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Friday Thoughts: Normal Life

We’ve been living in Texas for just over a month now. And, for just over a month now, we’ve been living a normal life. Normal as in, the masks are no longer sitting in pockets, bags, or counters ready to be grabbed when leaving the house. Nope. They’ve been thrown away (except for the Mike Rowe ones). We don’t need them. They are not required anywhere. Going to the store? Just walk in. Restaurant? Walk in. It’s soooo refreshing.

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Insurrection or Astroturf?

Tomorrow I expect to hear and see much wailing, gnashing of teeth, sackcloth, ashes being strewn about, moaning about the “state of democracy”, calls for stronger gun control, calls for bringing back the “sedition” part of the Aliens and Seditions Act. All of which is designed to get the average “I just want to live my life” American to wring their hands, bemoan those awful racist Republican Trumpists, and vote straight Democrat tickets next election.

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Church Bells

Here we are at the end of 2021. Another 52 weeks of prompts at More Odds Than Ends. I’ve said this before, but I’m going to repeat it. These prompt challenges have honed my writing in ways that I didn’t really think were possible. I’ve learned the most basic thing over these last couple of years and that is, writing takes practice. Yes, some people have amazing stories in their heads, but getting those stories out and on paper is a skill and one that can be learned and must be practiced. I will keep practicing and hopefully get my writing to an ever higher level.

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Turtle Doves and Trebuchets

Second to last MOTE prompt for 2021…week 51. Wow. It’s been another, well, let’s say interesting, year. And once again the prompts helped keep me going. I have (finally) created a weekly schedule that should help me keep on track with all my writing – prompts, blog posts, and more importantly books and short stories. I am determined to make 2022 a productive year (and not the pessimistic redux of 2020-too).

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A New Home for Christmas

Today is Christmas Eve and we’re in a new home for the first time in eighteen years. Not that we spent every Christmas there, not by a long shot. But this is the first time in eighteen years that our home base has changed. We got most of the boxes unpacked and as soon as things were looking settled, I pulled out the Christmas box and started in on the holiday decorating. And discovered I don’t have nearly enough stuff for this house!

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A-Fisking We Will Go!

Oh, look – it’s another stupid article purporting to be journalism. That means I’m gonna do another fisking (fisking is fun!) This time, we’re going to be looking at the significant difference between the terms anti-vax and anti-mandate. These are two (obviously) completely different terms, yet these propagandists masquerading as objective journalists would have us believe that they mean the same thing. This time the less-than-gifted “reporter” is Kelly Weill at the Daily Beast (yeah, yeah, I know, but let’s give it a go anyway).

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Striking Differences

We are settling in here in Texas and I am constantly struck by how different and yet similar our life here is, compared to our life in Philadelphia. The most obvious thing is the weather. I grew up in San Diego, so I’m familiar with warm winters. But it’s been twenty years since I lived in southern California. And, those twenty years have been filled with snow, freezing rain, sleet, ice storms, and just plain damn cold weather every winter.

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