Author: Steve Ainslie

Trump and Biden, our geriatric presidential candidates, will be debating tomorrow night. I won’t be watching. Every word, gesture and moment will be analyzed ad infinitum by pundits and media for months so I’ll hear all about the debate regardless. I won’t learn anything of value from Biden stammering through his scripted talking points and…

In one of my regular workouts I mix in a series of sets of pullups. I do a pyramid starting with 1 pull-up, then 2, all the way up to 10. Then I switch to chinups and work my way back down the pyramid from 10 all the way to 1. The total workout takes…

There’s a new viral TikTok video that has become so popular it’s made the headlines in Google News, being discussed on podcasts and showing up on reddit. I made the mistake of watching the video and am now dumber for having watched it. I won’t even tell you what it was to spare you the…

There has been a lot of pontification, hand-wringing and outright whining about economic conditions for Millenials and Gen Zs who have recently entered the US workforce. At the top of the complaint lists are: costs for college education, housing prices/rent, gas, groceries and consumer goods. I grew up poor living in lower class neighborhoods. I…

I am reading the book, Substitute : going to school with a thousand children, by Nicholson Baker in which he details 28 days he spent as a substitute teacher in Maine public schools covering all grades, subjects, and teaching roles. He wrote about applying to obtain a substitute teaching certificate, 5:30AM “on call” requests, covering…

Quitting dating apps 2 years ago was undoubtedly the right move for me. I’m glad I tried the apps and I’m proud that I had the guts to give dating a shot after being married for 29 years. My 4 month experience gave me insight into dating after being widowed, dating in middle age and…

I received a letter from the local government about a public hearing regarding my local utility company’s proposed merger with another company. It listed the hearing date/time along with two full pages of bureaucratic legalize, why’s, wherefore’s and herein’s regarding the purpose of the notice. My takeaway after reading the letter is that there is…

I was listening to a podcast where stepparents called in seeking advice for dealing with their stepchildren. The callers described problems with their stepchildren acting out, breaking boundaries, being disobedient, being disrespectful, etc. They spoke of kids who were “fine” when the stepparent was a boyfriend or girlfriend, but suddenly became antagonistic when the stepparent…

This morning while walking the dogs I was thinking about recent news podcasts where the reporters were pointing out how specific politicians were being hypocritical. It doesn’t really matter who they were referencing. You can select any politician, from any country and any political party and find examples of this. It occurred to me that…

Roughly 60% of people in the US are Christian. In my home state of North Carolina, that number jumps to 77%. It’s no wonder that I see so many yard signs, flags, bumper stickers and decorations with declarations about Jesus, prayer, churches and Christian beliefs. So I am not surprised when people routinely discuss their…