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Month: September 2020

Nasty, Disturbing, Uncomfortable Things

Friends, this is the middle of nowhere. Note the vultures, if you can spot them. I only caught two in this shot, but there were eight of them. They circled for two hours, while friend and I sat with my car, hoping someone would come along with a lugwrench that would work on a damaged lugnut my tire iron couldn’t handle. Why, yes, it was great fun! Why do you ask? Hanging by my bedroom door where I see it every morning, is a sign that says “Every day is a new adventure.” I try to live by it. Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes I end up sitting by the side of the road. A couple weeks ago, we went to Sedona. That was awesome. Here is a picture from NOT in the middle of nowhere (because we were enjoying a great meal at a great restaurant–on the open-air balcony, of course–when I took it.) In fact, here’s another gorgeous pic, possibly from the same balcony, because we ate there the whole weekend, it was that good. That adventure went well. We enjoyed pretty much every moment of it. But that’s the nature of adventure—you don’t know what you’re gonna find until you find it. Sort of like a box of chocolates, yeah? Though I do love adventure, I’m currently somewhat unwillingly trying to expand my horizons. I’m very busy right now, and I don’t have a lot of time for it. I’d like to stay closer to home! I love…

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A Plethora of Star Trek

Hi, friends! When we went into lockdown, I thought I’d be watching more TV and movies. But I didn’t. In fact, I still have a movie out from the library that I got in mid-March right before they shut down. (They’re…probably going to want that back.) When I have watched TV, though, it has been almost exclusively Star Trek. We have a plethora of new Trek right now! It’s great! (Until you get into comments on YouTube or Facebook and find they’re all full of whining about how things aren’t Trek enough, or how they’ve gone all SJW–like they ever weren’t–or how it’s just scifi and not Trek and the heck is wrong with these people? They’re stuck in a nostalgia that never really existed, I think. Also, why do people complain when they get more of their favorites? The lesson here is don’t read the comments on anything.) First we finished the second season of Discovery, which was really good! And I love all the characters so much, which is really the point, you know? No one sat through the early seasons of Next Generation because it was a good TV show, if you know what I mean. (If not, the first two seasons of Next Gen are…bad. There, I said it.) They sat through it because they liked Data or Geordi or Deanna or whoever was their character of choice and they liked to watch them have space adventures. (Though “adventures” in conjunction with Next Gen isn’t always…

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Eating Seasonally

Apparently we’re all thinking about plants right now. Back to nature? Planning for the apocalypse? Both? I don’t know about you, but the pandemic has left me feeling very much adrift in time. What day of the week is it? What month is it? How many months has it been since the last time I walked out of my office building? (Answer: six months as of next weekend, although there are murmurs that we might be going back sometime before December. Dunwanna.) How many years has 2020 lasted? One thing that’s helped me reclaim a sense of time is really digging into seasonal eating – that is, eating what’s in season in my area (on the Great Lakes). My spouse and I have a smallish vegetable and herb garden, and we’ve been buying local more and more…(1) to help out our local farmers and small businesses during the pandemic, and (2) for environmental reasons, which got a boost due to (1). In spring (May-June here), we ate a lot of arugula (rocket), our favourite salad green, peppery and crisp. We grew radishes and ate those, mostly with the arugula. We got introduced to garlic scapes – like green onions except for garlic. If you’re a garlic farmer, you have to cut them off so the garlic head will get nice and big, so you might as well sell them… In early summer, there was basil (all links are to my Instagram) and mint, the beginning of the cherry tomatoes and…

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Taming the Beast, by Kit Campbell

Taming the BeastKit Campbell Mortimer the Magnificent leaned forward, his focus completely on the task in front of him. He almost had it…just a few more inches… There was a knock on his door, startling him. The replica of Gildrun’s sword, tiny and perfect, fell from his fingers, clanging onto the table in front of his model of the great hero’s historic defense of Longswallow. Mortimer sighed; it never failed. The knocking continued. Mortimer frowned at his model, but there was no use going back to it, not with that ruckus. He pushed to his feet, crossed the room, and pulled the door open just as the man on the other side of it started to knock yet again. Mortimer calmly dodged the man’s fist. “Can I help you?” “Oh, ah, yes.” The man took off his hat, holding it with both hands. “I’m looking for Mortimer the Magnificent.” Oh, no, not this again. “You’ve found him.” “I have?” The man tried to discreetly examine Mortimer and failed miserably. “You’re Mortimer?” Mortimer was never quite sure what they were expecting to see. A slight man in glasses and a worn cardigan never seemed to be it. The man scuttled back, starting to bow but then apparently deciding otherwise halfway through the motion. He fidgeted with the hat in his hands. “Hector says you got rid of his dragon problem.” Mortimer had no idea who Hector was, but suspected he knew where this was going. “Yes…?” The man fidgeted more. Mortimer…

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