family observations

What Do Babies Dream Of?

I returned home a couple of days ago from spending a glorious week-and-a-half with my new grandbaby. He’s still considered to be in the newborn phase and does lots of sleeping. I, happily, did lots of holding while he was sleeping. (There’s no such thing as spoiling a baby by constantly holding one this young … a myth that circulated heavily when I was raising my kids. I ignored it then; I ignore it now.)…

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observations

Hey, Dude, I’m Not Sure You Understand Your Bumper Sticker

I saw a bumper sticker recently that I could see slapping on my car if I were the type to use bumper stickers: “Make Orwell Fiction Again” Right on! Let’s get rid of the Big Lie, up is down, over is under, right-wing politicians making up a bunch of nonsensical propaganda so they can keep their fascist dreams alive and distract the rest of us from their criminal activities. And then I looked closely at…

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action challenge observations

Earth Is Sick of Our Sh!t

In Central Minnesota, we had been having an incredibly mild winter after a couple of serious fall blizzards, after which the temps got so warm that the snow quickly melted. Very little snow fell in December and January. I’d say we only have about a foot of snow on the ground today (February 22, 2021). Our mild winter became bitterly cold for about two weeks in February, with the temps being in the teens and…

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health observations

The Tyranny of the Electric Toothbrush

I bought an electric toothbrush over a year ago, a few months prior to the pandemic. (Can you date events pre-pandemic? I sure can.) I had gone to the dentist after not visiting one for years, mostly because we didn’t have an affordable local dentist and it was too big a bother to find one out of town. The dentist gave me a dreaded diagnosis of gum loss due to gingivitis. I had to have…

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family ideas observations

Aphantasia Revisited: What Is Neurotypical?

My husband’s investigation into aphantasia continues. He discovered he was aphantasiac in 2019 after reading an article from the BBC on this form of brain function that is primarily characterized by the inability to visualize things in the mind. I wrote about this in June 2019. Erik recently found another article on aphantasia, this one from Scientific American, that explains more about how his brain works. Whenever he is asked to recall specific events from…

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