Category: Life

  • Flowers

    Tuesday, normally, I go grocery shopping for the family. I try to shop for the entire week, not that it always works out because I will forget something. To accomplish this errand, and try to save some money, I head to multiple stores, one of them being Trader Joe’s – specifically, the on one 93rd.

    Walking into the store this morning, I saw that the flowers they had out looked particularly colorful, and it had been awhile since I had got the wife flowers. They have those three-dollar bouquets, which are rather small, so I bought two of them. I made sure that each bouquets was made up of different types of flowers, so that I would bring home a variety.

    I did my shopping and when I was checking out the clerk looked at my two bouquets asked, “Are you in trouble?”

    And I was like, “They are for my wife, but she’s having a hard week.”

    “It’s Tuesday.”

    “Been that kind’a week.”

    My wife works very hard, is going back to school, and has to deal with me and a daughter who acts like me. And she is having shoulder pain, which she has seen the doctor about and it is getting better, but it’s still there. Constant pain, even low-grade pain, can take a toll on you and wear you down. And it’s a pain, that no matter how hard I try, I have no power the alleviate. The best I can do is help her relax, and try to make her as comfortable as possible.

    Today, I tried flowers to see if that would help.

  • Tax Day and Some Other Stuff

    This seems appropriate…

    Really, I’m using this as an excuse to play a Beatles song.

    But taxes are due today, as I am sure everyone is aware. Funny how with everything going on in the world today, and also in a Manhattan courtroom, no one is talking about “Tax Day.”

    Also, and this has nothing to do with anything, as I know only four of you are seeing this, but I think that I want to start branching out with the blog into using different media for expression. I have been putting up more and more videos of late. Though I haven’t done this in a while, I was putting my sketches up on my IG, and now I’m thinking I might move them over to this. I haven’t found the knack of creating memes, but if I could, I think I would put them up here as well.

    I guess what I am saying is that this blog will always be that; a blog – written posts covering my personal observations and reviews of whatever media I take in that garners a reaction from me. But occasionally, I will be adding other things, to add some variety and keep me on my toes.

    Yeah, that sounds good.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Old Friends, People with Cats, and Side Hustling a Side Hustle

    (First it steals your mind…)

    As I keep aging, and time continues on – I am so grateful that I have old friends. People that have known me from adolescence to awkward adulthood; and vice versa. We don’t see each other as much as we should, and text seems to be to communication platform of choice. But man, even this morning, with a few simple texts, I was laughing and feeling so much better about everything. It’s great having people who know how to push the right buttons.

    My wife found this picture online the other day:

    It’s for a product that you can find at Wal-Mart, and I want to say that I am in no way endorsing or criticizing the need or use of this product… But I will say that I think the cat in this photo is formulating a plan to kill their owner while they sleep.

    I have noticed lately that I keep finding news stories in my feed about people whose side hustle has started earning them six figures. This “side hustle” is usually making print on demand items with funny phrases on it, dog walking, or reviewing products for Amazon. This reminds me of all the “get rich quick” schemes from the 80’s; MLM, work from home, shady investing… Has anyone thought about a side hustle which you are a consultant to help people figure out what their side hustle should be?  

  • Short Story Review: “Why I didn’t Immediately Load the Car When My Husband Texted that the Fire Was Getting Closer” by Claudia Monpere

    (The flash piece “Why I didn’t Immediately Load the Car When My Husband Texted that the Fire Was Getting Closer” by Claudia Monpere, appeared in Milk Candy Review.)

    I like flash fiction; it is my preferred form of storytelling now. It’s a very malleable form as well. It can be a straight forward very short short story, it can boarder right up to poetry, a snapshot of stream of consciousness – whatever it needs to be to tell a story, or complete a thought, or action – flash fiction can do it.

    In Claudia Monpere’s “Why I didn’t Immediately Load the Car When My Husband Texted that the Fire Was Getting Closer,” we are presented with an impressively short flash piece (193 words) that consists of 10 sentences. The title also functions as an essential setup, as the body of the piece is answering that question. A device is employed with 9 of the sentences beginning with the word “Because,” except for the last one. Though this is not the most original device, Monpere uses it effectively to create a rhythm and a pace that builds to the concluding final sentence. Also, the third, sixth, and eighth sentences are about the impending fire, creating a dramatic effect, like a ticking clock, adding to the tension of this moment. “Why didn’t I…” is a good example of why the flash fiction form is so intriguing when it comes to telling stories and expressing feelings and thoughts.

    As a person who also had to load a car quickly as a wildfire approached my home, I deeply identified with this piece. When a natural disaster is an abstract, and just a mental exercise, you think you know how you’ll react, and prioritize what is important when that moment arrives. But when you open your front door and can smell the fire, see the sky changing color, and hear the fire trucks, you don’t know what to do at first, and I grasped for the things I thought were important, before I realized what was important. And maybe I am biased due to my personal experience, but Claudia Monpere captured an emotional truth in the middle of a disaster perfectly.

  • There’s an Eclipse, Ya’ll

    I was trying to think up some non-cliché shit to say about the Eclipse, but then I gave up. So, I’m not trying to say cliché things, but at the same time, I’m not trying to avoid it either.

    That having been said…

    The kid’s school is letting all of the students out early so they can see it, and I’m going to join her and her class. Here in New York City, I believe that we are getting a 90% coverage. Not sure what that will be like. It could be something, it could be nothing. Don’t know.

    But if you go looking for me, I will be the guy looking at the other people who are looking at the eclipse.

    I seem to remember that there was a partial eclipse in the Dallas area during the early 80’s. My older brother made some sort of viewing box so we could see that a part of the sun was being blocked. The other thing I remember about the eclipse was being warned not to look at the sun, as it will blind you and do all kinds of awful stuff. I think my brothers were trying to scare me. It worked. I was afraid if I looked at the sun my face would melt like in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

    This time around, I think we’ll have spotty cloud cover, so we might not get a chance to see anything.

    Not that I’ll be looking.