Journal

Going to the eye doctor has made me anxious since I was a child. I mean, a LOT of things make me anxious but getting my eyes checked always seems riddled with extra layers of worry. I think part of it was that when I was seven years old, my maternal grandmother was diagnosed with…

I’ll be the first to admit that I probably have some degree of hypochondria. I think a lot of us do. I remember one of Mom’s friends who was in medicine who said that as a student every medical issue she read she briefly entertained the thought she had it. Still a few years ago…

When I was growing up, Mom talked about “Becky” so much that she was not unlike other members of the family that were gone but spoken of often. But Becky wasn’t family and she was, one assumed, alive and well somewhere. Becky had worked for my grandparents when Mom was little. And truthfully Becky wasn’t…

Not long ago, I began looking into a family story I had heard more than once as a child. There were variations on it but there was one part of the story that was consistent. And that was that there was a great, great uncle who died as a young child and who was later…

It feels like I’ve hit that place in life where I only come to my blog with sad news and I guess tonight is no different although surreal. I had logged on to Find A Grave to update a couple of family connections. Although I have long used the site to supplement what I knew…

Into every life, some rain must fall, I suppose, but having a windows 10 update stuck was a long, slow boil! A bit over a month ago, windows 10 seemed to be updating every day, or so I thought. It took me a bit to realize that something was up. Way too many updates. That’s…

I had read grumblings about Southeastern Grocer’s financial problems in the news recently, but was still a little stunned this week to read of the pending Harvey’s closing in our small town of Montezuma, Georgia. They are closing a pile of stores by the end of April as they enter bankruptcy. For me, it was…

A funny “ha-ha” story. When Dad bought his little used Ford truck – his last one. The handle that was meant to raise and lower the spare tire from the back was nowhere to be found. The manual said the handle was behind the bench seat and nothing was there. So he always kept the…

It’s amazing after you’ve lost a loved how much worse some businesses can make the experience. Verizon is one example we’ve encountered in the months since my Dad’s death last December. It’s already a grinding experience having to call x company and y company and go through the same spiel over and over. When you’ve…

You ever have that feeling you’re cursed? I think I’ve had it off and on over the years. I’m sure many of us do. After the past year, it’s been an especially acute feeling. Nothing is small right now. Everything is major! I was setting off to Americus this afternoon to have my vision checked….

To be honest, I am chock full of pet peeves but one of them that gets dinged regularly is SEO experts contacting me with their gmail addresses. Never mind how unprofessional it feels to some. I can get past that. There are plenty of people who have contacted me in regards to projects they had…

It’s been far too long since I’ve posted anything. It wasn’t for lack of moments of inspiration. I thought of plenty things to write about both involving the events of my life in 2016 as well as tidbits I wanted to share. And it never happened. As bad as the year started with Dad’s stroke…

It’s been 8 weeks since Dad had his stroke. I think I could write a book if I talked about everything that’s happened since but it wouldn’t be a very entertaining read. So I’ll hit the highlights. Dad was at Grady a little over a week after his stroke. He probably would have been moved…

I posted this to my Facebook page tonight where the folks have only been wondering where I’ve been for a day or two. Any actual readers of my blog have probably wondered that for far longer. I need to do a real update sometime but the following at least hits the most important point in…

Keep it Simple Stupid is far from an original mantra, but one I digested last night. If you haven’t noticed, I’m in the midst of revamping my little garrison of websites. They had all gone somewhat stale and my motivation to change that was fleeting. Part of that was the desire to change the domain…

I mentioned late last year that I was getting progressive lenses. It’s taken awhile for me to finally report back on that experience… Wow, well, first off the bat, I believe there was an issue with the first pair I got. It took several days of trying to adapt, but I finally came to the…

Ah, Facebook, my old friend… I’ve had little to say on the subject of late and there’s not much to add. I’m only on the site in brief fits these days. The last time was made even worse by a cacophony of auto-play videos. Auto-play anything is a sure way to make me hit the…

This topic came up today in an entirely unrelated forum, but it stirred up the hornet’s nest for me. I don’t tend to post on these sort of topics, but to me this is one that should cross all lines. Of course, this all boils down to the news of the day, about a federal…

I decided to try something new today. I’ve long thought about how much time I spend sitting. Between photo editing and general online tasks, I’m attached to my laptop a lot. And while a laptop is a go-anywhere kind of device, you tend to sit with it a lot, eh? I’ve had a vague interest…

I’ve gotten where I rarely report on illness, especially on social media. I just hate to be one of those woe is me people. So, if I’m ever quiet, it may be that I’m busy or it may be that I simply have nothing positive to report! But hey, it’s my personal blog, so I…

There’s something about going to see an eye doctor that always feels me with dread. It’s not that I’ve ever had a bad experience with one, mind you. Still, I manage to build it up pretty much every time. There’s something about having someone peer into your head at things you can’t see. What might…

Facebook recently announced more changes to the already-involved algorithms that decide what users see in their news feed when they log in. When I read the news, I admit, I already foresaw a little of the impact that would come, i.e. ever-more-decreased reach for the things I share through my Facebook page. Despite the best…

I purposefully waited to post what are more or less my closing thoughts on Pinterest. I had a mission to complete before this day came… If you’re curious about what came before, you can see a little of my evolution on thoughts about the social bookmarking service by reading my past posts on Pinterest. Pinterest…

Wow… what a night… Yesterday afternoon, I started really feeling worn out for no good reason. It’s not the first time. In fact, it’s almost right at a decade since that first time. The first time was equally scary. I had a week of just feeling tired and like every step was dragging. Not like…

The title of this one is somewhat tongue in cheek. Certainly had I been painting non-stop, I’d be done by now. But the humorous part is that observant people will remember when I broke my foot last year, I was doing what? Yes, painting! And yes, the same room! I wish the room were that…

When I stuck my head out of the rabbit hole today, I saw the news that there had been a major Flickr redesign. I was… lukewarm… at the news. Flickr… what can I say about Flickr? I’ve been a member since 2006, but I didn’t initially join for a place to share photos. I was…

I’d love to say I invented the phrase Like Farm, but it’s entirely possible I read it somewhere before as a brief search turned up other articles on the growing phenomenon. For awhile now, I’ve been watching my own news feed fill up with random images and slightly saccharine quotes. It’s been one of those…

I don’t think Google’s latest changes to its image search has made many friends. Yet, outside of possibly visual artists and webmasters, I’m not sure the rest of the world cares yet. Still it’s been interesting reading all the fuss lately! What did Google do the rest of you may be wondering? Well, I’m sure…

I could spend a ton of time boring you with stories of phone tag with the doctor’s office, but I’ll cut it short and sweet. There was a brief game of phone tag trying to get some more details and then silence on the other end. I don’t know whether I was forgotten about or…

It took almost a week to find out about my foot. Last Wednesday I had more x-rays and a test to check on the possibility of gout to explain why I still have a good deal of soreness nearly three months after breaking my foot. Before I get into specifics, I have to say I’m…

I finally had to bite the bullet and get my foot looked at today. I’ve made a lot of progress since I took off the training wheels, but it’s been two and a half months since I broke it and although I’m hardly in grinding pain, my toe still is sore like I stubbed it…

A full day without the buddy tape around my big toe and it’s nearest neighbor. It’s been interesting. After six weeks of being taped and 99% of that time in a recovery shoe on top of it, the first sensation was that it felt incredibly odd to have air touching it. In fact, the first…

Wow, I can’t believe that tonight marks six weeks since I was sitting in the Emergency Room waiting to find out the status of my poor toe. In some ways, I feel every minute of those six weeks. I watched the leaves change through the windows, and I’ve barely wandered past the steps for ages….

I know, I know, the people who actually read my blathering posts are seeing the word “Facebook” in the title and sighing inwardly if not audibly. But it’s one of those topics that bubbles to the surface rather frequently. Today was because of a conversation amongst a group of photographers – of which I was…

In the grand scheme of things it could have been far worse, but it’s still not a banner day. I’ve been working on prepping and painting my room. It is well due, but I guess now it will be a December task. I was on the second step of the a small step stool. I…