Wow, it’s been a week or so, hasn’t it? Politics, the Olympics, and more causing quite the kerfuffle around these internets, eh? I generally try to stay out of the fray and keep my opinions to myself. Not because I don’t want to deal with it, but mainly because in the world we live in, there are a lot of people whose attitude is All or Nothing. My Way or the Highway. I don’t want to get into all of that. Reasonable people, who can discuss something with intelligence and from a position of knowing the actual facts- sure, let’s talk. And maybe agree to disagree, but that’s life, right? Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, and all that. But too often these days, it’s extremism. And everyone is far to quick to be insulted or offended by something outside their way of thinking. It gets tiring, especially when it’s right up front day after day on social media. Enough is enough.
Which is a long-winded way of saying that I have been snoozing or outright blocking people on my main social media sites. There’s enough going on right now in my worlds and I just don’t have the bandwidth to read or even just skip over the self-righteous and unable to see beyond the blinders. And that includes some people I generally like or who in the main agree with my own POV. I finally got really tired of the memes that distort the reality of a subject, the click bait “news” stories, and the shared endlessly nonsense that no one bothers to fact check.
Cranky? You bet! And likely to get more so. I will say, my feeds have been giving me far less heartburn lately. But, hey, loosen the grip on your pearls and maybe we can talk again. That’s my rant for the week. I shall fade back into the woodwork now.
In other news, the late summer flowers are blooming now in my gardens. Monarda is getting a lot of attention from all sorts of bees, large and small, as has the now-blooming oregano. The front hill is starting to fill in nicely, especially since I let the wood sorrel keep growing around the bigger plants. It’s a nice little native groundcover that has three-leaf clover-like foliage and pretty little yellow flowers. It’s filling in the spaces between the bigger plants and making the hill look nice and full. I am going to move a lot of the side shade garden plants around in the spring. I really didn’t plan well when I first planted them, and the gardens there look rather messy and random. I think what I have in mind will look much better in the long run. We are getting green beans and cucumbers now, the cherry tomatoes are starting to show up, and I have some collards that need to be cut and used. Also a few peppers on those plants. For things that got a late start, they are going well right now.
I had an appointment with my orthopedic and got anti-inflammatories and steroids in both knees again. It’s good to be able to walk more than a few minutes now. Doc also wants me to get fitted for a fancy brace to realign things and open some of the bone-on-bone spacing. And I am going to be talking to a surgeon about possible replacement later in the year. What we are doing now is really temporary to relieve the immediate discomfort, but won’t stop the degeneration or the way the discomfort interferes with things I want to do. So, it is probably time to think about a more permanent solution.
We roll on into a new week. Drink your water. Eat a vegetable. Get outside and refresh. Be nice to one another.
My latest book is a collection of very short stories, half science fiction and half fantasy, called “Crossed Wires and Other Very Short Stories”. I have also written a few other short pieces, another collection, two novels, and an urban fantasy series. You can find most of them at Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and wherever e-books are sold. A few are also available from Amazon in paperback. My novel, “Circle Unbroken” is also on Kindle Unlimited, if that’s your reading preference. You can find out about all of them here.
There are also some stories you can read here on my site, mostly the yearly Halloween short I write, but there are a few others. You can read them from here
And So On... 