own gets treated like a problem to solve. I've noticed it goes the other way too, where people in groups act like a single person is somehow taking up space that belongs to them. It's all in our heads. A stool is a stool and coffee does not care who drinks it.