Category: Life
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25 Things (Slight Return)
(Just found this in my drafts; it was written a few years back (2018?), in response to something else from even further back. I never posted it at either of those times, probably due to a fear of oversharing, but I’ve stopped caring what other people think of me, so here you go.) In the post-Election/post-Brexit world, there’s been a few (much needed) ‘let’s make Facebook fun again’ things going round, where you are supposed to give 10 fun facts, or post the 3rd photo on your camera roll, or whatever. That reminded me of a similar thing way back… Read more
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Service in the face of adversity
For the past few years, I’ve been running an Alateen group. For those who have fortunately been spared the need to know about such things, Alanon is a ‘support group’ (for want of a better term) for people whose lives have been affected by alcoholism in a family member or close friend. It is a counterpart 12-step program to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which is (obviously) for the alcoholic themselves. Alateen is effectively ‘Alanon for teenagers’. Most of the kids coming to my group have an alcoholic (or addict) parent; for some of them, it’s a sibling. Often, the parents are… Read more
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Travel in the Time of COVID
My daughter is currently on a veterinarian ‘study abroad’ trip to South Africa. This is really a make-up trip, to compensate for the one she was supposed to take to Peru last March – you know, right when COVID-19 blew up – which was cancelled (at 24 hours notice). This one was planned out well in advance, COVID vaccinations were received, her passport validated, and so on. But getting her on the plane was far from easy. She was scheduled to fly out last Saturday – from Houston to Newark, and then Newark to Johannesburg. The airline requires a negative… Read more
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WITAT?: Gender Reveals
Since moving to the U.S., I’ve learned that there are many things that Americans unnecessarily over-celebrate. From football players trotting on to the pitch at the start of a game (which is apparently deserving of smoke bombs, fireworks, and inflatable tunnels, even though they do this a couple of times a week during the season – and get paid a fuck-ton of money to do so), to high school graduations (“Well congratulations for managing do what 85% of the population does…and sure, let’s have a 4-hour ceremony to celebrate it!”) – hell there are even kindergarten ‘graduations’. Draft picks…nominations for… Read more
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Spring Break Road Trip
Thanks to the impending global apocalypse, Daughter’s college is extending Spring Break (which starts Monday) by a week or two, and then moving to all-online classes “until further notice”. Which meant that instead of having a nice, relaxing weekend at home, I had to drive up to Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX, and bring her and all of her stuff back home. Yes, it is in-State, but the State being Texas, it is 500+ miles away, which makes it a weekend trip. Usually, this would irritate the pants off me, especially as it was only decided on Thursday, and… Read more