An ornament featuring a cat wearing a Santa hat.

Merry Christmas to All – My Christmas Poem

I published my take on ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas in 2012. As we head into a short holiday break, I decided to rerun it because a) I still believe in the message (LOL) and b) when I was a kid, I wrote poetry all the time. Family and friends got poems in their Christmas and Birthday cards. I think I could have been Weird Alina if I’d put my mind to it. Anyway, please enjoy and we shall reconvene here in 2024!

30-pack of Old Dutch potato chips

When Chips Off the Old Block are Potato Chips

My general disdain for billionaires who stay billionaires is well documented on this site. It’s not the accumulation of wealth that bothers me. It’s hanging onto that wealth while so many suffer. We’re all spinning on this big blue ball together. If we have the means, and don’t bother to help each other, then what’s it all about?

black meme with writing that reads: How to support small businesses after Black Friday? Small Business Saturday.

What the Dickens is Up With Small Business Saturday

We sometimes buy things from Amazon. I shop at a couple of online grocers who carry specialty items I can’t get from anyone near me. We are not perfect beings and I despise helping a billionaire like Jeff Bezos get richer. But Amazon didn’t become the monolith it is without doing a few things right.

Close-up of Kendra smiling. She has long blond hair and is wearing pink

A Late-Runner Embraces the Early Side of Life

Please meet our friend Kendra. She and her husband Tim live in Arkansas and we’ve been to see them exactly once. (Derek’s been there a few times on motorcycle trips with buddies.) I won’t share her life story here, because it’s not mine to tell. But let me assure you that she has overcome a lot of major obstacles in her life. So has Tim, for that matter.

person injecting a red apple by using a syringe

Old Friends Acting Our Age

Derek has a weekly breakfast with a bunch of guys he’s known since high school. One of them just had a pacemaker installed. Another, an emergency appendectomy. Still another will have to lie face down for weeks – WEEKS – after eye surgery to repair a detached retina. Four people we know have COVID-19. And all of this happened within the last week.