The Blog: Spellbound by our own imperfect lives...

We have survived winter, as Minnesotans are wont to do and now we are enduring the coldest, windiest, shittiest spring of the past hundred years. I looked at the forecast and there is no sun predicted for two weeks. This unfortunate turn of events is impinging on my ability to enjoy spring. I wore sandals one time and nearly froze my toes. Yesterday I wore a parka to the dog park. It's inhumane. I have had some issues again with sleeping. I was so sleepy when I got home from work yesterday that I took a two hour nap. I was sleeping so hard (again) that when Regis woke me, I barely knew where I was. Of course, I wasn't ready to go to bed at my normal bedtime and stayed up watching Bridgerton. Nothing against it if it's your thing but I thought it was like a romance novel for television. I watched two and a half episodes and that's enough. I'm calling my doctor today and requesting a change in dosage of the medication that I think is causing the sleep issues. I am try

 I took a trip to visit mom on Tuesday. Of course, it's so late into the spring that a guy shouldn't have to worry about road conditions and I didn't. I did, however, worry about my drowsiness on the road. I stopped once to eat a couple tacos then I had to stop in the next town to take a short nap. It was so gloomy, the sky was gray, the landscape was gray, and it was misty raining...did not make for an energizing mood. We had a nice visit. A couple of mom's friends came for dinner on Wednesday evening. We talked about dogs, cats, insects, gardening, health, books, movies...it was very entertaining and energizing. Mom and her friends make me look forward to getting older. I came back Thursday afternoon. I picked up Tiffany and Elliot for a spaghetti fundraiser in Mankato at 5. Good time and so nice to be able to gather in public again. The next day I found out that two of my brothers have COVID. Thankfully they are vaccinated and are not so far suffering any terrible ef

 In case you don't remember, I once dreamed that I wrote a book called The Party What Started Out as Jumpin' Around.  This month, I'm trying to win a t-shirt from the band The Jimmys by sharing the most of their posts. I know it doesn't seem like the two are connected, but they are. So, there you go. See The Jimmys if you get a chance. I'm getting ready to take a road trip to see Mom. I had a lot of things I wanted to do before I leave but I have decided to forego most of them. I'll be back on Thursday. Regis downloaded Martha Wainwright's new book for me to listen to while I'm on the road so I'm looking forward to that. Think I'll make a ham sandwich for the road. Still cold and blustery here. I'm not even tempted to start anything in the yard. It's a pitiful place with no bird feeders or the baths due to the avian virus. One expert said we may only have to do it for a month or so. Better get on the road.

If I had hopes that today would be warmer, they have been dashed by a quick glance at the Weather Channel app. High of 37 degrees with continued wind but not as strong as yesterday. I think any loose detritus from Nicollet County has since blown on to Mower County. Only the really heavy stuff remains.  I think I'll dress warmly and go for a walk down by my neighborhood pond called Hallett's Pond, allegedly the home of a pair of loons and occasional stopping off point for eagles. I have been a complete worthless slug this week. I blame it on the weather but also on a medication change but whatever, it's left me dozing in the chair for hours and once for a whole day. I felt like I'd been pithed. I have accomplished the bare minimum but that's it. My planned Easter cookies might have to become the cookies for whatever the next holiday is. I'm good at adjusting my plans. I'm going to take my ukulele to work today so I can practice when there isn't anyone in

 You'll have to go back and read the first posts from October of 2006 if you want to know how my blog got the ridiculous name Buns of Stone. I've decided to revive the blog and it's involved a fight with the corporate vultures at Google. I'm not sure anybody wants the whole story so let's just say for now that I have given up my custom domain name because who wants to pay a non-refundable broker's fee to find out IF Google wants to sell my custom domain name (which they stole) back to me for some unnamed amount of money. F that.   I'm going to be working on my blogger chops for a while so there may be randomly inserted photos, quotes, charts, and maps as I remember how to do things. Old dogs, new tricks. When I started this blog, Facebook didn't exist so this was my only platform for over-sharing. Haha! I don't use Instagram, Tik Tok, Reels, Twitter or any of the other social media so it will just be figuring out what goes on Facebook and what goes

 I haven't written on my blog much for a long time. Some observations about that. Things got difficult for me in 2016. The political climate and how it impacted my relationships was staggering. I know people who say they don't pay attention to it, but I couldn't do that. It was like someone had pulled the rug from beneath my feet. I managed to keep my head above water by being obsessive about the news. I would wake up at night to check Twitter and make sure that bombs hadn't been detonated, the rivers hadn't overflowed their banks, and the sky hadn't suddenly disappeared. In retrospect, this wasn't healthy but I did what I could at the time. I spent a lot of time in my chair, watching the news. Constantly watching the news. It was hard on my physical health even though I did manage to continue working with a trainer at the gym. I even worked, by distance learning, to earn a license as a trainer for senior folks in their own homes. I finished that program in