Sunday, October 5, 2025

Wanna Spend a Lazy Sunday with Me?

I did not expect Cowboy to go to morning services today, so it was surprising to see him stumble out of bed at a decent hour.
I should have known that he never misses a Sunday unless he absolutely has to.

Saturday, October 4, 2025

My blood type is pumpkin spice

Today found us on the road again, heading to M. so Badger could get her camera cleaned.
We had no idea where we were going, exactly. 
Google Maps is a bit wacky at times.
We got to downtown M, and I'll be doggone if it wasn't closed off; they were having some sort of festival.

Friday, October 3, 2025

“Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)”

I would like to address the current downtime of the blog. 
While preparing a recent post, I was incorporating photographs taken by Badger, who has contributed the majority of the images featured here. 
Although she had previously granted permission for their use, she has since expressed ongoing objections to how those photographs may be edited, particularly her concern that they were being processed through AI tools.

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Back in the Peep Game 🐤🥚

Badger and I tagged along with Cowboy to get the chicks.
The person who does the returns, and who has to replace the deceased chicks, was apparently in a hurry, as she left for lunch almost as soon as she got the new chicks in their box.
She forgot to tell Cowboy not to go through the regular line, he needed to go to Customer Service, and she did not label the boxes with the refund tag.

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

October arrived with a golden rush, carrying harvest, Samhain, bonfire smoke, and the whisper of ghosts

We didn't get to go get chicks today, we ended up at the walk‑in clinic.
Cowboy said yesterday he felt like something was moving around in his eye.
All the way to Badger's doctor appointment and all the way home, he kept squinting and rubbing his eye.
He told me when he got home from work he flushed it out with water and ran a Q‑tip around it, but it still hurt and felt like something moving around in it.

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

The Last Winds of September Fade Into October’s Cold

Knoxville traffic was as expected, coming and going- a nightmare.
Badger noticed, and I’ve been noticing for a while now, that Cowboy will either speed up to get ahead of semis and switch lanes, or fall far behind them.
I suspect that at some point he’s nearly gone under one, or drifted too far into their lane.

Monday, September 29, 2025

The Great Escape: Spicy Tortie Defies Capture

I called to confirm Badger's appointment for tomorrow, they confirmed it.
About three to four hours later, the office called me back. 
They had scheduled her ultrasound at UT Hospital.
But the office visit was twenty minutes and eleven miles in the opposite direction.

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Coffee and Quiet ☕🤫

Cowboy got home from work at 5 a.m., after a 14–15-hour shift.
When he woke up, he said the fog had been so heavy he’d gotten lost on the way home.
That's worrisome; I worry about him not being able to see well, and making that drive so late at night and early in the morning.
If he takes the river road, which he usually does, I’m always afraid he'll drive off into the river.

Saturday, September 27, 2025

The Long Yawn of a Rain-kissed Day

We woke to an unexpected storm, one that even caught the meteorologist off guard.
Thunder rolled through most of the morning.

I almost feel lost without taking Turtle out to potty.
Lady and Duffy just curl up with Badger and snooze until she stirs.

Friday, September 26, 2025

Checked off ‘flying’ from the bucket list!

Today felt anxious, with worry about a son traveling and a cousin having surgery.

Thursday, September 25, 2025

Rain and pumpkin spice, autumn wakes softly

We woke up to rain again this morning.
Luckily, it stopped long enough for Turtle to do her morning business.
We’d barely gotten back inside when it began to rain hard.
It stopped again before we headed out to town.

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Wrapped in rain and quiet, the night folds itself around me like a lullaby.

I sent Peacock a text, letting him know we’d just keep his dog until Friday or Saturday. 
After all, if she’s been here this long, she may as well finish out the week. 
He didn’t seem to mind. 
I have to admit, Turtle takes up a lot of space, even more than Lady.

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Excuse me, can you wake up? I would like to go outside

Turtle is still with us-Peacock had car trouble.
She’s still doing her best to nudge me out of bed and out the door by 5 a.m.
We’ve come to an agreement: 6:30 is better, and her pea-sized bladder can hold out until 7:30, when it’s fully light outside.

Monday, September 22, 2025

“See it, smell it, taste, it, and forget the time of day or year. Autumn needs no clock or calendar,”

I'm taking a wild guess and saying that Peacock wakes up at 5 AM, maybe goes to work at 6-6:30 AM. Every single morning we've had Turtle 🐶, she's woken me up at 5 AM. 
I glare at her, ignore her until 6:30 AM while she lays there looking pitiful. 
At 6:30, we move to the living room, where she paces and paces and looks longingly at the door. 
I tell her she may as well cool her jets-I'm not going outside until the sun comes up.

Autumnal Equinox


 


Sunday, September 21, 2025

Goodbye to Summer, Goodbye to Long Warm Days-Autumn Comes on Wings of Gold as Short, Dark Days Unfold

Summer ended with a roar.
A storm swept in.
The wind howled, the rain poured down in buckets.
Thunder boomed, and lightning lit up the sky.

Saturday, September 20, 2025

The Greatest Attraction Under the Smokies!

Today was Celebrate Badger’s Birthday. 
Think of it this way: her due date was 9/25, so we’re just celebrating closer to when she was supposed to arrive. 
It’s not my fault she showed up early, and I’ll stand by that. 
Her actual birthday is 9/11, but sometimes we celebrate a little later than the date.

Friday, September 19, 2025

Dogs are like chips, you can’t have just one

I'd been up maybe two hours, proofreading on the computer.
That kind of close-up work always messes with my head and eyes.
We’ve got an air freshener going because Smudge’s recovery pen smells, but the spray makes me feel off too.

Thursday, September 18, 2025

In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?

Another town day has come and gone.
I think I measure the year in town days.
A year has 52 Thursdays, if you’re wondering.

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

No AI needed—just me, my words, and backspace power. 💻

Obviously, the blog has been up and down, like a jack-in-the-box. 
I started reading through the whole thing and realized something: dang, it sounds like Yoda and R2D2 are having a conversation.

Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Taco cravings: activated

Badger had planned to pick up Taco Bell after therapy, but her appointment was canceled at the last minute. 
Since everything was still frozen, there were no ingredients available to make dinner.

Monday, September 15, 2025

New week, same me, same coffee. ☕️ #MondayMood

It's Monday, what is there to write about on Monday?

I write to keep up with my days. 
I have a problem keeping up with days.

Sunday, September 14, 2025

Quiet hours, happy soul

Today was Homecoming at Cowboy’s church.
I expected him to be gone most of the day; he usually stays late for events like this.
But he was back by 1 p.m.
I’m guessing he left before the meal or just didn’t eat much.

Saturday, September 13, 2025

Stuck in Kudzu Country, Dreaming of Lei Country

Badger and I headed over to the school this morning.
We thought the yard sale would be in the little gym or maybe the cafeteria, but instead it was set up in the big gym.
That meant a longer walk than we expected and more traffic than we cared to deal with.

Friday, September 12, 2025

Our Little Friday: Hardware Happenings, Painted Windmill, and the Fig That Thought It Was Audrey II

We started the morning in the aisles of Lowe’s.
Cowboy bought a trimmer, which raised both mine and Badger’s eyebrows.
Cowboy is famous for never buying himself anything.
Then he ambled over to the mailbox aisle and bought one heck of a gigantic mailbox.
He didn’t even look at the cost.

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Dental drama done,groggy crate party in progress. 😹🛋️🦷

We had a little extra time this morning, so we went to the M. Walmart.

For Badger’s birthday dinner she picked Firehouse Subs and a drink from Dutch Bros.
 She always skips the coffee and goes for one of their fruit drinks.

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Taking care of my fur baby's health 🐾 🐈‍⬛🩺

Smudge’s vet visit was this morning.
Not surprisingly, her stomatitis was acting up again-cats with feline leukemia often have recurring oral inflammation.

Monday, September 8, 2025

Marriage: The Cranky Edition

I was up at 7:15 a.m. 
Nothing unusual for me, but Badger was up too.
That made me raise an eyebrow. 
She came into the living room, told me to take my pill early, and then slipped back into her hobbit hole.

Sunday, September 7, 2025

The geese’s flight sings the first notes of autumn.

Badger woke up, saw Cowboy off to morning service, grabbed a paintbrush and a couple cans of paint, and got to work. 
She painted from 11 a.m. until well after dark, and I mean well after dark.

Saturday, September 6, 2025

Rainy Saturday vibes: warm, cozy, bored 🌧️☕️

This was a rainy Saturday; it didn’t let up until late this afternoon. 
Cowboy went to his sister Dos’s house to help her out and didn’t get back until late. 
That left Badger and me stuck at home.

Friday, September 5, 2025

"Ah, the hazy world of morning fog — where everything feels like a dream

At 8:30 this morning, Badger and I were on the road, chasing fog.
We woke up to heavy fog, and she wanted pictures of the fog on the river-it’s about a mile there, a mile back.
By the time we got out there, the fog had lifted.
But she got a good picture of a hawk taking a bath in the Methodist Creek.

Thursday, September 4, 2025

Stack them high, read them all 📖

On the way to the store, Cowboy told me he’d been talking to Van Gogh last weekend-Saturday, I think.
Turns out Van Gogh was just pet-sitting Barky for his uncle.
Thank goodness for that. 
That dog never stopped barking.
I'm glad he wasn't a permanent resident.

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Through a Forest, Blindly

There’s absolutely nothing to write about today, except that it was a rough one.
Autism isn’t always easy. ADHD isn’t either.
Put two people with two different neurodiversities in the same house, and sometimes sparks fly.

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

That feeling when the sun sets a little earlier, and you feel summer slipping out of reach

I always say I write to keep up with the days-it's Tuesday, I think.
Cowboy working Sunday really threw me off track, but I'm at least partially sure it’s Tuesday.

I don’t really have anything to write.
Today was just another day.

Monday, September 1, 2025

September walks past my window, and the wind whispers in the voices of old men and dry leaves

Today is Labor Day, the start of meteorological fall.
Already, the evenings feel shorter -the sun lingers less, and dusk comes earlier.
September is that golden month, not yet cold, but with the blazing heat of summer slowly fading.
Every year I notice the change: shorter days, cooler mornings, school routines returning, and the remembrance of 9/11.

With respect and honor for those whose daily labor shapes the life of our communities.


 





Sunday, August 31, 2025

Leggings: my stretchy soulmates

Cowboy was up and out the door to work at 6:45 a.m.
I felt terrible for the man.
He was just shuffling slowly.

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Humans cannot live on coffee alone. That’s why donuts were invented!

Badger had therapy today.
While she and Cowboy were gone, I went through the potatoes Cowboy dug up about a month ago.
They’d been sitting in my hall, rotting slowly.
I put the rotten ones outside for the chickens, the larger good ones in the kitchen, and the smaller ones in a bag.
I walked those over to the blessing box.

Good night, sweet prince. Long live the Prince of Darkness


Friday, July 18, 2025

The Hum of the Day

There are days that feel like blanks.
No outings, no big events.
But even blank days have structure.

Friday, June 20, 2025

Friday, June 13, 2025

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

"I survived the Great Kitchen Remodel of 2025. Barely."

Tempers definitely flared today, but the good news is the remodel is finally done. 
We’ve got a working kitchen again.
And honestly, we owe Badger big time.
 She did the whole thing-moving the junk out, hauling it back in, and cleaning on top of it. I don’t know how we’ll ever repay her.

Sunday, May 18, 2025

Yesterday drained me. Today, I just exist

Cowboy went to both morning and evening services. 
He dozed for a bit, then wandered outside. 
I lost track of him after that.

Badger slept in, took her time getting started, and eventually got to cleaning the house.

Saturday, May 17, 2025

The coffee is the only good thing about today. 😩 #roughday

I was asleep by 11 p.m. and didn’t even know Heron came home from work.
He was roaming around the house at 11:46 p.m., and I was dead to the world.
He took a shower, grabbed some water, sat on my couch, and played with the dogs.
I snored right through it all. 
My bedroom is just off the living room.
He headed down to his RV at 12:21 a.m.

Monday, May 12, 2025

The Weight Grief Leaves Behind

I’m not doing very well right now.
People say it’s just an uncle. 
That an uncle isn’t like your mom or your dad.
But I never had a dad.

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

“I keep thinking I should have visited more. I should have called. I should have made time. Now they’re gone, and all I have is this grief tangled up with regret.”

When we got to my Uncle’s this morning, Hippy Aunt, one of her daughters, and two of her granddaughters were already there.
The living room floor was piled with papers.
I don’t know if Uncle left it that way, or if they’d gone through the house and dumped anything that looked official.
His bedroom was the same.
A mess.
Uncle used to be very clean. 
Very neat.

Monday, May 5, 2025

Some calls stop time

My heart is broken.

A cousin called today, my uncle was found dead in bed.
 A neighbor called the police to do a welfare check.

Cinco de Mayo is a time to celebrate the beauty and richness of Mexican culture




Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Some Sadness Just Shows Up Uninvited

Today’s a blue day, and I don’t like blue days.
No rhyme or reason.
Some mornings I just wake up feeling like Eeyore.

Wednesday, April 2, 2025