Category: At the Moment

At the Moment, Day-By-Day, Life

My Dumb Smart Phone

Karen

I killed my phone.

Correction, someone, or some entity, built an evil virus and attached it to a link that I must have clicked on at some point, because one day, my phone flickered, flashed and basically lost it’s computer mind. It’s zeros and ones programming became a jumbled mess that not even my phone’s very intelligent brain could decipher.

In other words, my phone caught a virus.

Everything I clicked on popped up a Temu ad, (hmm … coincidence? You tell me), and once in a while, a message would show up, “You have 287 viruses – click here to clean them off.” Yeah buddy, fool me once…

Of course I didn’t click on it.

The damage was done. I officially became the proud owner of a pocket-sized piece of junk.

Cool.

So, I started researching how to reset the phone back to factory settings. Wipe it clean, start over. I wasn’t too terribly upset by this, I’ve had the phone for five years, it was probably time to wipe the dirty slate clean and start over but … hold on …

I’ve had my phone for five years. When we went on our last Norwegian cruise I was unable to downlaod their app because my phone was too old … so maybe I needed to skip the wipe and upgrade to a new phone, instead.

I started looking for a new Android phone. Yep, I’m an Android robot kind of girl. I loathe Apple products. No disrespect to my Apple readers out there, but Apple is GROSSLY overpriced and then you’re FORCED to buy their products, and their products only, if you want to continue using your Apple phone. And then, because you’re forced to buy their products in order to make the Apple device work, you’re also forced to spend a stupid amount for said product.

No thanks. I like options.

I’ve never owned an Apple and I never will. I’m sure they’re great – people wouldn’t buy them if they were junk, but I can’t help but wonder, is the product really that superior or is it because it has a cute apple icon on the back?

It doesn’t matter – you do you.

I knew I would have to spend some money, but I was not willing to pay more than $500, if I could help it. And luckily for me, I found some options.

Kevin has been using a Motorola for a few years now and he loves it. He has one of those phones with the cool stylus, even though he rarely uses the stylus, he likes having the stylus in case he wants to use it. Ha! Which, even though the writer in me is drawn to a phone with a stylus, I knew I would never use so it was best to just not worry about that feature.

And I knew if I went into a Verizon store, they would show me all of their shiny, impressive phones with a hefty price tag and I would be tempted, perhaps even walk out of the store with one and, no, I didn’t want to be tempted when I could likely find something just as cool without the price tag.

Amazon, here I come.

And as usual, Amazon didn’t let me down. The heavens opened up, the Angels sang and I found my new phone.

I bought a Motorola Moto G Power and she’s a beaut.

I’ve had her, (yes, she’s a her), about two weeks now and I’m loving her so far. There is one thing I’m not real happy about, the headphone jack. To my surprise, there are quite a few phones nowadays without a headphone jack at all. I guess the manufacturers are assuming people will just use wireless/Bluetooth earbuds. Which, are nice, but I’m old fashioned, I like my headphone jack. I try not to use very much data, I’m always on WIFI if I can help it, so, I haven’t had the best luck with my Bluetooth earbuds working all of the time. And I know, Bluetooth is supposed to work whether your connected or not, but I’m an idiot and am probably doing something wrong but … I like having a backup plan, okay? 😀

The phone jack on the phone is too big for any of the headphones that I own. I mean, it works, it’s just super loose and loses connection so when I’m on the treadmill and the music cuts off abruptly, I get ticked. Who wants to walk on the treadmill to begin with, let alone with NO music? Um, no. So, in a huff, and pretty annoyed, I thought, “FINE. I’ll buy a pair of Motorola headphones, ya big buttheads” The headphones came and they still didn’t fit!! I think Motorola thought, “ya’ll are complaining so much about not having a headphone jack, fine, we’ll put a jack in but we’re not happy about it and we don’t care if it doesn’t fit.”

Rude.

But, Kevin being the clever man that he is, found a workaround. He bought an adapter. It’s a USB C to a headphone jack adapter, to be more precise and it works like a charm.

So THERE Motorola. haha

The data transfer itself was a breeze. I went from a Samsung to the Motorola with nary a hitch, just transferred the SIM card from one device to the other, said yes, you have my permission to transfer data, (though I was worried it would also transfer the viruses, – it didn’t) and badda-bing-badda-boom, my data transferred over and I was now an official Motorola user.

Now that the dust has settled, I got to thinking about cell phones in general; about how much we rely on these little suckers and how our children really have never known a world without cell phones.

I’m a Gen Xer so I remember a world without cell phones. (Actually – if you want to get technical – I straddle the line between Baby Boomer and Gen X – but I digress).

I vaguely remember the days of rotary phones. Oh yes, I used them, back in the day. I remember stickling my finger into the hole and pulling up and around the dial. I remember the sound it made as it turned. It was always fun when you were dialing a number with a nine in it. If you made a mistake, you had to hang up and try again, and it took 30 minutes to dial anyone, but eventually, it happened.

I remember our family phone with the long cord so you could take the receiver with you into the next room for privacy. I remember that cord becoming so stretched out it would coil in on itself and it was hard to untangle, and especially annoying when you were trying to make a fast exit from the room, for privacy, but the tangled cord prevented you from going as far as you wanted to go.

It was always a gamble to call someone because you never knew if the person’s family member would answer and then you would have to shyly ask if so-and-so was home and then wait to hear them loudly call throughout the house that they had a phone all. There was very little privacy back in those days – your family pretty much always knew your business.

Back in those days, you sort of had to hope your loved one got to where he was going and wait for that confirmation phone call that he made it in one piece all while nervously chewing your fingernails.

Or, if you were expecting a call, you had to sit close to the phone all night so you wouldn’t miss it. There was no text me when you’re ready! If you missed the call, you were SOL. Shouldn’t have gone to the bathroom.

I remember the days when you had to memorize people’s phone numbers, or carry an address book around so that when you had to call someone, you had their number close. I couldn’t recite our sons’ phone numbers now if my life depended on it.

Then came the cordless phones. How cool! You could easily carry the phone around with you, or go into another room, without having to worry about strangling yourself in the cord.

We were late to the game as far as buying a cell phone. I had a flip phone, (loved that thing), a slide phone, (a keyboard!) and then finally a smart phone.

I remember getting rid of our landline and feeling squeamish about that as we were now fully depending on technology to communicate with the outside world.

Now, the thought of having a landline is almost laughable.

I remember the days when a phone was used JUST as a phone, now our phones do our thinking for us.

I remember using ACTUAL maps – the kind we spread out over our dashboard and ran our fingers across as we traveled. Now – our phones simply tell us which way to turn and we blindly obey.

Remember ACTUAL cameras? With interchangeable lens and film we had to physically take to the store to get developed?? Now anyone can be a decent photographer, just point and tap. It’s virtually impossible to take a bad picture with your phone – especially when there ware so many filters to make it look even better.

When you think back, and really pay attention to the timeline of phones and the method of communicating with one another, it’s really quite astounding how much progress we’ve made.

We somehow survived without a cell phone “in the old days”, now I can’t imagine life without one.

At the Moment, Can We Talk?, Language

You’re Being Manipulated – By Language

Karen

I’m a language nerd.

Some would call me a Grammar Nazi – I can certainly be a “Karen” about language, at times.

My co-workers even gave me a t-shirt that read, “I am silently judging your grammar.”

And I do – I ABSOLUTELY judge a person by the way they talk and CERTAINLY by the way they write. And before you puff in self-righteous condemnation, so do a lot of people, whether they’re aware of it or not. Especially employers. Does having a proper grasp of language make you smarter?

Yes, actually, I believe it does, to an extent.

I graduated from college with a Bachelor’s of Science, (they don’t call it BS for nothing) with a major in Technical Writing and a minor in Creative Writing. It was really fun to work for but I haven’t really done anything with it.

But isn’t that normally the case with a college degree?

I mean, it’s Technical Writing – even writing it puts me to sleep. (And for those that don’t know what Technical Writing is – why would you? In a nutshell, it’s reading technical manuals, instructions, reports and regurgitating it into bite-sized, relatable language that a “normal” person – i.e. – not the overly-clever professional person who wrote it – can digest and understand. Basically – simplistic word vomit).

But language … is becoming a lost art. Young people today take language for granted – they twist it into a pretzel and use slang instead of “proper” language. They don’t bother to enunciate let alone know how to pronounce words correctly. They have no idea what the difference is between their, there and they’re, or God forbid, use lose correctly, (most people spell it loose).

And don’t even get me STARTED on comprehension – news flash – there isn’t any.

To a language nerd? These missteps, this Laissez-faire attitude, makes my eyes, ears and brain bleed.

We all make grammar mistakes – I’m certainly no exception. But there is a difference between not knowing and not caring – most people don’t care to know.

And spelling? Forget-about-it, (insert Godfather voice). Why bother with correct spelling? We have spell check – the lazy man’s tool to actually using one’s head.

So, not only do I care about language, but I’m showcasing that most people DON’T care and don’t see, or bother to understand, the importance of language.

You know the saying, “Sticks and stone may break my bones but words will never hurt me?” Yeah – I call bullshit. Words, language, most CERTAINLY can hurt us – it can even stoke emotional embers to life and provoke irrational behavior and uncharacteristic acts of violence.

As evidenced by the most recent assassination attempt on President Trump. Language most certainly affects us all, whether we want to admit it or not.

The problem is, a lot of people choose to pooh-pooh this fact away. Or, they don’t want to take the time to really SEE, let alone UNDERSTAND the importance of language. And mean-spirited people with evil intentions know this and use this to mold people into their foot soldiers or gullible puppets. If people don’t understand 1. how powerful language really is and 2. turn off their emotions and activate their critical thinking skills, (if such a thing exists – but that’s a topic for another post), then they will be, and currently ARE, being manipulated. And I don’t know about you folks, but NO ONE controls me, my mind or my actions.

NO. ONE.

And if you feel the same, then I would encourage you to take language more seriously, to understand how language is used to manipulate people and then to activate your mental shield and guard against sneaky persuasion tactics spewed as Gospel truth by “influencers.”

Case in point: The rhetoric of Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson. Two people whom I used to really enjoy listening to but who have now morphed into these unrecognizable people who spout nonsense, contradict themselves and who are hell bent on making a sect of people into walking demons. I have no idea what happened, I just know SOMETHING happened to change their tune.

Stop. I know what you’re thinking and OF COURSE they have the right to ask questions, to spark conversation, debate, but the WAY they do it is what I would like to call attention to. And once you realize what they’re doing, can recognize the sneaky little tactics they take in order to worm their message into your mind maze, then you are better equipped to discern what is actually truth and what is false with a little truth sprinkled on top.

This is Jeremy Boreing. He used to be the CEO of the Daily Wire but he left, not sure why, and has started his own channel. I used to watch him, Ben Shapio, Matt Walsh, Michael Knowles, Andrew Klavin and yes, Candace Owens, when she was part of the group, debate/talk about political issues. I learned a lot by listening to them and it was interesting to see them disagree and DEBATE the issue, not storm off in a huff and plan their murder.

What a novel concept, I know.

Did I 100% agree with everything they said? Of course not, I’m not in a cult, I do have a brain that I take out and dust off from time-to-time, but they brought up interesting points that tickled my cerebral cortex and I enjoyed the brain exercise.

Those hamster wheels in my brain do get rusty at times.

I know this video is on the long side, no one has an attention span for long-form content anymore, but it’s worth a listen. You likely won’t understand some of it, I certainly didn’t and still don’t, but it’s worth watching simply to introduce you to the fact that people, not just Candace and Tucker, but a lot of outspoken, smart(ish), people use these sorts of tactics to manipulate others into agreeing with them, to giving them money or to promote dark and dangerous thoughts, but if people are aware this type of language manipulation is happening, then I’m hopeful people will pause, put up a stop sign and THINK about what is really being said, or, not said.

Here’s a timeline of the video if you want to skip around:

00:47 Loose Change, 9/11, and the Illusion of Insight
03:06 Pre-suasion: Telling You What You See
04:42 Tucker Carlson on Pearl Harbor
09:30 “Obviously,” “Clearly,” “Of Course”
13:08 The First Deception in the Garden
14:43 Candace Owens: “We Don’t Know Know, But We Know”
18:41 Eugenics, Overpopulation, Climate Panic
22:29 The Contagions of the 2020s
23:40 The Current Anti-Israel / Antisemitism Wave
29:05 Authority Transfer and the Moon Landing
32:33 Healthy Skepticism vs. Reflexive Cynicism

Thanks for reading.

At the Moment, Weekend Tale

Neighborhood Showdown

Karen

Remember the days when you could leave your front door unlocked?

Or walk away from your car confident it would still be there when you exited the store?

Or didn’t have to worry if someone would steal your mail – or if it would even be delivered to you and not your neighbors? (An ongoing problem with us right now).

Remember when people were neighborly? Friendly? Smiled?

I’m not saying our neighbors are jack holes – not at all – we have a lot of really nice neighbors. Kevin has made an effort, through LeRoy, because LeRoy will talk to anyone and everyone, (Kevin’s special-needs uncle), to get to know our neighbors. He can point to practically any house and tell you the names of our neighbors.

I, however, have no idea who lives where or who anyone is. I’m that neighbor – not very neighborly. I’m not rude, I’m never rude for the sake of being rude, (I’m not a KAREN after all – that’s said with tongue-in-cheek and meant as sarcastic), but I don’t go out of my way to get to know anyone, either. I like keeping most people at arm’s length. I’ve always been that way. Not just with neighbors, with co-workers, with family – I’m just a person who likes her space and the freedom to do what she wants, when she wants, without the interruption, (for the lack of a better term), of disrupting my life for someone else.

I know I’m not painting a very flattering picture of myself, but I’m just keeping it real. I’m friendly, funny, helpful and loyal, but on my terms.

But I digress, (as usual).

Everyone, to my limited knowledge, gets along in our neighborhood. Everyone seems to be pretty respectful, keeps their houses/lawns nice, smiles, nods/waves whenever we see each other, but there are always those bad apples.

We have a father/son duo who like noisy cars. It all started with the 16-ish year-old son. At least, he was the first to get my attention. Every day, you could set your watch to it, he would leave for school at 8:20 and come back from school at 3:30. You could hear his car coming for 1/2 mile. He not only has one of those highly annoying muscle car mufflers, but he has some sort of “glass thingie”, I don’t know, Kevin explained it to me but …

::blank stare – shrug::

This thing sort of detonates as the kid lets off the gas. It explodes and pops and it’s super loud. If that weren’t bad enough, in addition to him leaving and coming home from school every day, he also drives up and down our neighborhood multiple times a day so it feels like we hear his car, all. day. long.

We live on a corner lot. So, there is a stop sign at the corner and this punk has to slow down and roll through the stop sign. But that’s okay, you see, because this just gives him an excuse to rev his engine and take off with a roar, a pop and an explosion.

At all hours of the night. I don’t know if the kid is just bored, if he works as a Door Dash delivery guy, or what, but he drives back and forth, back and forth, multiple times a night.

It’s gotten so bad, that some of the younger dads in the neighborhood have confronted the punk’s dad. Kevin, or LeRoy, maybe both, have witnessed these confrontations and they are ugly. Everyone is yelling, cursing and acting all alpha male but the dad simply yells, curses right back at these guys, doesn’t apologize, nothing.

In fact, one day, the punk drove by and a pickup truck, just as loud and obnoxious, was right on his tail. I looked to Kevin and said in a sarcastic tone of voice, “Oh look, the piss-ant made a friend.” Come to find out, it was the piss-ant’s DAD.

What the actual …. ::bleep::

Apple didn’t far too far from that jerk tree, did it.

I’m not mad at the kid, he’s just following in his father’s footsteps, I’m sure good old dad is egging him on. No, it’s dad’s fault. Hands down. For not teaching his kid some manners, some courtesy, some respect.

This roar, pop, explosion, grinding went on for weeks. Neighbors called the cops on him. But the cops couldn’t do anything, he wasn’t breaking a law. I even saw a motorcycle cop hanging out around our corner one day, I think to try and catch this punk rolling through a stop sign or something, but father/son got word there was a cop hanging around and though they were still noisy, the punk didn’t speed through the neighborhood and he stopped at the stop sign. Again, this only helped him because then he would gun his car and make even more noise.

It annoyed me at first, then I got used to it. Whatever. The kid clearly wanted attention, he wasn’t getting it from me.

But we don’t have littles at home. And a lot of my neighbors do. And his driving through the neighborhood at 9:00 at night was waking up those littles.

And the neighbors continued to fume.

Then, one day, as dad was driving down the street, they flagged him down. I don’t know how they flagged him down, did they stand in the street so he couldn’t get around them? Did they pound on his truck so he stopped? I don’t know, but the guy stopped. The neighborhood guys started yelling, cursing at the guy and this time, they showed their concealed weapons.

Oh boy.

I’m all for the 2nd amendment. Everyone has a right to bear arms and protect themselves, however, I feel like the guys were close to crossing a line. I understand their frustration, but getting into a gun fight is not the answer.

I didn’t see any of this. I’m only hearing about this from Kevin who did see it. He was going to get involved, and then thought twice about it, especially after the neighborhood guys started showing off their firearms.

To be clear, the neighborhood guys were not pointing their guns at the dad. They didn’t even take the weapons out of their holsters, but them showing them to dad was a clear message: Stop messing with us.

After that?

Silence.

I guess whatever happened, whatever they said, or didn’t say, got to dad because I haven’t heard a peep out of father/son in over a week. I don’t know if they’re taking a different route, if they removed the noisy muffler thingies from their car or what, but the neighborhood is peaceful once again.

My takeaway?

If you’re a gun owner, don’t go showing it off in a threatening manner to jack holes, I get it, it’s tempting, but don’t open yourself up to a potentially deadly situation – but also – it’s good to have a gun because there ARE jack holes in this world – whether the Kumbaya folks want to admit it or not.

Don’t buy a car with super noisy mufflers. You’re not impressing anyone and everyone hates you. Save your money.

Also – can we teach our children to be respectful, decent human beings? Please? What happened to that? Why do people insist on being jerks? Your children are only reacting, imitating to what they see/hear.

Lead by example, parents.

Seriously.

At the Moment, Life

Knee Deep

Karen

I’m a spoiled princess.

I know this. It’s no secret. Kevin spoils me rotten.

I rely on him to be my fix-it man, and my yard guy.

Confession: I have never mowed our grass. Any grass, really. Could I do it if I needed to? Sure. Would I struggle and look like an idiot, (how do you turn this thing on?) Yep. Most definitely.

But I haven’t had to because I have a wonderful husband who takes care of it, and who does a really good job taking care of it.

Call me a 50’s housewife – it’s fine. You won’t hurt my feelings.

(Unlike some people – I don’t run around with my feelings on my sleeve).

My mom was the same way. She never had to take care of things outside the home because she had my dad to do it. And he enjoyed it. He loved being outdoors fiddling around with … man stuff.

I don’t pretend to understand man stuff.

But since he passed away, (the 3rd year anniversary of my dad’s death has just come/gone – can’t believe he’s only been gone for three years and yet at the same time, it feels like he’s been gone longer), mom has had to try and figure stuff out. Sure – she has us to help her, and Kevin has done a FANTASTIC job of helping her, but, Kevin also has our house, our rental house, his chickens, his elderly parents … he has a lot on his plate. He’s one man – he can only do so much.

Mom has been learning to do the outside stuff on her own. I’m so PROUD of her for rolling up her sleeves and figuring out how to use the lawn mowers, the weed eater, etc. It hasn’t been easy but she’s stubborn and persistent and she’s been figuring it out.

I worry about her, though. She’s 79 after all. I’m not sure it’s a good idea for her TO do it. I worry about her getting too hot, or getting injured and I have tried, and will continue to try, to talk her into hiring someone to take care of her lawn but like I said, she’s stubborn. She says as long as JT, (the lawn mower – a nickname my dad used – I think it stands for John’s tractor, but I could be wrong), continues to run, she will continue to ride it.

Now that the weather has been wildly too warm for this time of year …

(Side note: Take a GANDER at our temperature ranges these past few weeks! )

The trees are blooming, the flowers are coming out and yes, the dang grass is growing.

So – she’s been out there on JT. And she mentioned that the last time she was on JT she drove over a few holes in her lawn. At one point, it scared her because she thought the mower might tip over with her on it.

And that, of course, scared me.

She mentioned something about needing some dirt so she can fill in those holes. Mom and dad used to have rabbits. And they would dig holes in the yard whenever they ran around the back yard – hence where the holes came from.

I mentioned that Kevin had some dirt and maybe he would have some time to go over to her house and fill the holes in for her.

When I said something to Kevin, he said he would go over there and fill them in, but that was a few weeks ago. Remember the busy part? But, he kept thinking about it and this past Saturday, when mom came over to our house to hang out with me, he took some dirt over to her house and filled in the holes. Mom mentioned that there was one hole that she thought was pretty deep … and she wasn’t wrong.

That’s Kevin standing in the hole that mom “thought” was pretty deep.

She was right. If she, or someone walking around her backyard, had stepped into that hole, that person would very likely snap his/her ankle. Not to mention, it was the perfect size to snag a riding lawn mower tire and topple my 79-year old mother who is too stubborn to hire someone to take care of her lawn for her.

:;gulp::

Crisis averted. Kevin saved the day. The holes have been filled and that’s one less thing I have to worry about.

Thank goodness mom said something and Kevin went over there and fixed it. When things like this happen, I can’t help but wonder if that was God’s way of tapping us on the shoulder to say, “Um, excuse me. I see a potential problem and I don’t want you folks to get hurt. You might think about taking care of that.”

Thank you for taking care of us, Father.

We definitely need looking after.

At the Moment, Can We Talk?, Politics

Orange Man Bad

Karen

I might make this a series … this is a REAL problem for some people.

It’s called TDS, Trump Derangement syndrome, and if you can’t read further because Trump triggers you, bye, have a nice day.

For the rest of us, let’s break this down …

Have you ever talked to someone who has TDS? Or, have you ever watched someone with TDS?

How can you tell if someone has TDS?

They can’t talk about anything OTHER than Donald Trump. They have wild eyes, their tone of voice is unnaturally shrill, they speak, but do not make sense. They possess zero ability to think outside the idea that Orange Man Bad, that Donald Trump is the Devil, Hitler, a Fascist, a Misogynist, a Homophobe, a Nazi … really, insert any name out there and that’s Trump in their minds.

And the thoughts that spew out of their heads is NOTHING but hatred for Trump. There is no diverting their attention to another topic, or, if you’re successful in diverting someone to another topic, that person somehow, inexplicably and irrationally somehow brings it back to Trump.

It’s Trump’s fault.

Trump is evil.

Trump is the reason everything in my life sucks.

It’s really bizarre and yet fascinating to watch.

I have never really spoke to anyone with TDS, though I suspect I have some relatives that might have fallen into this self-imposed “illness”. These relatives have made comments about possibly not wanting to see the rest of the family because their political beliefs are different than ours, ours being the “wrong” belief, and they don’t want any part of that.

How sad is that? So we disagree … okay … but also – so what?

We’re still family. Nothing will change that.

But that’s a topic for another day, I suppose.

I don’t bring TDS up to be flippant – people have a right to dislike, hate, loathe Trump, and I’m certainly not making fun of people who suffer from TDS, though sometimes the disconnect from reality is pretty funny, but rather – the concept of blaming all of one’s problems, heck, everything that is wrong with this WORLD on one man … is sort of fascinating to me.

So, in an honest attempt to understand this mental mystery, let’s start at the beginning. What IS Trump Derangement Syndrome? Well, according to Wikipedia:

Trump derangement syndrome, (TDS,) is a pejorative term used to describe irrational and extreme negative reactions to President Donald Trump, often characterized by an inability to distinguish between legitimate criticism and personal hostility. It is primarily used by Trump supporters to discredit his critics and suggest that their views are distorted by their dislike of him

That last sentence made me giggle. I suppose that could be true – a Trump supporter, not appreciating someone trash-talking a person they admire, trust and have put their hope into making this country a better place, could use TDS as an excuse to discredit criticism, but I would argue that this belief, attitude, obsession, goes WAY beyond simply disagreement, I truly think some people have lost all sense of reality and use Trump as a scapegoat for every disappointment in their life.

Full disclosure – I like Trump. I voted for him and I appreciate the fact that he has the balls to make the tough decisions and help get this country back on track. However – I’m not blind to his faults, his narcissism, his unique way of speaking and the fact that he LOVES to troll the people who hate him.

New flash: you’re being trolled, people. Trump intentionally says outlandish things because it amuses him to see the media, and his haters’ heads, explode. And the people who have TDS? Fall for it, every. Single. Time.

I don’t really care much for the man, though he’s intelligent, charismatic, and talented when it comes to making deals, he’s just a man who loves his country and wants to restore American values. Personally, I just want him to fix what Biden screwed up. I want a better economy, I want to restore morals and ethics and get back to being decent human beings. (Stop encouraging mentally disturbed men to become women, stop lobbing off body parts and brain-washing children into believing they will be happier if they became someone else). I want normalcy … and our country hasn’t been normal for quite some time.

Perhaps it never will be again.

I’m not here to make fun of people who suffer from TDS, (I actually feel sorry for them, truth be known), I’m more interested in knowing WHY someone falls into this disturbed black hole of rage to begin with.

I’m not a psychologist, or a psychiatrist or particularly smart or clever, but what I AM is a realist. I don’t go through life wearing rose-colored glasses – I see the world around me for what it is. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes grim, sometimes disturbing but ALWAYS real. Some people, for whatever reason, and I’m sure everyone has their own reasons, choose to ignore reality and base their decisions, beliefs, existence on how they feel.

I’ve never understood this way of life. Sure – we’re all human, we all have feelings, we all have days/times when we made stupid decisions based on feelings in the past, but ultimately, one MUST come back down to Earth and face reality – the truth-truth – not someone else’s version of the truth.

The facts.

And facts are not always pleasant and some people have a real problem with facts, especially when those facts do not perfectly align with how we were brought up, swayed to believe, or FEEL like it should be.

So what does one do? Find a scapegoat.

And that is where Trump comes into play.

I think some people who have grown up or become indoctrinated into believing the world should be a certain way, but it’s not, because you know, that pesky reality thing, have no choice but to blame another person, entity, occasion for the reason the stars are not aligning and their warped view of the world is not being justified by reality. Instead of stepping back, looking at the big picture and entertaining the possibility they might be WRONG, they stubbornly keep their eye glued to the eyeglass and refuse to look away from their preconceived notions.

Objectivity? Never heard of her.

Critical thinking? What – are you speaking a foreign language?! What in the world does THAT mean?

Exactly. No one even knows what those terms are anymore, let alone apply them.

And that’s sad. And alarming. And sometimes, downright scary.

So. I wonder how many people with TDS are actually using Trump as an excuse to not face reality. Because their reactions to him, and their inability to have a rational conversation without injecting Trump into the conversation, even if it CLEARLY has nothing to do with him, is … strange.

Now – are there people out there that truly believe Trump is trying to cause harm to our country? Are there people out there that truly think they’re on the right side of an issue and are only trying to save our country from … insert whatever reason people think..? Of course. Everyone has a right to his/her opinion – however – when one is unwilling, or incapable, of listening to an opposing view, or incapable of contemplating that perhaps what they believe is wrong – Houston, we have a problem.

And by incapable, I mean people who fall to their knees and scream at the sky because they lack the emotional maturity to process disappointment, or anyone who doesn’t align with their beliefs or thought processes. People who are not willing, or incapable, of having a rational conversation without losing their damn minds …

I’m sorry, folks, but that’s called mental illness.

Am I always right? Of course not. And I freely, and willingly admit that. I like to think of myself as possessing a healthy dose of skepticism. I have two life mottos:

  1. Question Authority
  2. Prove it

I do not, nor will I ever, blindly accept what someone else states as “fact” if all they have to bring to the table is “feelings.”

Girl, please.

Go drink some green tea, take a nap, and come back when you have calmed down.

TDS? Is real. In my opinion, it’s a coping mechanism to avoid facing facts. Just because you WANT something to be a certain way doesn’t mean A. it will be that way and B. IS NOT REALISTIC.

All I’m saying is: Stop. Take a breath. And consider the possibility that perhaps, just perhaps, there are better alternatives to a problem. And then, stop, take a breath, dust off the part of the brain that produces logical thought and listen. You might be right after all, or, you may very well be WAAAAY off the mark.

THAT my friends, is called being an adult.

Now – let’s lighten the mood and watch a little Baby Trump. (I’ve been hooked on this channel for a bit). Just because I like what the man is doing for our country doesn’t mean I can’t recognize his faults – we all have them – I just choose not to take HIM as seriously as some that have TDS.

It’s okay to laugh. Don’t forget that.

At the Moment

Life Overview

Karen

Hello stranger.

Still breathing.

And still working from home. You can catch up HERE.

I have been working remotely for two years and three months.

OVER. TWO. YEARS.

I’m sorry … what?? In a lot of ways, I feel like I’ve just started this job – I feel like I’m still blindly stumbling in the dark with my arms outstretched trying to figure out this new gig. But in other ways, I was MADE to do this job. I’m good at it. I feel pretty confident doing it but my confidence level swings back and forth like those big pirate ship rides you see at sketchy county fairs.

I’m very fortunate, I realize this. I know a lot of people would LOVE to be able to work from home. My daily uniform is a tank top and gym shorts in the warm months, and sweats and slippers in the cold months and I’m lucky if I brush my hair most days, but I’m WAAAAY less stressed than when I was working in the clinic and I don’t see myself going back to an office for the rest of my working days.

EVER.

I get bored sometimes, not gonna lie. My group, the Urgent Action Team, has gone through a lot of people. And no, it’s not because I’m a bear to work with, (at least, I HOPE that’s not the reason), but our group … we’re designed to be the janitors of the precertification departments. I continue to work today, tomorrow and the next day’s cases and of course, if/when there are any problems our pre-registration group contacts my group, (i.e. me), to figure it out. If it gets too bad, I just direct them back to the person that created the mess.

It’s exhausting and frustrating to always have to clean up someone else’s mess and THAT’S a big reason we can’t keep people on my team. Honestly? I’m thinking I may ask to transfer to another group at some point – I’ve been cleaning up after people now for nearly 2 1/2 years, I’ve put my time in.

But now is not the time. The hospital I work for is switching over to a new EMR (Electronic medical record) and though it’s going to be really cool once the dust settles, it’s going to be pure chaos before that happens. So, asking to be transferred out 1. is bad timing and 2. likely won’t happen even if I ask. The hospital flat out discouraged anyone from taking a vacation during this time period – they need all hands on deck. And that’s fair. I wouldn’t have done that anyway, I’m not a jerk, (most of the time). But once that dust settles? I make no promises.

Kevin is doing well. He’s loving retirement. He’s busier now than when he was working. He has to take care of me, our house, the boys and the rental house, LeRoy, (his special-needs uncle who also lives in the rental house with our boys, yes, the boys are still living there), his elderly parents, our seven chickens and in his “spare” time, he goes treasure hunting to fill his three thrift booths. (He’s getting a reputation for having fun, unique stuff – his monthly paychecks from that are pretty good!). Kevin knows to leave me alone when I’m working and he’s typically working on some project after I get off work so he does that and I bury my nose in my cross-stitch projects so we rarely see each other save for Friday/Saturday nights. (Our dates nights).

Blake is also doing well. He quit Wal-Mart and is now working for a prominent shipping company. He’s working from home from 6:00 PM to midnight, (he still likes his evening shifts), and he seems to enjoy the work. This has built his confidence and it’s heart warming to see him start to figure out where he belongs in life.

Brandon is also doing well. He just quit the bank when he found out that his big brother was making more money than him AND working from home, so he is also getting ready to start working for the same shipping company as Blake and will be working from home, eventually. He has to go in to the office for six weeks for training, but ultimately, he’ll work from home during the day. Blake is my night owl, Brandon is my early bird. He’s pretty excited to start that adventure.

I pray this job works out for the boys. I think a big reason they have these positions is because of Trump’s tariffs thing he’s started so … who knows if it continues when Trump leaves office. I’m quite confident that if a Democrat gets elected to the office, he (or she), will promptly undo everything Trump has done, (on so many levels and regardless of whether it’s been good for the country because ORANGE MAN BAD), so, we’ll see. That’s still three years away … a lot can, and likely will, happen in that time frame.

Not to bring politics into this … YET.

We’re coming up on three years since my dad passed away. Mom is doing better but she struggles daily and I’m sure she will continue to struggle daily. She’s adjusted but it’s a roller coaster ride. We still get together every Saturday to catch up, go out to lunch, watch Survivor, (we’re getting ready to start season 16!), and work on crafts. I look forward to these days with my momma. She’s my best friend and I enjoy our time together.

I mentioned cross-stitch – I’ve really gotten back into cross-stitching. It’s SO RELAXING! I subscribed to “Just Cross Stitch” magazine, it comes out quarterly and mom and I look forward to thumbing through it when it arrives. I’ve been bookmarking my favorites and my goal is to work at least patterns from the magazine. I’ve also jointed Audible because I spend so much time working on crafts now after work that it just makes sense to listen to some books. I’m still an active Kindle Unlimited member, but I rarely actually read anymore so I think I might cancel that and become a member of Audible when my free trial is over.

We recently returned from a two-week cruise! We drove the Jeep down to Galveston Texas to catch the boat there. We were LITERALLY one day ahead of the crazy cold, snowy weather that hit most of the US. If we had delayed our travel time by even a day, we would have struggled to get down there. We took a gamble booking a cruise the last week/first week of January/February but it’s cheaper to take a cruise that time of year, (for obvious reasons), and we decided to go for it. Up until we left, the weather had been pretty mild and we thought, “cool – no problem, we’ve got this.” And then … Mother Nature wagged her finger and said, “not so fast, chicka.” lol

Writing more about the cruise is on my list of things to write about, (don’t hold your breath folks – if you had a dime for every time I’ve said that, right??), but in a nutshell – to sum it up – the jury is still out on whether I like being on a ship for two weeks. Kevin could have sailed longer, he loves it, but … I started to get a little homesick and started to feel a little claustrophobic, which is stupid given we stopped at eight ports during that two week time. We were busy and off the boat quite a bit but still … it’s a lot. Would I do it again? I don’t know … I guess it depends on the trip but … it was a lot.

The Jeep was a dream to drive. No issues whatsoever and we even got pretty decent gas mileage – better than I expected. And driving down there WAS more relaxing than navigating the chaos and stress of flying, so liked that part. But, the down side – it took two days to drive down there and back so … there’s that. Would we drive to a port again? Absolutely.

Kevin surprised me with one of those digital picture frames. His folks have one and they love it. His mom really loves that the family can upload their pictures to their frame through the app so she feels like she’s constantly being updated on how the family is doing. We both took a lot of pictures on our vacation and posted them there so it’s been fun to see them scroll through. We’re going to make folders and start uploading more vacation pictures. We have soooo many pictures. It’s also a goal of mine to make photo books of our cruises, camping trips, holidays, etc. Mom has been busy sorting through all of her pictures and putting them in albums and it’s been quite a project for her. But she doesn’t want to leave a bunch of random pictures in a box for us after she’s gone to scratch our heads over and think, “who is that??” So that has inspired me to get our photos organized and ready to view. We have sooo many cool photos, both print and digital – the challenge is to put there somewhere so we can easily look at them.

These are the highlights of my life right now. Obviously, there is SOOO much more to say – I have so many thoughts and opinions on what is happening with the world right now, it’s overwhelming to think about sorting through all of that – where do I even start??

I’ll figure it out. In the meantime, I hope you all are doing well and hopefully we’ll “talk” soon.

At the Moment, Vacations

Planning 2025 Vacations

Karen

Do you try and go on vacations every year?

We do. And we have, except during the scamdemic when no one was allowed to breathe unless given permission to do so.

Going on vacation is the light at the end of my working tunnel. It gives me something to look forward to. Otherwise, it’s the same hum-drum every day, I start feeling beat down and not exactly depressed but sort of … numb.

Though I love going on vacation, I love planning vacations almost as much. There is something so satisfying about putting travel puzzle pieces together and building a trip. We don’t use a travel agent, I’M the travel agent. I coordinate the flights, the trips, the vacation details including reservations for various things we want to do/see. Kevin hates this part, but me? I enjoy it. I’m a planner. Though I don’t get as upset when things don’t go according to plan anymore, (I used to get SO STRESSED when something didn’t go according to my carefully-laid out plans), it is nice to have some sort of a skeleton plan to begin with.

We have been on some pretty epic vacations in the past. For example, here is a list of vacations we’ve taken over the past decade …

This list doesn’t include our vacations from 2024:

2024 May Cruise to Bermuda (left out of Boston)
2024 June Camping to Branson MO
2024 Camping to Greenville MO
2024 Camping to Beaver Lake AR
2024 Camping to Crater of Diamond/Diamond Mine Murfreesboro AR

We had two cancellations – the first was supposed to be our 30th anniversary cruise to Europe. We were going to fly into Amsterdam, drive through the countryside and spend the night in a hotel near the cruise port. We were going to England, France … I can’t remember all of the places, but it was going to be EPIC. But if you notice the date, it was during the scamdemic year and we had no choice but to cancel the trip. We weren’t ABOUT to succumb to societal pressure and inject ourselves with God knew what just to go on a cruise. Our health was way more important to us than that.

The second cancellation was October of last year. We had to cancel because Kevin’s dad ended up in the hospital and very nearly died. (He’s okay right now).

We had gone on a cruise, pretty much, every year until the scamdemic. When the scamdemic happened, we weren’t about to be stuck at home all the time because life is too short to hide from it, so we started talking about buying a 5th Wheeler and going camping again.

We bought a pop-up when we were young parents. We took quite a few trips in the pop-up and though we enjoyed it, it was a lot of work and not really that safe. We got caught in a hurricane-turned-tropical storm one time and we were nearly blown over from the fierce winds. It scared us. We were basically a kite just waiting to lift off. We sold the pop-up shortly after that experience but by that time, we had used it for a number of years and we were sort of burned out of camping.

Fast forward about ten years later, and we bought our “Cub.” It was a hybrid camper. A hard shell camper with two folding tent beds on either side. It was a cool little camper and we drove it to Estes Park Colorado one year with the boys. We had a lot of fun, but it stressed me out because the canvas beds would leak and I would obsess about making sure I had sprayed enough water repellent to try and prevent waking up in a puddle of water every morning. Then we noticed it was starting to buckle and the walls were warping because of water getting in so we ended up selling it.

We were done with camping from that point forward, or so we thought.

When the scamdemic happened and it looked like we were going to be forced to cancel our cruise, we went into rebellion mode. We were not, nor will ever be, those people who kowtow to a government that tries to bully us into living our lives according to THEIR rules. So, instead of going on our anniversary cruise to Europe, we flew to Clearwater Florida and stayed at a hotel for a week. It was right across the street from the beach and it was a fun, if not weird, time. Everyone was pretty freaked out about COVID at that time, we had to wear masks, yadda,yadda,yadda, I don’t have to remind you of that dark and weird time in our history. Though we braved the hostile environment, (because let’s face it – it WAS hostile – everyone looking at each other with suspicion and with judge-y eyes), and got away for a short time, it wasn’t anywhere NEAR the type of vacations we were used to, or even wanted.

Since we had no idea when, or if, we would ever be able to get on a cruise ship again, we started talking about buying a camper again. I was surprised Kevin was even open to the idea because he wasn’t that crazy about camping to begin with. But when we started to seriously look and pay attention to how much campers were … whoa. But we were still determined to do SOMETHING for vacation every year.

And then, both Kevin and I stumbled on to some YouTube videos of people who had converted a cargo trailer into a camper and it was like a lightbulb moment.

Wait a minute … COULD WE DO THIS?!

Before I knew it, Kevin had bought a cargo trailer and was making plans to convert it. We watched a TON of videos on how to convert a trailer, came up with a layout that worked for us and Kevin started scouring the city for pieces he could use to build it. He found all of our cabinets at Habitat for Humanity and various other pieces at thrift stores … he did such a good job of keeping the cost down and he built everything himself. I’m so proud of him!

We’ve used it about 18 times over the past three years. We’ve been taking about four camping trips a year, though Kevin has used it a few more times than me as he has taken LeRoy on some camping trips, too. We love it. The trailer is very comfortable, is holding up really well, hasn’t leaked, so far, and it was the best $13,000 we’ve ever spent. (That includes the trailer). We plan on continuing to go camping for the next 5 years or so … until either we can not physically handle it anymore, (because camping is a lot of work), and/or, we just get tired of it.

Which brings us up-to-date. It’s that time of year again when I start throwing vacation ideas against the wall to see what sticks. I want to plan one long camping trip, a few short camping trips, and one cruise. We have some pretty strong contenders, now it’s just a question of figuring out the logistics.

I won’t actually start booking anything until January – we need to get through the holidays and cool our credit card off a bit, but I’m making plans, doing some research and getting excited for this year’s trips!

Bring it on, 2025!