Month: April 2026

This Is Tricky

Devil Girl From Mars

I have a story to tell, but I don’t want to tell it right here, right now; I’m saving it for later. It involves a neighbor who mentioned in a text that they saw on Instagram about an upcoming trip. Thing is, I never said anything about it on Instagram, but I had mentioned it here on this blog. So, was it a misspeak, and they meant my blog? I can’t be sure, so I can’t post the story until I actually tell it somewhere else. In the meantime, please enjoy an old movie poster from the Devil Girl From Mars which opened in the US a mere five months before I was born.

At The Carwash

I’ve been driving the GTI all week, and there have been several trips in the rain. The car has gathered plenty of dirt in all the places that normally collect it, and as with any squared-off hatchback, the dirtiest place is that hatchback. Also the brake pads produce a lot of black dust on the wheels

Afterwards, the Miata got a bath as well. Unlike the GTI, it has been sitting under the carport all week. But in more ways than one, it was actually dirtier than the Golf. First, it is springtime, so there is a bit of pollen coating the car, although nowhere near what it would have been back east with its pine pollen, and second, because I am near a busy road filled with cars and trucks that create an awful lot of dust and soot that make their over the wood fence and under the carport.

I Think I’m Clever


GRN JKT is license plate speak for “green jacket.”
The GTI is a Volkswagen Golf.
The Masters is a big deal Golf tournament.
When you win the Masters, you get a green-colored sport coat.
The black GTI has been jacketed with a green-colored vinyl.
I was shooting for clever.
Or is it too obtuse?

Lost Time

And when I say “lost time,” it has nothing to do with the obsession I previously had for the TV show called LOST. It also has absolutely nothing to do with a previous post called Lost Time, which was about a work boo-boo I got passing through the die-cast machining department at ASCO in 2007. This is about “Where did the day go?” and “Second time’s a charm.”

Today is Wednesday, and that means a new episode of Shrinking on Apple TV+. I watched it while eating lunch, and when the show and my sandwich were finished, I scrolled around looking for something else to watch. I landed on Your Friends & Neighbors. There is a new season starting on Friday, and I thought maybe I should give it a second try.

I had started watching the show last year when it first premiered, and I only got partway into the first episode. The start grabbed me, the protagonist’s backstory was well plotted, and I kind of dig a show with voiceover. But when John Hamm started rifling through a friend’s house, poking at stuff, I bailed; it just seemed too creepy.

You know the whole alien abduction thing, right? Usually, explicit memories of the abduction experience will not be present, and the abductee will only realize they have experienced “missing time” upon checking a timepiece. That’s kinda what happened to me; I started rewatching episode one, and the next thing I knew, it was dark outside, and I had watched all nine episodes.

And just like my experience watching Deadloch a couple weeks ago, there were spots that I’d swear I’d known the line before it was said or a scene felt very familiar. Either I’ve seen so many clips on talk shows with all the main characters on their publicity tours, or I have a very strange type of dementia. The only other option is that I have watched Arrival so many times that I have learned the heptapod language, and like Amy Adams’s character, time is no longer linear for me.