Category Archives: Personal

April 10, 2026 · 4:23 pm

That was not how I wanted to spend last Saturday!

It looked like a great day. TYG was going to be out for most of it so I figured on kicking back, snuggling the dogs and watching movies. Instead, the Internet went out a little before noon. I spent about five hours trying and failing to restore it. First turning it off, turning it on. Then going back to factory settings. Then going to the help desk. More unplugging and rebooting and unplugging and deleting the Google Home app, then restoring it to my phone, then deleting the routers from the app … finally it appeared it was an outage after all. Except fixing the area outage didn’t fix things.

Finally they sent out a tech the next day. Turns out the router had died. Everything’s working now but dang, that was not a fun period.

In more cheerful news, TYG cut the first rose of the year off our rose bush — we haven’t been good about trimming it so the bud was unbalancing it — and brought it inside. Fragrance is beautiful. Even Plush Dudley thinks so.

The rose has blossomed beautifully.

Writing? Not much to say. Most of this week was spent on taxes. I thought for a while I’d have to apply for the six-month extension (it’s an automatic Yes if you ask) but we’d have had to figure out enough of the tax bill we could send in a check for what we owe — so what’s the point? I went ahead, crunched the numbers and it looks like the hit won’t be terrible. I’ve been wrong before but I think I caught all the errors. And some of them were actually in the government’s favor, like forgetting to deduct the money I pay for this website.

I got several thousand more words of Savage Adventures proofed and did a rewrite of a couple of older stories I never finished. “Honey For the Grave” is one of the shortest things I’ve ever written, coming in under 3,000 words. After some tweaking it looked surprisingly good. If I had a market for it (I spent some time looking) I’d submit it. Instead, I’ll probably read it to the writing group soon. “Die and Let Live” (still working on the title) isn’t anywhere near finishing but I have the plot, the premise and the ending payoff clear. Now I have to find a way to tell the story without being so damn expository.

Plushie is in good shape, full of energy and no digestive issues. He’s more likely to snuggle in my lap than sleep on the floor, which reflects TYG trimming off all his mats (and perhaps his tummy not hurting). This gets uncomfortable after a while — I wind up sitting in an awkward position — but I won’t push him out. He’s sixteen in November, which is old for a shih tsu mix, and I want to give him the best dog life possible until then.

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Filed under Personal, Short Stories, The Dog Ate My Homework, Time management and goals, Writing

April 3, 2026 · 5:05 am

Someone hacked my computer!

I caught him on camera.

This is a stuffed monster I acquired when Mom closed her play therapy practice. I call him Mr. Mononoke as I always thought he looked like a Miyazaki character. The hat and rabbit are from when I dressed up as the Mad Hatter for Halloween one year. They look better on him.

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March 31, 2026 · 5:25 am

Madcap Mensa weekend!

As I do every year, I trekked down to Greenville SC this past weekend for the Piedmont Area Mensa regional gathering. While the drive is typically four hours — a little longer this time, I think age is slowing me down — it’s worth it. For example I got to meet PAM’s newest member Griffin.

Griffin is an Irish wolfhound. Quite large. Mellow and friendly.

It’s the PAM gathering’s 50th “golden” anniversary which meant lots of gold everywhere —

I gave a presentation, as I usually do. To fit with the theme, I looked at the James Bond films and how they changed over time by focusing on the changes from Goldfinger to The Man With the Golden Gun to Goldeneye.

The past couple of years I spent a fair amount of time in my hotel room, enjoying the pleasure of being alone. It’s something that doesn’t happen much at home. This year I was having too much fun chatting with friends, occasional Mensan strangers, sometimes random hotel guests. I’d have thought after dealing with Plushie’s diarrhea for two weeks I’d be craving more isolation but no. I had a great time being out and about.

I also competed in Blonde Bowl, a trivia game where the end of every question is the low-point “blonde clue” giving the answer away For example (not taken from this weekend), a detailed description of a baseball player’s career that ends with “…name this iconic player immortalized on screen in The Jackie Robinson Story, Jackie Robinson — All American, and The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson.“ This year I was on the winning team though my personal performance wasn’t as good as it sometimes is.

It was a great weekend though it’s good to be back with TYG and the pets, too.

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March 20, 2026 · 4:33 pm

One of my goals for 2026 was to have a cool, fun birthday

I think that one goes in the “unachieved” pile.

Last weekend we trimmed Plushie’s fur, getting rid of all the mats and tangles. Given his bum leg, it seemed safer than taking him to a groomer where he’d end up standing a lot longer. We did it in the backyard, leaving lots of fur behind. Maybe that stressed him out which stressed out his digestive system. Sunday night, Plushie’s diarrhea returned. I realized this when he climbed off the bed and tried to run downstairs; I got dressed, not in time, and took him out after he’d done his business on the carpet. Again, later.

(Dudley’s before photo)

Monday night I couldn’t sleep; the conviction I’d have to wake up and clean up the mess alongside TYG got into my head and I couldn’t get rid of it. It turned out nothing happened; however during the first half of the week we did keep having to clean up small leakages. And then clean whatever sheets or towels he’d been sitting on. This takes time. So not a smooth week.

On my birthday eve, I slept like a log and woke up the next morning refreshed. Still, it wasn’t practical to go out and do anything other than necessary errands during the day. I wound up doing a little bit of writing, a little bit of reading, kind of an odd mishmash. However I did accomplish something that pleased me: my passport expires next month and I finally got a digital photo that passed muster, courtesy of the local FedEx office. Completed the online paperwork, now it’s done.

(the After photo)

In the evening we went to Cheesecake Factory which proved indulgently satisfactory. I got a couple of good gifts too, which I’ll mention when I get around to reading them. Overall a decent day but not a birthday for the ages. Next year!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, we took Plushie to the vet Thursday. They gave us some fresh drugs that seem to have stopped him up. He’s much happier and brighter, which is good.

Despite the demands of the Plush One, and being nearly exhausted for a couple of days, the writing went well. 11,000 words on Let No Man Put Asunder. As it seems to be going well, I’m going to continue working with it and finish this draft possibly by May, then ask for beta readers in my writers’ group (with food in return for reading, as is our standard practice). That was all the writing I got done, but I’m pleased with it. I do see a problem developing, which I’ll discuss sometime soon; as I’m seeing it, I imagine I can deal with it.

On the down side, The Local Reporter is dropping back to monthly publication, one or maybe two stories per reporter per month. Financially that’s a hit; I’ll need to start looking for other gigs immediately. Not that we’re in any peril of running out of cash but I take pride in contributing to the family finances. I’m pessimistic this will work — shrinking coverage isn’t usually going to draw more readers — but I choose to hope they know better.

As for Atomic Junkshop, I discuss unresolved plotlines, Stan Lee’s propensity for mythmaking and what comic books were like in the DCU after the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Cover by George Perez. All rights to images remain with current holders.

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Filed under Nonfiction, Personal, The Dog Ate My Homework, Time management and goals, Writing

Tagged as Atomic Junkshop, let no man put asunder, Local Reporter

March 20, 2026 · 5:03 am

Goodbye amaryllis

As I mentioned in January, TYG’s mum got us an amaryllis.

It turned out really pretty.

Nothing lasts forever, though.

I thought that would be the end. After perusing some articles I’ve learned that with care the amaryllis can last through the year until it blooms next spring. They’re not all in agreement how to do it but pruning the dead stems is definitely the next step.

This isn’t the ideal place for it, for various reasons related to how I arrange my office. However this is the only room with both sufficient sunlight and where I can keep the cats out, as amaryllis is toxic to cats. I shall adapt.

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March 13, 2026 · 5:21 am

Do you remember Morris, the finicky cat?

Morris was the star of a long-running series of commercials for 9 Lives catfood, emphasizing he was finicky about his food — but he loved 9 Lives! Which I was thinking of this week because Plushie seems to be in a “Morris — hold my beer!” mood.

We have to give both dogs lots of drugs for their various ailments. Trixie will eat hers on soft food; Plushie’s finicky and unpredictable. Depending on the day he may eat gabapentin on either soft food, chicken-broth concentrate or Delectable cat treats. I have no way to know which the chosen substrate will be. This adds several minutes to the process and sometimes waste the drugs. It’s frustrating. Sometimes he’ll turn the gunk down on the plate but eat it off my hand. Currently we’re randomly switching day to day — that seems to help but he still sometimes gets picky. And no, we can’t force it into his mouth the way we do Trixie when we have to. Plush Dudley’s more likely to bite and too stubborn to force easily.

So far we’ve managed to keep him doped enough for his own wellbeing. Hopefully we can keep it up.

(Plushie rolling in snow, from earlier this year)

On the plus side, no dog health disasters this week, so that’s a win. And we took care of one house problem, some foundation work that needed doing. Nothing urgent but it’s good to have it taken care of.

Now, as to writing, this was a good week. I was disorganized after spending last weekend at Ret-Con. Even so I was productive. I completed my March writing goals on Let No Man Put Asunder and on Savage Adventures, covering Doc’s adventures up through The Red Skull. I also rewrote, and I think finished my short story “Mage’s Masquerade.” I realized a while back that some of the key supporting characters weren’t developed enough for readers to tell them apart (a complaint made about a much earlier draft). I think I’ve got it fixed. I also much improved “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” by chopping about 1300 words off the end. I’ll look at both stories the last week of the month and see if I still think they’re done (the first story, maybe, the second almost certainly not).

There’s still no Local Reporter work — hopefully we’ll be back next week. However over at Atomic Junk Shop I blogged about the comic-books of Earth-One. The cover above suggests they looked exactly like the ones in our world; as I detail at the link, probably not. I also post about Doctor Doom’s short-lived run as a co-star with Ka-Zar in Astonishing Tales.

Doom’s racism in that scene does not work for me.

Things will get crazier next week when I have some IRL tasks to take care of. Still, I budgeted the time for that, so hopefully it’ll still be another good week.

Art by James Bama (t), Carmine Infantino and Gene Colan (b).

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Filed under Nonfiction, Personal, Short Stories, Story Problems, The Dog Ate My Homework, Time management and goals, Writing

Tagged as Atomic Junkshop, let no man put asunder, Oh the Places You'll Go

March 13, 2026 · 5:16 am

I sold some books!

Last weekend I attended Ret-Con, the local Durham specfic convention. It’s pleasantly close, maybe 6 miles up highway 54, which is nice, and I see a lot of people I know — fellow local author Samantha Bryant, Tera Fulbright of ConGregate, guest of honor Natania Barron and a few others.

I attended last year. This year, though, I had an author table.

It’s a small convention so everyone doing anything has to pass through Author’s Alley, plus my table was right in front of the dealer’s room. Plus I’m really good at bookselling — I used to do it for a day job — so any time I made eye contact with someone passing by, I asked if they’d like to buy a book. Sometimes they did.

The end result: $300 in sales. I feel quite pleased. There was a time I’d have treated this as special income and bought myself some sort of treat with a little of the money. These days it’s just income, plus my birthday’s approaching so I don’t want to buy myself anything yet. Still, the accomplishment is satisfying.

I sold copies of everything Behold the Book publishes except Atoms for Peace, which has been my best seller at other cons. Not that I mind, it’s just interesting to see the variation.

They like me. They really like me.

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February 27, 2026 · 5:15 am

Go for baroque!

A few weeks back, TYG and I went to a baroque music concert at a local church. It’s more her kind of thing than mine but I did enjoy the music. And the church looks cool.

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Tagged as music, TYG

February 20, 2026 · 4:35 pm

I foresaw the dogs would eat my homework at some point this year

I did not think it would be quite this soon.

Sunday: Plush began pooping in the house. Very runny, too. We gave him some drugs — we’ve accumulated quite a few from past problems of one sort or another (and yes, we throw away the expired ones) and hoped that would be enough. Monday he was still runny and very listless at his PT session (he’s waiting in their lobby in the photo above, taken late last year). Oh, and Trixie threw up lavishly on the bed. She was fine and lively at PT, but kept throwing up and refused to eat. She’s had bad tummies before but as it continued, TYG finally decided she needed a doctor visit (this was the correct move). It was late by this point so we had to hit the emergency. Times past, we’d have driven like a half-hour; recently we discovered Blue Pearl, an emergency vet maybe 10 minutes a way. The doctor was great and I came home with a bunch more drugs for Trixie.

Unfortunately the next day she had a very ugly looking, repeated diarrhea. So first I took her to our regular vet, then we got an ultrasound at Blue Pearl … in Raleigh, so TYG drove a good half hour there and back … and then there and back to collect her.

Wednesday things had improved slightly. More appetite, both dogs; diarrhea constant but smaller; both dogs their usual perky self. Still it was stressful, we’d spent three nights getting to bed late (TYG was out late Sunday so I stayed up late too), and I was half-sleepwalking. Plus the drugs take a lot of time to get into the dogs.

Thursday, we could see veterinary medicine had done its work. Both dogs happier, both hungry for more food and treats than we wanted to risk giving them, digestive problems minor. Still a lot of drugs. Oh, and now that Trixie has her heavy coat shorn, she’s much more comfortable snuggling in my lap.

The end result for my writing? Almost nothing done. I was kicking myself, then I remembered I took that into account in mapping out my goals for this year. Time off for a vacation, time for proofing Watching Jekyll and Hyde, time for something to go wrong. So this week fits in. Admittedly I’d have liked it better if I’d gotten a couple more months of good work first, but over the course of 2026, it shouldn’t throw me off my game.

I did get a little work done on The Impossible Takes a Little Longer. Most of my time, though, went to Local Reporter, with stories on a delayed Chapel Hill road project, public opinion on how Chapel Hill should spend its budget surplus, FEMA reimbursement in Carrboro and the area’s Destination 2055 transportation plan. At Atomic Junk Shop I looked at the option of seeing across time, the mess that’s Son of Dr. Jekyll, and the paradox of Earth-One comic books.

Still, here’s hoping next week plays out better.

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Filed under Impossible Takes a Little Longer, Nonfiction, Personal, The Dog Ate My Homework, Time management and goals, Writing

Tagged as Atomic Junkshop, Local Reporter

February 20, 2026 · 5:15 am