My Actual Birthday

It's today! I can't believe how old I am. Or rather, I can't believe how young being 66 seems. I remember at 16 thinking 33 was old. Ha!

Anyway, here is an update on what being old is like:

Every day, something new aches. Right now it's the tendon I bruised during the snow storm and also my spine. ("My spiiiine!" I cry often.) A week ago it was my hip, after I slept on it a little too long one night. Sleeping! Sleeping gives me injuries now.

I wake up early now. Not at five a.m. as I was when we first moved here, but I'm up and dressed by 7:30 most days. Partly this is the dog, who begins demanding his walk around 7:00. But also it's because I'm in bed by 9:30 or ten most nights. Me! Who seldom managed to sleep before 3:00 or 4:00 a.m.!

I'm eating a lot more cake than I used to. I'm sure this isn't good for me, but on the other hand, who's going to stop me?

I spend a lot of time in doctor's offices. Mostly this is for Dr Skull's appointments, but some are also for me.

I take exercises as seriously as I did when I was 30, when I ran a couple miles every day and also took my dog for a three mile walk most days. Some of my aches arise from this, but most are because I'm ooooold.

I love being retired. Day after day with nothing planned. I lie on the couch and read books. I take the dog for at least two walks a day. I go to the library. I write whenever and as much as I like. I never have to teach composition again. There's plenty of time to do laundry and the dishes. (It's amazing how much less annoying dishes and the laundry are when you aren't exhausted and also you have plenty of time.)

I am extremely glad I don't have to depend solely on my social security. Medicare, on the other hand, is wonderful. I got a lengthy statement in the mail yesterday for all of Dr Skull's home health care, and the big news was on page one: "Amount you may owe: $0.00."

Granted, this is only because we can afford to pay for Part B and Part G, but still.

I'm liking being 66 a lot, I guess is the conclusion here. May it long continue.

He just wants to sit in my lap all day long, is that so much to ask?

It's My Birthday

 Well, not until tomorrow. But we had a party yesterday, with order-in Italian and this:

A leaning-tower of carrot cake, which I made my own self, since Dr Skull cannot make cakes at the moment. I am not a fifth-generation baker, as you can probably tell. Still, it was tasty. The cream cheese frosting was especially good.

The kid and his husband and one of their grad school friends came over; also Uncle Charger. We had a good time. Next week is the kid's spring break and he and his husband are flying off to Maryland to visit friends. Maryland is where the kid plans to move if the situation does not improve in Arkansas.

The kid painted this for my birthday:

Jasper and my little cat Junti, may her memory be a blessing, cuddling together for once.

It was 20 degrees and wimdy when I took the dog to the park this morning. There were two big dogs there so he had someone to run with.

Happy Ides of March!

Them Romans and their tyrants, huh. 

Huckleberry Sanders

Sarah Huckster Sanders, our current governor, spent yesterday bragging about how she is going to force every public university and public school in Arkansas to install a Turning Point USA club. For the students.

(Student clubs are usually asked for, organized and run by students. This, clearly, will be something else -- enforced, organized, and run by the state. You know. Like Hitler Youth.)

In case you forgot what Turning Point USA is, it's a giant grift formerly run by Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated by a high powered rifle just at the very moment he was claiming gun violence was not a problem, and if it was a problem, it was only because a couple of trans people had shot people.

Turning Point USA exists to make money for those who are running it, to support Trump, and to hurt education. To be clear, they want to turn education into indoctrination for the MAGA point of view, with all its bigotry and hatred. 

They claim to be Christian, but it's a specific kind of Christianity: one that hates the poor, despises the immigrant, and wants to erase from existence anyone who isn't pretty much exactly what Kirk was: a podgy, smug, reactionary white cis guy. (Or "white male man," as Erica Kirk phrased it yesterday.)

Charlie Kirk, the grifter, is now dead. So now his wife, Erica, has abandoned her two children, ages four and two, to continue the grift. Sarah Huckster Sanders, who is grift all the way down herself, has happily joined hands with Erica.

After Trump is gone, all these losers will fall back into oblivion, their natural state.

Bagels in Fayetteville

When I first came to Arkansas, back in the previous century, you could not get bagels here at all, not even the terrible supermarket kind. Later, we could get Lender's at the Walmart. When I returned to Arkansas, in 2002, even Fort Smith had (fairly terrible) packaged bagels. 

When we moved to Fayetteville in 2024, there was an Einstein Bagels. They're acceptable bagels, but still not great.

Last week Benny's Bagels (which is apparently a Dallas chain) opened here. It has been non-stopped packed ever since. These are real bagels, y'all. Dr Skull even approved of them, and he is as judgy as any Jew who grew up running a bakery could be.

So far it's so busy all the time that it's hard to get in there and it sells out regularly, but I'm assuming eventually it will calm down and we will have somewhere to go to get bagels when I don't feel like investing the hours it takes to make them at home.

Photo by Randi Mendolia

Photo source

Higher Prices Brought to You by an Illegal War

Trump ran on no wars, lower prices, and hurting trans people and immigrants.

Since he's delivered on the last two, I suppose conservatives are willing to give him a pass on the first two.

Oh, and he's also destroying the environment. Conservatives love destroying the environment.

What a joke this country has become.

Adventures in Cooking

Dr Skull used to do most of the cooking around here, which was how I liked it. But his spinal issues have left him with less than stellar use of his hands, and also he cannot stand for very long. This means cooking has devolved on me.

I dislike cooking. Well, let me revise that. I like to cook occasionally, but this cooking dinner ever single day is for the fucking birds. Also, sometimes he wants lunch! 

Also, I have discovered that I can only cook about three things that Dr Skull will eat. (My staple, pasta in cream sauce, he will not touch. Or beans and rice, which is the other thing I am truly suited to cooking. He also hates curry.)

Here is what I am cooking these days:

(1) Tuna casserole

(2) Bagels (which we eat with lox and cream cheese and -- Dr Skull -- a slice of red onion)

(3) Roast chicken and asparagus

(4) Something with the leftover chicken. Like chicken pie, or chicken and noodles

(5) Takeout

I am asking you for suggestions for something I could cook which isn't pasta or beans. Help.

Shamus Makes it to One Year Old

The dog is a year old today. 

He still likes nothing better than to sit on my lap.

Sadly, the laptop is usually there

Curse My Life

These days, we only get winter in Arkansas from late November to the first of March. Highs in the high 70s this week, and also rain. So we can't even open the windows, unless we want to live in a swamp of mold. Have to use air conditioning.

Brought to you by Global Warming is just a Leftist scam.

Trump's New War

Apparently claiming to end (fictional) wars wasn't getting him enough attention.

I guess he thinks the American people will support him if he kills enough brown people. That's the plan. That's the only item on his agenda.

What a disgrace.

Here Comes Summer

Highs in the 70s this week. Ugh.

I'm going to miss these frosty mornings. The dog loves them too. He zooms wildly around the dog park, chasing birds and squirrels. Also leaping in the pond, which I do not love as much.

What I'm (NOT) Reading

I've hit a run of mediocre books. Not actively bad -- I kind of like really bad books, because it can be fascinating to watch them trainwreck. 

These are just books that could have worked if the writer had done this or that, but instead they decided to maunder on about some point or plot turn that doesn't matter, or describe something incoherently.

It's kind of depressing. I really need a good book to read. Where is the universe hiding them?

Please Don't

AI is now writing the replies for emails I get on Gmail.

I can write my own fucking emails, guys. C'mon.

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RIP Junti 2013-2026

We had to put my little cat down. The vet told me it was a miracle she had lasted this long, with the kidney numbers they were seeing. I know they said when I took her in the first time that she could have as little as a week, but I don't think I heard that.

She was doing really well for several days -- eating and playing like her old self -- and then yesterday she just crashed. Last night she cried for about an hour, until I finally got her to go to sleep (cuddled in my arms). After that she was lethargic and almost motionless, all bone under her beautiful coat. When we reached the vet, she only weighed 3 and a half pounds.

We got her when she was a fluffball of a kitten, just seven weeks old. She was meant to be a companion to Jasper, our first cat, who hated her on sight. (Jasper was a year old then.) Eventually they got to like each other enough that they would often sleep cuddled together, though for years they had giant hissing fights. When both of them were younger, they would also play together sometimes, chasing each other around the house and leaping up and down on things. 

They loved the bookshelves in our first house, which had a really high place at the top for them to sleep on, like panthers.

Junti on the High Place

Junti was a beautiful Siamese mix, sable brown with black paws and a face, and the clearest, meanest blue eyes imaginable. Dr. Skull was really her favorite, but sometimes she would deign to sleep on my lap, if the days were cold enough.

She was a good cat. I'm glad she didn't suffer long.

Junti on my Lap

Junti Contemplating the Green Space