Before I went on the road a few years ago, I bought a tire plug repair kit and a compressor that could inflate my tires using the cigarette lighter port for power. I never needed to repair my own tire, but this setup came in quite handy one time while on the road – resulting…
Most Of My Heroes Were Loners
When I was a little kid, my Aunt Essie babysat me all the time. She was actually my great aunt (in every sense of the word). Essie never married. She was a retired school teacher who lived in her family home with two brothers, Uncle Bob (a lifelong bachelor) and Uncle Russ (a widower). I…
What Do You Do All Day?
My 86 year old girlfriend was sitting on her front porch a few days ago, so I stopped with the dogs to chat since we hadn’t seen each other for a few months. She gave me updates about her grand-daughters, her son and her health. I told her about losing Snickers and introduced her to…
Ancestral Sin
When I was a child being raised Catholic, one of the first things I was taught was the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. As far as fairy tales go, it was decent. For that matter, so were many of the other tales from the Bible including Noah’s Ark, the Tower…
Crime Sprees
For a while now, there have been reports of “mass mob” thefts at retail stores in urban cities and blatant stealing by individuals in the same areas. Most of us have seen videos of these online. With the mobs, a group of people rush into a store, smash windows and display cases and run off…
Relief From Self Obsession
One surprising result of getting a second dog has been that I am no longer noticing every little ache and pain I have throughout the day. I still have them – my knee injury is taking months to heal, my foot injury I fear is chronic, and the older I get, the more aches and…
Cutting Out Wide Swaths
An expert was asked why scammers still used the “Nigerian prince” email scam today, more than 20 years after it first began being used in the late 1990s. The obvious answer is, because it still works and the cost/risk/reward makes it worthwhile for the scammers. The interviewer understood how people could be tricked by scammers…
Boring Love Stories
Reading Neil Gaiman’s essays on his favorite science fiction, from past to present, inspired me to revisit the Sci-Fi authors I loved as a child and to explore new Sci-Fi novels. Overall, it’s been less enjoyable reading these works of fiction than reading Gaiman’s stories about these authors and his own childhood love of reading….
Naming Right
I waited for several days after adopting my dog before naming her. I created a list of names (of course), that I came up with on my own and from browsing different websites. However, I wanted to get know TBD first, before deciding on a name. She looks somewhat intimidating so I wanted a cute…
Shake It Up
It’s been a few days since I adopted a second dog to join me & Wiggles. I am happy to report that none of us have completely lost our minds yet. Nor, other than for a few brief moments the first night, have I thought, “Oh no…what have I done? Did I ruin my quiet,…