[A sign warning of the potential presence of snakes and alligators, at the edge of a sidewalk, at a facility in Orlando, Florida.]

I am back from a somewhat-sudden couple of weeks of travel. Z and I spent six days driving approximately 1,500 miles around Lake Michigan, visiting friends and family in Bloomington, IL, Madison, WI, Marquette, MI and Sault Ste Marie, MI, as well as stops at various places in between. We deemed this a necessary trip, as our family members are aging at the expected pace, which is to say, faster than we would like.

We returned home late Saturday afternoon, then I immediately began preparing for a work trip to Orlando. We left for the airport a little after 7:00 Sunday morning, and by late afternoon I was in Florida.

I spent three days doing work stuff, then hopped the plane for home. Z picked me up at the Grand Rapids airport around 11:45 Wednesday evening, and we arrived back home around 1:00 am Thursday.

And now I am tired, and very much looking forward to NOT traveling for a few months.

Reading

I finished The Unaccountability Machine while en route to Orlando, and made good headway in Simulacra and Simulation while at the work event. By the time I boarded the flight home my brain was complete mush, so I loaded up the wonderful We are Legion (We are Bob), the first book in the Bobiverse series by Dennis Taylor. It was just what my brain needed after such an exhausting summer.

Writing

Per events of the past couple of weeks, nothing here. Not even journaling.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Evolution, Colonization
Setting: Virtual Reality
Genre: Magic Realism

Listening

Starbuck, “Moonlight Feels Right“, released in December 1975. After picking me up at the airport, Z suggested we stop somewhere for food, as I had not eaten since breakfast. So we stopped at The Grand Coney for some comfort food. A song came on the radio which I vaguely recognized, though I couldn’t make out any of the lyrics. So I searched “70s song marimba solo”, and this was the first result. So if your day can be improved by a marimba solo, this is the song for you.

Interesting Links

• “James Dobson, Burn in Hell” (Erik Loomis, Lawyers, Guns, and Money) – Conservative Christian child abuser extraordinare James Dobson was dragged squealing and bleating to his much-deserved reward. He was 89 years old, which means he lived about 88 years too long. He made a career of instructing conservative Christians on the best ways to beat their children to achieve the desired result of reducing them to the status of frightened animals instead of fully-realized human beings. Dobson was an active supporter of noted child rapist Donald Trump, which is really no surprise, as both men are held up as heroes by the white Evangelical church specifically because of these predilections. And if any conservative Christians read this entry and feel insulted, I would like to point out that it is not the job of real people to put any effort into differentiation between “good” conservative Christians and “bad” conservative Christians. If you don’t want to be lumped in with the bad ones, then you need to clean your house.