Wyatt!

      My best friend just told me I need to stop watching horse auctions. She's not wrong. However, this time, I did it on purpose. My daughter has an Arabian mare that is simply too lonely and really needs a friend. We thought about it, and we could either (a) buy her a little friend she could talk to that we couldn't ride, or (b) buy her a little friend that we could ride. The options are limited in some ways. Then again, we could buy a big horse that we couldn't ride or could ride -- and that's the option we chose.

    Bowie Auction is smack dab in the middle of North Texas, about 145 miles south of where we live. I don't think Hwy 81 goes through to Bowie, but the hauler will no doubt take I-35 straight up, hit 40, and hang a Louie to 81. We're about a mile off the junction. Haulers charge anywhere from $2-3.00 a loaded mile, so for about $350, I'll get the horse hauled. I'll tell you what he cost me a little later on.

    I said "he", and from the title of the blog, you already know I named him Wyatt, but it does make you wonder (it makes me wonder) what he was called before I bought him. I'll be really honest with you; I struggled between Waylon and Wyatt, with Wyatt winning out in the end only because of what the name means. Waylon refers to a piece or patch of land on the wayside, and Wyatt means hardy warrior -- yeah, I'm going with Wyatt. It's a no-brainer for me.

    We chose Bowie because we've had some success buying horses from them in the past. We already know that the auctioneers aren't always truthful. They like to make up stories and throw in little tidbits about an animal just to make the sale, but after the 10th hour or so, they get a bit more relaxed. The auction started at 9:00 a.m. this morning, and I think I bought Wyatt about 11 hours later -- close to it.  You'd be gobsmacked at what some of those horses go for, and they're not even as pretty as my horse is! (Some are. Some will knock your socks off, they're so amazing!)

    After a long, long while, and several hundred horses later, Wyatt came out as a barn ride, meaning his owners weren't there to promote him. They leave their credentials with the office, allow the barn to sell their animal, take a cut of the sale price, and wait for their check to come in the mail next week. That's the only way I'll buy a horse. I won't buy one on the "green light" because, nearly every time, the same horse, if sold on the green light vs. the red light, will go for at least $ 1,000 more. 

    You can watch the animal move. You only have about a minute with these "lesser" horses. They come out, they do their thing (being ridden if they ride out), and the auctioneer tries his best to get as much as he can for it. The barn gets a better cut if he can get the buyers to pay more. He'll encourage the barn rider to move the horse in certain ways. He'll have them canter if they can, spin around, or do whatever they think the horse can do to get that last dollar out of it. 

    Laura knows me. I wanted a good, solid horse, older if possible, and one that has more "whoa than go".  I didn't care about color, but I did want a gelding.  When I hear that a horse likes to take things slowly, I'm interested. It means I won't be coming out from under him when he decides to take off, or gets spooked by a stupid plastic bag. I need (and want) a horse that really doesn't need to race or compete with another horse. If he likes to smell the roses, I'll plant him a garden full of them. I want to walk, trot, canter, and just hang out -- but like I said, he was mostly purchased to give Laura's mare someone to "talk" to. She's getting a little depressed without a friend.

    Buying Wyatt took care of a couple of boxes that needed to be checked. I wanted a horse last year, and bought one, but she was pregnant and refused to stay in the fence. When we sold her, Laura's horse became very sad; almost to the point of starving herself from depression. Wyatt will not only boost Lady's spirits, but he'll also boost mine as well.  I haven't met him yet, but I'll meet him soon enough. Laura has repositioned the pen out back to handle two horses, and she's stocked up on grain and hay for the pair as well.

    All in all, Wyatt's fee was an even $1000.00 (only a few of us bid on him). There's a 3.5% card fee for using a card over the phone, and the hauling, as I said before, will be about $350. Not a bad price when you do a little research for what 16H dark bay Quarter horses are going for these days. Yes, I said Quarter horse, but he's considered grade, because he doesn't have his pedigree all nice and tidy, written out on registration papers. You can't ride papers. I don't need a fancy-schmancy pony. I like mine a little mysterious anyway - it gives me a reason to dream up a backstory he may fit.

    Wyatt is about 16H tall, about 1100 pounds now, and will fill out a bit after he's been here a few months. He's between 7 and 10 years old, and as far as we could tell from the video and the time we watched him live, he's a good sound horse. He's broke to ride, and that's the most important part for me. He will be used - he will be loved. He will be appreciated. We prayed about it before we made the decision, and to God be the glory! I'll show him off when he arrives. I'm sure I'll keep you up to date, whether you want to be or not.

Photo Credit: Snippit from Bowie Auction online.

    

    

Chest of Drawers.

     I rarely buy anything new for myself, but I did do so when I purchased my car back in 2018. It is a 2018 model, and I've kept it in good shape. It has just over 50,000 miles, so in 7 years, which means I drive about 7000 miles a year. This isn't true. My son borrowed the car for five or six months and put about 1/2 of those miles on it.  I laugh because I know for a fact that my own parents would never have done that for me; they'd either give me the car or help me buy another one.  But this blog isn't about my car -- it's about my "new" chest of drawers.

    I say "new" because it is new to me, but it is not new. The back of it says it was made in China, but that must be when they were making good pieces of furniture, because this thing clocks in at over 200 pounds. It's a rock-solid piece of office furniture that was once a part of a three-piece set. I think it was a credenza. I did see the middle part, but the other end was purchased by someone else.  I paid $40, and then my good friend Steve (owner of S&S Bargains in El Reno) delivered it for an additional $10. He's such a nice guy, and his wife, Shelley, is amazing!! I love their shop. 

    Today, I went to S&S to get a few LPs. I go through their collections whenever I drop in, pick up one or two, and then look around for something I may need. I found a really cool-looking homemade Teddy bear that I'll pick up next time. They always have them, and they are made locally. I will always shop locally when I can. If I can give back, I will. I am not a picky person, so my home may look eclectic to some, but I love it.  This piece will serve us well. It is no longer an attorney's credenza; it is an overflow dresser for all of my winter clothes. 

    Tomorrow is March. In just three weeks, it will be Spring, and with today's temperatures topping out at 82 degrees, I need a winter and a summer chest of drawers to keep things separated. We have, on average, 4 to 6 days of really cold weather in Oklahoma, and the rest is a battle of wits between the Arctic air rolling over the Rockies and the scorching heat pushing north from Mexico. Any day, any given day, one or the other will win - and we're often caught off guard. You can't fully put away your "off-season" clothes, but I can separate them.

    I was going to put the chest of drawers in my bedroom, but I can't do that until I move the bed and the other dresser out of the way — it's in the living room, and it may end up staying right there. I'm OK walking the length of the hall to grab this or that T-shirt. I think I'm supposed to spell it Tee-shirt, or tee-shirt, but I can't be bothered. I'll stick with the lakes and the rivers I've been swimming in for years - it's a T-shirt. I've decided.

    Yes, the chest of drawers has a story, and Steve knew enough of it to let me know that it once belonged to an attorney in the area who was a criminal attorney. Oh, I like that. That means the ghosts of all those old files will start talking to my shirts and pants, keeping them busy and filling their fibers with all sorts of lore. I can't wait to hear what they say. Maybe you don't listen to or talk to your clothes, but I do. Why not? It's better than talking to the ghosts of old, dead files of past criminals, right? This is a good piece. I'm glad I found it.

    Oh, you caught that? You saw where I said I went into S&S to look at vinyl? Well, yes, I did. Today I picked up a few good ones. I bought four LPs:  Herman's Hermits, Cat Stevens, Waylon and Willie, and Bob Seger! Oh, yes, the "Live Bullet" concert album. I paid $6 for three of them and $8 for Seger.  I've been cranking up the little Victrola and just lovin' what's coming out of it.  I don't go crazy when I go LP shopping, but I could. S&S has 4 or 5 big bins full -- and I don't buy them all at once; I am a sparing sort of LP shopper.  There will always be something I love - or fall in love with.

    Did you know that Poco put out 19 studio albums? I think all of them are at S&S, and I will have to get one or two when I go back. I think I know 2 of their songs. I need to hear more. OK, back to the chest of drawers. There was an actual chest of drawers there, and it was from the mid-20th century, maybe 1940-1950. I wanted it, but someone had purchased it only five minutes before I arrived. Wow...talk about bad luck, but it's OK. I bet this one has better stories anyway.  I bet it does.

Photo Credit: Me

Casual Friday.

     I'm not gonna lie, I love (and I mean, LOVE) my job. Today, on another Casual Friday, was just another example of why I love my job so very much. I clock in at 7:25 a.m. because I'm allowed to do so five minutes early. If I were allowed to be ten or fifteen minutes early, I'd do it. I don't get paid by the hour because the pay structure is structured so that I'm basically paid a commission plus a bonus. It's not about putting in extra minutes to earn a few more dollars, but I remember when it was like that at other jobs, and I used the system to earn about $25 a month more than I would have if I clocked in on time.

    See, for me, being early is being on time. Being on time, is being late, and if you're going to be late, just don't show up. Call in sick or something. If you can't make it to your desk, ready to go five minutes before your shift starts, you don't get to call yourself dedicated. You're average at best, and don't get me started, because I'm far too opinionated on the matter, and I'll alienate myself from most of my audience if I keep on about it.

    Fridays really aren't that special for my position. I don't have to wait until a good day at the end of the week, like Friday, to dress casually for work. I remember times when everyone looked forward to Fridays because it meant they could relax a little, dress down a bit, and wear a polo or nice soft shirt as long as it wasn't a T-shirt. They could wear jeans as long as they were dark, didn't have holes, and were loose-fitting. I haven't worn jeans in over three years. I wouldn't know how they felt, to be honest. I'm more of a sweats-and-hoodie type these days. 

    Of course, when it's warmer, I'd like to say I wear shorts, but the truth is my dog would scratch my bare legs when she jumped up onto my lap throughout the day. I wear lightweight sweats and/or joggers, as I think they're called. They look a lot like solid-colored pajamas, if I'm honest. Casual? I'd have to step up a few notches before I reached that level. I'm freaking comfortable, is what I am. I sit cross-legged in my huge soft office chair that both reclines and massages my lower back. If someone upsets me during the day, I lean back, turn the back of the chair on, and let them rant! Please, please rant; this feels really good.

    I work about 60-80 claims every day, in one capacity or another. Sometimes I'm doing what's called a "first touch": I go through the file, summarize it, build it into a subrogation package, and send it to someone on the other side. I could send it (by email) to a damager or to their insurance carrier. The insurance adjuster and I speak briefly, assure one another that we'll work the claim, and I move to the next claim. I may call an adverse adjuster to give them my take on the claim, or I may call them to ask them their take. I often send out emails for updates rather than calling, and sometimes I do a deep dive into the internet to find insurance carrier information if the excavator who broke my client's equipment has decided to avoid paying the claim themselves.

    We recover. We are not a collection agency. We attempt to recover the funds for the damage before the claim is sent to a legal team. For this, I am paid well, and I don't mind saying so online. I have made (and continue to make) more money over the past two years doing this job than I have when I worked for others or for myself. I never get bored. I never get tired. I never get truly upset because I have little "mantra" cards posted around my desk and on the corkboards above it that read things like "It's not your money!", "Be nice...listen."  My favorite one is "God has this, let Him have this." I don't need to worry about it.

    If I can't recover the money myself, I have to send it over to the legal team as mentioned. They let me know when —or if —they can recover it—and I laugh (usually) because had the damager dealt with me, he/she would have been able to negotiate a bit of a deal—not so much when the lawyers get involved. I tried to warn them! Of course, I am rather casual when I'm talking to people as well. I have had to push my mic up so they can't hear me sometimes - I have a squeeze ball to assist my mouth at times too. I literally have to put my palm over my mouth at times because what comes out of it may or may not sound as professional as perhaps my employers would prefer. 

    My boss laughs when he goes back to listen to some of my calls. He tells me I have the sweet Southern charm of a Texas rattler at times, but other times I'm dripping with sweetness that he knows is sarcasm, but it comes across (over the phone) as me being genuinely caring -- I'm not really all that caring most of the time. I can be. I will let some of the "sob" stories get to me, but most of the time (50x a day) I hear someone try to get out of having to pay the claim by blaming the locator (811 location tech) saying the lines were mismarked, they weren't there at all, or my favorite, they were "off by a mile". Listen, buddy (excavator), if you're digging a mile from the marks you called in to be located -- you're the problem.

    Back in the day, Casual Friday was something I looked forward to. I sluggishly forced myself to work Monday through Thursday hiding myself in the monstrosity that was the job, keeping my head down, nose to the grind, just hoping for a break and praying I could make it until Friday where at least I could wear somewhat comfortable relaxing clothes at work - hoping my jeans were as fashionable and my blouses were as cute as all the others ladies who tried to out do one another. I knew I couldn't win, but I tried to fit in to the point that I wouldn't hate myself. Not anymore.

    We have Teams meetings (video) with one another, and I'm not kidding, my teammates, colleagues, whatever you want to call them, are wearing jammies on top and on bottom. I will at least wear a T-shirt on top - not going to stand up and let them see the Winnie-the-Pooh pants that have seen better days. I had to laugh a few times and shake my head. When it happens, someone always says, "Wait, Casual Friday, right?" And we laugh. We all laugh. We're all pulling down more than we've ever pulled before, wearing the most relaxing attire on the planet, taking breaks when we want to, not when someone tells us to, and get this -- we find ourselves clocking in early and clocking out late because we're still talking to each other and comparing notes from the day.

    I think, no wait...I KNOW...I am where I want to be.

Photo Credit: Cartoon Stock (Nickel-artist)

Book 22: Shadow.

     "Shadow", like so many of the Nick Posh books, in fact, most of the Nick Posh books, was created in my head a long time ago. I've been hanging out with Posh almost as long as I've been hanging out with Craig Allen MacKenzie, and let me tell you -- sometimes I can't get a word in edgewise inside my brain when those two start talking.  Nick Posh has been a character in my heart and mind since around the turn of the 21st Century. I can't tell you exactly when I started thinking about him, but it was before 2005; that much I know.

    I know he's been around before 2005 because I had to put my first Nick Posh novel off so I could focus on my dissertation, which I was supposed to have finished in 2005 for defending, but I ended up writing it at the beginning of 2006.  Then, because of work, kids, life, and the dog I had to take around the world a few times, there just wasn't time to write detective books. I had Faith (the dog), and people expected me to write books about her. OK, so I wrote books about her, and that pushed Nick Posh back pretty far in terms of being allowed outside my head to play.

    I'm thinking now it's only been 5 years since he's been exercised, maybe not even that long. I wrote the first Posh novel in 2023, I think -- but I wrote most of it a year before. Well, he's out now! He's out, and he's really hard to stuff back into my head once he started talking to me, telling me stories about his life, his family, his work, and so much more. It's hard for me to keep up with the man -- except I should be honest, and say I head-wrote just about every book years ago. It's just that now I'm actually putting my fingers to the keys and getting the words out of my skull and onto the computer -- then of course, into print.

    There were two books, "Cumberland" and "Stratford", which were not previously written or thought out. Those two books are freshly created and just sort of thrown out into the ether to get them out so that the older books, the original books, can have more free space to breathe. If you're not inside my head, you may not understand all that - but it makes sense to my brain. Nick Posh, I guess you could say, is the author of his stories, and I just report them as I'm being led. He's the one who has to live his life, but I will say even he didn't realize he was going to end up fathering twins at 44 -- that was all me. I did that. He's still shaking his head.

    I can tell you this: There will be no more little Posh kids being born anytime soon. His quiver will have to be full with the three sons that he has. He'll learn a great deal about being a father as the books continue, and he'll raise his boys to love God, our country, and to keep both the Commandments and the laws of man. Patriotism oozes out of this man, and for that I am thankful. He's an easy one to write. He's honest, upfront, intelligent, and clever. He thinks, and he's one of the most resourceful men I've ever conjured. 

    I can't tell you too much about "Shadow" yet, but I can tell you it takes place in Oklahoma (mostly) and spans from September 1934 to about April 1935. My mother makes an appearance in the book; she was born in April 1935, and her family, though living in Thrift, Texas, will be mentioned in "Shadow".  Nick faces a grim reality in the book, having to deal with his personal morals, ethics, laws, and more - he'll make decisions that may not be popular, and they may not be wise as they relate to his job and livlihood, but he's one of those die-hard ethical men who we only read about. He'll stand alone if he has to; but he won't compromise to please others. He answers to a higher power than himself.

    I'll start writing a week from this Saturday, so around March 7th, and it should be written in about 5 weeks, and then tweaked and corrected. It may be ready by April 22, but if not, it can be a little later. I won't fuss.  It'll be a fun book to write, as I'll do a great deal of research on the law and how it was handled in the good old days -- Alfalfa Bill Murray returns to "Shadow"; it was his last year in office.  I love that man, warts and all.

    

Photo Credit: Me.

CHEEKY! (Not to Be)

     For the first time ever, I've decided to scrap a book that I have written. I have scrapped them before I wrote them - deciding not to write them, but this is the first time I've written a book and then said no. I didn't like it. I did the whole AI thing, telling the AI what to write, and I sat back and let it go. The results were miserable. They were so bad - and so unwanted, I couldn't put my name on it. It was just not meant to be. Gone!

    That's not to say I won't get around to writing the book myself, but I couldn't allow the AI to do it; not my style. I did try. I promise, I did. I laid down the ground rules, the instructions for the skeleton, the framework, the juicy parts. I even told it what should happen in each chapter, but when it was done, there were just too many mistakes. I'd have spent weeks just correcting them, even before getting to the grit of it. When I write, I use AI for suggestions, but this time I wanted to see if it could write the entire book - it failed.

    When I say it failed, I don't mean that the AI (Type AI to be exact) didn't write the book, or that it couldn't write the book. It could, and it did. However, the book it wrote sucked so badly, in my opinion, that I would never have admitted I had much to do with it.  It wasn't just what the thing wrote, it was the layout, the wording, and the way that it disregarded what I wanted and took off on its own. I don't know if it was thinking (can an AI think?) that I would be happy with their choices rather than my own, but I was not.

    When the book was finished, I hadn't even read one page before noticing that the word wrap wasn't engaged, and a word like "word" would have the "w" at the end of the line, and the "ord" would be on the next line. I tried to fix it, and it got worse. Maybe it's me, maybe I don't know how to fix Word documents as well as I thought I could, but it was a mess. I tried justifying the entire document, and it made it worse. I couldn't begin reading it for all the spacing issues. I finally decided to just read it, and ignore them -- but it frustrated me so terribly that I had to give up.

    When I did get around to reading what was written, I laughed. My main characters were Bindy Vance and Marley Knox. The AI had them as Bindi Vance and Charles Marley. Yeah, well, that's not what I told it. Then, it decided to kill off Bindy's mother - Disney much?  The book started off with the mother dying, and how Bindy's love for her mother's dreams led her to move to Scotland to fulfill her mother's unfulfilled destiny. NOPE! That is NOT what I asked for, not by a million miles.  TRASHED IT.

    I think I read half of the first chapter before skipping through the next 300 pages and finding more and more discrepancies; too many to remember. I consumed a lot of chocolate in the process, just trying to calm myself. I couldn't have been more disappointed if I had tried. I decided to scrap the entire project and tell the world my opinion of having thought it was a good idea to allow AI to run free with my words. I've learned it's not only a bad idea, but it's also something we should consider if we use AI to do anything else for us.

    I noticed something else after reading the first half of the first chapter. I guess it never dawned on me before, but all my lead characters in my novels are women, unless they are Nick Posh. Nick Posh, of course, is the lead character in all of the Nick Posh books, but in all of my non-Nick books, the character that is the lead is a woman. I don't know if I did that subconsciously because Nick was in all the Nick Posh books, or if it is because I like developing other characters. My best friend likes the fact. She's always been a big girl-power type. I'm not really bothered either way.

    No more AI for me, in that I won't ask it to do more than just take a line or two and fluff it. I ask it to give me a good start for a paragraph, or to add color to this or that paragraph. I write my own books. I'm almost 99% sure that I wouldn't have liked the book even if it had been written to my input -- I would have found a reason to hate it because I didn't write it. I'm such a snob. People will ask me if I read this or that author, and I don't. Sorry, I don't. I don't have time to read much because I'm writing. I prefer to do the fingers on the keys thing - it's who I am.

    That's it. That's all I have for you. I'll let my friend Brandi Kinikin know that she'll just have to be embedded into the next Posh book instead of into the modern-day Highland romance I titled "Cheeky!".  She'll understand. I may use her maiden name because I already have a Brandianne Kiskis in one of my Posh books -- it's not the same, I know, but pretty close. I like to keep things a little less confusing if I can.  I'll make her a really interesting character -- she'll love it. OK then, I'm off to start the next Posh book -- ON MY OWN -- without any help from any AI until I need a flash of fun...but just a flash. I wouldn't trust anyone or anything with Nick!

Photo Credit: Me.

New Juicer.

     Hello! I'm coming to you from my office, where I have just sat down again after getting up to go to the kitchen to make myself a juice in my new juicer. Yes, you read that correctly. I have a new juicer. I did the whole looking it up on my Facebook timeline, to see when it was that I bought my old juicer - a really good one, and it was 2011. That's 15 years, and yes, it's still working. There is nothing wrong with it. I may end up donating it to someone. I replaced it with one literally half its size that does the same thing.

    Kitchen space is premium, you know. You can't have every gadget and/or appliance out on your cabinet. You have to decide which ones are worthy and which ones are not. I don't drink coffee anymore, so the espresso machine and the coffee maker were left behind before I moved to the new house. It was a little hard to give them away, but I did. I found good homes for both of them. The juicer probably won't be any more difficult, to be honest. It's a lovely machine, and if it weren't so bulky and intricate, I'd keep it. Believe me when I say that fifteen years of engineering and technology have come a long way!

    The Hamilton Beach model, big, bulky, white with green trim, and about 7 or 8 different parts, was too big to leave out, and if I wanted to drag it out every day, I'd be bending over and lifting and washing, drying it, and bending back over to put it away again. Then, because it was put away, I'd make up some excuse not to make another juice until the weekend. I didn't want that - I know how horrible I can be. I decided to get a more compact machine, one that will be out on the counter screaming at me to use it.

    I went with the Tuumiist Cold Press Juicer with a 5.3" extra-large feed chute so I can put whole fruits and vegetables in it, and I watch it grind away, stripping all the peels and/or pulp from the liquid goodness that comes out the other side. Very handy-dandy, and quite interesting to observe.  It was $85.47 on Amazon, with taxes and all about $94 I think. Close to that. I decided to celebrate; to treat myself for having been named Employee of the Year at work -- God is simply too good! He deserves the applause. I'll take the juice. (Which is funny, because He made that too.)

    I can't wait to put several orange halves into the machine and watch them churn. I didn't have everything I needed today to make anything special, but I did have carrots, spinach, ginger, and pineapple, so that's what I made! The pineapple wasn't a whole fruit. I did cheat a bit. I have 100% pineapple juice in a carton that I use for my afternoon snack; I used it. When I get the oranges, I'll try to make something really bright and colorful - maybe mix a few raspberries into the thing!

    Why juice instead of just eating the carrots or maybe a spinach salad? The simple answer is you can blend them, whereas when you eat a carrot, you get a carrot. Yes, the fiber is very important. That's why I keep the fiber from the vegetables and fruit I juice, and mix it with a little bran flour, eggs, and a few other ingredients to make muffins that absolutely hit the spot. (I don't do that every time, but I do it enough.)  

    I can soak walnuts overnight, then add them to the juicer to make a really good milk.  I've only done it once, but it was good. I added a little vanilla and cinnamon, and yes, it was a great treat - really good stuff.  I'm thinking of making cookies with the leftover pulp—I can freeze it and decide later. I'm really hoping the juicer will push me to keep my health up, exercise more, eat less, and be more aware of what I put into my body. I need the reminder. 

    One of the recipes that I found online that I know will be a fantastic drink for me is the Detox Green. (hurom.com) A lot of other people call it something else; it's not new or original, but it is a good green detox. It has 4 ingredients: spinach, lemon, cucumber, and ginger. I'd say for me, it's about a cup of spinach, 1/2 a cucumber, 1/4 of a lemon, and just about 1/2 an inch of ginger. If I need to add a little water, I will, or a little pineapple juice. I drink between 4 and 6 ounces in the morning when I remember. 

    Grabbing a juice instead of a candy bar makes a lot more sense to me. Grabbing a carrot or a stick of celery may not happen every time, but I open the fridge and shake up something I juiced earlier, and it's not only better for me, but it's also cold, and it's filling. The calorie intake is way, way lower, and I know I'm helping my old body stay (or get) fit. I need that reminder most every single day -- oh, you know, 5x a day.

    This getting-old stuff is for the birds, I have to be honest. It is not for the faint of heart, and if you don't know what your plan is for your body when it happens, it could be hard to kickstart once the slouch of life has grabbed hold of you. My friends, some of whom have always been healthy and others who have not, all agree that juicing is a great way to get the vitamins, minerals, liquids, and flavors you need. The healthier ones will tell me to save the pulp for another purpose.

    Amazon has a lot of choices for you, as does any Walmart, Target, or home store, probably. Do a little research first to determine what you want. The slower, low-speed (one-speed) 300W cold press is the one I went with because I wanted to watch it churn.  I like the way it fits in the kitchen. It's easy to disassemble and clean, and it's not hard to put back together and use again. I literally just spray it clean with hot water - I don't have to clean out the base because nothing gets into the mechanism, which, by the way, did happen with the older model. I'm telling you, technology and engineering have made a big improvement over the past decade and a half.

Photo Credit: Amazon.com

Employee of the Year (2025) !!

     I have an amazing job. I mean, I'm an author, sure, but it doesn't pay the bills, so I have a regular job as well. I'm a claims adjuster by day, and I truly love my job. I have been in the insurance world since 1983, but have only been an adjuster for the past 10-12 years, I suppose.  I've definitely sold insurance; every line imaginable. I was set to take the exams to sell index-driven products, but decided to adjust instead. 

    When someone tells you they are a claims adjuster, they could work directly with insurance companies like State Farm or Farmers, or they could work for a company and adjust claims coming in through assignment or subrogation. Let's say I'm an adjuster working for a large county or a state. I would then receive a subrogation package with a demand, explaining why someone else thinks my county or state owes them. I would look at both sides of the event and work to get the best deal for whoever pays me. Well, I do that, but for the people making the accusations.

    I work for a recovery team, basically. Large corporations (of which you would know their names) have hired us to recover money they believe is owed to them through motor vehicle accidents, underground excavation accidents, and above-ground communication incidents, which require the two sides to analyze their respective sides to come to a resolution as to whether or not the other side (not ours) is responsible. The reason I say the other side and not ours is that in EVERY case, our side is the innocent party.

    Well, you say, that sounds a bit selfish and conceited. It's not. What I mean is, our clients had facilities just minding their own business (working) when someone or something else caused them to stop working. It could be an automobile, an excavator, a fire, anything except an Act of God. We don't try to collect from Him. If He causes a situation, we advise our client(s) to submit the claim through their own insurance. We only collect from the parties that actually did the damage.

    I've been doing this job (at this company) for about 2 years now. I have to tell you, I absolutely love it. I speak to so many interesting and not always agreeable people all day long. I consider it a good day if I don't lose my temper and say something I shouldn't; but my employers understand when I (or we adjusters) do, because we're literally being blamed and accused of things we would not do, could not do, and certainly have no reason to do. Control and forced politeness is a key part of my job.

    We have three divisions in Recovery. I'm in the Underground or Plant division. We work with those clients who lay lines for communication, gas, sewer, power, and so forth. We have some DOT clients as well that we recover for when they need us.  In my department, we have a dozen adjusters. There are probably that many more in the other two departments, so to be nominated and then to win Employee of the Year for the Recovery is super exciting!! I'm blown away by it, and very excited to know that my colleagues like my work and that they believe in me as a co-worker and, hopefully, a good friend.

    I was asked by a member of management today if I might think about becoming a manager; he had a department he wanted me to run. I had to laugh -- but in a nice way. I explained to him that I won't come into the office. I like wearing my pajamas or sweats all day. I don't wear makeup, work strictly from home, and will not work overtime. I make more at my job than I have in years.  It's more or less a commission thing—and I bust myself to make it.

    God is the real Employee of the Year...and decade, century, millinneium and eternity for that matter. He's the one I go to for help with my job. He's the one I ask for help. He's the one I pray to every morning, asking Him to shut my mouth before I say something that will embarrass both of us. If  I receive any praise or someone wants to tell me how good a job I have done, I think it's best to tell the truth and say it wasn't me. I was the vessel, sure, but He's the anchor and the motivator, and for that, I am very, very thankful.

    I want to stay where I am. I want to keep doing what I'm doing. I love it. I should have done this years ago!! If I knew it was out there, I would have. When I think of someone being a claims adjuster, I think of workers' compensation, bodily injury for personal injury attorneys, and I think of residential or automotive adjusters trying to cut you a bad deal. I never knew a claims adjuster could have as much fun as I do every day, or work with such... interesting... yes, interesting people. From the damagers who make excuses to the adverse adjusters who do their best to do the same, I love my job.

    Thank you, "Company" (I try to keep that out of the limelight as much as I can), because I am not only your Employee of the Year, I'm one of your biggest fans. 

Photo Credit: Clean Link

AI - Nope!

      So, nope. I'm not going to use the Type AI to help me write my books. It has proven to be a bit of a pain in the butt to be honest. There is another program called Sakura that I used for the other books, a couple of them anyway. It wasn't as expensive, and it did exactly what I needed it to do. I only asked it for help, not to write the book. With Type AI, I thought I would have a bit of fun and let it write an entire book for me to read after I gave it very specific instructions about what I wanted the book to be about. It did not do what I asked.

    First, (and this is my fault), I wrote out the instructions for what I wanted, and in doing so, realized I had been too vague. I gave the AI the overall skeleton of what I thought the book should be: fill in the blanks with all the character development, situations, circumstances, plot, and everything, but it was at least supposed to follow my instructions. It did not.

    What I got was a 45,000-word document with holes, a repeated narrative, situations I specifically said I didn't want, and it just rambled on and on without following the line or keeping to the basic plot I gave it. When I asked for more and for corrections, it only got worse. The whole book was scrapped, and I asked it to start over. I was again, very specific about the characters not falling in love, not getting married, not having children -- but there we were, six or seven years into their story, and they're celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary with twins and another baby on the way.

    I wrote into the instructions for the AI to scrap the book again, to pay attention to the details I set out for it, and what I got this time was stranger still.  It had many block corrections, a color-coded narrative, footnotes, and more. This is a novel, not an essay! It wrote another 37,000 words and asked me if it needed to be more detailed—well, since I want an 85,000-word document—YES!

    I'm going to write to the company and ask for my money back. I don't know if I'll get it, but I am going to ask. I am truly disappointed in the thing—it was supposed to be fun, but like the bread maker, it was frustrating and anything but enjoyable.  I'll just write the damn book myself and be done with it. I don't mind, I write all my books, but this one was supposed to be different -- and it was, I suppose. It was a complete disaster.

    I can use Sakura for flavor and color -and that's all I really need AI for anyway - it's just if you go into a restaurant where you can order what you want off the menu and ask the chef to prepare it just the way you want it, and they bring you out a dish that (a) you didn't order (b) was not anything like what you ordered, you shouldn't be expected to pay for it. I hope they will give me my money back. At least I learned a little about using AI.

    I have to laugh at one thing. My main characters are Bindy Vance and Marley Knox, a man and a woman. After writing over 37,000 words, and about to have the two people getting engaged and married, the machine decides to ask me if Marley is a man or a woman - it wrote the book as if Marley was female! NO...he's a man!!  In my instructions, I say he, he, he, and for the AI to ask me what gender he is, just stopped me. I wanted to kick it, but you can't - I mean, if you did, you'd hurt your foot.

    This week has been a week for learning, I can tell you that. I'm dealing with another personal issue that needs to be settled, but that's a God thing. He can handle that one. I'm not sure I'll bother Him with the AI issue—I can just ditch it and move forward. There are too many other options to worry about it. The bread maker issue, which left me with enough bread to make 5 or 6 big batches of bread pudding, is enough to deal with. I mean, I have no doubt what will actually happen is the birds will feast - and I'll just wash my hands of the fantasy of being a bread maker! (Even AI couldn't mess up as badly as I did) 

Photo Credit: HTX.Gov.SG

THANKS ZACH & ANNIE!! (Simple Scottish Living)

      A couple of weeks ago, my friends Zach and Annie, who run the really cool YouTube channel Simple Scottish Living, asked if it would be OK for them to review one of my books on their channel. YES!! (of course, I had to pretend to be controlled in my enthusiasm, but I think they understood the countless emojis) It wasn't just any of my books; it was "Dion", the book I wrote about an American lawyer going to Scotland to investigate her ancestral inheritance.  I put Zach and Annie in the book for a bit of modern-day authenticity, and they repaid me big time with an awesome review.

    If you haven't checked out Zach and Annie's channel yet, please do. They also have a website. (Simple Scottish Living)  to guide people hoping to move overseas through the process with less hassle. They've been through it, and they want to share their advice and expertise with anyone who needs it. If I were moving to Scotland, they would be my first call! I know enough to know I would need help. I've decided to stay stateside and to remain in Oklahoma, but if I were going to move or even go on an extended stay, it would behoove me (and you) to get as much information about the differences and challenges as you can.

    Having a good book review is key to every future sale or exposure of not only that book, but any book an author writes. It's been said that all publicity is good, but that's simply not true. Bad publicity can be detrimental to a book's sales, whereas a sweet, kind, giving, sharing, informative, and thoughtful book review can go a long way toward helping an author achieve unexpected goals! I really want to thank Zach and Annie for their great book review of "Dion" today on their channel; it truly warmed my heart to see it. (I watched it a few times, to be honest.) 

    I just wrote a book called "Cheeky!" that I'm going to tweak and send up to the publisher at the end of March. I finished "Cumberland" a week ago and sent it up for publication this week. It will be available on Amazon on March 7. I think "Cheeky!" will be for sale on April 1. So, yes, Zach was right when he said I was a prolific writer - I write. I am so very happy, so very grateful, and so very hopeful that I can write as much as I do. I don't (and haven't) written to sell the books, but to write them. It is fun, however, to see reviews, to sell books, and to know that people actually like what I write!! It's very exciting. Sometimes I can't comprehend it, but it is really cool.

    So, thank you, Annie. Thank you, Zach. I truly mean it when I say I look forward to your weekend YouTube videos. They are always homespun, loving, family-oriented, and fun. I learn a great deal, and I love the fact that you guys work so well together. You give, take, compromise, and make decisions together. You're individually wonderful and collectively amazing!! Kiss the kids for me, and of course, Finnigan! I hope the next projects work out as well as the previous ones have for you. OH...and congratulations on beating England for the Calcutta cup this week!! (31-20) I won't pretend I understand a minute of it, but if we can beat England, I'm all in!

Photo Credit: SimpleScottishLiving 

My Bad!

     My bad! My bad! I raise my hand easily enough and let the world know that it was me, not anyone else, who needs to carry all the responsibility and take all the blame for this particular botch-up! Mine! All mine, you can't have it, I claim it. Here we go. I thought making bread for a hobby would be a fun thing to do.  I looked into it, I researched. I watched YouTubers make their bread in their bread machines, and I went out and bought one! I even took the time to research that part of it, too. 

    I didn't want to pour too much money into it if it was going to be a new hobby. First, I wanted to see what was out there, and then get something that was affordable, durable, reliable, etc... and I bought the Elite Gourmet. There's nothing wrong with it - believe me when I tell you, it's me.  I made about five loaves in the machine before throwing hissy-fit after hissy-fit when the loaves just didn't turn out the way I thought they should. They weren't tall, fluffy, pristinely tan, or even even -- they were certainly NOT even. 

    Well, turns out, you can't or shouldn't use all-purpose flour when you make bread in a bread machine. Lesson learned. I bought bread flour, wheat flour, and a few other things I thought would be fun to add to quick breads later, like raisins, walnuts, chia, and so forth. I'll make those breads, yes, I will, but not in a bread machine. I'll continue my little rant, and you can figure it out for yourself.

    After three more loaves in the Elite Gourmet bread machine with the same result, even though I had switched flour, made sure my water temperature was between 75 and 90 degrees F, and that my yeast wasn't touching the salt or the water, I sent the Elite Gourmet machine packing back to Amazon! That was not the machine for me. I needed to cook the bread longer, but once it's done, it's done. You can't add more time to it - and if you can, I never figured out how to do it. 

    I bought a Cuisinart! $130 vs. $70, but it's all about having fun, right? Yes, that's what I told myself. It's all about having a great time making bread -- eating bread. I ended up feeding most of it to the birds, and yes, they did appreciate it. I, on the other hand, do not appreciate having to give away my product after spending time, effort, money, and hope on this (what I thought would be) new hobby -- I made a loaf -- it was bad. Seriously? What was it? What could it be? Oklahoma is only 1330 feet above sea level, so it wasn't elevation -- I hit the internet with my questions. I got answers.

    Turns out it was me! It was ME all along. No one else was putting the ingredients into the basket...me. I wasn't using sugar. I was using monk fruit, a natural sweetener that isn't sugar -- it has to be sugar. IT MUST BE SUGAR!  The recipes did say you can use honey if you want to, but it needs the carbs for the yeast to feed on and rise -- OK...now, I know, right?  So, here I go -- one more loaf -- one more time.  I used honey and did everything exactly as instructed, but it still turned out badly. It wasn't AS BAD, but if I had to rank it, I would say 6.5/10, not anywhere near what I needed it or wanted it to be.

    Well, that's it. My bread machine days are over, and I'm OK with it. I'll just make quick breads from mixes and call it a day. I really don't mind. If we need a loaf of artisan bread, I'd rather buy a loaf than spend the time I did making worthlessness out of good ingredients. Like I said, the birds didn't mind. They were very happy to see me pitching the chunks of brick-bread out to them - they shared, and pecked at each piece with such enthusiasm. At least I have that.

    The Cuisinart goes back on Monday. UPS is closed on Sundays, and this being Valentine's Day, I'm just too wrapped up in my comfy jammies to do anything really productive like taking a bread machine back to UPS to be shipped to Amazon - it can wait.  I guess the moral to this story, if there needs to be one, is that I should have (a) read the fine print and (b) not expected so much from a product that basically just does what it does and can't really improve just because my expectations were higher than they needed to be. 

    Still, it does make me wonder how people on YouTube get their bread to do more than mine did. I used the right ingredients, put them in the basket at the right temperature, in the right order, and I pushed the right buttons -- but, alas, it is not to be. Maybe someone else will read this blog and save themselves a weekend of frustration and $25 worth of ingredients to make bird food. (OK, I'll say this, the dogs liked it too.) 

Photo Credit: The Oklahoman.