Thursday This n That

On a short continuance from yesterday, let me just say that I did not have roaming hippos in Columbia on my bingo card. (Was talking about it here a HIPPO violation?  ROFL)

Yesterday, I removed the 'feather bed mimic' topper thing from our bed.  The dang thing was lumpy as all get out.  That and the constant fluffing of it were getting to be a pain in the everywhere.  Last night, I did have a devil of a time getting to sleep, but I must've slept better.  We'll see how it goes.

Getting old blows.

Okay, I'm old.  (Yeah, yeah, not as old as some.)  I was thinking the other day about my grandmother and how she was.  I realized I will never be as old in my head as my grandmother was.  Then again, Grandma was never as old as I thought she was.  Hearing stories from Mom about her tell me that I was mistaken about her on several points.  Oh, she was not a pleasant woman and would never be mistaken for the warm and cuddly grandmas some people have.  I was talking with my sister and we agreed that Grandma was a bitch.  But really when Grandma was younger, she was a tough, pants-wearing, hard-working chick who liked parties and doing things women weren't supposed to do back then.  Maybe she was bitchy because as she got old, she couldn't be the woman she knew herself to be, which would make anyone bitchy, I guess.

You hear all the time about men withholding stuff from the wives during a divorce, but I just read a case where it was the woman.  She's in jail now until she forks over the stuff that the court already said belonged to her ex-husband or pays him the value of those things.  Equal rights for women means being equal in this shit, too.  Good for the judge.  Feminists wanted everything equal, where there ya go.  Choke on it.

Pedro Potato is getting tall.  Go, Pedro!  I'm not sure if he's actually making potatoes under there.  The only way to tell is to dig him up, the thought of which makes me sad.  It'll have to be done eventually, but until then, I'll enjoy him as the healthy plant he is.

We had a hell of a storm last night.  Thankfully, I'd already moved all my pots under the eaves, so they got at least some protection.  At around 2am, it got really nasty and I wondered if I did indeed hear a train in the distance.  (We have no tracks anywhere near here... by train, I mean tornado.)  I checked the yard this morning and all is well.

And on that note, I have to go make my daily call to Mom.  Have a great day everyone.  Peace out.

Wild and WTF on Wednesday

I see a lot of wild and WTF things on FB and X, so I thought I'd share...

Someone tried to use the phrase 'molon labe' - basically an ancient Greek phrase meaning 'Come. Take.' (referencing gun rights) - but autocorrect changed it to 'melon lube'... ROFL.

Someone made an AI photo of Trump eating McDonald's with Jesus.  Now, there's a section of people with their undies in a wad.

I saw a video of a cat whose owner was deaf.  The cat had learned that meowing doesn't work, so it figured out how to signal its owner by tapping his arm and then tapping its mouth when it wanted treats.  

Just now, someone shared a video out of Japan - a JAWS bath bomb.  It looks like a boat.  Then you drop it into the water, it starts to dissolve and turns the water blue, then it starts to bubble.  Then it releases what looks like blood and a shark's head floats to the service.  The head has a piece of boat in its mouth.  Too funny.

Another video... Beagle terrifies alligator and makes it run away.

No, the IDF didn't put 60 P-people in a garbage truck.  The P-people used a garbage truck to try to sneak into somewhere to do bad things and the IDF caught them.

Some dude (in Pakistan, I believe) said woman shouldn't be (aren't allowed to be?) educated. Fuck that shit.

The pope is more concerned with how Muslims are being treated than with how Christians are being treated.  Let that sink in.

Diets are now racist.  

Yale gathering applauds a guy who said America deserved 9/11.

Japan loves us.  And they have a word for Leftist nutjob - Payoku.  Funny, I never thought I'd love Japan more than I could ever love Australia, but one is becoming awesome and the other is becoming a leftist shithole.  So there ya are.

And with that, I'll let ya go do whatever it is you do out there in the world.  Me?  I'm doing marketing posts and then I have to clean.  Woot.

Marketing Monday - Fertile Ground

I'm creating this post on Sunday, so hopefully nothing screws up and makes a liar out of me.  

Starting today - Monday, I mean - FERTILE GROUND (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FOPNE9Y) is free and will be through Friday.  This book portrays a SCIU agent, who was once a victim, pursuing a serial rapist.  Like all the SCIU books, it swings between the POV of the MC and the antagonist.  It does not get into the gritty details or descriptions of rape, but it does show the mindset of a psycho who's committing these crimes and how a rape victim can rise above her trauma to hunt the fucker down.  She has choices to make and she makes the right ones.  And in the end, justice - not revenge - prevails.  

Anyway, it's free as you're reading this and it'll be free 'til the end of the week.  I hope you enjoy.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 14?

 Well, crap... it's Sunday again, isn't it?  Since I can't figure out what day it is most of the time, you shouldn't be surprised that I'm not sure what week it is.  Anyway...

Nope on the writing / editing.  I'm having stern talks with myself.  I may banish myself with my Kindle and my notepad to the spare room until I finish editing the damn book I should've finished editing months ago.  I think the main problem here is I'm stuck in the 'I suck and I hate this book' mindset, so it's hard to make progress on something you're pretty sure stinks.  And if you suck, how can you fix something that stinks?  :shrug:

Yep on the marketing.  Not a banner week, but still, something is better than nothing.  No clue what's going to be on the block for this week.

No reading.  Seriously, I don't think I even picked up my book last week.  Derp.

No baking happened, but I did make ham & bean soup yesterday.  It turned out really yummy and it used up the last of my Easter ham, so yay.

I was pretty active this past week - mostly with the deck garden.  I did take two hard-target walks for 1.75 miles.  I also did some cleaning and furniture moving.  I'm also trying to eat better - more salads, less crap.  Unfortunately, I stepped on the scale yesterday and had gained two pounds.  Derp.  Weight: 179.4

As for gardening, I have all my produce seeds/plants in the ground now - potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and green peppers.  We'll see how those go.  I realized yesterday that I fucked up with Pedro.  I was supposed to cover him with dirt while he was still small - to encourage root growth.  But I was so pleased with Pedro's growth, I totally forgot to mound him in dirt.  He is pretty spectacular.  I'll mound the other potatoes.  

I spent some time shopping this week - Tractor Supply and Wallyworld.  I do love Tractor Supply, and they had dirt 'buy one get one 50% off', so I had that going for me.  Yes, I am a redneck.  Wallyworld was Wallyworld.  

Oh, I saw Beauregard the Broad-Winged Hawk twice this past week.  One time, he flew beneath the smoking room windows, so I got a really close view of him.  He's pretty awesome.  On another bird note, the Barred Owls have been hanging out close to the house, so we've heard them hooting for a few nights/mornings in a row.  This morning, one of them must have been in the yard because the hooting was really loud.  Awesome.

And that's about it for me.  I need to figure out what I'm going to do today and try to avoid sitting in front of the TV for the majority of it.  A walk is in order, definitely.  The rest?  Time will tell.  Have a great day wherever you are.  

Thursday This n That

 I forgot what day it is.

Tuesday, we voted in the municipal elections.  One measure on the ballot failed by one vote.  ONE vote.  Never let it be said that your vote doesn't matter.  It does.  If we hadn't voted, it would've changed the outcome.  (And we'd be paying more in property taxes this year, which we do not need.)

Why do people vote to raise their own property taxes???  I mean, yeah, I could see if it was something important, but this wasn't.  

Yesterday, there was a squirrel in the yard that was acting like it was having a stroke or something.  We didn't go anywhere near it, but we kept an eye on it from the window.  First, it was just laying there in the sun underneath the hickory tree.  The next time we looked it had moved into the shade.  The next time it was back in the sun.  Then Hubs saw it from his bathroom window and another squirrel had walked up on it and they were jumping around at each other, after which it went right back to laying under the tree.  A little while later, it was stumbling toward the water pans and got itself a drink.  Then it was right back under the tree - about a 15 foot distance - where it was digging with its front paw and then eating what looked like some kind of root.  After dinner, it had moved to the backyard and was again eating some kind of root.  By then, it was looking decidedly better.  I wonder if those roots have medicinal properties.  Anyway, the next time we looked, it was gone.  Either it got better and went away, or the fox got it during its dusk rounds through our yard.  Still, it was all very weird.  

What does one do for a messed-up squirrel?  I'd call a rehabber, if we had any anywhere near us.  The only good one I know of, though, is in OK and they can't take out of state animals.  Bummer.  I thought about going out there with a net and catching it, but then I'd be violating some wild animal ordinance or something.  Around here, the wildlife better get better on its own.  I just wish the critters would stop having medical dramas on my lawn.  If they're going to die, they need to do it in the woods and far enough away that I don't see it.

Okay, time for me to go take a walk... which is what I was getting ready to do when I realized I hadn't posted today.  Derp.  Have a great day, wherever you are.  Peace out.

Monday Update - 2026 Week 13

 Yesterday was a holiday, but let's face it, I can't blame Easter for my totally forgetting to post.  I'm late today because I overslept because cat-antics wouldn't let me sleep and then I was up until after midnight.

Let's not talk about writing, eh?  Although, I did think about writing.  For some reason, a story I started years ago but never finished popped into my head late last night and wanted me to write it RIGHT THEN.  But I was trying to get to a place where I could sleep, so I ignored it.  I take the fact that stories are demanding to be written as a good sign, but so far, that's all it is - a sign.  

The big marketing a whole series thing last week went okay.  It looked better than it was because I had three books being downloaded, but per book, it wasn't great.  Today, Song of Storm and Shroud is up for a 5-day freebie.  (SONG OF STORM AND SHROUD - an epic fantasy for kids and adults alike - is free today through Friday. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09W745M6P)  Unfortunately, I woke up late and haven't really done any marketing beyond posting to my pages on FB.  :shrug:  I'm tired and unmotivated.

Not much reading this week.  I really am a toad.

In baking news, I made applesauce bars (B-) and raisin-apple bread pudding (A-).  Plus, I baked the ham for Easter (A+).  

On the activity front, I took two walks for about 2 miles. I also did stuff in the deck garden - moving pots, etc.  Last night, I moved a bookshelf and all its books, so that was active.  (Sawyer was being turd and using it as a springboard to get onto the TV shelf.)  After all the ham I ate yesterday, I'm not going to weigh myself, but when I weighed myself last Tuesday, I was at 177.4.

Ah, the garden.  It's rolling right along, as you could see from my post last week.  I did plant more carrot seeds to replace the ones that pooped out on me.  The feed store has their tomato plants in, but I have to wait until I'm flush again before I buy those.  Later this week... I hope.  None of Pedro Potato's kinfolk have come up, so I'm getting ready to plant more taters.  :fingers crossed:

Other than that, not much going on here.  I did mention I was a toad, didn't I.  

Pedro Potato and The Produce Posse

So, I went out yesterday and took pictures of where my garden is at right now. First off:

Pedro Potato!

Next:

The Pepper Quartet

And then there's...

The Carrot Gang

I'll leave the pics of the trees for another day. Needless to say, there are a lot of pots on my deck right now. LOL