A Fine Point

I’m a writer. This means I work with words, little things that have meaning and must be treated with respect.

Yes, I write in a colloquial way here, but I also know a thing or two about grammar, having spent 14 years of my career as an editor.

Phonics? Yep. Give me some phonemes and graphemes, baby.

Rhythm and flow? I’m a poet and I know it.

Spelling? Oh, heck yeah. In French, too, back before I let my French collect cobwebs.

Yet I’ve been making a giant mistake my whole life, one that I must confess to you now.

I’ve been both spelling and saying poinsettia incorrectly, as pointsettia.

PoinTsettia.

POYNT-set-ee-ah.

Ain’t no t after the n in that word.

Oops.

Anyway, here’s a little pic I took today. It’s a close-up of a POINSETTIA.

A close-up of part of a poinsettia.

Holidailies 2025!

Hello, friends! It’s time for Holidailies! What a year it has been, so I will preface this by saying I’m not sure I’m going to be able to post every day, though I’m going to give it the ol’ college try. I’m moving at the end of the month, so between that, work, and not the best of health, I may miss a few days.

Don’t worry, it’s not my heart. It’s just other crap happening at the worst possible time that makes everything that much more exhausting to deal with. And it’s Gee, You’re Pushing 60 crap, at that. Like, I’m having a gallstone scare at the moment. Right. I’ve become the crone who writes about gallstones. The Gallstone Crone. Santa, if you’re listening, please bring me a new and healthy body to live in, kthnx.

As for moving, I still don’t know where I’m moving to. Oh, it will be somewhere in the county, but I haven’t signed a lease yet. Ye gods, people, what they put people through to apply for an apartment now. They want to look at the deposit history in my bank account, run a criminal background check, confirm my job and salary with my employer, and collect a pint of blood. I once had to get a State Department background check and it wasn’t nearly that much. I asked the guy why all of it was necessary and he said it was because so many landlords are getting scammed now. Beats me. All I know is that from what I’m seeing on the socials and message boards, this kind of thing has only cropped up in the past few years, because I didn’t have to do any of this four years ago. In fact, when I first moved back here 10 years ago from Long Island, I didn’t even have a job. The prevailing attitude was “No worries. If you don’t pay, we throw you out. Simple as that.”

So that’s a bit of stress I don’t need right now.

And now for a Holidailies prompt: What have you been most looking forward to this holiday season?

Holidailies, of course! It has become my favorite holiday tradition, a time to catch up with blog buddies and get into the spirit. I’m going to see the State Christmas trees on Sunday, so I hope to have pictures worth sharing from that. You know, if the lights aren’t green again this year. If they are, I’ll find something else to photograph and post.

In the meantime, here’s the first ornament I bought this year. I got it in Arizona while I was in Phoenix for a work trip last March. It’s a little more golden than yellow, but I had to use a flash so the surrounding lights wouldn’t muddy the other colors.

A Christmas ornament featuring a hummingbird, a cactus, and some flowers.

I’d never been to Arizona before that trip, and what little time I spent there makes me want to go back for a vacation. There is something healing and restorative there. Maybe in March. The weather was lovely when I was there and some locals told me it’s really the best time to visit, before it gets too hot. Something to think about.

Until next time, ho, ho, ho and please pardon any typos.

Checking in.

I’m alive and everything went well. In fact, it went well enough that I’m kind of annoyed I had to go through it at all because of all the anxiety and stress leading up to it. No stents or anything. All of the blockages were “minimal” and “mild.” Clinically, the word “mild” is too broad a term for my liking. I would consider a 40% blockage to be “moderate” but it is what it is. Apparently I’m too young for multiple stents in my heart, which at least saves me the time and expense of cardiac rehab after the New Year.

But because the plaque is the sticky, unstable kind vulnerable to rupturing and causing a heart attack, I do have to engage in some intense serious management.

As a journalist.

In the U.S. Capital.

Under a fascist regime.

While looking for a new place to live and then packing up, moving, and unpacking within the next 8 weeks, and maybe within the next 4 weeks if I can get out of my lease a month early as I may have found a place.

With a work trip in early November.

HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Anyway, I hope to be able to get some Horrordailies entries up at some point before Halloween.

Road. Hell. Best-laid plans.