what I can and cannot offer

Mississippi "Ex" is anxious to flee to a blue state and discussing coming back here. I simultaneously desperately want this and know it would be a terrible idea, so discussions have been as fraught as you would expect. (She has been out of touch for five days now, I can only guess because the storm knocked out power, but it is concerning that she hasn't been able to access ANY yet.)

diets are weird

Weird things I have eaten this month that were better than expected:

Protein powder blended into a shake with roasted acorn squash. Also tried adding cinnamon and turmeric, but it was better without.

A potato, TVP, and green peas mixed with mushroom Better than Bouillon for a half-assed shepherd's pie.

A shake made with 5-year-old Huel powder. It was not GOOD, as Huel's claim to fame is being merely innocuous, but it was not obviously rancid, so win?

local animal news

Local news headline: "Owls enter egg-laying season as major winter storm barrels toward New York." Perhaps I should switch entirely to animal news sources; they're a lot more pleasant.

Age 14

 Because I'm a dork, I sing this song to him every day: 

When I wake up, well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the one who gives your meds to you

When I go out, yeah I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the one who takes a walk with you.

When we come back, well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the one who plays hedgehog with you

And as I grow old, well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the one who's growin' old with you.

But I would walk five hundred miles, and I would walk five hundred more

Just to be the one who walked one thousand miles to let you go explore

9/10 Scooby Doo villains agree

fun fact: you don't need to be dead to haunt someone. you can literally go round to their house and do all the stuff a ghost would do right now

sometimes students just aren't good at something

Should college grades reflect mastery, effort, or something else?

eviscerate your memory

We always listen to the Jim Henson/ Muppets Christmas album while putting up decorations, obviously. We have not established a taking down decorations soundtrack, but determined this year that REM's Out of Time is not it.

good friend caregiving

My daughter grabbed a bag of pretzels before picking up a friend, apparently because the friend gets hungry and wants a snack after work, and I'm glad I modeled this well. (Once when she was 3 I thought she could manage the five minute walk home from preschool without one. I was wrong, but luckily it was autumn and there was an apple tree on the way home.)

glad it's over for real

I've found that grieving fades for me after about ten years. That's held true for my divorce; I rarely think about it anymore. I'm still bitter about certain things (and now that my job is both unstable and unpleasant, I'm especially frustrated that I can't quit; we had been on track to both retire before 50). But the loss itself doesn't have emotional resonance. Essays like this remind me of those days but don't bring me back to them. 

90 minutes of Smurfs, or...

The host of Computer Chronicles died. My brother and I used to get in fights every Saturday morning because I wanted to watch cartoons like a normal child and he wanted to watch Computer Chronicles.