Monthly Archives: July 2026

Rushing to Brain Surgery

It’s a funny thing. Not everybody is rushing to get in a traffic jam.

I had a conversation this morning that made me want to write this posting. A young guy was behind a slower car, and he was carrying on like someone stole his Maserati. He was just on his way to do a chore that had no precise time to arrive; he was not a doctor heading to do life saving brain surgery. It turned out, the person slowing him down was a senior. Thank goodness his mom was on the line with him, reminding him about reality.

He said, “You’re right Mom; it was an old person.”

I know. I used to be one of the angry drivers too. But here’s the truth. Every single one of the angry drivers will be old one day, if they are lucky. If they are lucky, all of them will have failing vision, they will have no need to break the speed limit, and they will be cussed at by young people, who, by the way, have zero reason to be in a hurry. The angry ones are just full of hormones, have been conditioned, and have no manners nor compassion. If you pass on that hill, there might be a school bus coming up the other side of it. If you survive the collision, how will you explain yourself? Will you say, “I was on my way to do brain surgery?” Hardly.

That old person may have built the road you’re on while giving them the finger as you pass and get in line behind another slow car. The senior might have been a surgical doctor or nurse who helped save your father. Old people didn’t just get dropped off on the planet; they worked, they gave birth to your fathers and mothers and grandparents. They helped build this country, fought in wars to keep you free. It is a stain on society that our seniors are treated so poorly. It wasn’t always that way, and for some of us, it still isn’t. By the way, trust me on this. That senior doesn’t want to be failing, becoming invisible and unvalued.

Maybe that senior is on the way to eye surgery to improve their vision. Maybe they are unwell and trying to get to the doctor. Maybe that senior has NO choice but to drive because they have nobody to help them and no money for Uber.

You say, “Then they have no business driving.” Well, are you going to run over and take them to the grocery store, take them to the doctor, drive them to church? No? Will you even bother to check on them when they are not driving? Or would you just like them do die in their homes so you can hurry to the grocery store?

Didn’t think so. Not only do you not even THINK about their life story and condition; you think anything you are doing is more important than another human being. It is not, by the way, so here’s my wish.

My wish is that you get to experience the exact social interaction AS a senior, as the one you GIVE to elders now. It is not fun for them to become suddenly and irrevocably unvalued and invisible, even despised, just because they lived longer. After all of the years of service they gave, suddenly they are just a burden.

My generation will pass on, but while we’re here, we will remember to respect our elders. But when the ill mannered get to be seniors, I wonder if they will even be allowed to exist. It depends on how society continues do degrade. It wouldn’t be beyond the scope of reason to think there will be a little pill administered to the elderly when you become one.

Let me just add this: nobody on Earth will be more grateful to you for your help and kindness than an old person. They didn’t have electronic devices in their day, but you hold that against them as though they’re dumb. They are not dumb. Just help them! They invented the entire car you are driving. They came back from war and invented the conveniences you use every day but can’t understand how they work. Why does your microwave oven have that little grid on the door glass? See what I mean? (If that wasn’t there, you wouldn’t be peeking in to see when your microwave meal is done, I can promise you that).

Try kindness. And have some manners. What goes around comes around.

How to Make Your Vacuum Cleaner Work Better, Longer

This is not a sexy post, and I actually couldn’t get an AI image of my Shark Rocket Deluxe Pro vacuum, because it’s too old, I guess. It’s still performing well because I change the filters often. There are three of them. Yep, I said 3. On a stick vacuum with a CORD. And I will use it until it dies a natural death. This image is of a much NEWER vacuum cleaner, but I don’t need a new one.

How is that possible? That I have an old vacuum that can still compete with the expensive big-dog brands, you ask? Maintenance.

In the age of penny pinching, it pays to take care of the appliances you use nearly every day, because they are not cheap to replace. I got my first Shark from the retail store where I worked part time. Someone brought it in and got a refund because it wouldn’t suck. LOL. From the looks of it, nobody EVER got near that thing to do maintenance and they MIGHT have used it to vacuum an unpaved driveway. It looked rough. But I got it for something like 20 bucks, took it home, cleaned it up, washed the filters, let them dry for a day, and vacuumed my living room. I figured it had not gotten any love, and I hoped that with a little bit of love, it might work. It did. For years, until I just wore it out. And I bought another one just like it. A stick vacuum touted for being able to clean up pet hair. Perfect.

There are two filters right under the great big word “SHARK” on top, where you stare while you vacuum. There’s a mysterious lever just above that word, that would cause most people to say, “Hm, wonder what that’s for?” Well if you lift the lever, you see A filter. One. But if you lift it out, there’s ANOTHER one under it. Both are washable with water, and after a 24 hour drying time (air), they are good to go! OR, you can buy them on…you guessed it…AMAZON. Thing is, when you get the pack of 6 filter sets, there are THREE filters in each set, one very small and very thin. Wow, the mystery deepens. Wonder where that goes?

Well, it’s trapezoid shaped, so there’s one clue.

Just under the handle, opposite side of the big “SHARK” word, there’s a trapezoid shaped grill! Well imagine that to be a hint. Now, it’s not easy to figure out how to open that vent cover…which is what it is…but if you look at the bottom of the cord where it attaches to the unit, there’s a little slide lever. Push that down a bit and voila! You’re in! You can lift the dirty old filter and pop in the new one. Easy peasy.

All vacuums have a simple motor and it’ll almost work forever if you keep the filters clean. If you don’t, you overwork the simple little motor and then you discard a perfectly good vacuum cleaner, who did nothing wrong. It’s on you. So. Give your little vacuum motor some love and save several hundred bucks while you’re at it.

If you have a NEWER stick vacuum, of COURSE your filters will be different, but for goodness sake, Google it. Take care of your vacuum and don’t go running to the store griping. If I’m in the store, I’m going to pop open the filter compartment right there in front of you, and look at you over my glasses with that, “Are you kidding me?” expression. Everybody there will know what the deal is, just saying.

Oh, and…no way I vacuum every couple of days. Just a confession. I hate vacuuming. I did a small calculation of how many, many times I’ve vacuumed in my life and it’s NO WONDER I hate it now.

A Great Meal for One, in Minutes

Would you like to make a delicious one-person meal in just a few minutes, one that will become a favorite? Try this one. I saw a version of it on YouTube and thought I’d try. I was sick of spaghetti in tomato sauce and definitely didn’t want that AGAIN. I thought I wouldn’t be able to make egg pasta, but it was easy, and turned out perfect. Let me tell you how I made this simple dish:

First, I made a nest using all purpose flour, about a cup, and into the nest, I broke a single egg. I used one large one. I broke the yolk with a fork and gently stirred the flour into the egg until I could handle the mixture by hand. I made a dough ball out of the flour and egg (yes, that’s all) and made sure I had enough flour sprinkled on the surface to be able to roll out the dough. I didn’t overwork the dough and didn’t roll it out too thin…

Meanwhile I put a small pot of water on to boil. Pinch of salt, a dash of EVOO.

After rolling out the dough, I ended up with a fairly large circle of dough, which I wiped with a sprinkle of flour, then folded one edge over about an inch and a quarter. I continued folding that size until I had a flattened dough ‘tube’. Then I made slices across it, about a quarter of an inch wide. I sprinkled flour on the work surface and unfolded the sliced pieces on top of the sprinkled flour and lightly mixed the flour into the pasta. This just keeps it from sticking together. How about that? My first homemade pasta!

I put a small pan onto the stove top and added in olive oil. I think it ends up being a bit less than a quarter cup, but don’t stress. You just need enough to sauté for now. Once the oil was heated, I added diced onions and garlic and sautéd them together. I love onions and garlic, so I was generous with the amounts, but you do you. You can add more EVOO if you need it (I did). Once the onions and garlic were done, I added parsley and mixed it in for just a minute and turned off the heat.

Meanwhile…I dropped the pasta into the boiling water and let it cook for about 3-4 minutes. Doesn’t take long. Then I drained it and added the pasta right into the sautéed onions, garlic and parsley. I tossed it with tongs, then added about a teaspoon of chicken stock. Not chicken broth. Chicken STOCK. It’s like a paste. Got it at the grocery store. I stirred that in using tongs and plated the meal. I added light salt and pepper.

Last step, I sprinkled a generous amount of parmesan cheese on top. Now here’s the thing. We don’t cook only in sequence. I time the cooking of the pasta with sautéing, mainly so I don’t overcook the pasta. And of course there was some onion dicing and garlic chopping in there. You get the idea. When I make this dish, the sautéed vegetables are done when the pasta is done. Not rocket science to make that timing work.

The BEST things about this dish for me are 1) there’s no meat in it (saves money and you don’t need meat in this dish); 2) it’s customizable (you can add whatever you want to add); 3) it’s quick and easy; 4) it’s a one person sized dish (no waste, no leftovers); and 4) IT IS DELICIOUS (Thanks YouTube).

I’m sure some of you are much better cooks than I am, but this dish just made sense to me and I was so excited to discover that I can make egg pasta! Doesn’t take much to excite me, clearly.

Try it and let me know what you think. Oh, and I’m not a vegetarian, by the way. By the way, real Italians cringe when they see meat and pasta served together. Just found THAT out too.

What Do YOU Think About AI? Doesn’t Matter.

Well first of all, by the time I WRITE this, AI, or rather AGI (artificial GENERAL intelligence), will have advanced beyond where it is now. Now. Now! I’m watching a documentary FULL of big brains who cannot adequately describe AI. Kind of like DEI hires. They giggle. OK not all of them. But I have questions.

Still, everything they have ever written, said, painted, photographed, said at home when they thought nobody was listening…all of that is within AI now. Uh oh. Listen, one of them says nu-ke-ler, instead of pronouncing nuclear correctly. I choose them to be eliminated first. Followed by the ones who pronounce realtor as real-i-tor. Ugh.

So, if AI is going to replace humans for just about every job, which jobs WON’T be replaced? Digging big holes you say? No. AI will build a thousand diggers who can work round the clock, won’t take breaks, won’t UNIONIZE, won’t need a paycheck. Next! Hairdressers you say? Oh silly human. A robot will analyze your head, your age, your attitude and the type of cellular construction of your hair, and if it doesn’t just shave it off, it will style it better than you have ever known. For free. Next? Military? Already done. Next! Cooking. That’s easy. Robot chefs. Plumbing? Robot. Electrician? Robot. Teacher? Robot. LOL. There go the indoctrination centers.

So it’s not all bad, is what I’m saying.

Who’s gonna do the math? Stop it.

You see, here’s what I think, on a cursory level of course, because right now I’m laughing at this documentary. I think natural selection is gonna come ROARING back. Why? Because if there are billions of people with no JOBS and a general stupidity kindly handed to us by the current ‘education’ systems, most of those people won’t be able to survive (I will, by the way). Humans will devolve to true animal behavior. It’ll get ugly, real ugly, real fast. The only GOOD thing is that the idiots won’t be in charge anymore. Any man with a manicure will drop first, I predict. Only the strong will survive. Suddenly real men will be popular again! Yay! Until the robots decide we have zero use. After all, we consume food, we need shelter and clothing and there’s nothing we can do that they cannot. Well except maybe love, which is chemical, I’m convinced. Parasitic, definitely…that’s another story.

So, many big brains, or imposters, are jabbering about what may or may not happen, and they don’t know. They don’t! Nobody does. What I do know is this: give humans any good thing and they will corrupt it and use it for destruction of humans. Prove me wrong. Look at what happened with drones. I rest my case.

Here’s one for you: AI will be able to manipulate people to do whatever it wants them to do. How about the ones who want to destroy AI? Hmmm. I predict they won’t make it much longer. Look around you right now. There are TRIBES of people who only want to burn down cities! And that’s WITHOUT AI. So we know people can be manipulated. This one is a no-brainer. But who will make the decisions? I mean, the computers will be in charge. THAT’S what I meant when I wrote about having the right to survive. It could be decided by AI.

There’s a gloom and doom prediction that AI will assign every human a “right to exist” number. If you are a troublemaker who never had a JOB, buh bye. I’m old, so I’m invisible. But AI will be able to see me, so I’ll be out. If you are weak, sickly, a crybaby, a psychopath, antisocial in any way, bye. You gotta be useful for the short term, until humanity has zero use. Can you see why it is pointless to worry about this stuff?

Here’s a good one: with AI, cancer can be cured. Any cancer. Easily. The PROBLEM is (I’m paraphrasing from the documentary here), creating the solution will also uncover biological entities to be used in war. Oh that’ll never happen.

But…

Should we have kids? Oh boy. No. People are gushing about how it feels to reproduce, as though it’s not simply a biological urge. Oh stop it. I know it is the best thing any of us will ever do, but it’s still biology. So in the words of someone I can barely tolerate:

“Ain’t none of us gettin’ out alive anyway.”

By the way, this AI documentary has become ‘an end of the world movie’. I’m sorry, I think this is hilarious.

I say we destroy all battery stations. Yeah, the robots can replace their own batteries right now, but they can’t if there aren’t any available. There you go. Problem solved.