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Practice Makes Perfect
I fully expected to get a lot of writing done over the long weekend. With my partner being out of town and a rainy forecast, I hoped to make significant forward progress on Addicted, my first work of fiction. Unfortunately, aside from a few new posts here on the blog, I haven’t gotten any writing…
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A Cursed Labor Day Vacation
My partner’s dad recently purchased a house on Panama City Beach. For the long weekend, he decided to go down for a little rest and relaxation and to check out the new digs. Mostly because my writer’s group meets today, I opted to stay home. We knew the tropical depression that would become Tropical Storm…
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Hypocrisy in Action
The selection of Chaz Bono as a contestant has certainly generated a lot of buzz about the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars. In case you’ve been sleeping under a rock, Chaz underwent female-to-male gender transition a few years ago. For the totally clueless, his parents are Sonny Bono and Cher. Conservative religious groups…
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Vern & Peggy
Over the weekend I noticed our internet connection had slowed to near dial-up speed. Dripping faucets, cabinets that won’t quite close, and cobwebs along the edge of our fourteen foot ceilings I can live with. But given the amount of time I spend online, a slow internet connection required immediate action. First I rebooted the…
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Southern Food
You hear a lot about Southern cooking. Having spent a few months in North Carolina shortly after I was born, more than three decades in Kentucky, a year and a half in Washington DC, and nearly fifteen years now in Athens, I’ve lived in the South my entire life. I’m no expert, but I do…
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The Last Square
We’re used to seeing sizes shrink so the manufacturer can avoid a price increase. A pound of coffee becomes thirteen ounces, a box contains a few ounces less cereal than before, and a half-gallon of ice cream is now only one and one-half quarts. The price stays the same, but we’re getting less for our…
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Things I Would Do Over
For better or worse, the things I’ve done (both good and bad) have shaped me into the person I am today. While far from perfect, my life has turned out pretty good and certainly much better than I ever expected. In fact, those who know my story consider the fact I’m even alive today to…
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My Retirement Roller Coaster
After finishing college and launching my career, retirement seemed like an impossible dream. Work was my life sentence for a frivolous youth and a mountain of credit card and student loan debt. Any money I could set aside was more likely to be needed for a casket and burial plot than a condo in a…
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Disincentives
I was thrilled on weigh-in day this week to see I’d lost another pound. My delight was short-lived. My bubble burst when I discovered my daily point allowance had dropped another point. Compared with the women I know on Weight Watchers, I can’t complain. I still get 43 points per day, plus 49 extra points…
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Walk a Mile in My Shoes
Today I was re-reading an e-mail I received several months back from a devout Evangelical Christian. We first met many years ago when we were both unaware of a central fact of our existence. She wasn’t yet religious and I had no idea I was gay. She is a few years older than me–a difference…