NewBook is still accelerating, or rather trying to, since I just cannot type any faster any longer without the machine (the one that’s living on dark chocolate and junk food on top of a healthy diet just to keep the fires going) breaking down. It’s *almost* like being 30 years or more younger and able Read More…
Category: life beyond writing
A Family Note: overlapping memories
In 1944, during WWII, when I was conceived around the time of the D-Day invasion, both my parents worked in defense industries near or in Chicago. Both were engineers, and I believe (not for sure in my father’s case) they were both liaison engineers for the Army Air Corps in aircraft factories. They had been Read More…
J6 Committee Hearing: Day Three
Anyone remotely interested in US politics, government, governance, etc. should be following–watching if possible–the broadcasts of the House Select Committee Investigation into the January 6, 2021 insurrection. (If you’re not, and you’re actually a US citizen, boo-hissy at you, because it is that important. The rest of you, not citizens here, have no responsibility to Read More…
Travel In The Dry
Last week’s trip to Uvalde County in Texas has proved (after our house guest left) to be…a very strange trip indeed, in light of the school shooting in Uvalde. We were in the northern bit of the county, where the Texas Hill Country begins, staying between Leakey (Real County) and Concan (Uvalde Co.) , and Read More…
Real History: A Personal Story About Reproduction
This is a true story, not fiction. It happened to my mother and to me. I’m putting it here because it’s a story with multiple characters and a complicated plot and I can’t fit it neatly into Twitter. Also it’s after 11 pm and I’m tired. But here goes. On June 6, 1944, D-Day, my Read More…
Online Advice, Take Two
Firefox has a first page feature called Pocket that offers a bunch of different possibilities to snare the procrastinating internet user. Most of those (over the long haul) involve advice: clothes, home decorating, cooking foods/diet, fitness, health, etc. Many of these Pocket advice articles start with or include a number: the five best (vacation spots, Read More…
Online Advice
Online advice is everywhere, and I do realize that as someone posting online, and sometimes giving advice, I’m part of the trend I’m about to complain of. Naturally, I don’t think I’m the kind of problem others are, but equally naturally if I’m staring at myself in a mirror…that’s not really what I look like Read More…
HomeWork II: Plumbing
We are using the same plumbing HVAC contractor we’ve used before, but the plumber himself is not Dean, whom we’d worked with for years (who had already retired and then returned to work once.) Josh, a long lanky plumber with a good sense of humor, Dean’s assistant if the job needed one, left the contractor Read More…
Ride 39: Busy Day, Rode Rags Anyway
Following the good news at the vet’s, I planned of course to ride as soon as the horses had had their day or two off to recover from all those shots and the dental work. Next day, Tuesday, I had a trip to the dentist’s and didn’t feel like riding. Besides, they were both obviously Read More…
Vet Trip: Good News For Tigger
Tigger went in for regular immunizations, Coggins test (for Equine Infectious Anemia, annual test required federally), dental work (“floating”…actually means grinding teeth down…more on that later) , and a lameness exam. I also wanted to talk to the vet about his change in behavior in the last six months. Rags went in for the same Read More…