Oh, thank you. It really is societally terrible, isn’t it? And so many people are unaware.

I’m so fortunate that I didn’t have to rush into an outside job...(fingers crossed re: economy). Instead of maybe having a total breakdown, I can reorganize, try to sell art, & write.
For a time yet, anyway.

(And now I’ll return to scratching any of 15+ mosquito bites that I seem to have acquired here in Western Michigan over the past three days…in April. As the city tries to assure everyone that there will still be tulips blooming during the May festival because so many started weeks ago.)

Can’t bring myself to click the little heart thingy on this, but want to acknowledge that I saw it (and am horrified).

I mean, even if the senior housing is a good change and he’s looking forward to it (social groups, good food (hopefully), etc) the overall change — loss of his spouse and his own aging — is unwelcome change.

Ohhhh, so much unwelcome change and sadness! *sigh* and *hugs*

I’m not very familiar with the traditions of my Spanish ancestors, but I think the widows wore black for the rest of their lives?

Yeah, three months is time to get over the initial burst of “I will handle everything” energy and get walloped by some first holidays/occasions. It gets harder!

A friend and I are considering prefacing any attempt to vent to others about our woes/frustrations with something like, “I need to rant about this for a minute, I’m not looking for help, I just need to get it out.” We both tend to get fix-it suggestions without any acknowledgement of our feelings.

Yep. No one wants to be reminded of death, or disability, or that some bad situations just *are* — but absolutely, we could at least still have black armbands or other costume/accessory so it might not look so bizarre that someone is crying in the drive-through line at the ice cream place.

Thanks to Instagram accounts + two therapists, I’m becoming familiar with the working theory that people (and maybe Americans especially) are not good with any sort of uncomfortable emotion or situations that cannot be problem-solved away. There is little understanding that just BEING SEEN matters.

Aww! You’re such good support! ❤️

Thank you for processing your trauma online today. It helped me acknowledge (and post about) some of my own.
My impression is that you’re awesome, so I’ll tell you what my mom (who was also a psychologist) always told me: “It’s not you, it’s them, and it’s their loss.”

My mother died last year at age 92. Anyone who knew us or even saw us together could tell how close we were. Very early on, most people stopped reaching out, and when I would ask for company, very few ever had time.

Months into it, I stopped asking, because that was making me feel even more lonely.

Happy birthday!

I can’t get into the right area of my garage (plants are still in there that need to get taken outside) to confirm — but I believe the brand of the one I bought circa 2019 is Melnor (and I bought it at Lowe’s).

Or soothe their angry neck and back and shoulder muscles?
I’m happy to claim neurodivergence, but…really?

A contact form reads: Subject: Checking Authenticity Body of message Hi there Beth. I have been contacted by someone who is using the email, [email blacked out], and using you name and one of your novels 'Feast of the Starving Stone: The Chef’s Five' to engage with me as a fellow author - if it is you then great, if it is not, as i suspect, then this is a fake approach. I just wanted to be sure. thanks. [signed name blacked out] You're a real person, right? No, I'm a bot. Please don't include existential questions in a contact form. Yes.

I just found out that an AI scammer is impersonating me in their spam campaign. I am LIVID.

Please, please share this post. Warn people. I’m horrified that someone might be ripped off in my name.

No one is safe from being impersonated like this.

There is a yellow sac spider in the room where I had planned to sleep tonight. I missed in my attempt to get rid of it, and it has dropped behind a bookcase. It now knows I am the enemy, so I will sleep elsewhere tonight. (Unfortunately, that room had a similar situation yesterday. ‘Tis the season.)

Also, different situation: My grandmother reached a point at her care home where she didn’t recognize faces in the heirloom photos she had always loved (1800s) so she scratched all the faces out. So, if you notice a point where photos aren’t recognized, better safe than sorry, remove them.

Possibly he also wrote out the answers to the most common repeated questions, but it’s been awhile since I was told this anecdote, so I can’t remember. (Sorry.)

I lived with both my parents until their deaths, but fortunately none of them developed dementia.

But: The son of a woman who would frequently interrupt his work with the same questions eventually put a sign on his office door which said he was working and would be available again at [time].

Unhappy to report the phishing one is quickly becoming a real problem now. Why go to the trouble of social engineering when people will just give up their ID, financial info, biometrics, etc. to an AV portal? There's no standards so how can you differentiate a fake one from a real one?

Painting of a nebula with swirling yellow orange clouds around a central area of blue white on an. Orange wall lit by some natural indirect light

This really pops on my living room wall in the morning.

It could on your wall.

Original is available

Crab Nebula
oil on canvas
2024

Based on the JWST image

#art #painting #sciArt #astronomy

earthskyart.ca/product/crab...

From the maryland community on Reddit: My high school physics teacher is running for state senate and his intro video is amazing Explore this post and more from the maryland community

High school physics teacher Gary Foote is running for Maryland state senate, representing Carroll County
www.reddit.com/r/maryland/s...

In the first season of Loki, I spotted a glass that immediately resurrected the memory of my favorite set growing up, the last one of which I dropped and broke c 1992.

(The ones in the show were detailed in platinum; my childhood version was not.)

Happy to try to help! I have peonies (herbaceous, itoh, tree) and it’s been so warm here in Michigan that I’ve gotten out of my usual habit of checking nighttime temps, so I’m grateful to see your post for the reminder.

I’m afraid the deer beat me & my deterrent spray to the tulips this year.

We need to keep lists of places that are ChatGPTing all help agents because I never want to buy anything from them again

I’m not sure you need to be concerned about your tulips as long as the buds are unopened, but I’m no expert.

I’ve used sticks/stakes and bubble wrap on ground-sprouting things (short peonies, for example) just try to keep the plastic from touching the plant. Pillow cases on supports have also worked.

I think anything that works to hold some heat from the ground (radiant) will help.

The full image of a book cover (front, spine, back) on a computer screen. The back cover is a kind of teal or turquoise color laid over a close up of Celtic-style metalwork. There is placeholder text where the description of the book’s plot belongs. The text of the spine says “The Achill Bell” with the author’s name: R. A. Finley The front has a night scene, with the same murky teal/turquoise color overall. Weeping willow fronds hang down as if the viewer is standing underneath such a tree. There is a slow-moving river in the foreground and a multi-arched but low stone bridge in the distance. Bare trees may be seen growing in the far distance. A raven flies past, surrounded by some sort of mystical glow.

I thought that maybe working on the cover of my next book would help with the writing process, and I may have been right! I’m excited about how it turned out, and can feel my mind working on the story. I keep seeing a museum gallery in my mind’s eye. (This book will have a heist! Maybe two?)

Wait, people don’t? I think I locked mine in with triceratops (with brontosaurus maybe so close as to be a tie) when I was like six years old. This is like finding out not everyone sees images in their mind.