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There I was by the side of the road. The book in my hand was open and my gaze went between the page and the plant in front of me. My posture was bent over the plant. I heard the police car pull up, but carefully made note of the page with a book marker before I closed it, and turned to greet the officer. ” It’s just a Queen Anne’s Lace, but the local variety seems different than what’s described…

My path through the Navy was not smooth. One month, I was a road bum, a Pius Itinerant, and about six weeks later, I was hoisting a seabag and heading to the Caribbean. What’s not to like about a Caribbean cruise in February? Well, let’s see…the mid watch ( 12 AM to 4 AM) anchor watches, do nothing watches standing around, and stubbing your feet over unseen objects on the hangar deck of an…

Unlimited budget for twenty-four hours? Well, let’s see, I’m too old for fast women and cars. I have all the tools I’ll ever need. Of course! I’ll stir up the already turbid waters of politics! With the midterms coming, it’s an opportune time to do what the billionaires do and buy, buy, buy! Politicians for sale or rent! With an unlimited budget, just like the Bro’s, I could have my own salon,…

The TV habit was hard to maintain on the road before cell phones, tablets, and laptops. The final episode of Lost In Outer Space was watched in front of an old tube TV in Baltimore. I was babysitting for my friends while they were out. The Robinsons were still stuck in outer space, and even if there had been other episodes, I wouldn’t have been able to watch them. No TV, no TV habit. Sure, on…

I used this quote in my prompt post today, but I think it is really appropriate to what’s going on: “Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” Frank Herbert – Dune

What was euphemistically called the AI war should have been over in less than a blink. But humans being humans kept trying to patch it up, fix it, and restore it. The banks, credit cards, Cryptos, and bookies were among the most persistent. It didn’t really take too long for local and regional networks to get up and running. Those started out as strictly limited. One town to another, maybe state…

We all fall down, and then we get back up. From toddlerhood to old age, there are moments when we fail, stumble, and fall. Lots of times, we even require help to get back up. Only the legendary heroes of myth and lore are perfect. And I’d maintain that taking them as role models must be fraught with disappointment because you will continually fail to match up to the impossible. And as I…

Despite my tenure in hip communities in both Greenwich Village and the back side of Boston’s Beacon Hill, my drug culture participation was pretty limited. Even in that brief period of time when I purported to be a “stone head,” I was largely “clean”, it was a pose. In fact, it turned out that I really did not like the disconnected feeling that I got. Just a bit of a tune-up on weed while…

Origins and origin stories are important. They act as baselines for where you came from, where you went, and have ongoing implications on your directions going forward ( I almost wrote direction home). I’ve dissected my origins on the blog regularly. But there are inflection points in most stories that seem more important than others. So I talk less about my days before leaving my parents’ home…

Marcus’ Stream of Consciousness Saturday – May 23, 2026 Marcus: A chilly day in May. Mother was cold that my Granmamas tiger throw, heating pad and my Afghan were put back on the bed. Oh Sweet, sweet day! May there be Many many more! A cat’s life should always be this luxurious!

Yes, I do frequently hijack a prompt to twist and spindle it towards my goal of the moment. But this morning I was browsing some posts by other bloggers and found that one, Piper’s Adventures ( Debbie Pierce), had written a particularly lovely piece dedicated to a friend who had just passed. I really wanted to let her know how lovely it was, so I wrote a comment and hit send. And then I descended…