David's Boring Blog

 I was at the dentist this morning when I had another one of those moments when I realized I am getting older. Thankfully it was not one of those moments when I sneeze and pull a muscle in my back which leads to three days of agony and Advil. Instead it came gently in conversation. I will also note that it has been several years now since I felt the need to measure up every person I meet as a possible sexual partner or competitor. I cannot say when that changed. I hope it was enough years ago that my toxic masculinity has not been on prominent display for too long. I point this out because of the conversation with the young woman at the dentist's office might sound flirtatious without this qualifier. It was not in absolutely any way.  We were chatting as she set up to work on my mouth. I am still a little sore from the most recent drop off the motorcycle. Don't read too much into that either. I fell on Saturday afternoon and this happened Monday morning. I had made some comment

 As much as I claim to be isolated away from the rest of the world, I do read a fair amount of news and catch wind of new and exciting things. I wouldn't have thought that a gas station chain coming to the area would be one of those things. Color me surprised that the more I heard about Buc-ee's, the more I wanted to check it out. I kept putting it off because it felt silly to drive nearly 100 miles just to go to a gas station. Still, I will go out of my way for a Dairy Queen. I would put some good miles on the bike for a trip to White Castle.  Dad and I got up this morning to make an early start of it. Crossville isn't far off. I probably could have turned it into more of a day ride if I had put any real forethought into the trip. I didn't though. I had two major objectives. First, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Second, I wanted to find out what the hell a beaver nugget was.  The ride to Crossville is just a jot down the interstate. In Saturday morning tr

 I miss playing Dungeons and Dragons. I miss playing hand after hand of Magic the Gathering. I miss board game night quite a bit more.  Running through games like Betrayal at the House on the Hill, Pandemic, and Cosmic Encounter was always fun. I could blame their absence in my life on the pandemic, but that wouldn't be the whole truth.  The reality is that to play those games I need to maintain a social group of people interested in playing those games. I have not been investing the time and energy into doing that in quite some time. The pandemic became an opportunity for me to focus on my job, my home, and my family. I allowed the connections to my gaming friends to weaken and falter.  I went into the summer determined to change that up. I still love my friends. I still have been collecting up my Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder Second Edition books. I have ideas in my head for tons of adventure. Now we are a couple of weeks away from school starting again and I have not made

 I buy too many things that I do not need. I catch passions for things. Sometimes they turn out to be fantastic like having both a gaming laptop and my Surface Pro 7. I admit using that example that part of me wants a Surface Go. I do not need one. I just really like the idea of having a smaller tablet to carry around. I have resisted that impulse buy for months now. I have walked myself back from pressing the buy button several times.  It took me two weeks of looking at it before I broke and made a totally useless nostalgia purchase. There are few things that I have lost along the way that I would invest time or energy into tracking down again. I wouldn't mind having my 1972 Chevelle back. I would say the same about my full size 1989 Bronco with the 351 Windsor, but I couldn't convince myself to make $170 fill ups just to go 280 miles. Part of me wishes I had all the attitude era No Fear shirts I had in high school. They wouldn't fit, but I enjoyed them.  When I pulled the

 I have been needing a vacation, a getaway, a retreat. Since I have had other priorities so far this year I have not planned any sort of vacation. I need to do that. In the interim, while I sort out some other things, I have been pursuing some of my favorite escapes in the form of video games. My recent emphasis has been heavy on nostalgia.  When my Mario play throughs hit the place that I need to finish either Yoshi's Island: Super Mario World 2 or Mario 64, I knew that I had gotten past the quick completed games. This is both a good and a bad thing. I can find my same sense of flow and relaxation playing through a level of Yoshi's Island... unless Mario comes off Yoshi's back and that terrible crying starts. The majority of my morning meditation then comes from Mario 64. I spent most of last week racing Momma penguin down the slide. It did not have the relaxation impact I desired.  I decided in the middle of last week that I wanted a different challenge while I am taking

 What a week it has been! I have been feeling lousy for about a week or so. This sickness seemed to start as a result of me smoking up the house (as I wrote about it Smoking Myself Out.) I figured I would feel bad for a day or two from the smoke inhalation and I would get back to normal. That was not to be the case. My sinuses have been between two states. I am either draining like a sieve or clogged up tight.  About three or four days into this cycle my head mostly cleared up. The congestion settled into my chest. I have been coughing, wheezing, and hacking for the better part of the week. It is improving. Yesterday I was pretty convinced I had bronchitis. Today (Saturday) I am much improved.  Monday I decided I had best check on my car. I had a huge amount of packages to deliver to the post office. My downsizing efforts have been good in removing excess stuff and making a few bucks on eBay. I took the keys to my car and my Dad's van. I consider this a precognitive warning of a pr

 I have always had a soft spot for animals. I do not discriminate much on the sort of animals I want, but I am a bit pedestrian in my choice of household pets. I respect that some people really enjoy snakes, racoons, and monkeys. For me, I go in for dogs and cats.  I have made the choice for a long time now to not have a dog of my own. The family always had a few around and that was plenty good enough for me. I chose a cat that I had an attachment to. Zeus disappeared a couple of months ago. I have to admit that I made the choice again not to try and have an animal of my own. Sometimes James T. Cat claims me as his person. On even more rare occasions his sister Jesse (go team rocket) wants my attention. With fireworks, thunderstorms, or target practice in the area Gracie the dog can decide that I am her favorite person in the world. All of that is ample pet love for me.  With spring there are always a few kittens on the property from the wild cats. We make some effort to catch the kitt

 Since 1 July represents the midway point of the year, I thought it would be nice to reflect on how 2022 is going thus far. It makes sense to me to start with my blog. This will be my 54th post of the year. That tracks. I post two times per week on Mondays and Thursdays. With fifty-two weeks in the year I should end at a minimum of One Hundred and Four posts on the year.  In that number I am not counting posts I have taken down. After fifty-four posts I have learned a few things about myself. I have no desire to be controversial. My posts that have stirred up animosity make me deeply uncomfortable. As a result I do not think my blog has much substance. At this point I will see out the year to prove to myself that I can, but I will probably retire from blogging. The reality is that my passions like writing, drawing, video games, and comic books do not make the best blog posts. I have no desire to write reviews. What comes out of them instead are just opinion pieces without substance. I