Episode #285: You Lie Like A Puddy Tat!

Taken in early July during my one, and it seems to be my only hike, up to the proverbial top of Cedar Mountain. I say "only" because I heard a rumor that a homeless person made themselves home in the back end of the closed Cedarcrest hospital near the fenced off area of the mountain.

There are very few words/phrases that can immediately change the direction of a given conversation/situation, whether in fiction or in real life, the moment they are uttered.

For example, "no", is a complete sentence that always changes the course of a given conversation/situation. Same goes for the "F"-bomb (there's a popular meme that periodically makes an appearance that describe all the wonderful ways grammatically it can be used (e.g. noun, verb, adjective, etc).

But my favorite phrase that I love to use for a given scene in a story is but two words in length, which can be divided into two sentences that can instantly change the direction/tone of a scene in a myriad of ways is, "you lied". Or as I often like to use it, "You. Lied."

I absolutely adore that nifty two word sentence because of the way it can be weaponized to move a story along in ways that can be totally unexpected. But, I never had to use it in real life, because unlike using it in fiction, there can be actual consequences when you use it in real life.

Until now.

As most of you know, I can be quite provocative with my blog posts, sometimes to the point where in 2021 I caused a rule change in my now former FB writing group after posting it (it was political in nature). So from 2021 until now, I had refrained from writing anything political, on any level (local/state/federal) on my blog. But I was inspired to write last week's post about the US Constitution, so because I used my former writer's group to post weekly blog links, I checked two days prior to writing with the admins for what kind of parameters would be required to post it.

I spend the day conversing with one of the admins (he lived in the UK, so five hour time difference) and hammered out what I thought was a solid compromise: direct people to my profile for the post in question. For an added bonus, I posted a link to an 8 year old blog post from one of my previous blogs.

So I post the link and directed people to my profile and all is good. Right?

Wrong. I come back three hours later to find my blog post gone. I eventually find it a queue for admin approval, which really annoyed me, because I had no DM telling me that my post was pulled. So naturally I came to the logical conclusion that I was lied to. Or in modern parlance, gaslighted. And as an added bonus, when I decided to make my annoyance known prior to leaving (after deleting the post in question), I found that my post was put into the queue for admin approval as well.

So not only was my post pulled AFTER getting approval for it, I was suspended (at least it seemed that way to me) and no one was going to clue me in as to why I was suspended or why my blog post was pulled for approval after receiving approval nor why my last post complaining about their censorship needed approval. In fact, as of the date of this post, no one has reached out to me from that writer's group to explain their actions.

As most of you know, I have major issues in being censored/lied to for/about my writing(s) over the years, both in the digital world and the real world, so I have a tendency to get quite upset when people choose to shoot first and ask questions later.

In the short term, I am looking for another writer's group in which to participate, one that is consistent on having sensible rules, with the occasional exception, as well as being honest about what they say. In the long term, while I haven't burnt any bridges with the half dozen friends that I have acquired through that group, I am being careful on how I go about broaching this particular issue with them.

Presently, that scene from the original Star Trek show, where Kirk says to Norman that whatever Harry Mudd says is a lie. Harry Mudd proceeds to say to Norman, "I lie". Norman ultimately cannot reconcile what Kirk said and what Harry Mudd had said and blows a chip, is how last week has gone in regards to my blogging.

Here's to telling the truth and learning how to say "no" without being wishy-washy about it.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #280: Is My Inertia That Blatantly Obvious?

This is about the only real selfie that you will see on any of the social media platforms that I use. This was taken between 2004 and 2013, as this was used on my very first blog "Cedar's Mountain" (you can find the link in one of the tabs above this post).

Before I get into the topic at hand, I want to make an observation: does anyone find it how remarkably obtuse some spammers can be when they ignore a caption that states comment moderation is enabled and post just the same? You would think that they would program their bots to ignore blogs/websites that have that policy enacted and just hit the ones that don't moderate. Right?

Back to the topic at hand: Inertia.

For the past month, I've been pretty much stuck in a holding pattern with publishing my upcoming novella. I was becoming so afraid of pulling the trigger (aka severely third guessing myself), so I started doing all kinds of things to avoid pulling that trigger. Things like:

1} Getting the short story bug and writing almost one dozen stories for maybe a short story collection in the future, although one of them is calling out to me saying "expand me to a novella", and I may do just that in the future, as soon as I can figure out how to work in that short story.

2} Beefing up my c.d. collection. I've temporarily stopped purchasing music from Amazon, and not because of some altruistic vibe of shopping locally, but simply because current life events have dictated that my frivolous Amazon spending be directed to non-frivolous Amazon spending.

But I did shop locally, as in I supported my public library by purchasing gently used c.d.'s (most of which were $1). I'm always of the opinion that used c.d.'s are the way to go if you're intrigued about a particular artist, past or present, but not intrigued enough to drop $10-$20 on a new c.d. in order to satiate that need.

3} Beefing up my DVD collection. Most of the DVD's that I've purchased came to my attention directly due to pay-cable t.v (e.g. HBO, Showtime, Encore) going through spurts of overplaying movies for a couple of months to gin up interest before taking them out of rotation (before the advent of streaming, most of the major pay movie channels had over a half dozen offspring that required content)

The movies listed are ones that I did not see first run, but saw on cable, which due to overplaying, got me hooked: Quigley Down Under (cool western featuring Tom Selleck); The Shawshank Redemption; Kung Fu Hustle (The gentleman who did the fight choreography for Crouching Tiger and The Matrix did it for this one); Falling Down (in my opinion, a truly underappreciated Michael Douglas film. Fun fact, it was filmed during the King riots of '92); Major League: Back To The Minors (fun fact, the Buzz are based on the real AAA team, the Salt Lake City Bees); and everyone's favorite spaghetti western: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

And finally, 4} re-re-editing a previously published novella. Or, that was the basic idea. Two years is a long time to go from not appreciating the original rewrite (went from the normal 3rd person/past tense to 1st person present tense) to having serious thoughts of leaving the bulk of it alone and just perform some continuity tweaks.

The short version, I have a previously published novella, A Taste of Pain, that ultimately I was not happy with the end product in a myriad of ways. In short, it should've been published as an e-book exclusive, without all of the fluff at the end (e.g. chapter samples of two other books to pad out the page count), which is one thing I'm giving serious thought to. But in regards to leaving it alone, after sitting down with the intent of re-re-editing it back to a traditional voice*, after tackling the first couple of chapters I came to the sobering thought that this story was flowing pretty good in 1st person/present tense view. Like it was a lot more personal/intense in that particular viewpoint than others.

*3rd person/past tense is usually the traditional method. But let me warn everyone, I've actually written stories in all three voices, because you know, I like to challenge myself.

The good news to all of this, is that the reason for the inertia has fundamentally changed. The original reason of being afraid to pull the trigger (my choice) has been replaced by simply waiting to receive the first version of a book cover. Only when I approve the cover for the e-book will the book formatter be able to start the process on their end. Until then, the inertia remains stuck in the same holding pattern, yet now, it's not by choice.

Contentment is a concept that has numerous paths to explore and no single path is the actual chosen one.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #276: I Don't Really Want To Know...

You know your week has gone from the frying pan into a mud puddle when you can't even come up with a decent backstory for the picture that graces your blog post.

How bad has my week been?

Well....it has taken me about a week and a half to determine, with the help of my ISP, that my Chromebook has a bad hardware problem with the network. Which means that the EOL has come one year earlier than expected.

Ultimately, we persevered, as by the time this post has hit your feed (either RSS or Facebook), we will have our new computer up and running (EOL date is about this time in 2032).

With that being said, the reality of this post is that there's no real topic to opine about beyond the computer issues mentioned previously. The one silver lining (or bronze lining depending on what your opinion is of Alphabet Inc.) is that none of what I have is tied to Windows, which means that in a pinch I can access what I got via my smartphone.

Having redundantly restated my previous statement, I think the best thing I can do right now, is to link up to an old blog post from one of my archival blogs. I got at least five to play with, four if you disregard the adult oriented blog, with a blog post count in the excess of 1,200.

So please peruse this short post from one my old blog's called Father Nature's Corner, which was active in the early 2010's. The topic of choice is how/where I purchase my music from. A couple of things that you should be made aware that are contained in this nearly nine year old post.

1. The link for the blog "I Are Writer" does not exist. At one point I had a Tumblr blog to post my musings, which lasted less than a year before I decided to nuke that blog to infinity and beyond.
2. I'm pretty sure that this post was written in between a couple of retail apocalypses, so there are references to retail stores that have sadly gone to retail heaven.
3. My c.d. count from that post has grown by 25% since 2016.

Beyond those three notes, please enjoy that short post on my musical tastes and hopefully by next Monday, I should be back to my old self.

I sincerely hope that your past week has gone much better than my past week and I also hope that your current week is going lights-out fantastic.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #270: Censorship 2.025

This pic, while holiday themed, accurately describes my state of being right now. The implied caption will, we hope, become apparent by the end of this blog post.

Today's socialized media makes it very tough to be a centrist kind of person, as being a centrist often makes people assume that your personal beliefs are toxic. This viewpoint is often badly magnified when the cyberspace that you dabble in often espouses beliefs that you have serious issues with.

As the majority of you undoubtedly know, I keep my personal views tightly concealed from those that I do not know. Because of this, I often have to censor what I say in certain public forums, like socialized media. That's a fact of my life.

Digital self-censorship is often a triple edged sword for me. I've been blogging for over 16 years, and at first, I had no problem voicing my opinion on numerous hot button topics and I was of the mindset of, "no one is forcing you to read me, so you can leave if you want to."

But now, in 2025, I don't have the readership that I used to {blogging really isn't the be all to end all anymore}, and since I post my blog links on one of the other two socialized media platforms I partake in with regularity, I now have to be very careful on what I opine on in my blog because someone could take hysterical hostile offense on my viewpoint, which would be detrimental to my digital well being.

That doesn't mean that I will not opine on issues that I care about, but I keep those opinions strictly to commercial oriented forums {e.g. news, pop culture and sports} where I can get into (mostly) sane debates about topics. It also doesn't mean that I will simply ignore what other people might have an overly strong opinion about. I have, very recently, culled/lessened my interaction with certain individuals because their opinions about certain things have...drifted, for lack of a better word.

As I stated previously, nobody is forcing me to read/listen to anything that anyone else says that I disagree with. I simply ignore and continue with my day. Especially at my age {60} where I have more than average understanding of the world around me.

Now I'm pretty sure at this point, you're wondering why I'm talking about self-censorship yet again. In order for you, dear reader, to have a better understanding of this post and the picture up above, a short info dump is required. I live in one of six deep turquoise blue states that make up New England. In fact, my home state of Connecticut is battling with Massachusetts on who should become California 2.0.

With all what you know about Blue States, your educated guess about what topic I might want to opine about would be true. If I was to write about a certain topic, one definite outcome and two probable outcomes are likely.

1} I would not be able to post the blog link to my local writer's group, as I'm the direct cause of a rule change instituted in 2021. Thus, those random eyes would not be able to easily visit my blog post.

2} I'm trying to build some interactions with my author's page on FB. Posting it there might generate some unwarranted backlash because, to be fair, those who write tend to lean 180 degrees left on social issues, and aren't that open minded about opposing viewpoints. At all.

3} My own personal page, while centrist by nature, tends to stay in my very narrow bicycle lane and only ramble on topics that slices of life and/or topics I have personal working knowledge of {e.g. public sector employment/unions}. If I were to post a link to a hot-button blog post, I could very well get some unwanted static, and I really don't need that in my life anymore.

Ultimately, this is why you're getting a post about self-censorship instead of the topic I most dearly want to write about. Like I stated in an earlier post, sometimes we have to do things that we personally do not like, in order to keep and incrementally build on what we currently have.

And with that being said, please enjoy this best of SpongeBob's "I'm Ready!" manifesto.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #265: It's Never Simple!

Harbinger of what we hope will be a pleasant Spring 2025.

The title of this week's blog post was a favorite saying of a wonderful old supervisor of mine back when I was a newbie state employee in the late 90's. She would often utter this phrase whenever she came across a particularly annoying government rule that was explicitly designed to make something 10 times more difficult to complete than it needed to be.

I found myself thinking about that particular phrase when I was trying to come up with something to write about this week {fun fact: this year marks my 17th consecutive year as a blogger, having started in 2008}, and after pondering about during a Saturday evening nap, I realize that blogging is painfully similar to writing a novel.

Point A: Trying to come up with a topic (blog) or an idea for a story (writing). Both have a gestation period, but a blog's, due to circumstances, is the equivalent of the lifespan of a house fly; while a story idea's gestation period is the equivalent of the lifespan of a fruit fly.

Point B: Fleshing out a blog post to the exact point where it can keep a reader engaged is a tricky endeavor, since if you make it too long, people will step out and not finish reading it. Make it too short and people will get the idea that you write clickbait; while fleshing out a story idea is an easier endeavor, in that the only limit you have is your preferred production type (e.g. short story, flash, novella).

Point C: Engaging the reader. A blog post, above all else, must engage the reader in a topic that they would want to know more of, in some particular way. Make it too esoteric, and you'll attract a minuscule fraction of the actual audience you want; on the other hand, a story idea often has a built in audience to begin with, and it often boils down on how you wish to expand and expound upon said idea in order to keep that built in audience engaged.

Point D: Offensiveness. Obviously, you have to tread a very fine line of a hair follicle when it comes to writing a blog post, with the main reason being is that you run the very real risk of alienating part of your audience if you write about a hot-button issue (politics for example) in specific terms rather than general terms (national politics vs local/state); a story idea is the complete opposite, in that while you may alienate some with the way you expand/expound on your story idea, the bulk of your audience with not be alienated.

Point E: Well, I don't really think there's a fifth point to be had, as I basically covered the four main differences between blogging and writing. 

However, in summation, it's never simple when it comes to blogging, because if you make a direct comparison to writing, blogging has way more rules that you have to perpetually navigate on a (in my case) weekly basis, whereas when it comes to story writing, the only rules that you have to navigate are those in your chosen length and genre. 

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #252: Where Oh Where, Are My Blog Words?

We all need a little flashback to warmer times right now, and Happy little flowers can often bring the warm fuzzies to lighten the mood.

About once about every five months, I open up a blank blog screen, only to find myself staring at said screen and thinking to myself, "And I am here because....why?"

Which as a person who dabbles with the various parts of grammar is not a good question to ask myself. So when I sat down in front of the computer, and asked myself that very exact question, I knew a micro-second later that this was going to be ONE OF THOSE POSTS. The kind of post that starts off with good intentions but immediately pivots to being exactly like a t.v. series that jumps the shark when it comes up with a dream sequence that immediately wipes out the previous season's plots.

So the first thing I did (unnaturally for me) was to stare at my vast record collection to see anything popped out to me for a topic. Unfortunately, beyond noticing that I have several Jim Reeves records, nothing jumpstarted my brain cells. So we continued with our mental wandering to see what else could jumpstart my brain cells.

I briefly thought about giving a writing update, but instead I began ruminating about what kind of contract I would enforce on anyone who would want to option the movie rights to my series (you can spurt your liquid refreshment at the computer screen now). T.L.;D.R.: my series actually checks off a multitude of very important identity boxes in order to be given proper consideration for dipping into the cesspool of Hollywood.

So, after making that right turn at Truth or Consequences, we continued on our vainglorious journey for a writing topic. We briefly stopped at the music depot, to see what kind of topics, if any, they had for sale, but alas poor Yorrick, I knew him Horatio. So we stepped out of the music depot and thought about going to Homeless Depot or the railroad depot, but instead we made a stop at the mail depot.

Unfortunately, beyond getting a very thick guidebook to....drum roll please....MEDICARE! and griping about lost mail (that's a mind-numbing story within itself) and T-Mobile (another mind-numbing story within itself), nothing of any political import was to be had. So, yikes! and away we went to trample through the forest with our band of stoic manly men.

After trampling with my band of stoic manly men, we decided to exit the forest with blisters on my fingers and bunions on my toes in order to continue my search for a blog topic. Now if you've made this far and you're scratching your head wondering just exactly what the blog topic is and where are my blog words, let me tell you my dirty little secret.

To borrow from Jerry Seinfeld, this blog post is about absolutely nothing. Buuuuuut, it's a nothing that managed to bring a smile to your tired face on this mediocre Monday morning, because my friends, you read a post about nothing in particular. Unless you count someone dropping over a dozen pop culture references to be actually something, then you read a post about something.

Either way, you found a way to occupy anywhere from sixty seconds to one-hundred five seconds of your day absorbing a piece of fiction that contained absolutely nothing of import. Which means that my job is done here until next Monday, when we get to do this all over again not live in front of the studio audience, but via the compact disc. Or cassette, depending on what decade I would like to briefly reside in.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #245: Where Oh Where Are My Ideas?

Decided to do one last quasi-hike/walk up the mountain this past Saturday {10/19}, which included a closed side street that was recently shorn of vegetation by Eversource so that they could safely access the power lines. Was able to take almost a half dozen pictures of a seldom seen part of the mountain, including this nifty fall foliage scene crackling with sunlight.

This post is my semi-monthly to monthly two-fer, in which you get random thoughts here and pictures over at that resurrected picture blog of mine, Pictures For Smarties!

Random thoughts

Had a brief writing related reality check when I suddenly had a full barrel of fish, a rod and reel and no fish caught. In other words, no ideas on what to write for a blog post.

I mean, I could give a writing update, but frankly, how many times can I say, "I'm in the home stretch and I have just a few more chapters to go!", before it starts sounding painfully redundant?

"I'm in the home stretch and I have just a few more chapters to go!"

 But, as they say, inspiration comes from the oddest of places, which in today's skewered world is Face-planting my Book. A FB friend of mine made a comment about Mondays being a drag, which triggered a tangent based on that troublesome day of the week. Fortunately enough for everyone else, I had enough presence of mind not to continue because I still don't quite know how they take my quirky sense of humor. So keep your eyes peeled for a very odd post about that troublesome day of the week, done in the form of...well, I'll let you both be surprised and be the judge.

So, this post is short on brevity and short on word salad. Have an enjoyable Monday, because the world indeed does revolve around you. Oh and in case you're below the age of say 50 and haven't watched the golden years of 70's television, part of my blog title refers to this nifty song.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #242: We Haz Scribbles And Pictures!

The sun was looking especially inviting the day after the rainstorm the prior weekend to this post, so I took a few dozen steps inside for a few pics. Not quite Autumn in this part of New England yet.

This post will be a short two-fer, in that part one is a brief writing update, while part two will be linking up to my picture blog.

Here is part the 1st: the writing update.

Sometimes doing the most mundane things in life often can be the impetus to working out a satisfactory conclusion to a thorny issue. Which in this case is something that I've recently written about here a few weeks ago: a title. 

But, first things first. We are now into the home stretch of completing our four part lo-fantasy series, in that the final confrontation will be commencing very soon, which I hope will tie up at least a half dozen plot lines to a satisfactory conclusion.

We are currently sitting at 102 total chapters, of which 101 have been transcribed, totaling 494,751 words. Now before you act on the popular acronym of WTF?!, let me enlighten you on something: those chapters will be properly broken down to the appropriate volumes once I go through the initial round of edits, because there is no way that particular numbering will stay exactly like that. I may be a bit eccentric with my writing, but not that eccentric.

Now, onto the other issue, the title. As I hinted at, the mundane thing I was performing was one of my twice daily walks while listening to podcasts. Sometimes, when I'm listening to a topic that doesn't quite keep my short attention span occupied, my mind will wander about on the inside. That wandering about eventually came up with a base title for my series: Sister vs Sister.

Now I know it sounds cliche, but when you boil down all of the plotlines contained within, it basically comes out to two sisters, one that knows the other exists while the other doesn't know she has a sister, battling over the possession of one sister's husband.

So, this overall title actually completes my title search, as I had already come up with the titles for the remaining four books: The Kidnapping, The Campsite, The Retrieval I and the Retrieval II {although the last two are not quite set in stone just yet}.

And now for part the 2nd, pictures.

I've decided to make my picture blog into a bi-monthly occurrence, as it gives me something lighthearted and fun to do with all the pictures that I got hanging around on Google. This particular post deals with the theme of All Hallow's Eve, so I sincerely hope you take a short stroll over to my picture blog to check it out.

Pictures For Smarties!

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #239: The Return Of The....Picture Blog!

Back in the day, during the fertile time period of my blogging {mid-2010's}, I decided to create a picture blog. I had recently become enamored with basic point/shoot photography {aka disposable cameras}, so I decided to create a picture blog called Pictures For Smarties! It functioned quite well for a short number of years, 2010-16, before I decided to move on to other things. 

The reason for giving everyone the very abbreviated back story is two fold: one, I need to publish a blog post and two, my brain decided to take an involuntary thinking break as it applies to blogging.

In regards to the latter, we originally came up with three topics to write about. The first was another deep dive into my writing process, but after two pages in, I realized that I had covered the topic in other blog posts, so it was becoming blatantly redundant; the second topic was to riff on a previous blog post about my muse, but after writing just the title on a sheet of blank notebook paper, my muse hit me {gently} with a cat o'nine tails and stated very succinctly that this would work better as a short story. I agreed, so I wrote a sticky and put it with a folder of other potential short story ideas; the third topic was to do a "abnormal review" but I quickly shot it down the moment I wrote Abnormal Review on the paper.

The next day, while munching on breakfast, the idea of resurrecting my picture blog, at least for this week, was looking very, very feasible. I had accumulated a lot of random slice-of-life pics, and using them for an emergency blog post such as this one, made a lot of sense.

So, without further ado and after a nearly 8 year hiatus, I bring to you a fresh new post from my picture blog, and depending on the response I receive, I may add a few more to the mix in the coming weeks/months.

Pictures For Smarties!

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #221: More Ye Olden E-Mail Humors

Another good sign that Spring has sprung...Flowers!

Having no real idea on what to blog about this week (well, actually I do have one, but I'm certainly not in the mood to inflict my whining on my readers), I thought I would trip down my work memory lane and dig out a 15 1/2 year old e-mail to share.

Now I'm going to tweak a key word here, because I don't quite remember if I had posted this in a previous blog of mine or not. Also, I just realized that tweaking that one word will probably give everyone conniption fits afterwards. Enjoy!

Because I'm A Woman!

1} Because I'm a woman: when I lock my keys in the car, I will fiddle with a coat hanger long after hypothermia has set it. Calling AAA is not an option. I will win.

2} Because I'm a woman: when the car isn't running very well, I will pop the hood and stare at the engine as if I know what I'm looking at. If another woman shows up, one of us will say to the other, "I used to be able to fix these things, but now with all these computers and everything, I wouldn't know where to start." We will then drink a couple of White Claws and break wind as a form of holy communion.

3} Because I'm a woman: when I catch a cold, I need someone to bring me soup and take care of me while I lie in bed and moan. You're a man. You never get as sick as I do, so for you, this is no problem.

4} Because I'm a woman: I can be relied upon to purchase basic groceries at the store, like wine, milk or bread. I cannot be expected to find exotic things like 'cumin' or 'tofu'. For all I know, these are the same thing.

5} Because I'm a woman: when one of our appliances stops working, I will insist on taking it apart, despite evidence that this will just cost me twice as much once the repair person gets here and has to put it back together.

6} Because I'm a woman: I must hold the television remote control in my hand while I watch t.v. If the thing has been misplaced, I may miss a whole show looking for it...though one time I was able to survive by holding a calculator.

7} Because I'm a woman: there is no need to ask me what I'm thinking about. The true answer is always either sex, cars, sex, food. I have to make up something else when you ask, so don't ask.

8} Because I'm a woman: I do not want to visit your mother, or have your mother come visit us, or talk to her when she calls, or think about her any more than I have to. Whatever you got for Mother's Day is okay. I don't need to see it. And don't forget to pick something up for my mother too.

9} Because I'm a woman: you don't have to ask me if I liked the movie. Chances are, if you're crying at the end of it, I didn't....and if you are feeling amorous afterwards....then I will certainly at least remember the name and recommend it to others.

10} Because I'm a woman: I think what you're wearing is fine. I thought what you were wearing five minutes ago was fine too. Either pair of shoes is fine. With the belt or without it, looks fine. Your hair is fine. You look fine. Can we just go now?

11} Because I'm a woman: and this is, after all, the year 2024, I will share equally in the housework. You just do the laundry, cooking, the cleaning, the vacuuming, and the dishes, and I'll do the rest.....Like wandering around in the garden with a glass of Chablis wondering what to do.

This has been a public service message for men to better understand women.

Here's to a fantastic Monday and a fantabulous rest of your week.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #212: Housecleaning!

My late cat Holly, who was truly one of a kind, and has a place of honor in being my avatar for all things Google (blog, computer, YouTube, and Google Accounts for my Motorola smartie-phone).

And I bet you're wondering good old G.B. is posting twice in one week, and on Leap Day to boot. Well, as the title of this post blithely states, I have performed a bit of housecleaning.

Specifically, my book blog.

Since I have a new book coming out this spring, it would make sense to some much needed updating to the book blog, which hasn't been touched since 2021.

In short, we created new pages for most of the books that I have out, along with one simple blog post to greet all visitors. As things slowly progress with my writing, more pages will be added. 

So please let me know what you think about the new and improved book blog/store. I did keep the same blog theme, so the only changes made were: the nuking of all previous posts (aka reverting to draft) and the addition/subtraction of pages.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #203: A Holiday Break

I is exhausted and I think that shot of Tequila is doing wonders for my state of being.

Merry Christmas to one and all, and will see you on New Year's Eve.

Now, if only that pile of wet leaves weren't so wet.....

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #199: Please Wait, Your Call Is Very (Non)Important To Us

For those of you who may not have seen a pic of my daughter in quite some time, this is her, a soon-to-be Summer 2024 University graduate with an undergraduate degree in neuro-science. Very, very proud of her and her accomplishments in the medical field.

With the parental bragging now out of the way, on to the topic at hand: waiting.

I know this doesn't sound like much of a topic to expound and expand on, but have you ever had a week that was basically spent just....waiting. Waiting for someone to get back to you. Waiting for inspiration. Waiting for a train. Waiting for Calgon to take you away. You know, waiting is the hardest part of life.

I had such a week like that. Just spent it...waiting. Normally I'm not a very patient man (having grown up in a household that does not value punctuality has made me become OCD when it comes to time as an adult), but I have mellowed out over the years. Nowadays, I simply try to play the long game with my patience. If I need something really bad, and it's from a person/business that normally is very good about getting it done in a timely manner, I'll be an adult and wait. It's not like I actually have somewhere to be. I'm retired, where am I gonna go?

So, we spent a week being a redundant clock-watcher: sleep, eat, walk, write, walk, eat, write, run errands, computer, sleep. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. I mean, not even doing a deep rabbit hole dive down YouTube was enough to keep me occupied (and if you know what kind of legitimately odd YT content that I sometimes watch, that statement would make you say, "d@mn!") during the week. Nor changing up how I answer the phone was doing it for me.

Note: I now answer the phone like Sherman from Mr. Peabody's Improbable History and tell the people on the other end I'm a tween. If I can get them to stay longer, I'll ask them innocent questions about what they're trying to sell.

I don't believe I've had a week like this before, where the excitement of doing a digital crossword puzzle is an actual highlight of the week. Actually, I should correct myself, as it's a co-highlight. The other co-highlight is mentally working out the 3rd ending to the 3rd volume of my Hot Mess series (no, not a trilogy anymore), which truth be told, ain't easy. 

So, as they say, patience is a virtue that no one seems to have anymore, in any kind of quantity. A droll dry week is just....meh. I should add that Thanksgiving wasn't the misadventure that it usually turns out to be. I got to meet a few relatives that I haven't seen since 2018/19; got a depressing update on another; had a pleasant drive to the gold coast to have that Thanksgiving ("gold coast' here in CT is lower Fairfield County, where a large percentage of those who work in NYC enjoy living and spending their hard earned money); and pleasant return trip, in which I started in sunshine and arrived home at night.

But yeah, waiting in the real world is not like Heinz Catsup. It's more like molasses on a cold autumn day. Just. Slooooow. Hope your Monday doesn't continue a previous mediocre week.

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #197: I Is Your Space Cadet!

This was me this past weekend {11/11-12}, just lazing about enjoying the crisp cool weather. Ahhh....

"Wait..wut?! I forgot to write a blog post?! Holy Slip Of The Brain Batman! What do I do?"

"How should I know Boy Blunder? You're the one that got yourself into wearing a full diaper, it's up to you to get yourself changed. What kind of guardian would I be if I helped you out?"

"A helicopter guardian?"

Batman throws a fractured look at the Boy Blunder, before saying, "You better have that diaper changed and this blog smelling like a field of wildflowers by the time I return, or you will be punished."

Boy Blunder goes wide-eyed in fear, for he knows that if he doesn't clean himself up, he'll be forced to listen to speeches from the bad side of the House and Senate for an entire twenty-four hours. Resigned to his fate, he morosely sits down in front of his facsimile of the old Smith-Corona Electric Typewriter and starts pecking away on his blog post. Seriously, with two fingers and both thumbs.

~~~~~~

The weekend started like any other weekend for me, for I was full of vim, vigor and energy busting at the seams. Not even the fact that a holiday not the 4th, Memorial Day or Christmas actually caused the banks to close on a Saturday could make me deviate from my plan: walking to break my personal record.

By the time 1:30p rolled around, I had my personal errands done, had my stuffed rabbit all cleaned and dusted off, and finished my thirty minute Gregorian chant/ode to my miniature garden gnome. I was ready to rock and waddle down the road to my own private Ohio. Got properly dressed like a typical teenager would on a cold blustery day, and off I went on my walk.

I traveled hither. I traveled yither. I traveled yon. Yon go me to the charming neighborhoods where the normal people don't visit, because who wants to visit MLMs with any kind of regularity? But, I soldiered on and dodged all those MLM and Amway representatives, because I are not smart. Anywho, we made it back to a main road, one that I delightfully walked last summer when I didn't have so much vim, vigor and energy for, and after looking both ways thrice, crossed it.

Immediately I found myself in a land where time stayed stuck in the 90's, where people actually cared about their manicured lawns, did spiffy landscaping and walked their tiny little yippers. I managed to dodge those little yippers by dropping to the ground cowering in fear until they walked by. When I'd received the odd puzzled look from random passers-by, I said, "What? I love dogs! It's their owners I'm afraid of!"

So after cleaning myself off, I soldiered on. I soon found myself in a wooded area with a gravel path that eventually changed into a paved path. A paved path that used recycled sound bites from people who have for the past 8 (that's right, 8) years allowed #44 to employ squatter's rights inside their feeble, tired minds. And before you ask, yes I did hear some faint screaming when the blustery wind blew through the bare trees. But I didn't explore the screams any further and continued onwards.

Some twenty minutes later, I found myself in a lovely senior citizens housing complex. Complete with actual breathing senior citizens. I think. Maybe. I did see three...and the sign did say Senior Citizen Housing....so there. Anyways, I stood in the parking lot trying to ascertain what way I wanted to go, because it really is hard to see through paneled fence. But with my keen x-ray vision, I chose the road that legitimately is less traveled, cause you know, a cul-de-sac.

Off I went again, fondly remembering the nifty bicycle accidents I had while cutting across the greenery in my younger days. I wandered up the cul-de-sac and eventually found my way to the other cul-de-sac, then to the actual main drive, with wasn't being driven manually. After making an executive decisions, we made that RIGHT turn at Albuquerque and waddled my way to the shopping place, cause we wanted to check out a brand new store that catered to those on limited income and/or enjoyed quality cheap stuff.

So we checked out the store and lo and behold, this bad boy was actually CLEANER THAN A POOP DECK. I mean, holy altar of Arnold, this place was absolutely tidy and spotless. It just blew my tiny mind away that a business could actually care about their customers...well, after picking up my jaw from the concrete floor, I searched and found my favorite item for writing (dry liner), checked out and continued on my walk.

Because we still had that original goal in mind, we decided that we were going to "circle back" and try to beat that personal record of mine. So after completing take #7A, we restarted our walk. We meandered through the plaza briefly to see if the local Bucks with 10 point Stars was open again after receiving a tummy tuck and a face-lift (it was), before continuing down the local drag-strip. 

At the corner of the drag strip, a decision had to be made on what direction I wanted to take: go straight and wander some of the back roads, thus prolonging the amount of sunshine that I didn't steal, or commit gluttony. Obviously I chose gluttony, because ya know.... So continuing down the other speedway (not to be confused with chain of the same), we eventually came across Paul Bunyon's infamous toothpick. 

No jiving, this thing was humongous. Biggest toothpick I done seen and I was amazed that this thing hadn't blown over yet. Scratching my head, I ignored the sniveling sneers that the houses were throwing at me, which I was easily, with a calorie or two burned, to bat away. So I continued my hop, step and the world's tiniest jump down the street until I came to the new and actually improved crosswalk. Overjoyed, I waited anxiously for the light to change because I was rapidly losing sunlight, even though the clock said 3:15ish. But it rings and I wipe the sleep from my eyes and cross the street.

Now it was a race against time to see I would get home before the sun vanished. But I had no fear because the Robin Hood investment app would soon come to my rescue. Or maybe not, because as soon as the sun started sinking low, that gosh darn fiddle of Johnny's made an appearance. Shocked, just schlocked, I said," adios" to the horse it rode in on and left.

Some twenty-five minutes later, after bathing in the glory of an afternoon delight, I found myself at the crossroads of Here Avenue and Now Boulevard. Strange as though it may sound, I was actually jumping for you, because even though I didn't have five hundred miles to walk, I did have two, which required me to put one foot in front of the other.

Which I accomplished with great gusto and presence of mind. We waddled and staggered and walked a little diagonal as we inched our way around our alma mater (elementary that is) to hit the back end of my walk, which turned out not to be so much of back end but simply the front end of another back end.

Note: for those who are curious, I, the Boy Blunder was listening to my podcasts all while on my not-so-arduous journey of unsound mind, so I was becoming educated while burning calories.

Once again, we sucked it up and pursued our mind-numbingly tedious zig-zag through the side streets until I hit the second to last main drag that I needed to cross. Fortunately for me, because I wasn't in funky town or on the boulevard of broken dreams but merely on the road to nowhere, traffic was sparse and crossing the road to the other side was safe, simple and stress free.

Into the homestretch, we started picking up the pace and actually started mapping out extra road to walk on, just in case if we fell short. Which we temporarily did when we crossed that inviting threshold. But, not to worry, we managed to bet our record.....once we went to the supermarket to pick up a few things, because I, The Boy Blunder, not to be confused with the Blue Beetle, can actually complete my assigned task, no matter how much kicking and screaming I do, for I am a wild and crazy guy.

Sunday was spent goofing off to the point of not remembering to do anything worthwhile besides reading, crossword puzzles and pondering the meaning of Brian's life. So kids, don't spend your day pondering the meaning of Brian's life when you can do something even better, like trying to decide if the world does indeed revolve around you.

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #192: How To....Exactly What?

My daughter and her current flame.

Life sometimes, oddly enough, gets in the way of life. Through the miracle known as planning things out, I got the end result that I was not really expecting, all because I had things perfectly planned out, which led to the title of this post.

See if you can follow my warped logic along with me:

My PCP, after 31+ years, retired effective June 1st; being the procrastinator that I am, wasn't able to hook with two new doctors until this October; with appointments in the second week.

Had my high school reunion this past weekend. Prior to the actual event, planned out that I would pick up the wife the day off and take her back to the campsite day after; picked up wife day off, had a decent time, then took her back the day after. Sounds simple right?

The plan also called for me to do my grocery shopping today, the day of this post. But....the first doctor's appointment is an hour after lunch (issue #1 &2), which causes me to move up my grocery shopping to the actual morning (issue #3), instead of the afternoon, because who knows how long my first appointment with my new doctor will take.

Meanwhile, in blog land, through a combination of excellent planning and neglecting to see the bigger picture, we are typing out a typical "man-splaining excuse laden" man-child rant for a post. In other words, the "I-am-dying-from-a-sinus-headache-and-I-need-constant-attention" whine for a blog post.

To sum it up, the one time that I decided to actually plan things out for a relaxing weekend, reality steps in, pulls me up with a major wedgie and says, "I don't think so."

Have a splendiferous Monday!

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #178: A Little Of This Is A Lot Of That?

Flashback work photo from 2008. Pic taken from the first of four work cubicles that I had occupied from my last state agency that I had subsequently retired from in 2020.

While I was desperately trying to think of something to blog about, because again, I was more preoccupied with the real world than the digital world this weekend {spent a lovely Saturday evening with the 22 year old daughter, going to dinner, visiting her BF, doing Cabela's and talking politics}, when it suddenly dawned on me that my blog anniversary had casually strolled by without so much as a second glance my way.

On May 28, 2008, I officially started blogging at the founding blog that begat six more blogs {not counting the disaster at Tumblr}, Cedar's Mountain. I won't bore you with the excruciating minutia of the past 15 years, but I will state that not only did I subsequently create a total of seven blogs, but also created 1,850 blog posts. Yes, you read that correctly. The yearly output started at 208 posts, which was roughly three posts per week on average, which then dropped to a peak of 153 then to 104 posts at my second mainline blog, Father Nature's Corner, which then subsequently dropped to roughly 52 per year, which is what my third mainline blog, the one you're currently perusing.

Now, lest you think that the overall total is composed of all three mainline blogs, I beg to differ. I also created a book blog, a picture blog, a 21+ blog (no, naughty pics, just adult oriented blog posts that required me to put in one of those "are you over 18" pages) that contains the best header quote you've ever read:

"Where patience is a sin, bad language is the norm, and having a bald moment is a thing of beauty."

And a now defunct/closed short story blog, in which a few good writer friends of mine earnestly warned me about publishing some of my original work on, which I eventually took their advice on.

Thinking about my blogging life, I come to the stark realization that I have outlived the original toxic chat room forum that ultimately pushed me to start blogging in the first place. I have also outlived, or rather, outlasted roughly 96% of the other bloggers that used to grace my blog(s) with their presence in the past 15 years or so.

Originally I started blogging to share work stories and to practice/polish up my writing skills, as well as field comments/critiques of my writing up until the first year or so of being over-lorded by a mad power hungry political party that had no qualms in not following the rules they set forth for us peons.

I still enjoy blogging, and being the odd elder chameleon that I am, have zipped around the proverbial archives of my memories to create (mostly) original content, which in turn has allowed me to often take the path less traveled by smarter folks. And that's okay. Creativity is action almost always stems from a desire to be occupied in doing something with our time on this planet besides just existing.

And with that being said, I end this post with a brief writing update of sorts. I have put away the story that I had rewrote in the first person because to be quite frank, it was a major cluster of a very naughty word that nowadays you can say on television and people would go, "oh?", before yawning. I then took out another story that I had re-written with the intended goal of publishing it sometime this year.

As with my current mega project {aka The Hot Mess} I'm slowly coming around to the probability of having to put a small trigger warming on the book when the time comes to publish, simply because it contains themes that, realistically, a segment of the reading public would find offensive, even though none of it is gratuitous in its application. Having said that, I am now up to creating chapters 58 & 59 and I'm getting ready to implement a fourth three ring binder for this bad boy. Yay me.

As this is the beginning of the week for the majority of my readers, I wish you a relatively quite Monday in your part of the world, and remember, 1984 is actually being performed in some of the countries that we consider to be "progressive".

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #177: The Simplest Word Is Often The Most Succinct

Summer in Connecticut. A man made fountain in the middle of a non-man made pond, which eventually empties out into a non-man made waterfall.

When we last left our madcap business duo of Ted and Bob, Ted was recovering from being thrashed about the office by Bob. Bob was taken by some men in dark suits, starched white shirts and loud ugly ties to a place where tired minds gather to spend money and devise speeches in which they keep crossed fingers behind their backs while pontificating.

While Bob was busy learning new life skills, Ted was busy trying to find ways to stand up to his megalomaniacal boss. Of which one was researching the world's shortest sentence that consists of one word containing the 14th and 15th letter of the alphabet: 'no'.

What his research found was that this simple sentence was, beyond a hint of a shadow of a doubt, the hardest sentence for any person to accept at face value. Now, let's disregard the pop culture version of the word that even I, your lowly blog writer, remembers quite well:

James Bond: Do you expect me to confess?

Dr. No: No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die.

The simple act of saying 'no' to someone can often drive a typical person mad, and a mentally unhinged person completely unglued. It's such an eloquent word, modest in its formation, but packs a loaded iron-ore ship ton of power in its wake. I mean, who wants to be on the receiving end of an eloquent word that is specifically designed to either hurt a person's feelings, or in the hands of a parent, good parenting or bad parenting.

The word 'no' packs such a powerful punch that it can leave people whose tiny bit of power that went to their heads, frothing at the mouth in frustration.

"I just love doing research in my down time," says Ted to a co-worker. The co-worker nods in agreement before suddenly going wide-eyed in fear and immediately cowering in his seat. Ted sighs, because he knew that his boss was standing behind him somewhere.

Ted spins his chair around and speaks with as much genuinely fake sincerity that he can muster up, "Bob, you're back from DC! We thought you must've gotten waylaid by those millennial protesters sipping on their Starbucks and screaming about how bad capitalism is. How is everything?"

"Everything is fine," Bob says with a sneer. "Tell me, are you doing anything that is against policy?"

"No," says Ted facetiously.

"What do you mean, 'no'?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean? This isn't some kind of silly sketch you know. It shouldn't be that hard for you to understand, right?"

Bob starts getting cherry red in the face. "Look. If I want backtalk, I'll talk to my wife. She wears the pants in the family. Here, I do, so I need you to elaborate."

"No."

"WHAT?" Bob is now sputtering spittle all over the place as he starts having a major meltdown in the middle of the office.

Ted watches this meltdown with a sense of deja vu, but then realizes that he has the upper hand, so he turns his back on Bob and peers through the fourth wall yet again. "Well, it does look like that in fact, Bob picked up an infamous DC illness called, "Adult Toddlerism. It usually strikes both sexes, and usually the direct cause of the illness is the adult's inability to accept the word 'no' when they demand something that is usually given to them, no questions asked.

"So, if you want to be like the smart people in your sphere of influence who absolutely love going scorched earth on those with IQs of their shoe size, do what they do and weaponize that special magical word. Because as the old cartoon character from the 80's used to say, 'I have the power!' So be merciless with your power and make sure that your coffee is always fresh and your pastry is always warm as you go about your day-to-day activities."

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #174: My Alternate Universe Is Good

I went shopping at WalMart a couple of weeks ago because I was out of sugar free syrup. Didn't find any, but I found this instead. All the realism but none of it real.

You may have noticed that I started using a couple of oddball characters in a few recent blog posts, named Bob & Ted. To no-one's real surprise, Bob & Ted are simply a vehicle, much like my muse, to showcase my latent quirkiness that has a tendency to pop up on the page, whether digital or print.

I have a rather dark imagination that pops up with an increasing degree of frequency in my writings. Unlike my muse, who has become my.....stern counselor....Bob & Ted have become my outlet for the darkly quirky side of my imagination, for my blog posts. 

I always wanted to eventually write my blog posts in the same vein as my stories, but I realized that to do so would require me to slap an "18+" warning before one could read it, and you know, while that would work for the content I usually write elsewhere, it won't fly on this blog. So that meant that I had to tweak it to make it acceptable here, which is what I did with the Bob & Ted Abnormal Review stories.

I actually do like writing pseudo horror stuff, because I can't write full blown horror stuff at all. Just not my cup of tea, as they say. I give props to those that do. But Bob & Ted are my delightful little plebeians that allow me the honor of writing them like Kenny, but without the unmitigated violence, only the gross factor. So rest assured, you will see more Bob & Ted Abnormal Review stories popping in in the future, as we'll expand from reviewing products bought to reviewing places shopped/ate at {I have some Google Map reviews for my immediate area that have somehow garnered over 1k views. Go figure}

Now, onto a brief writing update, courtesy of my muse: "Our friendly G.B. is now getting ready to transcribe chapter 55 in his current trilogy and is having a grand old time being stunningly brave in exploring new writing worlds. The kind of worlds he enjoyed as a reader but never explored as a writer. Because if he doesn't, well, all eight protagonists that I bring to life in this trilogy will be very, very, very disappointed, and he may have to see his...counselor....for a stern talking to."

With that being said, have an above average Monday, and remember, let's strive to be the first in reverse at least once this week.

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #173: A Brain Cramp Have I!

Hi there!

Please excuse the lateness and the lightness of this post. My birthday was this past weekend, and because of that, as well as other personal issues, we plum forgot to write a blog post for today.

So for today, all I have is this wonderfully flapping Old Glory taken on one of the last vacations that I took in the decade of '00 thru '10, which featured a stop at the US Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

'Tis a day of remembrance of those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect those who would rather say unkind things about their station in life than to actually do anything about it.

Have a good holiday celebration today, keep chill and never let them see you sweat.

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #170: Entertaining Myself Weakly

I actually spotted this near entrance #3 to Cedar Mountain on my walk in the mountain yesterday. People have way too much free time on their hands. This was about a hundred feet or so from another sign that said, ironically enough, Shoulder Closed {at a bend in the path}.

My audio listening is often cyclical these days. For example, the last time that I had actually listened to an audio-book, was back in the early 90's, when books-on-tapes were a major thing and CD's were but a dream on the library horizon. To be frank, I only got into that particular audio-book format was one, they were great to listen to on my days off from working the overnight, and two, my attention span wasn't as short then as it is now.

Eventually we moved out of that audio format and moved into the listening of the different music formats that I've lived through: radio, vinyl, cassettes, c.d.'s, music apps, sports apps and finally, podcasts. Today, after roughly 5 years of living with a smartie phone, my top three preferred formats are: podcasts, c.d.'s, and sports app. Radio, music apps and vinyl (once I have my record player functioning again), are now dragging up the rear. Sports app is a seasonal thing, since the only one I own is MLB, and that's to listen to the local broadcasts of my particular team (if you like baseball, MLB app is the way to go. Prices start at only $2.99 + tax per month).

Music streaming has (I use Tune-In) dropped so far off my radar that I actually had to log back in after they did a bunch of app upgrades. I have about 15 channels for my listening pleasure, the bulk being specific genre based (e.g., rock, soft rock, bluegrass) and the other being good public/college radio stations (three local collages and two community based in Wyoming and Idaho). So now, the only time that I listen to music is either when I'm doing transcription on the computer or I need a small change of pace on my twice daily walks

Podcasts are now my audio of choice when I do my twice daily walks (unless there's an early afternoon ball game to listen to, and even when I go on long drives to run errands or visit family. If you think about it, we are kind of revisiting the audio-book genre, as I managed to expand. through hard work and determination, my wicked short attention span to something that is respectable (to me, respectable is being able to tolerate episodic podcasts to a maximum of 75 minutes).

My tastes in podcasts, just like in books, is quite the eclectic mix. Without doing a deep title dive of the 35+ podcasts I listen to on a weekly-to-semi-weekly basis, here are the genres that I listen to.

General knowledge: 29%; History: 50%; Nature: 7%; True Crime: 14%.

Now this will fluctuate from time to time, whenever I find other interesting multi-season series to listen to or when I find interesting limited run podcasts that have piqued my curiosity (e.g. Dolly Parton, Fred Rogers, the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and currently John Quincy Adams) over the past five years. But basically it has stayed at 35+ level since 2019. 

I really enjoy listening to podcasts these days, mostly on my twice a day walks and long drives, as they're the closest thing to the actual audio-book format that I can tolerate. But, I haven't completely abandoned music though. I have a list of roughly 35 titles split between three artists that I'm slowly acquiring from Amazon. Two of them will be expensive to buy, since one is from Japan (fantastic rock music from that country in all genres) and one is a punk rock band from the states fronted by an actress who was on the show "Gossip Girl" and the Jim Carey version of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" as Cindy Lou Who. The other is a country artist whose back catalog, starting in 1991, can be had very cheaply on Amazon.

Plus, while I find listening to podcasts while transcribing is a serious distraction, listening to music or baseball is not, so that will always be my saving grace. Cyclical can be fun sometimes, but it can also be a major pain in the butt, since sometimes the various stops can last a lot longer than normal, and before you know it, half a decade has gone by and you're asking yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"

I got to here by exploring You Tube. Enjoy this song by the punk rock band The Pretty Reckless.

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved