A Little Digestive Distress- Chicken Vindaloo
Never Bet Against A Sicilian When Death Is On The Line
There Is A Difference Between A Father & A Man
Mean Girls Come From Mean Moms
Midnight Barking
If you are truly lucky you’re awake when your dog starts barking at midnight. Awake so that you are not so far into sleep to wonder if it is a dream and if you should rouse yourself.
And when you do wander the house with him you can feel pretty good about what you find or don’t find lurking in the dark.
But there is still that sense from childhood when you remember the feeling that something might be out there just far enough away to hide itself from your furry friend but close enough to find a way inside.
So you thank him for his vigilance and tell him to keep watch while you try to sleep because morning will come too soon.
Time To Get Serious
I ate well over the holidays and had a feeling that I was getting myself into trouble but I ignored it.
It is my own fault. I had really turned things around and I felt like I was on a great track and then there was mix of my own cockiness and failure to remember I am not 25.
I could have gotten away with it then because I could make a few adjustments and turn it on at the gym and the body responded.
This body responds still, but not like it once did and not without accepting that we aren’t who we once were and can’t act like we still are.
So I did this to myself, not making excuses.
Am I being honest or am I being hard on myself?
The answer is yes to both and that is ok.
Turn It Around
I can still turn it around, we haven’t passed the land of no return but it is going to take some work. I am irritated with myself and having to be more concerned about some changes because of aging.
But it is a privilege, getting older that is and one that I need to treat better.
Starts today, guess we’ll see how it goes and go from there.
When Jack Came Back
The idea was for your host to go on a short walkabout and then come back in time to write a post wrapping up the year and then another talking about ’24 because that was going to launch something special.
The launch of something special happened outside of here and it came with several fits, starts, challenges and opportunities.
Color me surprised, sarcasm intended that things didn’t go as planned and that it has taken about five weeks for me to reappear.
Clearly, I haven’t figured out what to do with this place and how to do it. Is it dying or is it just going through an evolution.
The answer is forthcoming but I can’t tell you if that is something we’ll know in a week, month or year.
The Wheels Keep Turning
Figure at some point I’ll have another conversation with the Shmata Queen about this and get her thoughts.
The last time we saw each other in person there was too much going on to dig into it and it didn’t happen.
There have been six million conversations in between so there is truth in saying if it was important it could have been brought up already.
Not that it matters because the ultimate decision rests with me regardless so it is up to me to determine what I want to do and how to do it.
So call that lack of conversation a silly excuse for not taking time to figure it out. The biggest question I need to answer is what kind of cadence do I wish to hold here.
Do I want to go back to writing daily or updating a couple of times a week. Do I want to try and build the traffic back up again or use this for as a writing sandbox to play in.
I am not sure yet and that is part of why I didn’t put question marks at the end of the previous two sentences.
Can’t really say they are questions any more than I can say they are comments. It is really me thinking out loud and I am ok with that.
Sometimes you don’t need an immediate answer because what is more important is taking time to consider your options, possible, likely and probable.
The Holidays of ’23
I could write about the holidays of ’23 as the time when the Jews of the world bonded because of rampant antisemitism and the massive amounts of gaslighting we have been experiencing.
Or I could go a different direction and tell you I am going nuts trying to keep my inbox relatively clean but am losing the battle.
I get too many newsletters that I actually want to read and too many that hold no interest but lack proper settings to adjust the frequency with which they come.
And by proper settings I mean I can’t adjust them solely by wishing them to be fixed.
That aggravates me because it means I have to take time to open and look for the unsubscribe button so that I can reach the field that adjust frequency.
Consequently I open them and find there is something there that interests me enough to think it might be worth keeping it a little while longer just to see if I am correct.
So the inbox fills far more rapidly but unlike snow or rain it doesn’t melt or evaporate, it just clogs my feed.
Thanksgiving Week
There is a full house here for the first time in what feels like forever. All of the children are roaming the place and for a brief time we’re together under one roof.
I understand what the older folk meant when they said time goes quickly and now I try hard to be present in every moment because they move so quickly.
It is surreal how fast it went and I am so very proud of what I see and hear, but it is bittersweet in some ways.
That is a good thing and I know it to be so.
I’ll blink and we’ll be in a new place…again.