rambling That's the Difference... When I was a teenager our high school got a recognition from The White House for our diversity. Yes, diversity was a good thing. Under the Reagan administration. Which was at one point in time the pinnacle of republicanhood. Man, it was a simpler world back then. (It wasn'
rambling Here We Go Again... COVID has once again come to the Mastenbrook house. Uninvited. Unwanted. What a pain in the ass. Intel in all its wisdom decided that everyone should come back to the office full time. As we live 5 minutes away from the campus where Brent works he's been easing
rambling No Intentions... I'm flying blind today. Or two thirds blind anyway. Okay, maybe not. Normally on the last day of the month I set my intentions for the next month. I know, it sounds sort of self help bookshelf 101 but I still do it. I actually set them in
rambling The Fall of August... We made it! Another August in the books! As far as Augusts go it wasn't the worst August to ever August so I'll take it. Reading...I picked up the pace a bit after reading that massive King tome last month. Eight books total, two nonfiction.
fiction Ghost Stories... fiction To borrow from Charles Dickens, I was dead to begin with. I read A Christmas Carol when I was in school and my teacher told us that he started it that way, "Marley was dead to begin with," to make sure people knew it was a ghost
rambling The Loss of Time... I wish I could remember where I saw it so I could give credit but... A year or so ago there was a "What did no one warn you about getting older that you wish they had?" posts. The answers ranged from funny to deep to just really
rambling Distr...Ummm... Okay, so I have no idea what the title of this piece was going to be. See I sat down to write because I really need to write somethings to close out the month but I got a notice about our Google storage that's maxing out so I
rambling Resend of Previous Post... (I'm trying to change the title to see if that corrects the error, sorry for the multiple copies!) I do a lot of my shopping online. I also don't use Amazon if I can help it so it's all done by individual companies. Which
rambling The Adult in the Room... Yesterday I kept repeating to myself, I'm 57. All day long. I'm 57. I'd look in the mirror. Fifty. Seven. For whatever reason this age is a hard one to wrap my head around. It's not like I'm horrified that
rambling Oh Good Heavens... The girl is 57... This is what I wrote in last year's birthday blog: "What do I want from the coming year? I want to be healthy. I want to be happy. I want to stay centered and calm during the coming political storm. I want my
rambling Terms and Definitions... Not quite terms and conditions, but sort of? So it's been just over a year since I got my ADD diagnosis. As most of you know I didn't do anything with it. I decided against medication for a few reasons. One, at the time, it was
rambling What Do You See... I remember that when I was taking anatomy in school and I learned about the blind spot in our eyes. I was blown away. We all have a section of our vision that is just being filled in by our brains (I guess technically it all is, but that'
rambling You'll Fall for Anything... I saw one of those ridiculous takes the other day, the ones that you see all the time now that basically boil down to "somebody was mean to me so I had no choice but to vote for Trump." The snowflake, candy assed, protect me daddy, weaklings. This
fiction Superpowers... fiction She was trying very hard not to lose her shit. She knew it wouldn't be fair to the two people in front of her in line, they weren't really the problem. Okay, they were part of the problem, but they were just the latest manifestation
rambling Context Matters... It's been really hot here the past few days. I'd say unseasonably hot, or unusually hot, but it's not really all that unusual anymore. We get a few stretches like this every year now. The fact that it took until August to reach 100
rambling Oh Sweet Child... This morning I was doing some eyebrow maintenance and as I tried to pluck out an errant hair I realized that it wasn't a hair, it was a very fine wrinkle. Which then started..."Every time when I look in the mirror, all these lines on my
rambling Digital Tidying I just went through and cleared out a bunch of library books from my Kindle library. Or ghost books I guess. The books themselves weren't really there. Or I mean, is anything really there when you are talking about an electronic book? ANYWAY... Even though I had finished
rambling Heel Heal...Heal Heel? Went to the other doctor about my ankle today. Dr. Bettencourt had mentioned back at my first appointment with him about my chronic achilles' issues that if what he was going to try didn't work there was another procedure I could try next. Shock wave therapy. I
rambling Scars... When I was a teenager I went to summer camp every year at El Porvenir Christian Camp. First as a camper then as a cook's assistant. Puppet Music camp was my favorite. For those of you that don't know there was a time in my life
fiction History Lesson... fiction She had read the story when she was a young teenager. It had been in a book that was meant to make history seem more exciting to rebellious souls. Later she found it in other books. Generally, about badass women throughout history. Which in a way made her happy,
rambling Bye Bye July... More than half the year is over. Can you believe it? I mean it seems like it's only been 100 years since January... Still ahead on my reading though I was one book lighter this month. I read the latest Stephen King book so I was expecting that.
rambling Social-Light... So my musings on dropping Bluesky lead to a few comments that made me think about it all differently. Caren pointed out that what I miss doesn't really exist anymore. And she's totally right. Talking to Joe about why Bluesky doesn't really scratch that
fiction A Quick Chat... fiction The message had been set to expire within hours not days. She guessed you either saw it or you didn't and that was just the way of things. Nobody had been referred to by name, or even common nicknames. She had been added to the group chat
rambling Anti Social... It's been almost 8 months since I deleted Facebook and Instagram. It's not been easy, as I've talked about. I miss my friends. I miss seeing how everyone is doing. What everyone is doing. But that's the thing with boycotts, it'
rambling Books and Covers... Brent and I eat breakfast out on one day of the weekend, usually Sunday before grocery shopping. One of the places we frequent the most is this old school restaurant in Hillsboro. A place where the waitress calls you hon sort of vibe. The food is very old school but
