The Bostonian Abroad

Another year gone by and time to look back. Everyone is doing top ten lists. To be honest, the year has kind of blurred and smeared in my mind's eye to the point where it has become kind of like clay when you combine all the colors: brown and cloudy. Kind of like diarrhea. Winter into spring was rough, but not impassible. I went to a lot of goodwill stores and bought a lot of nice coats and such. Spring saw the addition of two Scotties into my life. I adore my Wiggle Pigs. Early summer was normal enough, with some letting loose and adventuring a tad. Nothing crazy though. The heat of summer saw me get kind of full and so I got the adventure out of my system. Too much heat tends to make me want to hide indoors anyway. It's too hot out there! Fall came and a return to routine. I'm 42 now, and navel gazing still seems to be my thing. I wonder if the turning over of the odo in a month will bring with it anything new in the way of outlook. That's if we survive the 21st o

One of those days. . . . So I want to mow my lawn and I know I can't mow it until I change the oil in the mower because it is wayyyy overdue. I get home from school, eat some lunch, play with the Wiggle Pigs a bit and then hit the road for the mower place, with the dogs. I pick up some new oil, a new drain plug thingy to make the oil draining easier and less messy next time, and an oil filter. The way they make the engines on those Snappers, you'd think the engine people have never met the mower people! The drain plug sits way back on the frame, and it faces out, not down! This means you have to get oil every-frickin-where just to drain the stupid thing, which is why I bought that drain thing --so future changes will not be so messy. The oil filter is also something the design people obviously never thought much about because it is in between the back of the seat, under the gas tank, and in front of the engine, meaning it is nearly impossible to get out! I asked the lady a

Every year around this time, I choose to watch as much as I can about 9/11. I watch the specials, learn about the personal stories, and I cringe and cry and try to comprehend what the victims went through on that day, even if I never will really be able to. In the past, I was told I could not watch those specials because they were useless or exploitative of those who perished and lost so much. I would watch the specials in secret, feeling guilty, like I was being perversely morbid. Now that I am able to do what I wish, I have immersed myself in the many stories of 9/11, and it has scared me, angered me, shocked me, and saddened me. However, no matter how bad I feel, I believe it is my duty to re-witness these terrible events in order to honor the memory of those who were killed. I believe it necessary to suffer through this in order to maintain the vital memory of what happened. Forgetting is not only to disrespect the fallen, but to endanger the present and to risk the future. Thi

This morning, I was reading an interview with a Scottie breeder. She was going on about how Scotties are very independent and are certainly NOT lapdogs. She said they are likely to be aggressive towards strange dogs and that they hate to be treated with condescension. Apparently, my Scotties are not really Scotties. Maybe my evil plan worked: I bought them as wee puppies and brought them home to a family of Malteses, six Malteses, to be exact. I reasoned that this environment would teach my Scotties how to behave in a more Maltese fashion, and it worked! For starters, they are very much lap dogs! They love to lie on me or very near me, and they love to get rubbins and snuggles, just like my Malteses did (before the ex took them to FL). They are very friendly with other dogs, which is rather unlike my Malteses, actually. And they are quite well-behaved, generally speaking. My Scotties are not typical, then, except for a few factors: First, they do not listen very well, espe

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, received praise for ONLY working from 9:00 - 5:30. Apparently, she is a "time deviant," according to the article. How dare she leave early??!! The article praises her for being so brave in this modern world where getting ahead means putting in extra hours and being constantly available. While I am glad they praise her for not working even more than she already does, they ought to be castigating her for working as much as she does and excoriate society for its unrealistic expectations of the modern workforce. What are we, slaves?? Are we owned? Since when is it written that we have to put in 80 hours a week and be accessible 24/7 in order to be considered a competent employee?? Is this Korea, for god's sake!? We are losing our humanity in this insane rush to be the biggest and best at everything. For anyone who wants to put in that much time because it fulfills that person, I say, "Bravo!" But to expect it of everyone??

It would seem that riding my motorcycle in the cold has lost some of its old allure for me. I used to seek it out, enjoy it really. I even helped to start an international motovlog competition where people ride and vlog in the coldest temperatures possible! But the three or four opportunities I have had to ride this year, I have decided to stay in my warm and snuggly bed. Last year, I did only one ride because I had a broken leg. But this year, my life has taken an even more bizarre and terrible series of twists and turns, and riding is really not high on my list of things to do. However, all is not lost because I am rediscovering a hobby that totally obsessed me last spring: Shooting and gun collecting!! After my Dad passed, I inherited his guns, which, coupled with the leg thing, left me with some tools to start a new hobby --which I did with gusto! I traded a couple of times, fearing the wrath of my father's spirit, but realizing that he often traded as well, it wasn't