u/Traditional-Edge-631

Hey campers,

First off- don't laugh at me! I am a bit of an anxious person and an overthinker with some OCD traits, so bear safety can easily trap me in a loop. I’m really curious where people draw the line between common-sense caution and total paranoia when car camping in campgrounds.

On my last trip, my less-experienced guests were stressing out and asking me a million hyper-specific questions before bed. Because of my own overthinking, it really made me wonder how far people actually take these rules in the wild.

For example, how do you handle things like:
The Cooking Jacket: Wearing a fleece at night that you wore while eating dinner or sitting right by the fire (not actively handling raw meat, but definitely in the "food zone"). Do you sleep in it?

Smoke and Clothes: A shirt that was hanging on a line near the fire pit to air out while dinner was happening. It smells heavily of woodsmoke and campfire...

The Random Crumb: A couple of tiny crumbs of a trail mix bar fall on your lap right before bed. And so on…

Personally, I manage my anxiety by having a strict structural habit of changing completely into "night clothes" and "day clothes" so I don't have to overthink it.

But it got me thinkin. So far, even where I've camped in the Adirondacks, there weren't any drive-in campgrounds I’ve camped at, that banned storing food in your locked car—meaning the black bears there aren't that bold. I even stayed at a place in the Florida Springs where they provided metal bear boxes, but the rangers said a locked car trunk was fine too. So I let myself relaxed for wtvr might have stayed in the car unintentionally…
If the rangers are okay with cars, are the bears really going to sniff out a smoke-infused hoodie inside a tent?
Where do you draw the line between "you can't be too careful" and overthinking it? Do you change down to the skin before bed, or do you relax a bit if you're in an area where car-storage is allowed?

And in places where the bears are bolder?

Any insight will be helpful…

Hey everyone, I wanted to share a consultation I just had and see if anyone else has run into this mindset with top tier plastic surgeons. (Not naming names, but he is a prominent plastic surgeon at a major hospital in the U.S).

I am super slim on my upper body, but I have that classic, disproportionate fat accumulation in my lower extremities. Vascular surgeon ruled out vascular issues and diagnosed me with lipedema. 
I went to a plastic surgeon as the next step, not necessarily to jump into surgery but was looking for a doc to help with “what to do next”. he didn't even touch my legs, he just looked at me and immediately validated the physical pattern. He agreed that this is a specific type of localized fat accumulation that sits only in one part of the body and will never come off with diet or weight loss. He pointed out the linguistic meaning of the word when I questioned whether or not it’s lipedema, that technically, "lipedema" just translates to lipid/fat and edema/fluid.
However, when I asked him if he believes the fat cells themselves are metabolically different or diseased (that actually hurts and I have visible bruises), he completely brushed it off saying, "fat is fat." He basically said I can call it Lipedema or whatever I want, but at the end of the day, it's just an isolated fat distribution. lipo-hypertrophy I think.
He immediately jumped to recommending Tumescent Liposuction. To do the upper legs in one stage, but told me he wanted to completely skip the knees because "it would be too painful" to recover from
.
I left feeling conflicted. On one hand, he completely validated that this fat is stubborn, genetic, and needs surgical removal to change. On the other hand, it felt like a purely mechanical/cosmetic approach that totally ignored the systemic, and medical reality of Lipedema. He simply doesn’t “believe “ in lipedema…

Has anyone else encountered a surgeon who agrees with the pattern of Lipedema but treats it like standard fat? Would you trust a surgeon for lipo if they don't treat it as a medical/cellular disease?

An open water swimmer, trying to save some cash on gear. I found "Demo" wetsuits from older model years (some going back to 2017) at huge discounts.

But worried about the rubber. If a suit has been sitting in a box for 7-9 years, does the neoprene inevitably break down? i don’t want to buy one only for it to be stiff, or for the seams to snap the second I try to put it on.

Is a high-end suit from 2017 actually worse than a cheap, brand-new entry-level one?

Any thoughts are appreciated

Thanks!🙏

Edit: the wetsuits I am looking at:

2. Synergy Men's Adrenaline Full sleeve
A-Demo = almost new, lightly worn
For $50
Year was not specified but I am sure it an old version.

Edit 2: Well, that didn't take long—it's already sold out! Was it one of you guys? 🙈If so, enjoy the suit!