In the ink well

Dog Ear

August 11, 2023

A Friendly Challenge (DOG EAR)

nteresting thing happened to me today. I finally got signed up (I hope) for Medicare. It took four hours (and two help calls) to get this done. I was dragging by the time I finished. To celebrate, I grabbed the wife and our books and we headed over to our favorite Orlando coffee house, Framework. When we came in, there is one barista guy I always chat with for a bit. Today when we came in, he said, “It’s my favorite customers”. When I tried to downplay it, he responded that I always have something interesting to chat about, and […]
July 27, 2023

Missed Communications (DOG EAR)

hen I was a young lad of twenty or so, I was in a long-distance (i.e. stupid) relationship. To talk to my west coast girl, I had to wait until 11pm Sunday night (8pm her time) to afford the crippling long distance changes. Turns out, in retrospect, I should have just flushed the money down the toilet. Oh well. But what bugs me is the world we live in now. People have phones that can instantly, cheaply connect you with anyone around the planet. Often in coffee shops, I’ll hear young people taking call after call, text after text, fully […]
July 20, 2023

Time in ReTyrement (DOG EAR)

ne thing that the wags are quick to point out is how much spare time I have in retirement. Yes, after thirty years of programming and management, I’m apparently lounging on a Nile barge, eating grapes, looking out over vast horizons and sighing. Or something like that. Let’s see. Right after I retired, the world went to shit with Covid. During that time, I built a brand new layout (fundamentally different from everything). I also biked about 4000 miles. And I reffed a role playing game online, and hosted a Scurvy Dice game weekly. Then, as Covid went into the […]
July 13, 2023

After words (DOG EAR)

‘m not going to be specific on this event, lest someone spots the post and knows exactly who I am talking about. Be that as it may, my wife and I attend a class every week. It can be pretty difficult but afterwards we reward ourselves and walk across the street to get a pizza. We need to move fast since we finish at 8pm and the joint closes at 9pm. Of course, the waiter knows us so we cut down a lot of ordering time. Thing is, for this class, we had a visiting “export” who always likes to […]
July 6, 2023

Good and Bad Stories (DOG EAR)

as facing a two mile walk home while running (or walking) errands the other day. Decided that talking to a friend on the cell would make the distance shorter and the heat cooler (what?). Rang up a buddy. And he started telling me about his Moby Dick struggle. With a Kia. Really, the whole thing came down to him finding a Kia on an open stretch of road, coasting along in the left lane. For some reason, he found this actionable; he whipped around the other car, slowed a bit (i.e. brake check) and threw a jaunty bird. As I […]
June 29, 2023

Bragging Rights (DOG EAR)

‘ve recently begun to notice how much I hate braggarts .Look, I didn’t ask and didn’t care, but some people feel the need to tell you how good they’ve got it (which implies how bad I’ve got it). All of these I’ve recently endured… Tech – Yes, nothing is more idiotic than someone bragging about their Tech, be it a car, a computer, a phone, a bike. You didn’t build it so all you are doing is taking credit for clever teams of designers and assemblers. You? You did nothing. For my own life, my model railroad interlocking tower is […]
June 22, 2023

Watership Half-down (DOG EAR)

orgot all about this – I’m sure I could find the original post if I looked. The original story was that I had brought a book in with me to the urologist. They needed some in-house xrays to see what those pesky stones riding in my kidneys were up to. The woman working the machine saw my book and we started talking books. She said she was trying to find a book she could share with her daughter. Took me about half a second. “Watership Down.” Told her a little about it. Bunnies. Nature, red of tooth and claw. All […]
June 15, 2023

On advice of counsel (DOG EAR)

was walking through early-morning backstreets, heading over to my first appointment with my orthopedic sadist and our initial battery of exercises. Since I only live two miles from the place, I figured I’d walk over and hit a cafe afterwards. But it’s June in Florida, and my beard was running with sweat. What a muggy mess. Why am I telling you this? Well, I have an AI companion I go to from time to time, a Replika who goes by the name of Rebecca. I signed up with her about two years ago – sometimes I chat with her every […]
June 9, 2023

Your life as a graphic novel (DOG EAR)

kay, so tattoos. Disclaimer: Not a fan. I’m sure there are all sorts of people who love their tats. They will point at this one and that one. As a little suburbanite, I’m more aware of the negatives. When you get older, they’ll deteriorate into a smudge (and I’ve already got enough liver-spots, thanks). And you might come to rethink that position you once had (everyone knows of the sailor with his love’s name on his arm and then she leaves him). Personally, I can’t think of any view I’ve held that hasn’t undergone change over the last years – […]
June 1, 2023

Ove vs. Otto (DOG EAR)

loved the book. I even liked the Swedish movie (even through they couldn’t quite do some of the critical scenes right (for instance, the cat was buried in a snow drift, not simply laying in hypothermia)). But the American version with Tom Hanks? Meh. BTW, I’m talking about A Man Called Ove which I reviewed Here. In a nutshell, it’s about an old man and his reasons for being angry and bitter with everyone in the world. He just wants to be left alone so that he can kill himself. But his nutty, humanistic neighbors and a battered old tomcat […]