Category: Rambling

On April 8, 2024, I saw my first total solar eclipse. I just happen to live at the very edge of totality, so the sun was only fully obscured by the moon for a couple of seconds. Still, it left a strong impression on me. My first thought as the moon crept across the sun […]

A solar eclipse is happening today, and I happen to live in the path of totality.  This is the kind of event which excites me because the rare occurrences of such have had such a profound impact throughout time, all the way back to our earliest ancestors.  That we (and even those early humans) exist […]

As of today, we will have lived in our current residence for 25 years.  That is a considerable amount of time, especially since I believe the longest I lived in any place before then was three, maybe four, years.  My life prior to living here was one of instability and constant change.  I like to […]

Iceland has been on my mind a lot lately.  I have long been obsessed with the island but have only been able to visit it once so far.  That visit, in 2013, left a deep impression on me I doubt will ever be diminished.  So it pains me to see the nation in the news […]

I love fall, and I love pumpkins.  To try to keep the spirit of the season alive, we usually keep a small pumpkin in the middle of our dining room table through to spring. For years, we talked about growing our own pumpkins from the seeds of that one on the table after it had […]

It is impossible for me to forget the day one of my favorite people I have ever known walked into my life.  The date is easy to remember: October 10, 2010. It was a Sunday, and we were returning home from buying groceries.  With only about a mile left to go, I saw a figure […]

Everybody knows that song about how the hip bone is connected to the thigh bone, and so on.  It wasn’t until I had been practicing yoga for a while that I realized how much truth is in that. Following surgery on my face recently, I started to experience intense discomfort from my glutes through my […]

I believe one has to put their own meaning on their few trips around the sun. My raison d’être is my desire to fall in love every day. By that, I don’t mean love with another person. I am fortunate to have that already. Instead, what I mean is I want to constantly discover movies, […]

It’s a cliché to say every day is a gift, but every day I have lived past July 17th, 2008, has been bonus life.  Or, to use the jargon of video games, my “1UP”. If I am still alive when this is published, it will have been 15 years since I was in a hit-and-run […]

Please take note of the following change from previous years’ version of the 1040 form. If the past, taxpayers have been asked if they wish to contribute $3 to the Presidential Election Fund. This is no longer an option. Instead, taxpayers will be asked if they wish to donate to a different, though equally important […]

This review was beamed directly into my sleeping mind from the year 2505.  Apparently, they have yet to build a transmitter strong enough to reach my conscious mind, as most scientific research conducted in the future is dedicated to hair restoration and erectile longevity.  When they briefly succeeded in constructing a transmitter of sufficient power, […]

The following was originally written for my work, which had a contest for anecdotes concerning working from home… I have always been a nature lover.  I think it is especially best appreciated when viewed from behind large, plate-glass windows. Working from home has afforded me the opportunity to appreciate the nature in my backyard even […]

As I keep saying, I own way too many movies on physical media.  Most of these are films I haven’t seen before.  Some titles are ones I have always been curious about.  Some just have interesting reviews.  In general, I check the external reviews on IMDB and, through that, I notice I tend to visit […]

A group of potatoes were watching a cricket test match from the stands.  This was quite an international cast of characters.  Seated together were a May Queen from Japan, an Irish Mizen, a Russian Blue, a French Vitelotte, a Swiss Blaue St. Galler and a Chilean Cabritas.  Rounding out this otherwise sophisticated group was a […]

There was a husband and wife who shared an enthusiasm for a particular aberration. For his birthday, she bought him a wall-mounted clock. It was in the style of traditional European clock-making. It had one unusual feature: each hour, on the hour, a small male and a small female mannequin would exit through a door […]