David's Boring Blog

 My grandmother, meaning my Mom's Mom, died suddenly in the summer of 1995. I took her loss extremely hard. We had been close as I was growing up. I was fifteen when she passed. I was a frightfully rebellious teenager who was very preoccupied with sex and a bunch of other silly things that meant nearly nothing in the fullness of time. I got worse for a few years after she died. The term troubled youth likely applies. I didn't process her loss until my mid twenties when another in a long line of disappointing girlfriends got caught cheating on me. I cried for the first time in over a decade at that point as too many bottled emotions came crashing out all at one time. I missed my grandmother. I didn't really care a fig about the cheating. The girl and I are still friends.  When I lost my Mom a few years ago I was forced through another big bout of emotional processing. That time required professional help and a fair amount of personal accountability. I didn't have the lux

 I am killing time with this blog. It isn't that I believe blogging is not a valid forum. It isn't even that I do not enjoy blogging. The truth of the matter is that I am writing this because I said I was going to write it twice a week every week of 2022. I wanted to prove to myself that I could make a habit stick. So far, so good.  If my posts feel a bit all over the place it is because I do not have a vision of what I want to do with the blog. I am writing to write. I feel no shame or pride in the blog anymore. There are plenty of things I do not want to do. I don't want to make impassioned pleas to change the world. I do not want to discuss my opinions on the hot button issues.  I have tried those things. I have added my two cents worth (which may be overestimating the value) into a few topics. I don't like the back lash. I don't enjoy upsetting people. I also don't enjoy having my views criticized even if I do enjoy the chance to see another point of view. 

 I was a picky eater growing up. I remember loving McDonald's French Fries. Happy Meals were my jam. At home I enjoyed sandwiches, hamburgers, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, spaghetti,  and chili. I would turn my nose up at beef stew, chicken and dumplings, and anything that contained any sort of vegetable for years.  It was not until my teen years that I realized my Mom dumbed down her cooking for me. Onions and peppers came out of her chili recipe. What a sacrifice! Imagine loving to make beef stew but not being able to justify making two meals because of your bratty, hard-to-please kid. It doesn't surprise me that my Dad loves to go out to eat. I imagine my limited menu as a kid made even my Mom's great cooking a lot more boring than it should have been.  I have really misfired with youngest. All of her life she has had a choice about eating what is prepared or having something else. She tries things in limited quantities. Most recently she ate a good amount of my sweet and

 I plan ahead. I am a planner. I often think I make plans just to make God laugh when they go wrong. Occasionally, She returns the favor. Sunday morning was certainly one of those times.  The reason I bring up planning is that the reason this particular laugh went off was due to me shopping online for the kid's birthdays. Taila's birthday is a month way exactly. Teagan follows two days later. Since September can get rather busy and expensive, I start planning things in June or July when possible. This year I am lagging a bit. The upside to that is that while I do not have everything mapped out, I do know what I want to gift to the girls.  I hopped online and placed my orders. Getting 85% of the birthday shopping done in less than fifteen minutes feels like expert level. Amazon may be changing the face of the world in questionable ways, but it does that through making shopping too convenient. Seriously, I have a terrible Amazon problem.  Then there is Walmart.com. As the origina

 I have been having some health struggles. I cannot seem to stay healthy. I have modified my diet. I have started taking a variety of vitamins which probably mostly make my urine expensive (thanks Big Bang Theory.) It is hard to exercise when you cannot breathe or keep yourself upright for one reason or another.  That has been for a variety of reasons most of which I don't want to discuss in any real detail.  While apologizing to my training class today for me sniffling my way through the day, one of my people said," My doctor recently told me that I need to get outside 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening." I was enchanted with this conversation which went on to suggest short walks in both outings. The reason for my being so quickly enthralled and willing to accept this advice, other than it being simple, healthy, and obvious is that I had read the same advice nearly word for word the day before.  A few days before that while working through some "

 I was reading a TMNT comic today when I realized I was struggling to enjoy the experience because the art was terrible. The turtles have gone through some transformations over different incarnations over the years. The original comic book series was not my favorite artistic style, but I recognize that those pencils are iconic to turtles fans. Eastman and Laird created a book that departed from the popular line art of the day and stood on its own merits.  I mean zero insult when I say I do not typically go for the Eastman covers of my TMNT books from IDW. Who I am to speak authoritatively about the quality of any art? I can manage slightly better than stick figures, but I am far from a professional artist. As a fanboy I know the art that attracts my eye. I love the current She-Hulk run with covers by Jen Bartel. I get a kick out of Ryan Ottley's style. I could go on and on about the artists and writers I love. I point out my struggle with the art in the recent issue of TMNT not to

 There must be people out there who figure out somewhere between 13 and 30 years old what they want to do with their lives and pursue it with single minded vision and focus. I have to believe that these people have existed throughout the whole of recorded human history. I may even know some of them. A few people come to mind though not many. I am not among them.  My last quick post got me thinking hard about my personal growth and development. It got me wondering if there was a junction in the road where I could have realized some of the more fulfilling aspects of my life earlier on. This sounds suspiciously like rumination, but it isn't. I am looking back at my life and seeing what lessons might be learned in retrospective.  In Kindergarten the local news came to my elementary school and asked a bunch of us what we wanted to be when we grew up. If I am recalling accurately I said I wanted to be a meteorologist. I remember my Mom laughing and joking as she told the story with a mix

 Almost a decade ago now I decided that I did not want to climb the corporate ladder and grind out a career working for 'the man.' I had gone through a fairly serious health scare. I hated my job. I was very insecure in the relationship I was in. I made changes reacting to those factors. It was not the most shining moment of my life. I left a company I loved. I quit exercising regularly.  I did end up doing something I had always wanted to do. I went to work in a comic book/ gaming store. It was a very cool experience. I made a host of friends though I would lose touch with all of them when I went back into the corporate world. That choice was on me as well. I had always thought that it would be amazing to own a comic book store or a game store. I learned a lot from the people I worked with and the owner's of the store. I learned enough that I know I don't want to own a comic book or game shop unless I have more financial security outside of that industry that I have ev

 I had a friend shoot me a message today and ask me to lend a hand getting a car back on the road. The proposed mechanic work is minor though outside that friend's area of comfort. It also is a fantastic excuse for us to hang out a bit. Given that our last real life interaction was 11 months ago, I will take the excuse.  In my experience there is no such thing as a simple repair. Take for example changing out the speakers in my 2012 Hyundai Veloster. In my brain busted speaker repair likely means you need a new speaker, a screw driver, some plastic prying tools to take off internal panels, some wire cutter/ wire snippers, and maybe a socket set. When I did the first speaker I figured out I was going to need a drill and drill bit, rivets, rivet gun, reciprocating saw, soldering gun and solder, and more patience than I went into the project expecting to need. Imagine how I felt when I did the front pair only to realize the rear speakers were blown as well.  That repair was a good one

I do not like the feeling of being dependent on or addicted to anything. I had the worst time kicking drinking soft drinks (soda, pop, dope, coke, or whatever you call them.) I picked them up as a kid because I grew up in the 80s and we apparently didn't know better. That isn't true at all. My grandparents (and probably my parents too) warned me that they would destroy my teeth. They did and I was really foolish not to listen.  I was 34 years old when I started trying to ditch Cokes. I still have dreams about them. Those theaters that show the trailer full of pouring soda and popping popcorn kernels will set me drooling. I miss a cold sweet drink. I also know that if I ever give in and have even one sip of soda that I will fall right off the wagon and go back to drinking them. I will also likely gain back sixty pounds which was what I lost when I stopped drinking them.  The same year I stopped drinking soda I also stopped eating bread and sugar based deserts. I described that a