The Raven's Roost

Fire Through the Night

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 11:52:12 GMT

There was a pretty good sale at Aldi and I bought this massive pork butt to put on the smoker. It's been out there since about 3 pm yesterday, slow and low. We've built the fire up again this morning, hoping to push it up to "done" temperature since it was sitting at 170 when I got up.

Meanwhile I'm probably going to get some yard work done before it gets warm today. The grass is getting high, and you can pick up a tick just walking to the mailbox.

I got that abdominal ultrasound done for my doctor, and the results said nothing unexpected - thickening of the gallbladder which had been noted before, but everything else normal. Her office called me yesterday at 4:30 saying she "needed" me to come in to discuss the results, so now I get to be anxious and panicky all weekend about that. What does she see that isn't in the write-up? I can't figure out what's wrong and I'm terrified. I found that there's a rare illness that affects both the gallbladder and liver, and it's very hard to treat. I wonder if that's it.

At least my back has healed up and I've returned to running and yoga. No strength just yet, I'm going to give that a few more days. Occasionally I'll be turning over in bed and feel a mild pain, so I'm waiting for that to resolve before I get back into weightlifting. I might get the push mower out to work on the septic mound though. It'll go faster than the weed-whacker, but it's also a little more physically demanding.

I'm looking forward to pulled pork but I'm also not having a great weekend. This cloud of anxiety is stressing me out.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2026 18:22:20 GMT

A couple of days ago I strained a muscle in my lower back - probably the psoas and in the related area. It's somewhat better today, but it's still difficult to move around and the muscles will just twinge randomly, which is especially annoying when I'm standing because it feels like my back is collapsing. So today's another round of stretching, trying to heal this thing, and not being able to do much. I hate feeling worthless.

I'll probably finish up here and go lie on the floor for a while.

I bought some seed potatoes which are ready to be planted today. I've got grow bags this year, a new experiment. Last year, wireworms got to my potatoes and destroyed the tubers. The garden actually looks pretty good so far. I'll need to get Fox's help moving the filled bags into the garden. They're only 15 quarts each but I probably shouldn't move them myself right now. If this works we'll have plenty of Yukon Gold potatoes, which are my favorite kind for roasting. They crisp up nicely in the air fryer. And I can start saving a few for next year's seed.

I haven't done much else this weekend. I don't feel up to playing my ukulele, it's too hard to sit at my desk and draw. I spent yesterday mostly doomscrolling and gaming, but I hate how that makes my brain feel. I'm almost caught up on Tales From the Stinky Dragon so I might get back into Old Gods of Appalachia.

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We Made Smokey the Bear Sad

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:26:25 GMT

I had intended to update this sooner but we had some eventful times back here. A fire started up the road and spread quickly, considering how dry it is. Someone saw it early and started trying to put it out, the fire department was called, and Forestry showed up soon after. The chatter we overheard on their radios said it started at a trash pile, but it seems no one specifically started a fire - it may have been a discarded lithium ion battery or something that sparked off. As an aside - please dispose of those damn batteries properly.

By the time it was contained it had burned about 350 acres, and it came to within one thousand feet of our house. The winds were sort of working in our favor, as they usually blow west to east, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic, and so they pushed the fire away from our road and the homes of the people who live here. And the trees out in the state forest may actually appreciate the fire - it wasn't hot enough to kill them, and longleaf pine seems to "like" an occasional burn.

Still, it was quite an exciting afternoon. A sherrif's deupty even came out to let people know we needed to be ready to evacuate, and to gather names and contact numbers. Happily it didn't get that bad, though Fox and I grabbed the important things and moved our truck up the road about half a mile. Crowley was not thrilled about being in his crate, but he handled it very well and got lots of kitty treats when we got back home.

The fire also seems to have driven some wild Turkeys out of the woods and they are hanging around our yard. I see three hens and a tom almost every day. I've started putting out extra corn and peanuts for them. The Crows are also enjoying the peanuts and one even waits around in the morning for me to go put food out, and as soon as I'm inside it swoopes down to grab as many peanuts as it can.

I saw my new doctor this week and she had an interesting idea about my elevated liver numbers, especially in light of the fact that nothing but the ALT is out of whack, and I have no hepatitis or scarring. She wants an ultrasound of the gall bladder. While there's not much that can be done about it aside from a low-fat diet, she says it can cause the fluctuating ALT numbers I'm having, and the ultrasound is a more appealing alternative than the (painful, invasive) liver biopsy my previous doctor was pushing for. She suspects that any gall bladder problems are probably sub-clinical right now, and may remain that way if I stick to my generally healthy diet and exercise routine. Despite the impression I may give here, Fox and I actually eat a sort of Asian-ish version of the Mediterranean diet. Same principles, different flavor profiles.

That being said, it's almost time we had a burger night. :)

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Spring-ish

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 18:28:14 GMT

I have had a long-standing fascination with ancient Egypt, and this morning I learned that Thoth had a female counterpart - Seshat. This is a lengthy piece about them but an interesting one. Seshat is known as the Mistress of the House of Life, which was what they called the small libraries attached to temple complexes. These were a sort of shared working space where scribes could research, write, etc. She was also known as Foremost in the Library. Another interesting note is that while there are depictions of women holding scribe's tools, indicating that they could write, Seshat is the only woman depicted in the act of writing.

There's a cold front coming through again, which I welcome, because I am not enjoying 90 degree days. Let me have a little more cold weather before summer starts beating me up. We've opened the windows back up and the change is wonderful. I slept very badly last night and I'm trying to not just fall asleep right now on the couch. I'm having a cup of coffee, then I'll try doing some yoga.

I have plants to set out in the garden, though it's going to be chilly enough for a couple of nights that we might throw a frost blanket over the beds just to keep them from getting too cold shocked. The key lime tree that I had declared dead ... is putting out leaves. It'll need a pretty radical pruning but it's alive. So all four trees made it through the freezes, and the yuzu took no damage at all.

I need to catch up my notecards for St. Felix, but I'm finally seeing how the particular story arc I started will play out. No need to push the plot right now, I feel like writing some more world-building pieces and introducing characters. Yes, Jonesy will be back. :D I kind of want to do something where I can mention some of the schools there - Atalanta Springs High, where they have a superb girls' cross-country team, and the St. Felix High Wampus Cats. Go cats! And since I mentioned putting Handsome George on the county seal I should probably work on drawing one up.

I've been so lazy today I haven't even practiced the ukulele or anything. I did manage to bake some bread but man, I am dragging.

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Tue, 10 Mar 2026 12:29:43 GMT

"What did you say?"
"DOG," Jonesy declared. To the cat, every animal larger than him was a dog, so it could be anything. Albert groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes. Unless he went to check on this thing, Jonesy wouldn't leave him alone. He tottered to the window and pulled the blackout curtains open enough to see.
"DOG," Jonesy said again.
It wasn't a dog any more than Muffin was a dog, but this creature was much larger. The head region seemed to be a glowing void similar to Muffin's, but no corolla of tentacles surrounded it. Albert's sleepy brain wondered if they were there to protect the void somehow.
The "dog" turned, apparently having stopped to examine something, and lumbered down the road in the direction of the lake.

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Sun, 01 Mar 2026 21:25:43 GMT

I got my ukulele last week and I'm a little surprised at how quickly I'm picking some of it up. Fret fingering is slow, but every lesson I've watched online says it will be, just keep practicing and give it time. I had extra time this afternoon while Fox was out on a walk, so I pulled up chords for "Can't Help Falling in Love With You," and realized I don't know how strumming works. I mean, I know how to strum, but the uke has a bunch of different down and up strums that change the sound slightly. I also need a strap - holding the neck with my hand isn't working, I tend to be touching the string.

I think we've had the last real cold spell of the season. At any rate, we started cleaning up the garden beds, and I put in a seed order. I've got my hands on canvas grow bags for the potatoes, but my seed 'taters haven't shipped yet. And there's a mint plant out there that not only survived the winter, but spread. Mint genuinely gives zero fucks.

I put hummingbird feeders out, but no birds yet. Sad face. The migration map shows some sightings around me, but the notes also all say "early this year," so maybe I just put my feeders out too soon. OTOH we marked the first bird of the year on our Google calendar, so in 2025 we already had them. On the other other hand, we've also had unusually cold weather.

I gotta put some writing together this week. We're going to stop in at Mystery Springs to taste the waters of enlightenment, and see how Derrick likes those fancy coffee machines. The high schooler he hired to help out is having trouble keeping a cat out of the shop, though. Not Jonesy, but we should be getting back to Jonesy soon. Now that it's spring in St. Felix, he wants to go outside and eat grass.

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Ordinary Worlds

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 13:31:40 GMT

We've started working on the garden, which I might have mentioned. I put in a seed order with Southern Exposure just now, including potatoes. I've found planting bags that the potatoes will go in, since we have wireworms. I'll need to pick up bags of soil when I go out again at Home Depot, which I blanked on and referred to as the Dirt Store. Which is where the Dirt Man gets some of his dirt, I assume, I don't know as I am not a guy.

Since we have four raised beds I'm not trying to grow everything all at once. I've limited this year's planting to paste tomatoes, basil, black beans, summer squash, and a kind of hot-climate spinach for stir fry greens. I also plan to get some pollinator-friendly flowers to put around in containers. The lantana died back hard with the freezes but just yesterday I saw it peeking back up, so I'll just want to severely cut back the dead stuff and keep it clear so that the flowers can return. I'll also have Mexican oregano in a pot, flat leaf parsley, and catnip.

I've also started practicing some offline hobbies. It's been good for my mental health, honestly, so you haven't seen me online much. Besides writing, I started wondering about using Blender and/or sets of low polygon game assets to build digital art. I can also photograph some of the shrine objects I still own. I haven't made a move on this one yet and I'm still just watching Blender tutorials and shopping asset packs. Just an idea at the moment.

I got out my contact juggling ball and dusted it off. I have a big red rubber ball filled with a sort of silicone oil stuff that deadens the bounce and makes the ball very bottom-heavy and stable, so it's a good practice ball. I actually kind of remember some of the tricks! I grabbed a couple of lacrosse balls and a set of baoding balls that Kitty had. (She said they belonged to her grandfather, and they're a very pretty set, with enameled bats and what looks like a double happiness symbol) All this can improve hand strength, coordination, dexterity, and it looks cool.

And finally I actually did it. I bought a ukulele. It'll be here from Kala Music on Thursday. I know it sounds random, but I have literally for my entire life wanted to play music, but I did so poorly in band and in classes that I assumed my brain was too broken to do it. But then I wondered what I could learn if I just did it on my own. No teacher pushing me or criticizing, no parents laughing at me, no pressure to perform for anyone. I already started a self-paced course in sight reading, which was always one of my weakest areas.

If I really wanted to make a nuisance of myself, I could buy a set of bagpipes and learn that. Honestly when I lived in my apartment in Houma I should have started. Neighbors are going to keep me up at night fighting and shit? Fine, see how y'all like Bagpipe Time. You're going to blast gangster rap, I'm going to play a musical instrument that sounds like someone fighting off wolves with a Shop Vac.

So that's what I've been doing.

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Embark

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 15:08:57 GMT

Earlier this month, Kickstarter backers got access to the early release of Selini, a week before it went into general early access. I've been playing a lot since then, on what the dev refers to as the "great bug hunt." I still recommend the game and I'm excited about it but I'm done with the EA version for now.

I've been playing pretty obsessively. The game has no written language and no dialogue. It does have a visual hint system that will show you, often, what your next objective ought to be. But since this is EA and full release is something like eight to twelve months in the future, it's still kind of rough. What's got me to the point of being "done" is running up against a wall where it feels like whatever I need to do to keep going is either not in the game yet, or I'm somehow misreading the symbols. I've done several things that it looks like I ought to do, but nothing happens. There are some other elements that I know I ought to do, but which are actually impossible at the stage I'm at.

For example, there's a puzzle, with four symbols arranged on four posts. There's a hint screen elsewhere in the room, showing the symbols arranged a certain way. Moving the symbols into that order does nothing. In fact they were already in that order when I found them. There's a lamp you need to light, but no way to actually carry the spark to it, as there are no ways to recharge the spark midway and you run out of time before getting anywhere near it. There's a boss somewhere, I think. A series of red paths appeared on my map, but following them did nothing.

I've played much earlier builds of this game and run into a similar problem. One early build had a puzzle like the four symbols that I spent a long time trying to figure out, only for the dev to admit that wasn't really set up and there was no solution. He is, however, very responsive and on top of things, and every single day there's been an update to the game. One day, there were two updates. I have no doubt he's doing his best here.

I'm just going to step away for a while and go play something where I don't feel like I'm beating my head against a wall. I get the feeling I'm not alone in this, since the final achievements are still showing that less than .01% of players have them, and the fact that I somehow already triggered the credits to roll by defeating a boss ... that respawned? What.

Anyway, good game. Wait for the full release. I'm dropping it for now and hopefully getting some of that time and brain power back, LOL.

I have bagels to make today, along with a pot of chicken chili. I've been writing every day but I need to start putting the fragments into a more coherent story.

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Wed, 28 Jan 2026 13:56:03 GMT

Making up song lyrics for "Freeze My Ass Off," which is sung to the tune of "Take the 'A' Train."

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How's the Weather in Florida Today?

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 17:19:37 GMT

My second batch of bagels was a success. This time around I ended up letting the dough have a 48-hour cold ferment because we ordered a set of Nordic Ware aluminum baking sheets and had to wait on delivery. The flavor developed nicely, though, so I may start just doing that as a normal practice. The bagels also baked up much better, since I now have two matching pans, instead of the hodge-podge of baking sheets we all tend to accumulate over time.

I found that bagel boards are overkill when you aren't putting toppings on them, so I skipped that step entirely. I also used half bread flour and half high-gluten specialty flour. This has solved the problem I was having with the shaped bagels sticking to the pan no matter what kind of greasing I did, and then going flat and not getting any oven spring. These keep their shape almost aggressively. Several actually closed up and have bellybuttons instead of proper holes.

I've got a new St. Felix story more or less done, but I'm working on an illustration, and it's taking longer than it ought because there's a house in it, and I'm not good at buildings. I'm trying. :)

I fell off reading The Mahabharata for a little while but started up again. The Bhagavad Gita is done and we're now in the war, which is kind of like a lot of other wars in ancient epics. I'm also reading The Iliad, and it, too, has long passages of basically, "This guy killed this other guy, son of so-and-so from this place, and here's the gruesome way he died, and his soul went to the land of the dead." They're honestly very skippable. Except in this case, I think all of book six is taken up with the Kurukshetra War, so I'm just going to have to slog through it. War. War never changes.

Said the person who has never been in a war.

Well, I was in a food fight in college.

We're staying warm here but we will probably need to cut a tree down later this week or maybe this weekend. There's a sick or damaged one that Fox located that looks easy enough to get to. He says it's weeping sap about ten feet up and looks like it might have been storm-damaged. Just looking at the upcoming forecast for here. We're going to be staying cold until well into next week - as I assume everyone else is, as well.

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Tue, 20 Jan 2026 13:09:07 GMT

We've had a couple of nights this week in the 20s, so when spring comes around, we ought to avoid The Bugpocalypse. You know it's cold when I actually sleep with my window closed. But between my weighted blanket and my bedroom being like a meat locker, I've been getting pretty good sleep.

I don't know what else to post because nothing much has been happening. I haven't gone much of anywhere because I've lost most of my desire to go do anything outside of my weekly errands. I've been cleaning up in my office and boxed a lot of books to donate to the Friends of the Library sale, thrown things out, etc. My new desk pad came in, so I'm enjoying that - I have one for the drawing tablet, and now one for the other desk for typing and mouse use.

I can see frost on the deck railing.

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Thu, 15 Jan 2026 16:24:46 GMT

Fox and I just got done using an electric hand warmer and a heat gun to revive some torpid bumblebees we found in the garden. How's your day going?

Since it's going to freeze tonight we wanted to get them dried off and active, so that they didn't stay put and die in the cold tonight. Mission probably accomplished. As a bonus, I got to pet a bumblebee.

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Head Like a Hole

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 14:31:04 GMT

I finished playing Grime recently, and really enjoyed it. Grime's "catch" is that you are a being with a sort of black hole for a head, and your parry mechanic can sometimes become "absorb." That is, you siphon health away from enemies to yourself, and can heal while destroying them. I thought the game was beautifully designed, though the controls felt a little clunky and slow. But I have that gripe every time something isn't as snappy as Hollow Knight, and coming off playing Silksong, where Hornet's movement is extremely fast and responsive, Grime felt like it dragged horribly. I got used to it, however, and once I got the timing of the parry and absorb down, things improved significantly.

Grime has some intense platforming. Most of the really difficult stuff is optional - that is, you can complete the story and the game without certain bosses or platforming segments, but if you do, the game rewards your efforts with good upgrades and expanded abilities. One of the best weapons for a strength focused build is at the end of it's very own Path of Pain, whose pain is only relieved by the fact that there are several respawn points within the area, and dying doesn't knock you all the way back to the beginning.

My main complaint is that some abilities seem inconsistent. Sometimes I had a double air dash, sometimes I didn't. Double jump doesn't work *after* an air dash, but you can break it up into jump-dash-jump. Sometimes double jump seemed to work after pulling yourself towards an object, but at others it didn't. This may all be on me, rather than an actual game issue, but I have never claimed to be an elite gamer. I'm just very persistent.

There is a NG+ that I'm not exploring right now, but may in the future. I wanted to play Hades 2 and found that some of the controls are inverted between the two games, so I'd best play just one or the other. Grime's dash ability is on the same button as Hades' "cast," for example. I played a few hours of Hades last night and finally started remapping my brain to the new controls. Hades 2 is a delight if you liked the first game - I loved it. I finally got to the point of "okay, one more run before I shut down and go to bed," and of course I had my best run yet, clearing the first world and getting about halfway into the second one. It also has another pettable dog, as well as a frog you can talk to. The frog doesn't say anything back except "ribbit," but he's a cute little guy. Maybe he's a toad, I don't know. I like toads, too.

Hades 2 won a Steam award for "best on Steam Deck," so I'll probably load it onto mine. Grime ran decently on the Deck, but it really taxed the battery and got the unit hot. I found it was best to play while the Deck was plugged in if I didn't want to absolutely exhaust my battery.

Oh yeah, and Melinoe addresses the voiceover guy, calling him "Homer," so now we know.

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Friday Five - Join Hands

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 14:11:57 GMT

1. Do you have a favourite cause that you support?
I support several different things in different ways, but I go out of my way with two - Keep Clay Beautiful and Rails To Trails.

2. If so, how do you support it?
Keep Clay Beautiful is pretty simple. I pick up trash. So much trash. Every month, Fox and I get out to the highway and pick up garbage all along a one-mile stretch, sometimes going so far as to haul off things like tires, doors, and truck grills. We can count on people driving by beeping and giving a thumbs up. Rails To Trails is a national org, so I usually "just" do a yearly donation, but recently I was part of an email/letter writing campaign to secure funding for a mixed use trail near me. They haven't started it yet, but the money got earmarked and the trail will run from Gold Head all the way into Jacksonville.

3. Have you been an active member of an organization (attending meetings, volunteering, etc)?
I'm not really a "go to meetings" type. If you're going to go out and do something, you can count on me to help, but I dislike meetings. I guess you could say I'm active in the above two things, and I'm also an active member of CoCoRaHas, which is a group that collects rain gauge data. I've been reporting my daily rainfall almost every day since 2015. Citizen science!
Also, if I never see or hear of Roberts Rules of Order again it will be too soon.

4. Have you ever led any group?
Nope.

5. If so, how was your experience with it?
OR: 5. If not, why, is it a conscious choice, of lack of opportunity?
I have never wanted to lead a group. I don't like being in leadership positions, I don't want to manage people. I prefer being allowed to go do my own thing - you can trust me to self-manage and I'm happier working by myself. Having to deal with other people usually just annoys me and stresses me out.

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Wed, 07 Jan 2026 19:52:44 GMT

I just realized I'm using an incorrect ingredient in my bagels. Diastatic malt powder is changing the rise. Yes, the malt flavor is nice, but it's making the texture gummy and the dough hard to work with. Sub dark brown sugar or non-diastatic powder.

Short version - diastatic has active enzymes, non doesn't have them. The enzymes are interacting with the yeast in a way that would be great for pretzels or something, but not what's wanted for a bagel.

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Back in the Groove

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 14:00:04 GMT

I need to learn how Obsidian works. And since it isn't full-featured on Chrome, I need to get it onto my Windows computer and learn it there. I may wish to rearrange my desk some so that typing is easier, making two workstations out of one computer - the writing side and the drawing side.

I finished up a rough draft of "Oracle," and now I need to get it typed up so I can start editing. I typically like to write longhand and just ... write stuff. I'll make notes or digress, and that's all stuff I can fold in when I'm editing. Some of my rough drafts can be pretty disjointed.

But first, a short run. Just to the stop sign and back. I'm enjoying running again, not really going out with any agenda, just running. Today I may run some speed intervals once I'm at the top end of Villa Nueva where the surface is firm. I want to get a solid base built up by March where a ten-mile long run is normal, and from there I can build up miles to get to my goal of fifty. RunDisney is opening Wine & Dine signups early - February 10 for the great unwashed. Fox's foot and leg have improved so much that he's now going out regularly for walks and starting to build his cardio and endurance back up. That's the power of seeing a doctor who fucking listens to you. So he feels much more confident about signing up for Wine & Dine himself.

We shut a Dove in the garage, and I found it yesterday. It was exhausted, but happily not dead. It was trying to get out the back window, so I opened the main door, but it was determined that the window was the way out. It was also tired enough that I was able to grab it and carry it outside. When I got to the driveway and opened my hands it did that thing where it just sat staring at me for a moment before flying off, as if it was thinking, "So are you going to eat me? Wait ... you're not?" We're usually good about checking for birds when we've had the door open for a long time, but sometimes they hide.

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The Map Isn't the Territory

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 16:31:51 GMT

Having a good writing day so far. I'm almost done with the rough draft of "The Oracle of Orange Peel Road," aka "The Watcher." I hate trying to come up with titles. I may also whip up a couple of illustrations for this one. But it's getting late in the day and I have stuff I need to do. Fox is outside washing Baby Truck while Big Truck is in the shop (rear oil seal requiring dropping the transmission) and he's using the pressure washer. So half of what he's doing is actually truck washing, and half of it is having to tinker with the power washer's engine.

I need to go get my lifting workout done. I'm almost through my requirements for Pathfinder, and should be completely wrapped by next week. I will probably not be signing up for the next class, because I'll be shifting to running more often and building up miles for my fifty. But I am still going to set aside one or two days a week to ruck, as I think it will be helpful for this distance. Basically a full fastpacking kit should weigh about twelve to fifteen pounds, and I routinely ruck with twenty. If I choose to purchase a few things like a light tent and ultralight food stove, I'll be entirely self-supporting and can split my effort into a two or three day adventure.

I'm still debating whether I want to plan a trip that takes me to, for example, the St Johns County public pier, or if I want Fox to drive me down to a trailhead in Ocala and boot me out of the truck so that I make my own way home. Also the urban versus rural options - highly supported but tons of people or no support and no people and possibly bears.

I should go lift. The sooner I finish, the sooner I can shower and then go flop on the couch and read.

I also wonder if Fox would object to me stringing some purple, green, and yellow lights around the front porch because it's almost time.

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The Friday Five - Water, Water Everywhere

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 12:40:26 GMT

1. Do you mostly drink tap, filtered, or bottled water?
Filtered. Our water is very hard, even with the softener system, so some things like the coffee maker get filtered water to prolong their useful life.

2. Is it safe/recommended to drink tap water where you live? If not, why?
We're on an artesian well. Our water is safe, though we occasionally hit a sulfur pocket that makes it smell like farts. There's also some sort of iron-eating bacteria in it that's harmless to humans.

3. What does the tap water taste/smell like where you live?
Most of the time, it just tastes and smells like a mineral water you might buy at the store. Like I said, our water is pretty hard, and even with a softener and filter, we still have places where there are crusty mineral build-ups.

4. Do you collect rainwater? If so, what do you use it for?
I'm scheming about setting up a rainwater system to water the garden. But it's also pretty superfluous here.

5. Do you/have you ever had restrictions on water use where you live? What did you have to change about your lifestyle?
When I lived in Louisiana I was under boil orders several times, usually after hurricanes. Around here we did have a dry summer where they were asking people to not water their lawns or stupid shit like that, but we don't water the grass here so it didn't affect us. We figure that the grass can take care of itself, and there's no one around demanding it look like a putting green, so why waste the effort and resources?

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Wed, 31 Dec 2025 16:58:54 GMT

Y'all want to see me do somethin' stupid? Of course you do.

I've been toying with the idea of a fifty mile run/walk thing - fifty miles under my own power - in my fiftieth year of life. Today Fox and I really started talking about the logistics of such a thing. I am somewhat inclined to do it as a trail run, even possibly hitting the Florida Trail near here and splitting things into a two or three day event, which carrying my own supplies, basically fastpacking. Fox likes the idea of an urban run, where food and water are abundant. Doing all fifty miles at one go obviously has its appeal as well.

Trails might be a little easier on the body than pavement, but there's something to be said for being able to refuel at Wawa.

I've got plenty of time to hash out the details while I train my way up to being able to handle the miles, though.

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Wed, 24 Dec 2025 17:29:26 GMT

New St. Felix fiction is up! Links are to YouTube Music because I don't like Spotify.
Kat Calling - Christmas Eve Eve

I hope I've made the background dark enough, let me know. I'll make it a lot darker if it's too hard to read.

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Going Out on a Snowy Limb

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 14:11:45 GMT

I don't have a Substack specifically for fiction set in Muna. I might start one, I don't know. It seems like a bad idea to mix the two worlds, even if they're kind of similar. So here's a wintery Muna story. Put your warm socks on, we're going hiking in the worst possible conditions.

( The Yule Tree )

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Fri, 19 Dec 2025 14:58:03 GMT

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house
the AC was running, 'cause we live in the South.

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The Friday Five - Selfing

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 13:40:38 GMT

1. What is one thing about you that you hate?
I feel like I'm out of sync with other people. Like everyone's been issued an instruction book that I didn't get, and I'm just wandering around clueless.

2. What is one thing about you that you love?
I'm working on that one.

3. If you had to change one thing about you what would it be and why?
I wish I weren't so prone to anxiety. Anxious and fearful feelings have been the background noise of my life since I was a small child.

4. What is one word that you would use to define yourself?
Eremitic

5. Imagine what you would look like in a perfect world...what do you look like?
I would look like the athlete I am. Unfortunately, like many people I often confuse the appearance of fitness models with the appearance of athletes. That is to say, a woman who can deadlift her own body weight is unlikely to look like the chick in the ad for protein powder.

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Pancho and Lefty Get the Squeeze

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 13:30:20 GMT

Yesterday I had to go into Jacksonville for follow-up at Hill Breast Center, but I will go ahead and spoil the ending - everything's fine.

Several years ago I had to go to this place for a biopsy of a particularly dense mass. I was a little anxious about going back, because I remember the first visit taking all day. I don't remember why I was waiting around so long, but yesterday's visit was about 90 minutes. I had a diagnostic mammogram and then an ultrasound, from which they decided no biopsy was needed. I do have some calcifications, but they want me to get some twice-yearly MRIs to check on those, and if after two years they haven't changed, then they're likely to not ever do anything. The main thing they want to make sure of is that a mass doesn't also form in the area. Plus I have unusual amounts of heterogenous density, so I'm even more like trying to find a rock in a bag of jellybeans.

Since I was already so far out, I detoured to go to the new Lotte Market we got in October. It moved into an old Best Buy, so it's enormous. I really want Fox to be able to come along on another visit. They have just about any Asian food you can think of, produce to frozen foods, as well as a big selection of Indian and Hispanic foods. They also have several small food stands inside the store, selling coffee and pastries, Japanese street food, and Korean barbeque. I got a chocolate-filled shokupan roll. They have Ramune-flavored ice cream, live seafood, all manner of fermented foods, fresh mushrooms, fish cake multipacks for donburi, and home goods of all kinds. I was delighted and kept spamming Fox with photos of things.

I had some other stops to make, including REI before I was able to head back home, and it was a long day out for me. I'm somewhat dreading the need to argue with insurance about these MRIs they want, because I know the insurance will say they aren't necessary and won't want to pay for them. And it may get much worse, depending on how policies shake out. But I guess we'll deal with that when the time comes. I'm also not looking forward to needing to get rid of my ear piercings for these scans, but I might be able to find glass or silicone retainers, and just recruit Fox to help me switch everything out.

Anyway, I've always kind of wanted to do this for Christmas - ramen. I can buy bottled broth concentrate (probably miso, which is what Fox and I like best), the noodles, veg, and even a good cut of pork belly for the chashu. I would make my own broth but mine never quite has the richness, and I haven't figured out why.

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Oh, the Weather Outside is Kinda Bad NGL Fam

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 12:26:34 GMT

I'm trying something a little different with writing this weekend. On the one hand, I'm doing a more typical Muna story in line with a challenge on Substack - "Winter myths." Munans still have a tradition of cutting Yule trees and bringing them home, but sometimes conditions in the forest are less than ideal. How is Dee going to explain to a couple of townies that a story from their childhood that was intended to keep them from wandering too far from home, is actually walking the mountains of The Taroc?

A second prompt is poking me to write about Eden Mills' Christmastime celebration in which everyone contributes a dish. Predation cut down the number of chickens at some households, so those with laying flocks are poised to get rich. This one will be more on the comedy side as people scramble to beg, borrow, or bribe their way into enough eggs to finish their baking.

While some things I can use in both St. Felix and Muna, I haven't figured out what role Assassins might play in modern America. Kitty used to say federal-level law enforcement, and while I can see Alia being a white-hat hacker or something, Diagenou is too chaotic to be a LEO. He's probably laying low after making dirty jokes about Trump in Soldier of Fortune.
"Hey man, do you fix boat motors?"
"Why the hell would you think I fix boat motors?"
"I mean, you live on the beach. What are all these boats here for?" he gestures towards several vessels of varying sea-worthiness lined up on the sand.
"Trophies."

Okay, I think I got it now. XD

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