Billy the Kid

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Before I begin, here is your Monday Public Service Announcement:

Happy Monday. Have a great rest of the week. I love you. I appreciate you.

When I lived in Albuquerque, I started working on a book of poetry about Billy the Kid, aka William H. Bonney, aka Henry McCarty—his birth name. I was still in the research stage when life happened, and I moved back to Kennewick, and became involved in other things. I still dream of going back to New Mexico, Fort Sumner, etc., and doing research, and writing the poems, but then, I’m a dreamer, eh?

In the meantime, someone in my critique group recommended a book last year, Coming Through Slaughter, a fictionalized biography of New Orleans jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden and is partly set in Slaughter, Louisiana, by Michael Ondaatje. I enjoyed the book, so when I found The Collected Works of Billy the Kid also by Michael Ondaatje, I had to read it, too. And I was not disappointed!

There is not a great deal known about Billy, but there is some information out there, and Ondaatje did a marvelous job of using what little is known as a springboard for his poetry and prose. It reads like a journal, or maybe a better description is a collection of his (Billy’s) papers, what were found, often without beginning or ending. Some of the poems actually have titles, or at least attribution as to who wrote them, as “Miss Sallie Chisum” by Sallie Chisum describing Billy “As far as dress was concerned / he always looked as if / he had just stepped out of a bandbox.” She goes on to describe his clothing, finishing with, “he was the pink of politeness / and as courteous a little gentleman / as I ever met.” From what I’ve found about Billy in what little research I’ve accomplished, this was a fairly accurate description of him.

By many accounts I’ve read, Billy was a gentleman, at least where the ladies were concerned. He dressed well, he was polite, he was bi-lingual (English and Spanish) and possibly tri-lingual. There is some information out there he spoke Gaelic, probably learned at his mother’s knee.

If you’re looking for a good and plausible book about Billy, I highly recommend The Collected Works of Billy the Kid.  It’s great fun. If you’re looking for a scholarly account of the young man’s life, this isn’t for you. And yes, there is the conspiracy that Garrett shot the wrong man, claimed he was Billy, buried him, and collected the reward and that Billy once again escaped, made it to Mexico or someplace, lived a quiet life as a law-abiding citizen, married, and had a family, etc., etc., etc. Billy was a master at aliases and escapes, so this isn’t entirely unbelievable.

Oh, and in the interest of transparency, or just kinda interesting stuff, when Daddy was a youngster, he met a man who knew Pat Garret who is credited with killing Billy the Kid. We are closer to history than we sometimes realize.

My Friday

Those of you who know me, know I’m not really a morning person. Oh, I get up early enough, because when I wake up enough to answer the early morning calls of bladder and dog, I’m up. I try not to get up before 4am, but sometimes it’s earlier, and if I go back to bed, I just lie there for a couple of hours and I might as well be up and at the computer with my cuppa joe. Like this morning, Sunday. Yes, I’m up, but I’m not cognizant, I’m not ready for thinking, for talking, for doing much beyond watching something on the computer and maybe, if I’m lucky, getting a few words written on the virtual paper before me. Somewhere around 9am, I actually become functionally awake 😉

So, this past Friday, I signed up for a poetry workshop, that started at my time of 7am. It was something like 3 hours long, and very interesting. I actually got 4 poems written during that time. No, they are not ready to be abandoned, but they are good enough to warrant some editing and maybe submission. Then, later that afternoon, I attended my weekly workshop of prompts, and wrote two more poems, also pretty good first drafts. Aren’t you glad I don’t share all the poetry I write with you? Since 1 Jan this year, I’ve written 90. Boy Howdy, do I know how to have fun!!! 😉

How Many Days Until Mid-Term Elections?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! You really think we’re going to have them? Nope, they ain’t gonna happen, my gentle families and friends. That’s why we’re in an undeclared-by-Congress war, so the Unnamed Person can claim an emergency, and take over and cancel elections, or have them with his goons manning polling places. Yep, we’re closer to history than we realize.

(Please, prove me wrong. Please, please, please.)

be happy, be well, be safe!

Happy Monday. Enjoy the rest of the week. I love you.

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How would your life be different if on the first day of school/kindergarten, you received a card or a note that said: “Happy Monday. Enjoy the rest of the week. I love you.” This card was from your teacher, and s/he explained everyone would make a card for the following Monday, to give to someone in the class, everyone would make a card, everyone would receive a card. And this card exchange would be every Monday for the rest of your school life, through graduation of High School.

How would your life be different if, every Monday through your K-12 school life, you learned to give and receive a gift, homemade or store bought, to one of your classmates? That’s thirteen years of giving and receiving gifts. 

Your brain would have probably been wired toward the perspective of compassion and pro-social thoughts. You would have a moral identity reinforced by friends and family. You would see yourself as a helper person, a caring person, and an ethical person, all of which would help you in decision making.

Your aggressive reactivity would probably be reduced, your social confidence and belonging built and shored up by the frequent positive reaction with strangers and neighbors. Social anxiety would not be nearly as strong, your community attachment and long-term civic orientation would be strengthened.

Children exposed to structured generosity are more likely to engage in volunteering, cooperation, and nonviolent civic participation as adults. The net gain effect of 676* structured acts of kindness during developmental years creates a durable pro-social identity, higher emotional stability, and stronger community trust norms that persist into adulthood. 

The immediately preceding paragraphs are paraphrased from:

America’s Real Threats – And Our Plan to Reduce Them (Without WASHINGTON0  Former Black Panther Speaks: Can America be Saved? This link is to his substack and is free. You can also find it on YouTube. I have his permission to post the substack link. I hope you’ll take the 23 minutes to listen to the whole talk. I hope you’ll subscribe, and watch/listen to all the videos in the series. 

And, as my final paragraph on this topic, please think where we, as a nation, would be if this had started say in 1900, or 1920, or even 1940. And, please, become part of the nationwide network to think and act with strategy, not anger. It is never too late to change.

*The Former Black Panther was counting on 52 weeks a year times 13, most school years are closer to 40 weeks, I think, which would make it closer to 520. But then, there’s no reason during summers and school breaks, that giving couldn’t be carried on with neighbors, which would bring it right back up to 676 or so 😉

Uncoupling, Poems by Margo Davis

All couples will uncouple at some point. Train engines are uncoupled from train cars, children are uncoupled from beloved pets, parents are uncoupled from children, and lovers and life partners are uncoupled through mutual agreement or death. With the (presumably) exception of the trains, the loss of uncoupling brings pain of varying degrees, as well as freedom (of varying degrees) and maybe guilt, and even joy as we acknowledge the happy memories of earlier days, that our beloved is free of pain, of agony and now Rests in Power with their God.

Davis has a marvelous sense of humor that comes through in many (most?) of these poems, from the very first poem, Southern Tradition, “A Southern woman could / lace a rat with garnish / and pass it on. // the mixologist’s cocktails /…/ hurricane comin’!” One of my favorites being Better Times about the old codger, Lassie, Timmy and a three-foot glass of milk. Her humor is anything but juvenile, as noted in her last poem, Breathless In Portugal, “Messejana sheep take me / as I am. Uphill downslide I traverse //…Sleight of Hand. Oh tongue / that I never knew. I knew.”

I found this book delightful and engaging and one with poems I have read more than once! I heartily recommend it. Available through your favorite bookstore or online through https://Bookshop.org

On a More Political Topic

I believe I’ve mentioned a time or two, my favorite political pundit is Keith Olbermann, (my second favorite pundit is David Reddish, but that’s another post). It isn’t just the politics, I enjoy Olbermann’s personal discussions, too. Especially when he talks about famous people, or not quite famous people, he knows or has met. Keith’s sense of humor is marvelous, at least over the air. He is one of the famous people I’d like to have a cup of coffee with, though I’d probably be so tongue-tied I wouldn’t be able to put three words together that made any sense. Anyhow, Thursday’s episode (His podcast, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, airs every Monday and Thursday morning) is a bit long, but the last part, where he talks about Robert Duvall and the movie Network is worth the price of admission. Network, for those of you who, like me, haven’t seen it, is a 1976 American movie about a fictional tv station, UBS, with low ratings, written by Paddy Chayefsky. Olbermann brings up 23 instances in the movie that were prescient to today’s tv networks that were not even thought of when the movie came out, and which when people saw it laughed because those things could never happen. Is it time for a movie? Starring Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Fobert Duvall, Wesley Addy, and a host of others. Although I could find places where it’s streaming, all the sites want money. Clap if you’re surprised.

Unbuilding (a Book Review)

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Just finished reading a fun book, Unbuilding by David Macaulay. It’s children’s lit, but great fun. In 1989, a Saudi Prince buys the Empire State Building, has it dismantled, labeled, etc., and put on a ship to Saudi where it can be reassembled. This is the story of Unbuilding the Empire State Building. It’s full of pen and ink drawings, and if you have any budding architects, engineers, or builders in your sphere, you might want to consider the book for them. It’s available from Bookshop.org or if you don’t mind a used book, from abebooks.com. Or from your favorite indie bookstore.

I’m going to have to try his other books. Well, some of them. He’s got bunches and they look way fascinating. He’s got at least 25 listed on Bookshop.org. ranging from Castle to The Way Things Work to Mammoth Math: Everything You Need to Know About Numbers to Rome Antics. I’ll probably skip the Mammoth Math—it’s hardback, and I prefer softback /snort/. (for those of you who don’t know, I prefer letters and words to numbers and equal signs)

However, since I’m on the topic of books, when Covid hit, I attended a book launch by Arthur Sze of his book The Glass Constellation sponsored by Rain Taxi. It was via a zoom-type of program, so no one was crammed in a seat next to 100 of their new best friends, we were all given our own little “room” on a screen. Sze was maybe a quarter of the way through with his presentation, and I had already ordered the book. I’d never heard of him before that night, but that’s how impressed I was with his poetry. When my book came, it’s a compendium of several of his earlier books, all bound together with new and selected poems. I literally consumed the book withing r or 5 days. I have since added several other books to my collection, including his latest, or one of his latest ones, Into The Hush. Not only do I love the book, but I was invited to join a group of poets who will gather for 6 meetings to study the book, its poems, and do writings inspired/based on his poems in the book. 

The small group I am in (3 per group) decided to study/work on Letter to Tao Qian. Thanks to Favorite Daughter, I have The Silk Dragon II, a book of Chinese poems Sze translated, and the first 5 poems are by the Ancient Chinese poet, Tao Qian. It’s very interesting to read those 5 poems and find the references in Sze’s poem. Homework has never been such fun. 

My Winter Gift from me to me this year was Sze’s book, The White Orchard. It is a collection of some of his interviews,  essays, and some poetry. The most interesting parts to me are the areas where he talks about how he writes. He often uses disparate phrases and fragments of sentences for his lines, but all of the lines are deliberate, and in a deliberate order. Because we all bring our own stories to the ones we read, we are each given our own interpretation as to what his lines mean. Is he telling us to stop, relax, breathe, acknowledge there is evil in the world, but to spend more time on the beauty? I have started writing “like” Sze, but not like him. My mind is trainable, but I don’t want his voice, I want his style. I want to keep my own voice. I want someone to read my poem and say, “Ah, she’s read Arthur Sze!” It is very difficult for me to think in segments and fragments, but I have written a couple of poems with one-line stanzas, in disparate fragments. I am also working on a long, sectioned poem like he writes, with each section being in a different format. Those are the poems that caused me to order The Glass Constellation.

Of course, there are many poets out there I really like—the ever-gracious Naomi Shihab Nye, the late Lucille Clifton, the late Paul Monette, the effervescent Diane Seuss, and the incomparable Eduardo C. Corral. But I am in Literary Lust with Arthur Sze 😉

Imagine You Are Madame Dorion

So, I log onto YouTube and am looking at the videos on my home page, and notice a photo of buffalo in a snow storm that looks familiar, like one I took, and then I look at the words, and it IS one of my photos from when my friend and publisher of Madame Dorion put together a promo video for my book. Wow! Something from ten years ago showed up—a whole video of my photos.  On my YouTube home page. If you didn’t get it on your home page, it is here — a smidge under 7 minutes. And, if you haven’t read the book, you can find it at your favorite bookstore (they may have to order it) or at bookshop.org. Historical fiction at its finest, not that I’m biased—or bragging. By the way, the cover on Madame Dorion was painted by a descendant of Madame Dorion.

And Remember

If you don’t yet have your copy of Saying Goodbye to Thomas, you may pick up, or order, a copy from your favorite bookstore, or order a copy here, at Bookshop.org. All proceeds go to the ALS Association and End of Life Washington/Death With Dignity.

William Stafford Challenge

Today, 16 February 2026, is the 31st day of the William Stafford Challenge. The Challenge goes from 17 Jan to 17 Jan (his birthday, and we write a poem a day), on the 17th of January, I had written 22 poems, having started on the first of January. By this morning my number of poems written is currently 68. More will come this day, I am sure. 

Now, they aren’t all good poems, though a couple are, but they are all seeds to go back and edit, revise, and have good poems emerge. 

A fond memory of my road trip through the Southwest a couple years ago. The tall skinny ones are saguaro cactus. It was warm. Blessedly warm.

Be Happy, Be Well, Be Safe

Happy Valentine’s Day

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Or, if you don’t celebrate Valentine’s day, Happy Saturday!

I subscribe to The Ekphrastic Times, the newsletter of The Ekphrastic Review, and received their monthly newsletter with this piece of art by Lorette C. Luzajic. I absolutely love it, and requested permission to share with you, and she readily agreed. 

Image: Love Is, by Lorette C. Luzajic (Canada) 2025

Lorette is an award winning artist, and her work may be found on Etsy

The Ekphrastic Review is here

full disclosure: Lorette has published two of my poems, the latest is here

And yes, there will be the regular blog on Monday. If I don’t forget. I am old(er), you know— 

The only correct answer to any question is an honest answer!

Did She Cheat? Is She Bad—Or Smarter Than the Average Groundhog?

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Okay, the first few sentences of this post are being written on Tuesday, 2 February 2026. Those of you who are calendar savvy, know that today is Groundhog Day. Those of you who know your favorite Auntie Lenora, know today is her birthday, and she is therefore, a Groundhog.

She woke this morning a few minutes after 4am, that kind of wakefulness that said that if she rolled over to go back to sleep, it would take at least 2 hours to drop off for another hour of restless sleep. Sigh. She might as well get up and at least make the dog happy in letting him out. As she stood at the door, half past 4 in the morning, she remembered it is, in fact, her 83d anniversary of flying around old Sol, so she stepped outside in the cold and did not see her shadow, thereby bringing all of you, her favoritest people ever, an early Spring.

Yes, she knows, her Cousin Phil, of Punxsutawney fame, saw his shadow, but he’s in Pennsylvania, and doesn’t believe in getting up before sunrise. Your Auntie Lenora doesn’t  believe in the latter, either, unless it’s winter when the sun doesn’t come up until after 7am. It’s been suggested that she is thereby cheating, nothing against her Cousin Phil, but just maybe it makes her smarter? But he and she do have a gentleperson’s agreement, he gets to foretell the weather east of the Rockies, and she get the west. The Rockies are on their own, she guesses.

Niener, niener, niener—I told you so!!

Just last month, I mentioned Dr. Computer, and this morning (3 Feb) on Jeff Tiedrich’s column, Everyone is Entitled to my own Opinion, he has a quote from a video of Dr. Oz. He also has the video posted.

The quote: ““there’s no question about it, whether you want it or not — the best way to help some of these communities is gonna be AI-based avatars.”  Now, to be honest and transparent, our favorite Wizard Oz, did say, promise, and guarantee (say that in your best Cajun drawl—gar aaahn teeeeee) the Avatar would ONLY do the prelim part, then connect the patient to a real live, living, breathing licensed (not sure he said licensed) human doctor. Yeah. Right. With AI becoming what it’s becoming, how would you know? Anyhow, the clip is short, watch it. (No wonder Dorothy preferred leaving Oz to go back to Kansas! /snark/)

And this morning, 9 Feb 26, I came across this information from Medical Economics


“Oz claimed that if a patient went to a doctor for a diabetes diagnosis, it would be $100 per hour, while an appointment with an AI avatar would cost considerably less, at just $2 an hour. Oz also claimed that patients have rated the care they’ve received from an AI avatar as equal to or better than a human doctor. (Research suggests patients are actually more skeptical of medical advice given by AI.) Because of technologies like machine learning and AI, Oz claimed, it is now possible to scale ‘good ideas’ in an affordable and fast way.” [emphasis mine]

And now for some Happy News!

As you may remember from past posts, Thomas asked me to be his Literary Executrix. I have all his thumb drives, a delightful insight into his work, especially his memoir that he worked hard to finish while he could still type. He tried dictating but never got the hang of it (it’s harder than one may think). 

He had mentioned to his good friends Phoebe and Paul owner and editors of The Raven Chronicles, that he wanted them to have first right of refusal to publish it. A minor detail he neglected to tell me, by the way. However, when I finished minor editing for clarity, I mentioned it to Phoebe when she came to my book launch, and she suggested I send it to Paul to read. That he’d know what to do with it. I sent it to Paul quite a while ago and heard nothing beyond he’d received it and would get back to me. Unbeknownst to me, Paul also worked with Phoebe, who is the Editor in Chief of Raven Chronicles, where Thomas also worked as an editor. I knew they were friends, and that Paul wrote stories and novels, but not that he worked with Phoebe.

All of that is to get us to this week when I had a Zoom meeting with Phoebe and Paul, and they have accepted Thomas’s manuscript, plus some other writings of Thomas’s, and will publish it sometime in 2027. It was during that meeting I found out he’d told Phoebe a long time ago that he wanted her to have first right of refusal. I’m so glad that I mentioned his manuscript when she came to my book launch! Although, to be honest, I probably would have asked her advice on it anyhow. 

Be safe, be well, be happy!

“Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ” We are all related ~ Lakota Saying.

You Can Learn a Lot off YouTube!

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Who knew? I probably would have, if I’d listened, but…  Back in 1994, Nine Inch Nails wrote and recorded the song, Hurt. I guess I was too busy raising kidlets, working, and all the stuff associated with such, to even know who the Nine Inch Nails were, let alone heard their song. Hmmm, maybe I listened to the wrong station? As I recall, it was KVI in Seattle, if they still played music then.

In the meantime, one of my all-time favorite singers was Johnny Cash. I still like him a whole lot. The only thing, as I recall, I didn’t like about him was June Carter. Oh, she was okay, I guess. At least he seemed to think so, but, dammit, oh, well, at least they knew each other, he and I never met. sigh. Besides, I’ve heard she was deadly jealous 😉

After June Carter Cash died, I saw a video of Johnny Cash, singing Hurt. Naturally, I thought he wrote it after his beloved died. I believed that for years (yeah, I’m also a believer in some conspiracies, too. As well as Santa Clause and the egg-laying Easter Bunny—what can I say? I admit it.) So, today, I was horizontal on the bed, snuggling with the Brave Dog, called Mr. Dog by the receptionist at the vet’s yesterday, and scrolling through YouTube, when I came upon The Greatest Cover Song of All Time? Sammy didn’t think much of it, but I found it quite interesting. it’s about 15 minutes long, give or take.

Nothing against the Nine Inch Nails, but Johnny’s recording brought tears the first time I heard it, and every time since. Aaaah, unrequited love. /snort/

If it helps my credibility at all, I did know who Queen was. Oh, yeah. And I love watching them on YouTube! Oooooooh, yeah!!

Do you remember the Black Panthers? I sort of remember them. I was in the military when they formed, had been raised by a racist family (Daddy told me a few months before he died that one of the reasons he left mother was he couldn’t tolerate the racism of her and her family), and I was married to a guy from the deepest part of the South. You can probably guess with a fair amount of accuracy what I thought of the radical Panthers. And, in all honesty, if I knew then what I know now, I probably would have tried to join them.

It’s amazing what one can learn when one leaves home, when one lives with people from different cultures, different beliefs. When one listens. Admittedly, that took me a few years, learning to shut my mouth and open my ears and listen. Actually, I’m still working on that. But it seems to be the only way I can learn anything 😉 That and reading. 

So, what brought all this reflection you probably don’t give a rip about to the fore? I tumbled to a channel on YouTube, A Former Black Panther Speaks: Can America Be Saved? The gentleman running the channel, is calm, measured, and well-spoken. He puts forth a call for a calm, lawful, civic movement. “This channel is about calm action, human contact, and preventing escalation — not outrage.” If, like me, you’re in a position where demonstrating in person is not being kind to your body, but you still want to do something, give a listen to my bro. He has some good ideas about using the tools we have, that won’t put us in a wheelchair for a few weeks recouping from an in-person demonstration. Admittedly, the in-person demonstrations are more fun…../snort/ (If our demonstrations were marches, and not standing on the street, I might do more—it’s easier to march than to stand for any length of time. Another thing I learned in the military)

So, yeah, you can learn all sorts of fun things on the internet.

This guy/gal isn’t interested in YouTube, he’s got the whole outdoors!

The New and Improved Republican version of the ACA

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Well, this has been a long time coming. Something like 15 -16 years, if memory serves me correctly. At my age, that is always suspect. Honest. Trust me.

One of many accomplishments President Obama gave us was the Affordable Care Act health insurance. Two of the best things about the ACA were the affordability, especially with the subsidies, and that people with pre-existing conditions could not be refused insurance. That alone makes it worth while in my oh-so-humble opinion.

From the day the ACA passed, Republicans have been rather bellicose they had a new and improved health insurance ready, and it would be presented to the public in a couple of weeks. Well, after all these years’ worth of “two-weeks” the very stable genius has come up with a marvelous solution—send everyone $2,000 and let them buy what they want. 

I can see a couple of things wrong with that before I’ve finished my first cuppa the morning: 1. they won’t find any insurance willing to take pre-existing conditions for that amount of money and 2. people will spend the money on frivolous things like groceries which they also can’t afford but the effect on their families is more immediate. 

Believe me, I don’t want to have to go out into the open market and look for insurance. Nothing would please the insurance companies more than to have this become law. The system will be gamed, if not by the big companies, by all the start-ups that will come along to help take your money, but deny you benefits. (When did I become such a cynical old lady?)

I hope this bill, if it passes, does not affect you, or anyone you know. Healthcare should be a right of everyone in this country, not just the fortunate few.  

Speaking of health and insurance coverage, how would you feel, let along think, about having a computer diagnose your illness?

Because MDs went to school for several years to learn medicine, and how to best practice it to get and keep their patients healthy, and now find themselves in the examining room with their medically ignorant congressman/congresswoman standing just behind and to the side of them, telling them what they can and cannot prescribe. Medicine D, M, and Z are authorized, but none of the others especially if one of the others will help the patient even though the others are what common sense and good medicine tell the MD s/he needs to prescribe.

MDs have left not just certain states, but the entire country to go to other countries where they are not just allowed to practice good medicine but are expected to practice good medicine. This has left many areas, especially rural areas and towns in what are called medical deserts. 

And now, our doctors who have stayed, are over worked. And when those people living in a medical desert need help, they may have to deal with Dr. Computer for diagnosis, and prescriptions. My PCP belongs to a clinic which is part of a hospital, which in turn belongs to an ever-larger hospital network. Do I need to make an appointment? Ask my medical team a non-emergency question? I must log into a data base. Then I must choose from a menu, and ever more, if I need to send a message, I must do it through Grace, the database’s AI. Of course, she only understands a portion of what I’m asking, because I refuse to take my simple request down to one syllable words, with no more than four words per sentence. Eventually she gives me a command to type the word Message in the box, and then, I am given the new screen which says she will forward my message to my medical team. 

I am not fond of a lot of AI, and yet, I am very fond of some of it. I can take a picture of a duck in my pond, click on the correct button in my phone, and find out what kind of duck it is. Same with plants. And I’ve just discovered I can click on a 3D button next to my photo, a light scrolls up the picture, and voila! it’s in 3D. It’s amazing. Of course, I’m relatively confident that Auto-Correct is also AI. And we all know what I think of that, don’t we?

A friend tells me there is nothing to fear in AI, it’s only a tool. But who is using the tool? How are they using it? I just finished reading The Worlds I See: curiosity, exploration, and discovery at the dawn of AI by Dr. Fei-Fei Li, professor of computer science, Stanford University, and founding director, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI.

Li’s book is a double memoir. It is the memoir of her family coming to America from China when she was in high school, and her memoir of fascination with physics and how she became one of the movers and shakers of the founding of AI. I found it well written, riveting in the way she wrote about herself and family and seamlessly moved into school and profession. After finishing her book, I have less fear of AI, though there are some out there who would use it if given the opportunity, in nefarious ways. 

Because of the work she has done with the medical community, I think I have less fear of Dr. Computer than I may otherwise have, but my fear of Grace, and having to go through her is extant. I easily envision Grace telling me, I must allow all my information into the AI database or I cannot continue. I have no problem seeing Grace tell a patient they do not qualify to talk to Dr. Computer as they have a pre-existing condition of in-grown toenails. Dr. Computer, if one can ever get to her/him, does not have history with the patient. I well remember years ago when I told my gynecologist that I got headaches that would bring an elephant to its knees every month, and he said, “take Tylenol.” Yeah, doc, did you read my chart? I’m freaking allergic to Tylenol! (Last time I went to him.) But my PCP said, “I know you. You do not have an addictive personality. Here’s a prescription for Percodan (four pills) and Imitrex (two pills). The next time you get the headache, take an Imitrex. If not gone in 20 minutes, take the second Imitrex. If not gone in 20 minutes, take a Percodan.” Ten minutes after the second Imitrex, I nearly passed out at the sudden cessation of pain. Quickest way he’d ever found to determine if my headaches were migraines (they were) or something more testing would be needed on (not). How do you talk with a Computer?

So, in order to get your $2,000 check, how many new and existing insurance companies will send you to Dr. Computer, the only MD on their approved list at your rate of pay, who will hang up once s/he tells you to take Aspirin (I think Tylenol is on RFK’s s**t list now.) and if you call back to remind the AI that you’re allergic, or have tried it, another visit is logged against you. 

The Orange Pustule said something the other day about his moral authority being the only check on his actions he needs. Once again, I’m terrified of the hands who wields AI.

If you enjoy TED Talks, check this one out, Fei-Fei Li, AI pioneer.

And, yes, there are entertainments in AI that brings smiles. At least I think it’s AI. 

Great Blue Heron helps himself to our little frogs. Claw and beak in real time out my office window. 

What Did Sheri S. Tepper Know, and How Did She Know It?

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One of my all-time favorite books by one of my all-time favorite authors, Sheri S. Tepper, is Gate to Women’s Country.I’ve read the book at least 3 times, but it’s been a while, and have just read about it in Wikipedia and in The Big A. I can tell it is time to re-read it because the thing I remember the most, and loved the most, is the way they fought wars. Projectiles were not allowed. Warriors had to be able to look to look their opponent in the eyes as they either prepared to kill or be killed. No atlatls, no spears, no bows and arrows, no darts, no projectiles. Period.

If you gotta fight a war, do it with dignity, with respect. No missiles, no bombs, no planes, no drones. Look your intended victim in the eyes and know whose life you’re taking. Or who is taking yours.

Why am I asking this question now, after her 1988 book has been out and is still selling? Because of Keith Olbermann’s podcast on Monday 12 Jan 26. The gun part starts at 15:18. There is research out there that shows that firing in indoor situations, and firing military weapons outdoors or indoors, leaves the shooters suffering concussion-like symptoms from the repeat blast exposure.

The New York Times has an article Target Shooting Could Be Causing Brain Injuries. We Measured the Danger. By Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Dave Philipps, and Jeremy White. Cinematography by Zach Caldwell and Jonah Markowitz. A friend kindly sent me the article, to which I am paywalled from, so I could read it. Well worth reading, however you can do it.

According to the US military findings, evidence shows “that firing some military weapons can damage brain clls, and repeate 4xposure may cause permanent injuries. But there is next to no public information about the strength of the blast waves delivered by civilian firearms, or the potential hazard.” [emphasis mine] (From NYT article)

To me, the most fascinating graphic of all three articles is in the one, about 2/3-3/4 of the way down the NYT one, where the guy is firing with a heavy metal curtain behind him to visibly show the shock waves as they pass over and through the shooter. How they twist, etc. Scary. Honest. Trust me.

NPR’s article, Blasts from military weapons may injure the brain yhrough its blood vessels has different information, including the quote below.

“A blast isn’t just like a blow to the head, when it comes to brain injury.

“A head impact tends to injure structures near the surface. A blast wave keeps going.

“The result can be impaired blood flow to an area like the brain stem, which controls breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure.”

The American Brain Foundation’s article, The Hidden Impact: How Military Activity Affects Brain Healtharticle opens with: “Military activity, specifically exposure to blasts in training and combat, can have a significant impact on brain health. Ongoing research is uncovering how repeated exposure to blast waves can cause brain injuries and may be linked to cognitive decline. They can also lead to long-term effects, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and increased suicide rates among veterans.” 

I gotta admit, I love this quote from the article: “Researchers are currently exploring how to measure blast exposure and evaluate its effects on soldiers during routine training. As they learn more, the hope is to not only develop diagnostic tests and treatments for those who suffer from the long-term effects of blast waves, but also to find ways to adjust military equipment to decrease the exposure level.”  [emphasis mine] I know it’s a simplistic idea, and I’m a simplistic kinda gal, but why not get rid of the damn guns? Issue all GI’s (and cops & robbers) swords and knives. period. Or better yet, get rid of all weapons and use hand to hand martial arts combat only. Yeah! I like that idea the best. Bring Bruce Lee back!

When I was in the Washington State Air National Guard, I fired expert with the M-16 and was asked to join the Rifle Team. It was quite an honor, and I seriously considered it, until I discovered I’d have to buy my own practice ammo. That stuff’s expensive, so I regretfully declined. I don’t know if the competition meets were indoors or outdoors, but being the wimp I am, I imagine most of my target practice would have been indoors. Especially since I lived in the rainy part of the state at the time. Turns out that firing indoors is the worst possible scenario due to a number of factors, primarily the echo effect.

It isn’t the noise, it’s the blast waves. We didn’t evolve surrounded by munitions going off all the time. Our skulls are bone, are permeable to things we can’t see. So, maybe Sheri S. Tepper was truly on to something. Of course, I’m not so naïve as to think we’ll ever get rid of our guns, especially in this country. We don’t care about other people’s lives, why should we care about ours? But boy of boy, it is fun to dream.

Please, if you are a gun enthusiast, and enjoy firing, do it outside where there is a considerable drop in the amount of blast blowback, and stick to smaller weapons. And, yeah, firing is a rush of fun. Take up skeet shooting — 1. it’s an outdoor sport, 2. the longer barrel of the shotgun means less blast effect on your head, and 3. no matter how many skeets you shoot, they will never go on the endangered species list. Honest. Trust me.

In the meantime, give the GIs and the Vets you know and meet, an extra hug. Their sacrifice may be greater than they, or we, know. Especially those who no longer feel safe in a traditional home. 

Sorry, I have no photos of projectile weapons, nor of soldiers using same; however, I will share a photo I took a few days ago of some of the local Canada geese preparing to March to Pretoria. Okay, not really. The Boer War ended long before these guys were hatched, but the song is still around. Apparently, the English came up with the song as a rally for the troops marching to Pretoria, and the Boers took it up, and sang it in Afrikaans, so it was a popular song on either side of the war. Who knew? I remember singing it when I was a kidlet but haven’t a clue why. Anyhow my clueless geese, on their way to somewhere in the dawn’s early light…

Yep, there’s one in every crowd…..

Preach it, Rev. Staceypants!

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Good morning! It is cold out (30F), and dark (6:30am), and I’ve already spent a couple of hours on poetry. My computer is playing soft, ambient music, Sammy the Bravest Dog, has been out and is now back on the bed, sleeping. Sometimes, he truly acts more like a cat than a dog, but I’ve promised not to tell his union representative 😉 After all, I did ask for a cat, and got him.

I am setting a new morning habit. I now get up, turn on my computer, and put four items on my playlist. This mornings were two of Ilia Malinan skating, one mildly political (the National Opera has pulled out of The Kennedy Center Memorial), and finishing with the hours long ambient music. I am also trying to limit my news, especially political news to two days a week—Mondays and Thursdays.

Why those two days, you may be wondering? Well, it’s easy. Those are the two mornings Countdown with Keith Olbermann is on. I admit, if I see something from David Reddish, I do tend to watch it, because a) he’s cute and b) he usually has some good snark to make me laugh.

I also watch not political news, and news not laden with American Politics. you know, fun stuff like Ukrainian winning, wars, revolutions, cats, volcanoes, Don Kim upcycling old jeans into designer bags, Quilt Like an Artist, and AI stories which don’t mean to be funny but I can’t help LOLOLOLing, because they are.

I am trying to get back to writing on a regular basis, and don’t need/want all the distractions of YouTube. Well, yes, I want them, but then I don’t write. Squirrel!! And as you may have gathered, writing is hard work.

I have resigned from my volunteer work, which was not an easy decision. I miss helping people, but let’s be honest, at my age, I ain’t as young as I used to was! At least that’s what my body keeps telling me;-) That, and it’s time to act my age—where’s the fun in that?

I also need to get back to reading. Yes, I spent a year reading very little. It’s so much easier to listen to the mindless AI stories. Incidentally, the SF/F ones, especially HFY are pretty entertaining. IF you like SF/F, give them a try. But, please, I beg of you, do not leave any comments or clicks on them. Don’t help them get better or make it harder for a human writer.

Speaking of AI, a friend sent me an interesting article on X, Footprints in the Sand: The House You Thought Was Emptyby @iruletheworldmo. Or maybe @iruletheworldmo just reposted it? I don’t know, but it is an interesting, and somewhat disconcerting if not downright scary, article on AI. My cousin pointed out to me that Yuval Noah Harari has been writing articles about this for some time. Anyhow, as my friend said when he sent it, it could be written by AI for all he knows. If you can’t open it, and want to read it, please let me know.

Oh, if you haven’t yet discovered Dr. Stacey Patton, you’re in for a treat. Especially her Sunday Sermons! Yes indeedy, this old Atheist is back in the pews yellin’ Amen! and Preach it Rev Staceypants! and anything else appropriate. I think it takes a modicum of courage to read Dr. Stacey’s columns, etc., because she is not dainty, diplomatic, or quiet. She yells it as she sees it and that’s got to be hard on some readers, especially those raised white and privileged. Google her. Check her out. She’s my kinda person!!!

I’ve now read this morning’s sermon, and finished this piece. It is now 7:30am, and the cold (31F) outside my window is black and white, in another 30 minutes or so, it will be in freezing color, but it’s o’cast, and no true sunlight, yet.

And here is my photo of the week. I took it out of my office window of an afternoon a few days ago. Those are Canada Geese in the sky, coming in for a landing.

Have a Marvelous Week, remember to be grateful you’re still looking down at the grass. Remember the words of our Dalai Lama that pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. And tell someone you love them this day.

Ready or Not, 2026 is Here!

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9 January 2026

Well, this is embarrassing. I wrote a post on the first (see below) and tried to post it, and something was amiss, so I contacted my webmistress, and she got it fixed and let me know a couple days ago all was well, and I forgot to go in and post it. So, now it’s a double post.

Except this one will be extra short 😉

And I wish you all a bang-up marvelous 2026. May goodness outweigh badness to the nth degree this new year!

1 January 2026

2025 is now in our rear-view mirror! And you know what I’m thankful for? Groundhog Day, the movie, is pure fiction. Lordy, lordy, but I hate even the shivery thought of having to repeat 2025. Ever.

True, there were some good things that happened, most notable being that Saying Goodbye to Thomas (Finishing Line Press) is now published and available at your favorite bookstore. And, should you not wish to purchase from the big A, and not have a store near you or it’s too cold to go out, I suggest www.Bookshop.org. True, you’ll have to pay s/h, but not much, and a certain percentage of the purchase price goes to independent bookstores (you can even choose your favorite).

And, of course, your favorite Old Auntie survived the identity theft and resultant aches & pains—many thanks to the help of Favorite Daughter. To be honest, I’m not sure I could have survived without her help.

I did get some poetry written and published (Thank you Quill & Parchment and Dos Gatos Press). Watched way too much YouTube. Not too much on the political front, as those tend to add to the depression I’ve been fighting, and mostly winning, for the past 14 months. The new AI stories, most on revenge, and pretty funny. The stories, the obvious lack of I in the AI, especially the so-called military ones. No, I do not leave comments, nor click on them. I’m pretty sure many of them are out of China, but if you listen, you can tell they’re AI. Maybe A+ would be a better descriptor? A-?? Also one of the ways to tell if the news you’re watching by your favorite pundit is really Pundit or A+/-. Listen. You’ll know.

On 1 June 2018, I welcomed a rescue large Chihuahua named Sammy, into my life. He was literally afraid of his own shadow, of dead, dried, zombie leaves that ran at him to eat puppy brains, any other human that spoke to him, dogs on leashes, ducks on his sidewalk, thunder terrified him, as well as fireworks. With thunder, he becomes highly (lowly? his legs are pretty short??) agitated, and he jumps off the bed, goes under the bed, then back on the bed, and repeats until the offending sounds finally quit. I changed his name to Sammy Brave Dog, hoping it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Last night, New Year’s Eve, the fireworks started somewhere around midnight (I assume) and I braced to become his launchpad off the bed to the floor when he nosed his way under the blankets and snuggled next to me, and didn’t so much as shiver or shake the rest of the night. In checking my smart watch, I see I was awake for a little over an hour roughly between midnight and 1:10am. When the fireworks were going off. And my puppy slept through it!!! 

And the zombie puppy-brain-eating-leaves that attack him at the whim of the wind? For the most part, he now just raises is back leg and tells them who the boss is!

While visiting a friend the other day, I was struck by a black/white photo of a white wolf in snow, on her wall. The outline was there, but it was almost all white except the eyes and nose. So, I came home and started playing with my camera and my mini-wolf. He is an extremely shy dog, but here are a couple photos, one as he looks, and the other in my feeble attempt to make him a white wolf. 

Sammy Brave Dog as he is.

Sammy Brave Wolf as he thinks he is.