rambling Challenged... Technology is not my best friend. Anytime there is something new out there Brent has to drag me practically kicking and screaming to using it. I can tell you that part of it is the way my brain is wired, I like routines, I like the comfort of the same,
rambling Very Clever... My mother was a very smart woman. She probably wouldn't have agreed with that statement, deferred a little bit, but she was. Especially with math. I'm pretty sure I've written before about going through the grocery store and getting to the check out and
rambling Now I Understand... I've been thinking about my grandmother today. About both of my grandparents a little bit. About our times visiting Iowa. But a lot about my grandmother. When I was little we would visit Iowa every August. Prime weather, August in Iowa, let me tell you. But we would
rambling ReCharge... My Oura ring recommends that you charge it a little bit every day. Its optimal range is 60-80% charged. So they say pick a time daily and just put a little charge on it. I do it while I'm writing. Slip it off (or wrangle it off depending
rambling Sanity Post... Okay, you can back out right now if you want. This whole post is going to be about my crazy head around weight. I am going to write a bunch of things that everyone already knows but that I need to reinforce for myself right now. I'm not
rambling PreVacation... So, I did the customary pre vacation trying on of the bathing suits today. The good news is that I am not any heavier than I was when we last went to Hawaii in 2024. The bad news is that I am not the same shape as I was in
rambling One Week Later... The stories have hardened. Either you believe the ICE agent and our government or you believe what was on the recording. The latest thing the administration is trying is "leaking" to CBS "news" that the ICE officer had internal bleeding on his torso. This is supposed
rambling Leaving... So the 11th was my one year clean of Facebook and Instagram. And just like when I quit smoking all of those years ago I still miss it, even though I know it was really bad for me, for the people around me, for the people who keep using it.
rambling And the Purple Pen... Just call me Harold. Or maybe I tend toward excessive adjective usage. Or it could really just be a purple pen. Normally I use promotional pens from conferences or pens lifted from hotel rooms if I like the way they write, or if they are the really slim pens, I&
fiction Sunday Shopping fiction She hadn't had much use for religion in her previous life. She thought it was all pretty useless at best and destructive at worse. But now? Now she had a real appreciation for the Fellowship of the Blessed Eye. The red spray painted eye on the wall
rambling It's All Greek To Me... Or Spanish I guess. I finally figured out why I'm so terrible at learning foreign languages. I'm good at memorization, I've been exposed to Spanish (or Spanglish at least) my whole life, I should be picking it all up pretty quickly. But no. Why
rambling The Red Eye... First off, I'm fine. I'll start there. This morning at breakfast Brent asked what happened to my eye. I had no idea what he was talking about. He said it was really red and all coming from a single spot. I said I must have gotten
rambling Radical... A few years ago I was lambasted by a contingent of my center left and right friends for saying that I believed we should abolish ICE. I was being too radical. Both sides agreed. Both sides being that little waver in the middle that we are all supposed to cater
fiction Storms... fiction Every city has the storm, the one everyone talks about years later. The one that somehow everyone got caught in even though that's impossible. Afterall some people had to have been at home that day right? When she was growing up it was the windstorm where they
rambling Now it REALLY Begins... So everyone has made their resolutions, set their goals, made their plans, is everyone ready to execute them? I mean, nobody really expected to start on the 1st right? I mean on a Thursday? Who starts something new on a Thursday? And then it was Friday and that's
rambling Everyone Has a Plan... until your country invades a sovereign nation, removes their leader, arrests his wife, and establishes themselves as the ruling party. That's how the saying goes right? Brent and I were talking about it this morning, like I imagine almost every American household was, and how you just cannot
rambling Ghost In the Machine... When I was talking about what to write about in 2026 Louise said she'd like my take on ghosts. So here we go... Do I believe in ghosts? No. Of course not. Logically there is nothing that proves the existence of ghosts. My own personal philosophy on what
rambling Into the Mix with 2026... 2026 Kicks! Or something like that... ANYWAY...it's a new year, it's a new day, it's a new dawn and I'm hearing Michael Bublé in my head... So after a week spent breaking down what worked and what didn't last
rambling And the Rest... And now we come to what would normally be the end of year wrap up blog, but I've been wrapping it up for a week. Today I'll look at the rest of the stuff I wanted to do. And give some final tallies on what I
rambling The Weight of it All... The Ugh portion of the year in review... I'm going to workout and increase my weights while also decreasing my weight. I don't know how much I'll decrease it, but I'm not happy with it right now so I'll work
rambling I'm a Sucker for... a new vacuum. Okay, the pun was intended, but it's also true. Of all the weird things in my life my search for the perfect vacuum is probably near the top of the list. Right now I currently own four vacuums. We have the robot vacuum (Roborock, much
rambling Write it Up... Okay so writing. My goal was to write more days than I didn't and I was thinking I should aim for five days a week. I did write more days than I didn't, but I didn't quite hit five days a week. I missed
repost I Believe... fiction I Believe and I Believe Too were written December 13, 2013. I Believe was originally a stand alone piece but almost as soon as I published it the idea for I Believe Too came out. And then (as some of you might remember) it actually blossomed into a multipart,
rambling Here Comes Santa Claus... I am a sucker for a Santa Claus movie. Traditional, bad ass, looking to hand over the family business, you name it, I've watched it and probably really liked it. Unless Santa is an asshole, then I hated it. Rudolph is a fine Rankin/Bass production EXCEPT for
rambling Feats of Strength... Last night was the last Christmas show of the season. This year we saw five different shows. Which is a lot. Normally I try and do at least two, but with special pricing offers and emails sent at exactly the right time to tempt me we ended up with five.