For almost five decades on this planet, I did not have much success growing a beard.
Yes, I know that for everyone that first decade is a wash. For me, the next three decades also did not experience much beard growing success, despite my occasional feeble attempts.
If you spend enough (or worse, too much) time on social media you will begin to develop the very grim view that the world is overrun with very angry, very unpleasant people.
People who will gladly say something in a comment just to upset someone else.
I am not a patient shopper. Nor am I necessarily a well researched shopper. Which is why any major purchases (anything, say, over $5 or so) should probably be run through my wife first.
She is one of these people who will spend time, you know, seeing if a product is good or not.
As I have stated many times, I don’t get political in this column. And I won’t start today. That said, this column addresses some topics that bleed into the realm of health and society, which somehow is now kinda politics. But I offer this initial disclaimer up because, should this be posted on any of the Facebook pages of the local newspapers my column is carried in, I vow I will not go in and read any comments because I believe newspaper comment sections are one of the top causes of high blood pressure in the country, and no one needs hypertension in their life.
Since my son has started driving, I have encouraged him to make sure that he finds a standard place to leave his wallet and keys in the house every time he comes home.
I am practically robotic about this, leaving mine in the same little nook and cranny. My routines are simple – I set my keys in a basket on our counter, and I set my wallet in – I will never tell. I don’t need you coming and finding my wallet that is devoid of anything useful other than my license, my bank card and, for some reason, an expired library card from where I used to live. I’m on to you. You will NOT get my expired library card.
There is a thief in my midst. And I plan on catching him red-handed. Or, actually, probably, fur-pawed. But I will catch this thief.
I have five feeders set up in my yard. They are primarily squirrel feeders, despite the more common name of bird feeders.
I enjoy baking and cooking, and I have certainly gotten my share of new kitchen adventures over the past three months.
I have done slow-cooker bread. I have learned lots of new recipes for our fairly new Instant Pot. I have made my fudge that I call Hurricane Fudge, as I usually make it when I am riding out a hurricane, but I consider this current disrailing of life an acceptable substitute for a named storm. I have even taken my initial plunge into homebrewing, of which I can give you an update in a couple of weeks.
I hope everyone is doing as well as possible, and that all of you are taking the opportunity to unplug and disconnect for a bit.
To that end, this week’s column will be free of the current topic at the forefront of everyone’s mind. So enjoy a quick break to enjoy some times when other people thought my wife and/or I were horrible parents.
Hey, friends. You hanging in there? Unlike any other time in my life, the last few weeks have been the great equalizer. We’re all in this together. While we still have some tough times to get through, I hope you are staying safe and strong. And when you can’t be strong, I hope there are people in your life who can either pick you up or let you know that it’s OK. And when the strength returns, I hope you are there for them.
Hi, friends. Y’all doing OK?
I know this has been a tough run of late. But we are all in this together. Except, you know, not, like, close together.
I’m not going to give you any great insight on how we are all gonna power through this. Because I’m no wiser than anyone else on the planet, and let’s be honest – the wisest people on the planet are all kinda figuring this out as we go. Because these are unprecedented times. But I did want to perhaps offer you some distraction action to get you through your quarantine.