Morphine is nice stuff. First time I’ve been pain-free in days. I may even get some sleep tonight.

Couldn’t get my regular doctor. They asked if I’d accept another doctor. . My first thought was that I’d accept a witch doctor if it meant getting in now. I didn’t say that out loud, though. So I got a stand-in instead. His name reminded me of Chumley. I did not take that as a…

I have been trying to reach my doctor’s office since 9:00 this morning (it’s now nearly 10:00). It has been wall-to-wall busy signal, for the most part. I did get through once, but it was the answering service who picked up. I asked them what time the office would start accepting calls. She told me…

You may or may not recall that Thursday I mentioned I came home exhausted, and chose to nap for an hour rather than go to the movies, as was our original plan. What I failed to mention at that time was that, after the nap, I woke up with a crick in my neck. I…

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Spring may actually be coming. I know the year is young, and the mild spell we’re experiencing now is simply lulling me into a sense of false primavera. But it feels good to go out in a light jacket and not have my body’s core heat immediately sucked out of me. It feels good to…

Working hard. Hardly working. I’m not entirely sure how both can be simultaneously true, but then I love a good oxymoron. Today is a jumbo shrimp kind of day. Yesterday’s seminars went well. Free breakfast was a bust, and the boxed lunches they provided failed to excite as well. Still, what did I expect for…

A few shorts from the weekend, in no particular order: Uncle Freddie and I were walking away from the niche after the urn had been set to rest in its nook. Uncle Freddie was one of The Socialist’s grandmother’s brothers. He is also a retired minister, and had officiated at the funeral. Uncle Freddie had…

subtitled: I was never cut out for jet-settingFriday:The best laid plans of Salamanders and Socialists are apparently thwarted by the Forces That Be quite efficiently. The commuter train line that terminates in my little town has as its other terminus the Big City Airport. How convenient can it get? Trains leave once an hour for…

OK, folks, they’re done. Sorry for the delay on these, but please know that having these to work on helped me keep my sanity during two exceptionally long flights to and from the Left Coast. Remember the rules: From