It feels like our descent into fascism is speeding up exponentially, doesn’t it? I suspect that is because it is. This has been a rough week or 30, hasn’t it? Oh hell, a rough century so far. To say I don’t understand this world is a gross understatement. Ted recommended a podcast to me. Forum is a locally produced NPR show, and this episode is about the tension between the stresses in the world while we still need to go about our day, and continue to find beauty in our lives. Life Goes On While Systems Fray – How Do We Make Sense of the Dissonance? Give it a listen…

It’s been a busy week around here. We celebrated Ted’s stepdad’s birthday last Saturday – no pictures, but we had a lovely time. We had bbq ribs and chicken, green salad, potato salad, watermelon, hibiscus tea mixed with lemonade, wine, and chocolate raspberry cake. The weather was perfect, not too hot, but warm enough that you could sit outside if you wanted. Speaking of weather, it seems from your posts like it’s full on fall for some of you. I remember fall coming in August when I was a kid in Alaska, and when Ted and I lived in Philadelphia, it felt like a switch was flipped in mid September…

I had so many questions about the chest wrinkle pillow I got rid of the other day, so here is your quick picture to show you how it works. I wore it some, and it wasn’t uncomfortable, but it made me hot and I didn’t feel like it worked, so away it went. I’m picturing the folks at Goodwill trying to figure out what the hell it is. Apparently I was once really upset by chest wrinkles, because not only did I spend way too much on this, I also bought some kind of silicone thing to help, which also…not enough results, so I threw that away. The end. That…

I don’t know this dog’s name, just that she’s a sweet darling girl, and if she is outside when I walk by her house, she comes running over and wags her tail like crazy, hoping for pets. I rarely pet her, she’s a little mouthy and I don’t like being nipped, but she clearly just wants to love the world. She and Mulder were friends, he would pull like crazy when we got close to her house, hoping she would be outside, and they would wag and wiggle and squirm and make darling noises through the fence. I think they would have loved to be playmates. As I said, I…

I’m currently listening to The Bright Years, which I am enjoying. Early on, the protagonist, Lillian, ruminates that she feels resentful of people who express annoyance with their parents for little things, since her parents are both long gone, and she would love to have them here and be gently annoyed by their entirely normal behavior. I was struck by this, especially since my mom died when I was only 42, so most of my friends still had their mothers around. Don’t get me wrong, my mom annoyed me no end in 1,000 little ways. And when people complain about their parents, I get it, and I remember being (often…

It’s finally time to tell you about the cruise I went on with my cousins! They are a private bunch, so while I will use their names (less confusing that way, and none are rare names) I will not be sharing photos of them. Unfortunate, because they’re a good looking crew. The cast are: Ethan – I mention him first, because in their family, each kid gets a trip with at least one parent as a gift for their 16th birthday. His sisters went on the offered trip, but Ethan thought outside of the box and said he wanted a trip with the whole family, and they said yes. Kim…

A few years ago, I saw an article in The New Yorker by Ann Patchett, How to Practice (subscription needed, sorry) where she tells of being motivated by the death of a close friend’s father, and the task of going through his things, to declutter her own home, getting rid of things she had been hanging onto for too long. Some of them had a lot of meaning, but she realized that she didn’t need to hang on to them forever. Some of them were beautiful things, but she wasn’t using them. Then a few weeks ago, Elisabeth had a post in which she described helping her parents to declutter,…