SFJ 9/6/2026

Flights, car, and Taxi sitter have been arranged for my trip to north Texas at the end of the month. Probably inexplicably, I am already having anxiety over it—probably due, not to flying itself but to the long drive to get to and from DFW (mostly to). It is completely doable and such a small thing but I clinch inside just letting my head wander over there. It will be the first time I’ve been back in several years.

I’ll stay with Luni and make one field trip to Fred’s ranch in Seagoville for the first of the 70 year birthdays of my high school buddies. The excitement is building and I can tell it’s more than just me because the BD boys called and “fagberted” me Saturday night. For the uninitiated, “fagbert” is a made-up word that (I think) Mike B invented to use to call long distance when there was no money just to say “hey, I’m thinking about you”. If you had any money and you recognized who was calling, you could call back and talk. Lots of times it was just a zippy exchange of “fagbert” and nothing more. It was a little bit of love that started when we all dispersed round the state to different colleges. My cockles were warmed by that call Saturday. That’s about 50 years of love right there.

These new hearing aids have a bit of a fit problem as well as what sounds like a tiny electronic blip periodically—noticeable at times when I tilt my head abruptly. Going to get an appointment to have it checked out. These have a little plastic tail on them that are supposed to keep them in your ear. I remember I had them on the other ones but I asked to have them removed when they proved to be uncomfortable.

This has been a bit of a trying week and because this is my personal blog, I will reveal the reason and hope it’s not TMI. I had a severe rash/fungal infection under my boobs that meant that I could not wear a bra—for four days! For perspective, when I wake up, I get dressed fully. I don’t own a robe or dressing gown. I wear sleeping clothes or daily clothes. A bra is always included. I needed to take away all friction to the area and keep it cool and dry. It was undeniably weird to walk Taxi trying to minimize any “swing”. I can tell you that when, on Sunday, I decided things were healed enough and I got FULLY dressed again, it was a true relief. (This is a known condition for which I have a prescription cream to treat it. I simply did not treat it soon enough for this summer heat.)

SFJ 8/30/2026

We, Mo and I, found a new place to make something fun and pretty. There’s a new place in Ft Lauderdale that lets you glaze-paint various different pottery items. They then put a final clear glaze on them and fire them, and you get a nice object for serving or display. The mood was relaxed with tons of time to paint as much as needed with onsite mentor. We both started with plates but we know that we will be back because we just had so much fun.

These are the results before the firing. MO’s is all cobalt and white with some ombre coloring. Mine is a color palette of teal, green, yellow and red (which I hope is as vibrant as the picture I have in my head).

It’s definitely the rainy season. The night of our game night came up a big storm and I was blissfully content to be inside with no fear of flooding. I know I’ve not been tested with a real hurricane-type storm. I’m fine with that. Truly!

Munch: Ive been eating all the stuff that I’d already made or elaborate salads. It’s time to make some more freezer meals, but looks like that will wait for next week.

Watching: Surprising even me, I haven’t seen much TV. Well, maybe a few episodes of Return to the Castle to renew my envy of chateau living. Explaining the slight absence of TV is….what I read in August.

Some seriously good reads this month. I was in a bit of a slump so I’m happy to be on the other side.

Next week, a couple of lunches with girlfriends (maybe tea and cake but still in the plans). Otherwise on my own. All the rain has pointed out that several plants need to be repotted and split up so I will probably spend some time spreading some greenery around, too.

SFJ 8/23/2026

In my head, there are generally about five different things going on. There is what is currently in front of me—a book, a game, a TV show—and there is what I should be doing, what I have done that gives me some regret, a comeback that I wish I’d made in any of the decades prior, some project I should be working on, and what I wished I was doing for a fleeting second.

There is a flower in the tropics, very typical of the Florida weather, but the name of it evades me. Every time I try to recall the name, it evades me. Every time. They are all beautiful flowers. Why can’t I recall on the first attempt? The first name I bring up is hyacinth. No, not quite right. Think some more. Hard think going on. Hydrangea! No, still, no. “H” is right. “Hi” is right. It takes several minutes before I can come up with hibiscus. And, every time I wonder why it takes me going through those three steps before I get to one of my favorite flowers.

I seem to be celebrating a bunch of birthdays in August. This weekend was another for one of the ornery uncles—Roger, 77. I’ve only got one blood relative, Nancy, here, but with Dennis being around since I recall things, it’s no longer a surprise to that there are more in this little grouping. Now that Alex and Roger are in florida, we’ve got a tight little family unit.

Roger, Alex, Nancy, Dennis, moi : lei’ed for a celebration

Watching: I seem to gravitate to programs where folks are creative. Lately it’s been makers of portraits and interior design shows. Since it’s been on BritBox, they are British shows. One thing I’ve found is that the color choices seem to be slightly unpleasant…to me at least. I don’t know if that is a cultural thing or just me not being able to firmly accept choices that are not my own. That’s the design shows. The shows for canvas artists are different. The one I’m watching now, Extraordinary Portraits, is different. I have no frame of reference to the process so seeing how the result was achieved is fascinating. The subject is matched up by an artists with another artist with the subjects from various backgrounds having overcome physical or emotional blocks in their lives.

There’s a trip I’m trying to plan to north Texas at the end of September. All my high school classmates are turning 70 and a Fred and Mike’s wives are trying to plan a party. Along with my friend Edyie they want me to show up so I’m trying to figure out the trip. Camp at Luni’s with a side trip to Seagoville for a party. Par for my course, I’ve got travel anxiety already. Taxi isn’t coming this time as I don’t have a spare four days to make the trip by driving so this week I’m working on finding a career for him 25-29th. I already miss him. Eeek!

Munch: Bowtie Pasta Salad. No picture as I ate it all before I remembered. Possibly my best one yet…and I do a great pasta salad. Also, pork tenderloin. This time I made it with mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes. When I went to make gravy from the drippings, I dumped what I thought was too much corn starch in the pan and then it turned out that it was almost perfect. I had to add some red wine vinegar to tone down some of the salt, but served with potatoes, it was superb.

Next week is more for personal happiness than maintenance. Outside of a manicure, I’ve got a game night at my house with the book club and an art class painting pottery with Mo.

SFJ 8/16/2026

Just before going to sleep, every single night, I have to empty my head of the detritus that I have carried through to the end of the day. I’m retired so there’s no work issues anymore. Now, it could be the lack of trim on the hedges in the neighborhood or the avocado that is going to be too soft tomorrow or how to make a flamingo look like a bird and not a flying saucer. So many things. The way it usually works is that I start my internal dialogue with the issue and see where an idle mind takes me. If I can get to sleep without having to wind my way out of all the sub stacks,I’m good. But, there are some nights where that conversations goes on for an hour and I can’t shut up my brain. The only thing that works in that case is to stop, turn on the light, and read about 30 minutes of a book as the final key to turn off the ignition. Mind, this would already be on top of at least 45 minutes of reading before turning off the light for the first time. It’s truly a wonder that I am an introvert because I just have so many things to say! I am my own best audience.

It’s that time of year again in my neighborhood—time to elect directors for the HOA (or COA condominium owners association). Last year, there wasn’t enough interest to make quorum with the votes. This year, my friends Mo and Patsy convinced me to run for the Board. We started this weekend to make plans to get more people to run and then how to get more people to vote.

Next week, the regular weekly hits plus annual eye maintenance. I think I need a new prescription for my sunglasses but not expecting anything. I spend a lot of time walking the dog where I leave indoor light for bright sunlight. Those darkening lenses Ont work for me so I need a good pair of sunglssses.

Making: I wasn’t sure I was going to truly like using colored pencils. Even after the museum day, the muted colors still didn’t sit right. Then over this week, I found a brand new set of pencils, practically unused. Knowing that I don’t know how to draw and remembering that last week, I started by tracing my own hand, I confidently pulled up different websites showing how to draw stuff. Surprisingly satisfying and using the pencils made me appreciate cross’s hatching and color blends.

SFJ 7/9/2026

I voted. I used my mail ballot to drop it into a government collection box and got my sticker. The mail is full of campaign material and the campus of the library where the collection box is located was full of campaigners for “their guy”. I was able to fend them off by driving by them waving my sealed ballot. (I restrained myself from thumbing my nose at them.)

This week just about exhausted me….or maybe I just needed to use powers that I hadn’t had to use in a while. It started with my handyman when he tried to change out the garden hose in the front of my unit. The faucet itself cracked in two. Water came rushing out. He came in, soaked, asking where the shut-off was. I had no idea. We looked around the area and could find nothing and the water is still gushing. I knocked on first one neighbor’s door—no answer—then another. Finally got a response and found the valve is by the washing machines. Shut down water to my unit and he replaced the faucet. Whew. Lots of chores completed but not fixing the patio screen. I got the wrong size spline…again.

It was game night at my house on Friday and after heartily complaining about the current state of our HOA, we played rummy cube into the night.

Finally, Saturday was art games at the museum where we worked with colored pencils. I had the idea to use both hands to make marks and my brain was fried by the end of it. (Slept 10 hours that night)

The inspiration was stars, hands, and eyes. I decided to put the Pisces constellation on my hand. Wish I had rotated it a little so the constellation looked more like the head and heart lines, but I’m happy to know what colored pencils do. Not a huge fan. I like my colors far more concentrated.

Munch: I seem to be making all seafood meals lately—tuna, tilapia, salmon, tinned rainbow trout, shrimp. I’m not sure when I exhausted all my other proteins but that freezer was sure empty this week. Lots of cheese and veg and berries that Ive frozen while they are in season.

Next week, HOA meeting, my book club, and another one run by the library talking about a book I just finished that I really liked (Yesteryear). Then a few of us are getting together to figure out how we want to campaign for a director position on the HOA (really COA) Board. Two are current directors who want me to join them. We are going to see how we need to work toward getting more resident owners to vote.

Things I will always stop to read: *Space expeditions, *Art fraud (forgery, theft, cons), *Marine ecosphere, *Anything written by Skip Hollandsworth

Questions to the universe: What is an itch medically? How does aspirin know where to get to work? What is the medical name for a child’s imaginary playmate? Where do butterflies go in the rain? (Answered)

Oh! When I mentioned the 20 pound weight loss last week, I forgot to include the other good news. Wegovy is now mostly covered by Medicare now. Instead of $149, I now pay $50 until sometime in 2027.

SFJ 8/2/2026

It’s summertime in south Florida and that means that the rains are here. Overnight sometimes, but afternoon for sure. Now that I’m back further west again, the thunderstorms are louder and have way more lightening. Still and all, I still feel secure about being safe from rising water. Hey, I don’t want to test it in a hurricane, but things are pretty good right now.

There was a quote I saw this week. It talked about how inactivity for retired folks feels wrong somehow, but that was likely due to inactivity being tied to being nonproductive and therefore unworthy. Admittedly, I know I felt this way for a while. Now, however, I’m over it. I can happily do a lot of nothing and fell just fine. And, so long as he get walks where he can sniff the “pee-mail” as we pass, Taxi is fine about it too.

Watching: Landscape Artist of the Year with the winner painting the romantic and fantastical mountain Croagh Patrick in western Ireland. One of the episodes, the semifinal, was of a view of the Falkirk Wheel which is a modern marvel of moving to and from different levels of water that rivals river lochs.

Reading: I didn’t read as much this month. I’ve been very distracted by social media which, surprisingly, does help me sleep. But, I miss the 8n put from books. I did start one book that I didn’t finish. It’s for bookclub but for next year so I need to check it out again to finish. That’s the first time I’ve returned a book midway through that I actually intend to finish, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sonny.

July Reads

Munch: Talapia with spinach and wild rice. Also pork tenderloin with mushrooms and quinoa.

I despair that the whole thing looks so brown, but the aroma is terrific!

Next week, instead of my personal maintenance I’m doing home maintenance—cleaning and handyman jobs. It’s also time for the museum art day which will be some kind of collage (YAY) as well as Card Broads to play some games.

Postscript: I learned this week how to remember the difference between cement and concrete. Cement starts with a SSSSSS sound which also starts ‘sand’. I’ve worried about this for year when there was such a simple way to remember.

SFJ 7/26/2026

Is it so terrible to be absolutely content with doing so much of nothing? When there is nothing planned for the day, I find myself smiling with a very wide mouth. For those times when things are planned, I can be happy enough but I’m not worried when there is a cancellation. I just really like doing nothing but fiddle-farting through the day. I have realized that I don’t have the friends (yet) who can jump in for a quick meal or drink. I badly need some daytime art classes.

Munch: Had thought I was making a snack for the book club game night, but remembered after I had already cracked half a dozen eggs and layered cheese that I was prepping for a lactose intolerant friend. Those egg bits with ham and spinach are now in the freezer ready for additions to salads. Instead, I’m making a wild rice cold salad with loads of crunchy veg…oh, and no meat protein as we also have vegans in the mix. I do love a grain salad though so it’s a very small compromise.

Making: I have been working on sunrise painting for a little while. Actually I got inspired after faking the Manet impression one. I worked and worked and finally ruined it.

I think I messed up when I put the reflection of the water someplace other than toward the viewer. Never did get the color of the sand right in the new day’s light.

My daily puzzle-playing has got out of hand and I’m not sure I actually want to do anything about it. NYT Wordle, Connections, Strands. Then Words with Friends (about 6 open games). And some new ones: Anthropeum, MapTap, and PaintingGuessr. A round of June’s Journey. Then Spider Solitaire in all the blank spaces in the day (goal: 1 win a day with 4 decks). It all started as a way to keep my brain active. Too much?

Watching: Ride or Die with Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer. I practically refuse to watch the second half of the series because their buddy-movie sync is just so good.

Not to bury the lede, but I’ve achieved a milestone. With the help of some chemicals, I have lost 20 pounds! There is so much more to go, but I am very happy with the pace and so is my doctor. She said that I’ve achieved in three months what she had only hoped could happen in six. Ever the overachiever. Wegovy to keep between meal cravings away. Big meal at midday. Grain added to every salad. Plenty of protein.

SFJ 7/19/2026

So. I’m a soccer fan now, although I’m not sure that, without a team I’m passionate about, I’ll find the enthusiasm I had for the FIFA tournament. Can you even watch matches on TV from here without some special streaming service? With just a nominal hour-and-a- half of playing time, it is less time than football and, well, just constant action! I can’t even imagine how much of their training is just running for hours at a time. I found my breath coming fast and my shoulders up around my ears for most of the matches I watched.

Munch: I made a skillet dish which I hadn’t done for months what with all the fish and crisp vegetables Ive been having. But, I traded my cream cheese and sour cream in my creamy dishes for Greek yogurt and haven’t missed flavor at all. Chicken thighs with onion and celery with some yogurt over quinoa. Forgot to take a picture, but it didn’t look like much anyhow. I’ve been doing well with fresh vegetables, but have been slacking in the fruit department since I just don’t eat anything between meals anymore. With Ranier cherries in season, I started with a few of those with a fish meal. Then, I remember how much I like blueberries with meat and put some of them in a big salad with Beyond steak. Really good!

Watching: Yes, even with all the soccer, I found other shows to watch. YouTube is becoming one of my favorite streamers what with a bunch of different Survivor series and the Behavior Panel giving me behavior lessons every week. My latest discovery is a competition hosted by Sandy Toksvig which is a competition for miniature makers. Adorable.

Next week: one of the book clubs, a couple of check-ups (one for hearing aids, the other for progress on Wegovy), and the Jaffe creative group.

SFJ 7/12/2026

Have you ever heard that the reason you cry when cutting onions is because that stuff in onions goes to moisture? No? Just me? Well, I heard it. Knowing this made for a solution. I cry every time I cut onions. So, I got a sponge wet and set it beside the cutting board and when I cut the onion, I didn’t even come close to weeping. So, the myth worked and I now recommend it.

Shortly after the success in onion cutting, things fell down. The very tip, the speaker, the tiniest bit of my hearing aid broke off in my ear. I couldn’t get it out in my own. It was 3pm so I found a quick care place open—close—made an appointment on line and raced over. No waiting! First one and then another physician’s assistant and doctor tried to grab it with tweezers and then to flush it out with water. It just got lodged more tightly against my drum so that it wasn’t creating any vibrations and my hearing was now worse. There was an audiologist close and I hoped that they might have other tools. They close at 5. Since I could no longer make phone calls (I rely on the hearing aids for the phone), the quick care people called ahead so that they would hold open the doors. When I got there, there was no waiting there either. The doctor got some very very small tweezers and fiddled around. Oh, it was getting crazy. I suggested that maybe we needed to put some gum on a stick to see if the damn thing would stick to the gum. He didn’t go for it. Ultimately he got an edge and pulled out a bit smaller than the nail on my pinky. Busted pair. Out of warranty. The doctor allowed me to stay even longer (it was now just past 5) to get hearing tested again and refitted for new aids. Got new aids and can hear again. They’ve got some fit issues so I need to get that sussed but I’ve now got an audiologist close (same shopping center as my grocery store).

This weekend at the museum, we played with some giant crayons with the suggestion of landscapes. The influence artist does very bright, slightly Seuss-ish flora. I just could not make it work for me. I got some contrasting colors together,but there is no blending with these weird crayons.

There were some really clever results. Mine weren’t among them.

The top one looks like a child was set loose. The bottom one reminds me of a sort of geode. Ugh.

There were some fun soccer games this week and I am still having fun with the games—regardless of who wins. I’ve loved having Norway ru-ing in the cities they visit and in the stands. It was hilarious for the Tartan Army to bagpipe through towns. The rest of the contenders are pretty serious teams.

And, if there want already plenty going on, I got a call Sunday from Auntie Nancy saying that Uncle Dennis thinks he’s left his wallet at the Home Depot and they don’t have a way back right away and can’t get the service desk on the phone. Would I go over there and look around. I did and found nothing. Then it was found on their bathroom floor, black wallet hiding on black floor tiles. At least he doesn’t need to cancel credit cards and replace license and Social Security card.

SFJ 7/5/2026

Is it wrong to be so happily retired? This week was a solitary one, just me and Taxi hanging out and weathering the rain or sun (‘tis the season). With a full pantry and plenty of reading material and a World Cup going on, I had quite a full heart. It’s not that I don’t like people—some people—but it takes me a good long time to regenerate my social niceties. In fact, I’m trying to find folks who want to go to someplace with a pub quiz during the week. Or go to a drag show. Whatever we can do and not get mired in crowds…and with safe parking at night. I started following a new guy on Threads who is relishing the slower pace and I wonder just how to remove the stigma of not being in constant motion and traveling all over the place. My contentment comes in much more sentient actions.

I am a real newbie to soccer in any form but with FIFA in the Americas, it feels like time to see what it’s all about. And, I’m low-key obsessed Norways’s Ehrling Haaland and Capo Verde’s Vozinha. Then there’s Frances’s Mbappe and Argentina’s (and our local) Messi. I understand none of the rules but am thrilled with the happy interactions all around the Americas, but especially in the US where our current executive branch is acting like spoiled children that ruin anything fun. I know it’s got some more to go before it’s finished, but I’m not certain just how much. Does it happen every year? Every other year?

When I first set up the studio, I got my work desk with three monitors in place first and immediately tried making my art desk. It was too tall. I knew that but hoped it would work. It didn’t and just a couple of inches too tall meant that I wasn’t drawn to do much there. So, I buckled under and got another small desk and an organizing shelf and now I’m back in business.

With the bookshelves folded back against the wall, there is a huge amount of floor space that leaves room for an exercise mat which I am using with Pilates tools (so, no rugs). Let’s just see if we can strengthen those knee joints.

Munch: barbecued chicken with green beans and pilaf. Also, artichoke chicken and spinach rice.

Watching: Happy holiday movies—Hail Mary and The Sheep Detectives. Both kinda goofy and mindless fun.