The Lynnster Zone

babbling since february 1997

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I’m As Tired of This Woe Is Me Stuff As You Probably Are, But Bear With Me Another Sec

Posted by Lynnster on June 26, 2009

So one of the things I’d been meaning to write about this week was sort of a little clarification to what my situation is/has been. I know (especially after talking with KathyT this morning, and talking with her and Aunt B. and Kat Coble in recent weeks, though I can kind of tell from what Kathy said today that I probably don’t really understand the full scope of all this just yet) – anyway, I know there’s been some stuff going on on my behalf, more or less, and I really don’t have words to express the gratitude and appreciation I feel about that, no matter what Kathy is bringing to me Sunday. When it comes to things like that I pretty much just dissolve into tears and sniffles, I’m worthless that way.

Anyway, that said – even though I know anyone and everyone involved would probably insist I don’t owe anyone any explanations – I feel like I still need to sort of clarify some things and attempt to explain a little, or at least some of what I possibly can publicly, about how and why things got this bad. Unfortunately there’s not a whole lot I can really go into here on the blog, for several reasons.

As many of you will remember, things were already kind of bad and shaky prior to last fall, though looking back NOW, those struggles look like a piece of cake compared to what I’ve been dealing with the last many months.

The best way I really know how to explain what’s happened now is for those of you that have traditional jobs, or have had them up until recently, to imagine not getting paid since, say, October or November. Or imagine only getting paid enough every month to pay your rent or house payment.

That’s pretty much exactly what I’ve been dealing with, more or less. I can’t really say more publicly – not because of anything illegal, or anything of that sort – just out of respect for other people’s feelings due to the circumstances, I am choosing not to talk about it at length publicly. I have shared more of the details with a few, and if I know you, I’m happy to forward a copy of the e-mail I sent in those cases, or they can, or whatever, or we’ll talk about it over a meal sometime if I ever get to Nashville again or whatever. I don’t mind my friends knowing more about the situation, I’m just not going to blog about it on that public level.

But that’s pretty much what happened, and I’ve been scrambling ever since trying not to drown under what’s been a flood of never-ending stress and anxiety and I suppose terror, even, because of all the behind-ness that situation has wrought. All that behind-ness usually made even worse because, for a while there, every month would roll around and something still wouldn’t have been taken care of, so now there was an urgent need to get this paid or that paid – which has meant ongoing late fees and, on several occasions, overdraft fees trying to keep something or another from getting canceled or cut off. I’ve probably paid another year’s worth or more of car payments alone just in late fees all these months, but there was nothing else that could be done about it.

In all the cutting back and cutting out, somewhat fortunately I guess there were a few things that weren’t an issue when things grew so dire. I actually cut out cable a few years ago, when I still had a regular paycheck coming in, because I was spending so much more time online anyway and everything I watched much was available online, I just really couldn’t justify shelling out that kind of money every month anymore.

Same thing with my cell service. I’ve never been a big cell phone user and mainly carry mine for emergency purposes more than anything else. I couldn’t justify all that contract money anymore so I went to cheap and prepaid ages ago, and not only have been all the better for it but have more coverage than I did with my previous provider anyway and rarely any of the problems I had before with dropped calls and such. My mom has used the same prepaid service for years so now that’s just part of my birthday present every year, air time, and I never use a whole year’s worth in a year anyway.

So those were not issues – everything else has been, in any case. My mom wasn’t going to let me starve or anything, and has gone far and beyond the call of duty again and again and again all these months trying to help save me from disaster, to the point where she really has no extra to keep sparing. What I hate the most is that, for months and months, she believed everything was going to be okay the next month because I thought it was going to be – only for that month to come around and nope, and there we’d be scrambling to keep my utilities from getting turned off or this paid or that paid. She didn’t go on her usual vacation last year because of me, and if it weren’t for Social Security kicking in this year, I’d probably already be homeless and she would not be on vacation right now. Then there’s the boyfriend who is unable to work right now and wants nothing more than to be able to provide for me/us, and maybe in a couple of years we will be a two-income family and all of this current stuff will just be a bad memory – but that’s then, and this is now, and now sucks.

Anyway, as I wrote before, after this many months of struggling like this, it had gotten to be end of the rope time, there was nothing left. Have sold almost everything I had left to sell other than the one thing(s) that are the only “family heirloom” type thing that is just mine, no one else’s, that I have left, stuff I mentioned in a recent post – and that may well still go, and is not worth all that much anyway. Well, there is one other thing, but I’ve got to get up home to be able to do that and haven’t really been looking forward to dealing with that anyway (i.e., potentially shipping some things that are very, very breakable) and am actually probably going to make a blog post about it next week – this is something that is not only a pain to think about selling and shipping via eBay or something, but is also something really only a small percentage of people would be interested in owning. I’m thinking with the power of the Internet, I might find that person between now and Christmas and solve this problem; otherwise, it’ll be going up on eBay probably about the time people start Christmas shopping.

But yeah, really, like I said – think about your job, if you have one. And then think about not getting paid or only getting paid one bill’s worth every month since last fall, and that’s pretty much right where I am, and have been.

Other possibilities – there’s so many people going for every job that comes up, and a friend of mine here in town who is in charge of hiring where she is told me lately it’s nothing like it has ever been. Instead of 25 or 50 resumes coming in for every job she posts, she’s getting 200. Then there’s the other ones – the ones I’m way overqualified for and so is most everyone else – someone I know who hires for a place like that put it this way: why would he hire anyone that’s likely to leave as soon as the economy gets better or something else comes up? He, too, is seeing hundreds of applications for every position that opens, and in the case of his business, he says about 90% of them are overqualified, or maybe qualified to have HIS job – but not the position that’s open.

But the other thing is – and I think maybe there are some others out there that missed this, because Kathy didn’t realize it, though I know not everyone missed it because several, including The Awesomest Squirrel Queen in the World, commented on it when I mentioned it before – I actually AM working, besides what I have not been paid for. I actually really like my new gig doing QA work, it doesn’t pay much but it’s steady, but at least it does pay SOMETHING. I also do some other freelance work to bring in a little, and then there’s my other venture, which many of you have been aware of for a while, which is still continuing to steadily grow, though penny by penny, and that’s pretty much literally. It is growing, however, and I’ve built a foundation of what should (unless the whole industry hoses) continue to be residual income that grows. As it is, what started out as a little venture with big plans brought in over a year’s time what would have been nice “extra” money… if it hadn’t almost been my ONLY money.

I really do almost nothing BUT work to bring in what little I do – if I’m not working on one thing, it’s something else, or something else, or doing QA work, all day every day. Sleep for three or four hours, get up and scramble to bring in some money some more. Just been a constant ongoing thing and probably needless to say, I stay exhausted.

But I am, much like I said before, finally at a point where if I can just get a grip on the backlog, getting by month to month again is within my reach. It may require 80 hours a week of doing QA reviews, but I’m finally to a point where being able to get by every month, even if it’s just barely squeaking by, is possible.

But that’s what’s so frustrating about all this backlog that has just been stacking up and stacking up all these months struggling through this and staying perpetually behind – two months behind on this bill, a month behind on that bill, every once in a while three months behind and barely saving myself before cutoff/cancellations or losing everything. That much stress and anxiety is not good for anyone and it’s just consumed me daily for months and been downright frightening plenty – I probably need to be on medication at this point but much like my glasses that have needed to be replaced for a couple of years now, teeth that need to be fixed, my stupid broken windshield that got broken while sitting in my driveway during a storm (yep, that’s my luck) and some other stuff that I have just had to put on hold (including stuff people normally absolutely do not NOT pay every year – read into that what you want and you’re probably right) – well, anything extraneous is just out of the question completely right now. My glasses may be all scratched up and my prescription’s probably long since changed again, but as long as I can see out of them, whatever, and I still have a partial supply of contacts left from a few years ago that probably also need a prescription change, but for going out of the house purposes, they’ll do just fine until I can actually do something about it all again.

Anyway, so there you have it, what I can say publicly anyway, and I don’t want to keep going on about it here but it’s sort of my understanding that several people have been involved in trying to help and even though I really don’t know the full scope of it all yet, I just wanted to clarify and better outline a little more than I did before, maybe. Especially in trying to give an example of what it really is I’ve been dealing with, and also – especially after realizing that Kathy didn’t realize I am working at all – to clarify that I am doing work, and doing other things to try and fix all this. It’s just not much money, but at least it’s a little.

I’m also going to do something that I never intended to do, but it was suggested to me by someone else that maybe I ought to put a donation button on the blog in case there were those that wanted to help but didn’t want to take a chance on embarrassing me by asking, or whatever. Believe me, at this point with things as bad as they’ve gotten and after months and months of struggling and dealing with this stuff, I’m beyond any embarrassment or anything of the sort about accepting any help and stuff. I know some have already done plenty and they’ve done enough, and I’m not going to think anything negative about anyone who doesn’t, but for anyone else who just happens along and wants to, or has, I’m humbled and beyond words when it comes to appreciation and gratitude of those who do or have. So there it is and I’ll be putting it in the sidebar to stay, I guess.

I just can’t really put into words how not only depressing but just plain frightening it’s all been. My anxiety and stress levels have been so high and so constantly for so long, and with a pretty huge family history of both stroke and heart disease, even all the more frightening to be that stressed out all the time. There was a very scary couple or three days in December that I really don’t ever want to relive again, and I’d like to think I’m handling all that anxiety and depression a little better than I was at that particular time, but then there’s weeks like last week, when ’round about Wednesday evening, it occurred to me that the reason I was feeling sick and dizzy was probably because I hadn’t really realized it, but I had spent most of the last three days holding my breath repeatedly because I was so worried about how I was going to take care of what needed to be paid that week. That kind of anxiety.

I just want to be able to breathe again, and not be in a constant state like that almost 24/7 for weeks and months at a time. And be able to sleep more than a fitful three or four hours waking up worrying some more. And maybe only spend, say, 18 hours a day desperately trying to make some income instead of 20 or 22. That would be an improvement.

I do know this. I may not have much else left at this point, but my family and loved ones, and friends blogger and non-blogger alike, and an awful lot of acquaintances as well – you’re all just treasures. I wish I had the right words to fully express how grateful I am and how much I appreciate and heart all of you, but as I said above, times like that, words just start failing me and I just start getting teary-eyed and sniffly instead. So please just know I do. If you’re reading this, then you are most likely one of those treasures and you’re just so fabulous I have no words left to say but that I’m proud to know you and that you crossed my path, wherever and however you did. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Posted in a family thing, blah, blogfolks, friends are good, my so-called life, the economy sucks | 2 Comments »

Twitter Twisters

Posted by Lynnster on June 16, 2009

So, here I sit on the western side of the state, where there hasn’t been a raindrop all day, once yet again witnessing on Twitter while all my friends in Nashville are Tweeting about the tornadoes/storms/whatever coming through there once yet again. Deja vu.

Of course, we just had our own little dance with straight line winds last Friday that took out a good bit of Memphis greenery, and again on Sunday. I had not gotten out of the house since before the weekend, and was quite shocked yesterday to discover a tree about the size of my house fully uprooted and laying in the yard of someone’s home around the corner from me and about six or seven houses down, not to mention the landscape dotted with trees through roofs of various houses on my route to the grocery store. There wasn’t, like, this massive and constant scene of destruction like with Hurricane Elvis or the infamous ice storm of ‘94, but there was at least one house on every street between my house and Kroger that had (or had had) a tree stuck in its roof.

As for Middle Tennessee, the wrath of Mother Nature is still winding its way through and I’m watching various friends Tweeting and checking in either to say everything’s okay, or they’re headed for cover, or it’s passed and look at this poor demolished tree in Aunt B.’s yard. (She’s more upset about the power being out, though, as would I be – it’s frickin’ hot down here for June right now.)

I don’t know what’s worse – being smack in the middle of one, or watching like this from afar when people you care about could be in danger. Well, I do know what’s worse, but they’re both pretty bad. My mom can probably relate to the latter – I’m sure the 15-20 minutes or so between the first call and my second call to her wasn’t fun the night I got stuck in one of Tennessee’s most severe tornadoes of all time. First I called her from the interstate to ask if they were saying on TV there was a tornado warning; 20 minutes or so later, I was calling back to report I was okay, save for my tornado-pummeled and totaled car with the completely cracked windshield.

I did agree with a commenter somewhere or another on one of the Memphis media sites that it was rather laughable how the tornado sirens in the center city went off AFTER the storm had passed through on Friday.

Glancing at Twitter again. Aunt B. reporting that her neighbor’s car is under a tree. Fun, fun.

Quote that made me giggle of the day: @jimreams (the entity formerly known as the Nashville Knucklehead): I’m glad I live in South Nashville. Tornadoes don’t speak Spanish.

Posted in about the weather, blah, blogfolks, friends are good, middle tennessee, nashville, natural disasters, the internet is..., west tennessee | Leave a Comment »

I Might Be Typing This in My Sleep, But Probably Not

Posted by Lynnster on June 15, 2009

Thursday was an odd day. First and foremost, it would have been my father’s 67th birthday, if he were alive.

The annual big Relay for Life event was in my hometown over the weekend, and the paper has been publishing the list of donations for luminarias as they come in for about the past month – donations made in memory of those who died from cancer or related illnesses, in honor of cancer survivors, and this year, in honor of caretakers. Well, Thursday was also the day that my father’s name appeared as one of those donated in memory of (by a relative of mine). Not so surprising, though somewhat ironic as far as what day it was.

The paper also publishes snippets of news from bygone days frequently – 25 years ago, 50 years ago, 75 years ago, and sometimes earlier. What was really kind of odd was that 50 years ago, on that same day, the paper showed him and a group of other young men from the county preparing to leave for Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon to attend that year’s Boys State session.

I don’t know. It was just kind of an odd day all around.

I want to thank everyone for the kind notes they’ve been leaving; I could never put into words how very much they are appreciated. There are several of you I have been meaning to e-mail personally for days now, but the kinds of hours I’ve been keeping, and time I’ve been spending lately scrambling around as I have trying to slow down this impending disaster – I sleep at weird times, and when I’m not asleep I’m usually snowed under, and my actual working schedule is usually overnights, so I’m usually awake when everyone else is not and vice versa. Except I also will just (when I’m not doing shift work) go for several hours, pass out for two or three or four hours, get up and go some more trying to get stuff done. But many of you will hear from me personally soon, I promise (and KathyT, I did e-mail you and hope you got it, sorry it took five days before I heard the voice mail, oops).

And thanks to many especially for the kind words about Dobie. He was here for so long, and still my “baby puppy” even when he was old and his health failing, and it’s still very hard to believe that he’s really gone. I have a very nice picture to share that my mom took at Christmas when I had to take him with me because of his failing condition, which has wound up being the last taken of so very many that were taken of him over fifteen years. But I can’t really look at it much yet, so I’ll save it for a day when I can.

I probably need to write some more about all the horrible stuff that’s going on and why things have disintegrated to the disastrous point they have, but I’m not really sure how to put it into words here because there’s really only so much I can say publicly – and for good reasons. But it sucks, because for those same reasons, I’ve sort of been stuck fighting this battle on my own almost, and with no one I could really be open with about the details other than my very closest family and friends.

But I will do all of that soon. Unfortunately a good bit of this week is going to be focused on probably selling what little I have left that is worth anything at all (not much, but a little) that is truly just mine – a few things that would have been, I guess you’d say, family heirloom-type stuff if I were leaving anything behind one day. Not that I’m likely going to have children or anything like that at this point, but you know – stuff I never dreamed I’d ever be forced to part with, not like this. I guess if I outlive my mom (doubtful), there’s still a houseful of family things – but nothing that’s just mine, except these few things it looks like I’m going to have to part with.

It’s not much – I guess that’s the worst joke of all about all this stuff, I’m not dealing with thousands upon thousands here and it’d probably be a whole lot easier to swallow if that were the case – but no, there’s only about a grand or two standing between me and complete disaster. Much less than 2K, really, more like about 1.5. That’s the part that really stinks, that in the grand scheme of things, it’s not really all that much. But the problem is now I’ve run out of time is all.

In trying to think things through – and coming to the conclusion there were really no more options anymore but the one thing I have tried for over a year now NOT to have to do – it’s occurred to me that no matter how tough things might be right now, that really doesn’t bother me nearly as much as thinking about how I’m going to feel about it all a year from now, or two years from now, or five or ten years from now – when presumably things will probably be better, but stuff that meant something to me – things bought with me in mind and given to me for very specific reasons – will be gone. And I just can’t even let myself think about all that right now.

Anyway, this week will be busy busy – and I need to get going now as it is, much to do and much to finish – but I’m going to try and keep at the blog again, even if it’s just stupid stuff. Aside from all the awfulness of late, there’s also some really funny stuff I’ve been saving up to share. And I’ll be trying to get some personal e-mailing done this week and next too, some of you I’d been meaning to touch base with anyway and either the constant need-to-do-this or constant passing out cold from exhaustion kept waylaying. So will speak to many of you soon, and will definitely be back here shortly, as soon as I wrap up one big project that has tied me up for months. ’til then…

Posted in a family thing, ancient history, blah, blogfolks, dobie is a dog, dogs, friends are good, in memory of..., my luck sucks, my so-called life, west tennessee | Leave a Comment »

Merry Merry

Posted by Lynnster on December 25, 2008

I think this is the first time in my life I have ever been alone on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  It won’t last – my sister couldn’t leave Nebraska until after work Wednesday, so Christmas for us is pushed back a day, my Christmas Eve will technically be tonight and Christmas Day tomorrow.  In fact, I’m on my way out of town shortly today to get that ball rolling.

Several days ago, I wrote about my frustration and sadness about not really being able to “participate” in Christmas for the second year in a row.  After I’d posted that, my godmother, who I love dearly, commented that it didn’t matter how many presents we had or did not have and that we would all still have a good Christmas and enjoy being with each other and laughing and having fun like usual, and well, she’s right, that’s all true.  But I still can’t help but be frustrated and sad that I couldn’t do much, and what Newscoma wrote the other day about her own Christmas pretty much hit the nail on the head for me too when it comes to Christmas:

This year is a lean, mean Christmas but I’ve gotten into the spirit to a degree. No, there isn’t any big ticket items. People are getting small gifts that I tried to put some meaning into. I’m a gifty person. I like seeing people’s faces when they open their presents. I’m weird.

That’s always been the fun for me as well, at least ever since I was old enough to do my own Christmas shopping.  You won’t find socks and underwear under the tree in our family – well, you will, but they’re the least important – we do gifts that others would probably think silly and certainly unconventional, but everybody gets stuff they really wanted (and some stuff they didn’t but are resigned to getting every year, like my brother-in-law getting sheep in various forms – a family in-joke) and we have a blast.  I like getting just the perfect things for people and seeing their faces when they open their presents, that’s the big thing for me.

And ever since my parents got divorced, my main priority has always been making sure my Mom gets the stuff she wanted.  And I couldn’t do much of either this year, and it depressed me.

As it turned out, I actually was a little better off than I thought I was.  I thought I only had one thing to give one person, and as I was getting things together getting ready to go out of town and kept finding things I’d forgotten about – including something my mother was supposed to have gotten for Christmas probably two or three years ago – I actually wound up with one gift for each person that will be at our family Christmas.  So I guess that’s better, but I’m still pretty frustrated and depressed about it all.

Really when it comes down to it, I’m about at the end of my rope in general.  Last week I spent three days in such depression, fear, and panic about just everything in general that when things improved just a little bit and I felt a little bit better, it was really concerning to me just how bad it had gotten.  It’s a little bit scary to get that far down.  A lot of those things that people will say things like, “I don’t know how he/she could have done that”, things I used to be able to say – I know why people do those things now.  I can tell you for a fact that if you get knocked down and desperate enough, things that may cross your mind, if only for a fleeting moment, are the kinds of things you never would have thought would do so.

But I don’t know, for some reason I’m still here, although sometimes I wonder if the only reason I haven’t just thrown up my hands and given up yet is because somebody’s got to take care of the pets, and if I weren’t here… well, the cats would probably be taken care of, but I know what would happen to my dogs, and it wouldn’t be what I would want.

So I just keep going, but I’m so tired of all the panic and anxiety and not knowing anything every month – how is this going to get paid, how is that going to get paid, how am I going to be able to eat next week, etc.  The car insurance and phone/Internet miraculously got paid this month – which the latter, you know, I’d probably do without too, but without Internet, then there’s NO income at all.

I still don’t know how the car payment’s getting made this month or catching up on the utility bill, and then January will come and all the panic just start’s all over again.  Right now I only have one for sure, every month, monthly check coming in and it will only cover either rent, car insurance, or car payment, so that’s what I consider my rent check.  The rest is pretty much all up in the air every month right now, which is just… yeah, panic-inducing, frustrating, and depressing.

But for a couple of days anyway, I’m just going to attempt to enjoy what there is of Christmas this year and put the rest behind me for a little while.  There will be plenty of time after Saturday for the panic and worrying again, so I’m going to see what little bit of Christmas spirit I can muster up and go with it.

Dobie is not doing very well at all and just had a bath today – which just made him all the more furious with me – my Mom doesn’t know it yet, but he’s coming to visit for Christmas too (thus the bath).  I’m hoping hanging out in a warm house with carpet and a bed to sleep in all by himself with me for a couple of nights, and some turkey and who knows what all else there will be, will perk him up a little bit, or at least make what I am fairly certain now are his last days a little nicer.  He hasn’t shown much interest in food lately, but I kind of expect he will be thrilled about the turkey and whatever scraps.  Sure, table scraps aren’t really good for dogs, but he’s old and he’s dying, as far as I’m concerned he can eat whatever he wants (and whatever he WILL eat).

It seems like this year has just been a never-ending cycle of bad news.  Times have been so tough lately and not just for me, seems like half of nearly everyone I know has been going through something or other – friends losing jobs recently, another recently finding out hers will be terminated at the end of the year, others losing family members here right at Christmas.  It’s just all got to get better sometime, doesn’t it?

Anyway, I hope everyone who stops by here had a really super nice Christmas.  Some of you I miss so much and hope to see in the coming months.  In the meantime, I am on my way in a couple of hours for my own Christmasing, scanty though it is this year.  See you again soon.

Posted in a family thing, blah, blogfolks, dobie is a dog, dogs, friends are good, holidays, lynnster's zoo, my so-called life | 3 Comments »

Wanderlust

Posted by Lynnster on August 11, 2008

My friend Julie and I go back a long way. We went to high school together a class apart, then later shared an apartment for a while during college. She was already in Memphis when I moved down here in 1988, and not too long after that gave birth to her first child, which began a journey for her as a single mom that was always simply amazing to me how she hung in through some unbelievably difficult times, but she did it all like a pro.

Since then she’s become a mother twice more, the last born earlier this year, after she’s already been a grandmother for four years. It’s rather tickled me that she’s a year younger than me but the grandmother of a four-year-old (I should be shot, I know). She’s been out in Utah for about 17-18 years now. Many moons have passed since the days of our old apartment up at MTSU where we used to go to sleep at 6 a.m., get up about 6 p.m., watch MTV all night and throw empty beer cans at Martha Quinn whenever she was on.  Oh, and sometimes go to class.

Julie’s always been adventurous in a way I never dared to even think about being. After a period of living and working at Utah’s Seabase, she and hubby decided to pack up the kids, cats, and I dunno what all else in the camper and hit the road and just wander a while. The kids have always been homeschooled, and hubby has a job where he can telecommute, so they’ve been able to just wander as they please this summer. Most recently they’ve headed back to Salt Lake City (where she was forevah) so Julie could do a month-long stint volunteering at The Breastfeeding Cafe events and classes.

She’s been blogging her adventures from the road, and it’s been a really interesting read thus far. So meet my Gypsy friend – she’s taken some really cool photos along the way too.

Posted in ancient history, blogfolks, blogstuff, friends are good | 2 Comments »

In That Short Bus Kinda Way

Posted by Lynnster on July 31, 2008

So yeah, I have been blogging for almost eleven and a half years, and just last night I registered over at BlogHer.

Uh huh, I’m a little bit slow sometimes.

Also, I got involved in a comment discussion this week about a subject I never ever in my life thought I would be discussing with a group of people online.  I can’t tell you what it was about nor where it is because most of you can’t see it anyway, but suffice it to say I am still a little bit weirded out about just how bizarre it was to find myself in such a discussion, albeit with a fine group of folks.  Life is really strange sometimes, not necessarily in a bad way, just bizarre.

Posted in blogfolks, blogstuff, friends are good, the internet is..., weird wild & whoa! | 2 Comments »

Tee Hee

Posted by Lynnster on July 2, 2008

My expatriate Australian buddy Jimm in L.A. just sent me this link, check it out.  It’s a hoot!

Posted in friends are good, music, video funny faves, video music faves | Leave a Comment »

Ladies Who Lunch

Posted by Lynnster on June 29, 2008

So today I met up with KathyT, her sister, and her youngest daughter for Huey Burgers (except Melissa had the Huey’s Club, the rest of us had the original Huey Burgers) and just had a fabulous time visiting with them. It’s always great to see Kathy, and her sister Karen is just delightful and funny as well. Melissa’s a really cool kid and is going home with a huge trophy – and is also getting her braces off soon, I hear. (Man, I remember that was one of the best days of my life, getting those things off for good after three long years.)

They had thought about going to Graceland but had decided not to, but they wanted to go to Mississippi since Karen and Melissa had never been, so that was a sort of easily solved two birds killed with one stone. I hopped into the van with them after lunch and we took off down Bellevue, which becomes Elvis Presley Blvd. and then becomes just plain old Highway 51 at the Tennessee-Mississippi state line. (Well, I guess it’s always Highway 51 anyway, but you know what I mean.)

So yeah, we went to Southaven and then even on down into Horn Lake, where Kathy bought a new headlight and the cute guy at Advance Auto Parts installed it for her even though he really didn’t want to.

Then we came back to Memphis, having driven past Graceland on the way down, but since it’s on that side of the road coming back – yeah, we pulled into the pull-off and got out and walked around the wall and gates a bit. Karen took a picture of me and Kathy and Melissa under the National Register of Historic Places sign that I hope will be so bad (because it no doubt will be of me, they always are) that Kathy won’t put it up on her blog. (Haha, just kidding… I think.) And Kathy took a bunch of pics of some of the graffiti on the wall.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun hanging out with them and thanks once again to Kathy for lunch & the company, I had a great time. And my dogs thank her profusely since virtually none of us finished our entire burger/sandwich or fries (I almost ate my whole Huey Burger but not quite), so Kathy sent me home with a literal doggie bag LOADED with french fries and what probably amounted to almost one entire Huey Burger or almost. It was a feeding frenzy the likes of which you usually only see in the wild on the Discovery Channel, Dobie almost took one or two of my fingers off.

What was really funny, though, was Daisy was the only one smart enough to figure out what I’d brought home in the box I was holding when I walked in the door. The boys were completely clueless (*rolls eyes*).

It was a gorgeous day in Memphis today, and since I was in the neighborhood I drove by my buddy Joey’s house thinking if they were outside I’d stop and say hey. But they weren’t, so I just headed on home after a stop off for needed Krogering.

By the way, I actually have a piece of Graceland in my possession – a piece of rock/stone that I think came from a walkway, I don’t think it came from the wall. My mom wound up with it when she was down here in college, I think a friend of hers actually did the actual deed, but yeah, it’s a piece of Graceland circa around 1961-63. Heh.

Posted in blogfolks, dobie is a dog, dogs, friends are good, fun with food, memphis, travelin', west tennessee | 1 Comment »

Tales from the Northwest Side

Posted by Lynnster on June 17, 2008

Since I was compelled to create a new category today called Squirrel Queen Tales, I am equally compelled to add the now-infamous Goosepond Swamp Monster legend to it, and link to the photo of where said Goosepond Monster lives.

Notice there’s no talk of Goosepondery over here.  But I’m still putting my money on ‘Coma.  If anyone can find the GSM, she can.

(Technically I guess the category should be ‘Coma tales, but seeing as how the category was begat of Squirrelly’s now-confirmed ice cream headache remedy that I impudently laughed at when I first heard it, plus Squirrel Queen Tales just sounds funnier…)

Posted in blogfolks, blogstuff, friends are good, giggles, squirrel queen tales, updates to the zone, weird wild & whoa!, west tennessee | 4 Comments »

Bits & Pieces, Or Just Bits ‘Cos I Don’t Have Time for the Pieces Right Now

Posted by Lynnster on May 26, 2008

There’s just really no time to be spared, so pardon me for this hit & run update.

1. A little while ago, I ate a cheese Krystal – because I was badly in need of food that I could get quick and didn’t have to cook and it was 3 in the morning – and it was unbelievably, horribly, terribly, awfully & ungodly bad. I have never had a Krystal that tasted that disgustingly, putridly bad in my life. Yes, I realize that Krystals are not haute cuisine, but come on – it’s a Krystal. How can you screw up a Krystal that bad?? If I die in my sleep here in a little bit, you’ll know what happened. Blech. A shoe sole would have tasted better I think.

2. I’ve been eating entirely too much fast food lately anyway, which is kind of okay because I never eat anyway and all I ever get is, like, one little McDonald’s cheeseburger, and they’re all of a dollar and I DO NOT HAVE TIME to cook. But let’s not talk about the fact that in the past two weeks I’ve been served (A) a cheeseburger that was between two top buns, and (B) got home one day and opened the bag to discover I had a top & bottom bun with cheese in the middle – and no burger. Wake up, people! I know it’s just an unimportant $1.00 cheeseburger, but it might just be someone’s only meal of the day that you totally screw up.

3. I know I shouldn’t have laughed because they’re both elderly and one’s a little sickly and might be a bit senile, but watching not just one but two of my cats fall off the desk a few minutes ago, within a few minutes of each other, with an empty chip bag (the small 99-cent Big Grab size) on their heads was almost as funny as a few years ago when my elderly then-16-year old cat got his head stuck inside an empty Krystal Chik box.

4. On a not-as-amusing note, Maggie’s (same Maggie as in the pic above) new favorite place to nap is with her head on the edge of my keyboard, which usually eventually occurs to me at some point after being puzzled as to why I’m typing in all caps or ““““` is appearing on the screen again.

5. I am apparently now completely and totally assimilated into the electronic communications world at this point, because now that my fax AND my printer are both borked, and a fax that I needed to get where it needed to go so I could start getting some commission payments didn’t go through because that dinosaur of a mid-’90s era fax that I inherited from my old office is totally dead now… it took about a month for it to finally occur to me that I could just put a stamp on an envelope and MAIL it.

6. Besides the petered out fax and printer, now my desktop is apparently on its last legs too – I’ve known it was coming, was hoping to hold it off a little longer, seeing as how that’s pretty distressing since I do 100% of my work on this computer these days – but it spit out a frightening serious error at me the other day and threatened to not start (but it eventually did). In the course of seeing what I could afford to ditch in an effort to get it speeded up a little and prepare to defragment the drive for the first time in I dunno how long, after going through some other directories, I took note of the millions of Notepad files I’ve got saved to the desktop – and had a bit of a chuckle over the title of some of those files, such as: CLC Links Widget, WP Tutorial, Moved Blogs, kathyt, kathyt Links Widget, More Moved Blogs, B Blogger Template, one simply titled B, B Tutorial (yes, I don’t remember why I felt I needed to make her her own instead of giving her the one I gave everyone else), and Sarcastro Stuff (which reminds me yet again that I STILL need to repost all his old photos one of these days, ugh). Anyway, giggle – yeah, I’m a blog geek.

7. There are angels in the blogosphere and in my MySpacesphere too. Angels, I tell you.

8. I’m so tired I don’t have time to BREATHE, and I don’t have time anyway because I have way too much work and projects to do. This staying up for a day and a half at a time, sleeping a few hours and starting all over again is getting a little old. I’ve been up again for about 38 or 39 hours now and worked straight through for about 22 well, really about 29 or 30, of those, so yeah – ’scuse me if I’m a little loopy right now.

That is all. But seriously, if I don’t at least show up for a minute on Twitter by tonight? Food poisoning. Ugh, a nasty, dirty, filthy shoe sole would have no doubt tasted better. Yuck.

9. (Yes, Lesley and Brittney, I know I shouldn’t eat meat anyway.)

10. (But still – it’s a Krystal! How can anyone screw up a Krystal??)

11. Zzzzzz…

Posted in blah, blogfolks, blogstuff, cats, friends are good, fun with food, i never sleep, lynnster's zoo, my luck sucks, my so-called life, techgeekchick stuff, wordpress | 6 Comments »

/me sighs

Posted by Lynnster on April 6, 2008

Very much sad about this.

His was literally one of the first Nashville & Tennessee regional blogs I started reading regularly, lo, all those ages ago.  I’m sure there’s good reasons but I’m gonna miss his special brand of humor & views on life in general, cute stories about being a good dad, and absolutely perfect sarcastic wit anyhow.

Don’t you dare disappear on us altogether, & happy trails, pal.

Posted in blah, blogfolks, blogstuff, friends are good, nashville, sad stuff | Leave a Comment »

Balancing Act

Posted by Lynnster on March 29, 2008

I figure if you’re going to have what is quite possibly the, but definitely one of the top ten, worst days of your life, trying to balance that out with a minute and a half or so of an absolutely adorable, not born very long (about two months) baby is not a bad idea.

But the other reason is because my mom has trouble sometimes seeing YouTubes, and doesn’t have a MySpace, so this way she can look at her too (we were just discussing said child a little while ago).

This is one of my oldest and dearest friend’s (since HS, and we were roommates in college) sorta newborn, third child and third daughter. Her eldest (now 19) is sorta like a godchild to me (except I’d be a terrible godmother), and there’s about ten years’ difference between all three girls.

My friend is a year younger than me, but already a grandmother, and I think that’s hilarious, though I’ve been pretty good about not giggling about it TOO much. (Plus I might as well get over it anyway, ‘cos pretty soon that’s not gonna be funny anymore anyhow. Most of my friends’ kids are entering college this year or next, some already there. Ugh.)

Anyway, I’m not quite ready to talk about anything else just yet tonight (but I will), so here’s an adorably cute baby.

Posted in blah, friends are good, getting older sucks, my so-called life, video other | 2 Comments »

As My Grandfather Used to Say, It’s Better Than the Alternative

Posted by Lynnster on March 14, 2008

Oops, I forgot to blog this week, huh?  Wow, sorry.  This week has just been crazy busy.

So even though it has not moved from my driveway since Wednesday, sometime within the last 48 hours the windshield of my not-even-a-year-old-yet car developed a crack.  It’s at the bottom of the windshield (well, mostly) and not all THAT bad, I suppose, but come on, this is a practically new car that doesn’t even have 10K miles on it yet – and it hasn’t been out of my driveway since Wednesday!  I know we had a bad storm last night, but I discerned no hail, and I don’t see any evidence around of why this would have happened, so yeah, I’m not happy right now.  Happy Birthday to me.

Yeah, I don’t usually make a fuss about or even remotely announce such things, but since LiveJournal already ratted me out to Smiley and I guess everyone else on my LJ list, I figured I would go ahead and acknowledge it so I could gripe some more.  Right now I’m enjoying my last seven-ish hours of being able to say I’m 41.  Because 42 just sounds… older.

(Apologies to ‘Coma who is a little flipped out about 42 right now… hee.)

(PS When someone posted on Twitter last week about Gilligan’s Island’s Mary Ann, Dawn Wells, getting busted for weed, I really thought it was a joke and didn’t pay any more attention to it.  Well, I’ll be.)

(PPS Technically I won’t be 42 until 2:24 a.m. so really that’s nine-ish hours of being able to say I’m 41.  Hey look, I’ll take what I can get, even if it’s only two more hours of being younger.)

Posted in blah, blogfolks, blogstuff, celebrity fruitcakes, friends are good, getting older sucks, happy birthday | Leave a Comment »

Blogger, You Still Suck

Posted by Lynnster on February 20, 2008

I wanted to comment today on this post over at Knuck’s because he has a really cool little kid having a birthday today, and the post is a really touching father-to-daughter post even with that special Knuck brand o’ sarcasm (heh), and I just liked it. Having also been an only child and daughter (in this scenario my sister doesn’t count), I dug it (and got just a little bit teary reading it, but don’t tell anybody).

But alas, I have given up all hope of being able to comment on Blogger blogs anymore after months and months of trying and even having consulted with a Blogger/Blogspot expert of sorts, who also eventually gave up trying to figure out why I can no longer comment on blogs on the Blogger platform. When someone who actually was a part of building the damn Blogger platform in the first place can’t even figure it out, I’m sure not going to keep wasting my time trying to.

I love all my Blogger blogging friends, they probably think I don’t care anymore nor read but I do, and I miss being able to comment over at their respective cribs. It figures, and is just my luck, that the majority I would like to comment often on are using Blogger’s regular comment system and not HaloScan or something. Most of these folks I have tried a time or two to get them to convert to WordPress (or ANYTHING besides Blogger) and my powers of persuasion have failed miserably. Or simply, as with some, they just never have had the problems those of us who fled Blogger lo now so many moons ago have had, so they felt no need to move.

Which is okay, really. I still read most of them. I just miss being able to comment at Knuck’s, or Lindsey’s. Or Short & Fat’s. Or Rex L. Camino’s. Or Chez Bez. Or Klinde’s. Or Linda’s. Or Larry Elvis & Curly’s dad’s. Or The Vol Abroad’s. Or Mrs. Bez. Or Dr. Woo’s. Or my out-of-state blog crushes Churlita and Margaret. Or many, many more.

On the upside, the list of folks my powers of persuasion to move to WordPress worked on (or someone else moved indirectly because of it, thanks to some of those) is WAY longer than the Blogger holdouts, as well as the ones who never went to the Dark Side in the first place, so I guess I shouldn’t grouse too much.

No, this post wasn’t meant as a sneaky way of tossing out some link love, I just wanted to bitch about Blogger again ‘cos it sucks. Hee.

On another note – hey, I just noticed I got written up at AnimalShak a couple of weeks ago, sorry it took me so long to notice. I’m not the most observant crayon in the box some days.

Posted in blogfolks, blogger sucks, blogstuff, dogs, friends are good, lynnster's zoo, techgeekchick stuff, thumbs down, wordpress | 6 Comments »

Merry Merry, Happy Happy

Posted by Lynnster on December 23, 2007

I miss all my blogging buddies. My apologies for not having been around and for this place’s total uninterestingness of late. Unfortunately the lack thereof kind of reflects the amount of creativity in my head right now… totally blank.

I can’t really write much more right now – for one thing, I’m leaving to head out of state for the holidays in a few hours – all I can really say write now is things are about as bad as they possibly could be and I’m just trying to keep my head up and keep moving forward, so bear with me a little while longer. The Zone’s not dead yet.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and just know I miss you all and think of you often. And hope maybe I’ll get to see some of you in the spring or something. Talk more soon, I promise.

Posted in blah, blogfolks, blogstuff, friends are good, holidays, travelin' | 12 Comments »

Kick Ass & Take Names, Ms. G.

Posted by Lynnster on October 27, 2007

Wish I was going to be at the SF sendoff soiree & birthday party for a true Nashville rockstar, this awesome young lady, this weekend. I just can’t get away, folks. I miss you all tons… and Brittney, I wish you and Kevin and Tootie and Cooper only the best and so much success on the West Coast… but I know you don’t really need any luck. You will be fabulous. Au revoir and knock ‘em dead, girl.

Posted in blogfolks, friends are good, middle tennessee, music city bloggers, nashville | 2 Comments »

Meeting Old New Friends & Once Upon a Time

Posted by Lynnster on October 21, 2007

Woo!  I finally got the opportunity today to meet yet another person I’ve “known” online for somewhere around 13-15 years, another of the Hoodoo Gurus faithful (and ‘Mats fan, she’s a Replacements fan too) from way back when in the original early days of the congregation of fans around the world online.  Nese is from Texas and had trekked up here for the weekend for the big Webb Wilder shindig in Knoxville and was coming thru here on the way back, so I met her downtown at the Hard Rock on Beale Street and we had a fine afternoon lunching and visiting… and what awesome weather, couldn’t have picked a better day.  And naturally, she is awesome.  So woohoo!

I gotta say it was awfully weird hanging out downtown though.  Once upon a time I spent a significant amount of spare time in downtown Memphis, especially hanging around Beale and the riverfront on the nicer weekends, and the last several years I am almost never down there.  So much has changed… and I don’t know that I’d really say for the better.  To me it looks kind of just dressed up to look prettier.

My love-hate relationship with this town continues.  Strange, I don’t even really remember when I used to just love it, though I know once upon a time I did.

Posted in aussie music, friends are good, hoodoo gurus, knoxville, memphis, music, music junkie stuff, the replacements | 3 Comments »

Z is for Zzz…

Posted by Lynnster on October 15, 2007

It occurs to me I haven’t changed my iMood from “awake” in I dunno how long, but the thing is, it’s usually right anyway.  I am awake most of the time lately.  And if I’ve fallen asleep, I don’t know it ‘cos I’ve done it accidentally… so I can’t change it, since I don’t know I’m asleep.  Right?

Makes sense to me.

The good thing, I guess, about feeling stressed and under pressure more than usual is that when I’m like that – when there’s a LOT of stress and pressure – I don’t wanna do anything BUT sleep.   I predict a lot of sleeping this week.  That may be of the good.

Thinking of Aunt B. and ‘Coma today, and everyone and anyone else who needs some extra good thoughts.

Posted in blogfolks, friends are good, i never sleep, i sleep too much | 3 Comments »

Not Just Almost Famous

Posted by Lynnster on October 3, 2007

I got nothing today, but in flitting around the Great Internet Void today I notice that my friend Travis L. Harmon and his comedy partner, Jonathan Shockley – these days known as the guys from Red State Update – were the cover story of the Nashville Scene a couple of weeks ago.

Travis and I hung in the same crowd back in my old college days in the ‘Boro, and I have on my bookshelves a VHS copy of an early video comedy effort he and some mutual friends made back when they were still in high school, so it’s been a big kick to watch his progression to now becoming nationally known. I wrote here on the Zone a while back about how our initial meeting way back in 1987 didn’t go so well, but in recent years we have caught up and chatted off and on and a nicer and more pleasant guy you couldn’t meet, so I’m doubly thrilled for his success. It’s awesome when good things happen to good people.

The Red State Update bits (all of which can be found on YouTube and the guys’ site) are what’s made them so famous now, but I leave you with one of my favorite Travis and Jonathan bits, Travis and Satchel, which both makes me laugh and creeps me out a little ‘cos Satchel both looks and sounds a little bit like one of my older male relatives (and dummies kinda freak me out anyway). Enjoy…

Posted in ancient history, friends are good, giggles, middle tennessee, nashville, politics schmolitics, video funny faves | 2 Comments »

The Prodigal Blogger, Or Something Like That

Posted by Lynnster on October 2, 2007

I think our friend on the West Coast, Magniloquence, put it best recently when she said this:

It’s mostly just… I fell off the internet. I do that.

…which is exactly what happened to me, starting in June after the mega-dustup at Nashville is Talking – which just kinda wore me out, really, my brain was too tired for a while after that to function – but I kept on trying until sometime in July, and even posted once in August. But for the most part, I couldn’t find time and energy to blog, and dropped completely out of the regional Twitter scene, and like Mag said – I just fell off the Internet, for a while. Or at least parts of it.

But I have been reading when I could, and slowly making my way back to the land of the blogliving. I’ve been reading all this time really, when I can and where I can… but the last few weeks things have started falling back into place where I can maybe find at least a little more time to get back to being an active voice in the community, not only regionally but with WordPress stuffs as well, and all that other crap I always inevitably find myself right in the middle of eventually.

One thing I KNOW I’ve got to do if I’m going to start trying to sort of keep up again is trim down the number of blogs in my feed reader, because it just got out of hand. So much good reading out there but just not enough time. I’m going to whack it down to the locals and a scant few others elsewhere I never want to miss, and the rest I’ll just have to live without. The number in my reader had grown to epic proportions, and one just can’t keep up with as many as I was trying to on a daily, or even weekly, basis.

There are some blogs I’ve tried to read almost daily – since I canceled cable some time ago, dinnertime for me is usually blogreading, heh – and I’ve definitely tried to keep up on what was born this summer to try to hold the regional community together, the fabbo Music City Bloggers, since that way I could kind of keep an eye on everyone as a whole at once and got to where I depended on that for my local and regional blog fix. My hat’s off to my friends and colleagues there – you guys truly picked up the torch and ran with it and it’s fantastic.

I still tried to read NIT when I could, but (as we all know) there for a while it seemed to be about everything BUT what Nashville and regional blogs were talking about, so it became a less frequent stop. Though when I dropped by the other day, I was kind of pleased to see that – at least on the surface – it seems to be more like what it always was, and what it should be if it’s going to continue to be called Nashville is Talking.

In the interim of being mostly away, I missed a lot of milestones and a lot of moments I wish I hadn’t… but I was there, it was just that I was reading or behind most of the time, but of course that’s not like actively being there and participating in discussion or leaving notes. For instance, I have had to catch up on my fellow WP fan Jon’s joy at being a first-time new dad in fits and spurts (she’s adorable, Jon and Katie!).

I missed my dear pal Hutchmo’s birthday and didn’t get a moment to wish him and the lovely missus a happy 30th wedding anniversary (Happy Both, my friend!).

There was the recent news of Lintilla’s upcoming surgery (keeping you guys in thoughts and prayers, Slarti).

Ivy’s grandmother passed away, which made me sad (I am so sorry and please forgive me someday for not having read about it until much much later, Ivy).

Brittney is moving to San Francisco and taking the reins of REAL big city blogging out yonder (congratulations and I’m so thrilled for you and you will be fabulously successful, I know!).

The Vol Abroad spotted what I agree (of course!) is a horrendous case of bad parenting.

The aforementioned Magniloquence! In freakin’ Robertson County, ON CASA DE COYOTE LAND… I saw pictures! I am so bummed beyond belief that I missed out on this opportunity to meet her, but I swear I missed any sign at all of it ’til after it was over (’til today, in fact).

I about fell over after my unplanned sabbatical started to find that suddenly, after alllll these months, out of the blue, Rex L. Camino had started posting on his blog again, which makes me giggle.

Not to mention the fact that Smiley has rather questionable underwear fashion sense (I’m sure there’s more evidence of that on The Dry Spot, though), and Short and Fat admits he is evil. Heh.

Then there were of course so many more – and way too many for me to mention EVERYONE – but all the many others I tried to catch up on when I could. I seem to recall some incidents with The Holy Tara and much more over at my Sista’s place, and thrilled that Sista has gone back to school. Many – way too many – interesting occurrences and days of worthwhile reading over at the House of Newscoma in my Northwest Tennessee general homeland area. Other I try so hard not to miss, such as Chez Bez (who now EVERYONE has met BUT me, sigh). Recovering Baptist. Lindsey at Theo/Geo. Sarcastro’s congenial grumbling over at Watching the Defectives. Mrs. Jag, owner of cool dogs. I like reading about Cranky’s amphibian obsession over at SMB.

Our newer friends who arrived shortly before my “vacation” (who also now everyone has met BUT me) such as Klinde and Grace. Grace’s blog really has become my substitute for a Friday night movie when I really have time to sit down and eat a REAL meal for a change sometimes – I catch up on her blog instead of watching a movie or TV or something.

And more from beyond the regional blogosphere that I still try to catch up on when I can, such as Churlita in the Midwest and Margaret down even more South than me. The always charming and hilarious Neil Kramer and his lovely Sophia.

I wish I had time and space to mention everyone by name but there’s just not enough and there are so many more of you than the ones I’ve mentioned. But I have tried to keep up with everyone, or catch up when I can, really I have.

I’ve got to say, though – and it probably just wouldn’t be a Lynnster post about blogs in general without it – damnable Blogger continues to be a thorn in my side, especially through all this attempting to catch up. More than once did I want to leave a comment for some reason or another, yet it’d be a Blogger blog… and nowadays I cannot comment on any of them at all, no matter what I’ve tried to do. WordPress is your friend, people… or at least it certainly is mine and probably many of your readers. Stupid @&%#ing Blogger.

Anyway, I’m back and here, but taking baby steps at this. I don’t have time these days, right now anyway, for memes and all that kind of stuff that can contribute to an incredible amount of time suckage, I really just don’t. But I’m motivated – at least for now – to write again, even if it’s a lot more brief than many of you are used to. Some of the best and funniest blog posts I ever read were just one sentence long, and that might be what you get some days, others it might be more. But I’m at least attempting to be “back”.

By the way, I see new headers and templates all over the place and I adore the new Tiny Cat Pants header, but of course I would (Happy Anniversary to Tiny Cat Pants as well!). Not all that surprising to me, probably one of my favorite bits of blog post of the year comes from our Aunt B. I don’t know why, I just like this and it makes me smile:

I like the smooch where the smoochee is being a little ridiculous about something that makes the smoochee both exasperating and irresistable and the smoocher grabs the smoochie’s shoulders, backs him or her up against a wall, and presses him or herself full up against the smoochee, maybe with a hand on the back of the smoochee’s head, and the smoocher kisses the smoochee like that should end the discussion.

Anyway. I have missed you all, and I wish there were time right now to talk at length and catch up with every single one of you one-on-one, but there are so many of you and I don’t have that much free time still. But I’m here, and have been, and have been reading… and now I’m hopefully posting again. Bear with me while I scrape the rust off my fingers.

Posted in blogfolks, blogger sucks, blogstuff, friends are good, music city bloggers, my so-called life, nashville is talking, updates to the zone, wordpress | 26 Comments »

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