Vampires and Robots

 I'm sure you've seen the memes, the ones that show something great with the caption "my fall plans" contrasted with something terrible captioned "the delta variant." Well, a similar situation happened to us recently. In retrospect, I should have known that making any travel plans would be a bad idea. Especially when the CDC decided to prematurely pull the mask recommendation for vaccinated folks, knowing full well that meant everyone, vaccinated or not, would stop complying with all virus abatement tactics. That I haven't come down with a breakthrough case is a testament to the efficacy of proper masking and avoiding unnecessary contact (seriously, get your vaccine and keep masking, it's not rocket science!). However, a vacation was something we sorely needed, and we had a single one week window in mid-August to do so. As such, I made us plans to visit Austin. I secured a residential hotel with an exterior room entrance, planned outdoor activities o...

It's been a minute, hasn't it? Seems like only a decade ago I was posting silly diet tips in an attempt to move the ol' blog in some direction that wasn't entirely book related. Wait, that was only a year ago? Oh. Well then... 2020 was one hell of a year, but I can't see any indication that 2021 is going to be anything less than a zillion times worse. That I didn't once drag out the computer and make any posts commenting on the state of the world since last February is telling in its own way. It isn't that I didn't have anything to say, but rather that I didn't have a drop of energy left to spend on anything long form. Truth be told, I still don't. But I think it's time to look back on the last year or so and talk a bit about where I was and what I was dealing with at what point in this unprecedented timeline from hell. I can't guarantee any of this will make sense and I sure as hell ain't going into it with any hopeful optimism about...