Thank you. That’s really flattering and kind. (I know I’m feeling something like empty nest right now, so your words helped.) Feel free to copy and repost - it’s nor an original idea, I think I stole it from Molly Ivins.

... the one piece of *A philosophy I actively promote: learning humility in the face of one’s own brain chemistry. It’s hard to control at the best of times, and it’s actively destructive of thinking and sense of self at the worst. It lies to us, and it makes us believe the lies. Sometimes the lies it tells us are…

My great uncle and great aunt ended up going to assisted living together. She got the memory care she needed, and he got the social support he needed — meals, laundry, scrips, medical, no driving. They were together in an assisted living apartment for about 6 years, then she had to move to the crit-care wing. He…

Second opinion time. COPD, incontinence, excessive sleep, edema? That’s significant. I know you’re overwhelmed. I don’t think this doc is helping. (Because the last thing *you* need is a diuretic if she’s not able to get to the toilet. Jesus wept.)

You’ve taken step one: you realize you have a problem. Now, you need a therapist and support.

This was finals week, so I admit I did nothing except read papers for my students. We’re launching three of my final eight this week, and I’m so proud of them and I will miss them so much, but they’re going to be excellent therapists. In three months, I have two more who will be finished (this summer session is…

The flu (or something) is going around. I give you permission to speak softly and rasp and groan a little on the phone, to maybe give a few too many details about vomit or diarrhea or both, to sound ever so sorry that you just can’t make it... and then do whatever you want with your Sunday morning. Someone else can be…

Oh... I’m so sorry and so happy and so relieved for you. I just want to bring you chicken-coconut soup and whiskey-honey toddies, a casserole and all the good meds. That’s more in one week than anyone should deal with in a year.

We just finished polenta fries, carnitas, melon and jicama.

Thank you.

With my grandmother, it was after the second stroke, when she was found on the floor, covered in her own wastes, unable to get up or get to a phone. She’d been down for at least 12 hours, as much as 36. Another 8 hours and she likely would have died of hypothermia, unstable blood sugar and dehydration.

It’s finally done! I have blue hair!

I got a 6 pack of beer that says this douche-nozzle equates video documentation for the purposes of whistleblowing with terrorism. There are a lot of asshats in agribusiness who think a hippie with a phone is a bigger threat than a white nationalist with a truck full of fertilizer.

The Boob Fairy apparently liked my house, so she stopped by often and left a lot of gifts. The idea of topless hiking makes me hurt. I don’t even like running down the stairs to the dryer without support.

Senate elections are staggered. One third of the Senate comes up every two years, and they serve 6 year terms. House — free for all, every two years. It’s a messy system, and is part of the reason that money in politics is such a poison.

I don’t think he’s taping anything, because that requires a level of competence and planning he has never demonstrated, but okay, let’s assume someone decided this was a good idea and put the system in during the early days, everywhere in the WH. (He and Comey didn’t have dinner in the Oval, and that dining room would…

Yup.

Every house seat is up, every two years. Yeah, gerrymandering. Progressive leaning voting has a turnout problem, not a message problem. Half of the adult citizens in this country don’t vote. Some of them are unable, due to having their rights stripped by a felony conviction, but that’s not responsible for all of those…

Certifiable, maybe.