Author: Steve Ainslie

Since ending my road trip in 2019 and building a new life after losing my mind for a while when my wife died, everything has not been perfect. I’ve written before about the mistakes I made and regrets I have for some of my actions in the 6 months after she died when I was…

A few days ago in the early morning, I had finished my warmup routine and dog walk. I had turned the lights off and reached for my ice tea to take into the garage with me for my workout – just like I have done every single morning for the past 1650 days in a…

After my mother’s recent car wreck, health crisis and the subsequent significant direct assistance from my sister in December of last year, I had what I thought was a great idea. Since my mother would no longer be driving, she should get Meals-On-Wheels. That way, at least she’d have food each weekday so my sister…

My neighbor up the street was an old man who lived alone with his two small dogs. He and I only spoke a handful of times during the past 4 years – once when I ran into him when I was walking the dogs and another time when I noticed his interior car light was…

I have never liked New Year’s Eve. I wrote about it here and here. My preference is stay home, eat take out or something I cook, watch a movie and go to bed at my regular time. But, I acknowledge I’m a total weirdo. I go to bed early, I wake up early and I…

After doing my big purge last week, I stumbled across this podcast where the guest was a professional cleaner who is the clean-out pro from the Hoarders TV show. I’ve never watched the show, but found his advice on hoarders and on downsizing for non-hoarders to be solid. He had some interesting insights on the…

I haven’t played my acoustic drum set at all during the past two years. At first, I stopped playing it because I purchased an electronic drum set which allows me to control the volume, play along with sound tracks and not have to wear giant noise blocking headphones while playing. Then, I spent more than…

It’s that time of year again when many in the media unveil their predictions for the upcoming year. Occasionally, they’ll even review their predictions from the previous year and rate themselves on how accurate they were. They ask experts for predictions covering everything from AI to war to politics to the economy to the stock…

Lately there many podcasts, articles, celebrities and books talking about people’s experiences tripping on magic mushrooms. Joe Rogan is a big fan of mushrooms who speaks frequently about tripping and has guests who promote them for everything from depression to traumatic brain injury on his podcast. Michael Pollen wrote “How To Change Your Mind” about…

Two of my friends who are my age who were in relationships with younger women. When I was doing my dating app experiment two years ago, both suggested that I get a prescription for Viagra. In private conversations, each told me how it helped them and also eliminated their performance anxieties. I didn’t have any…