Thursday, October 15, 2026

The fine art of cursing.

No. I don't mean using the enormous amount of swear words in my vocabulary. I mean casting curses on people and things.

You know...like the curse of Tutankhamen's tomb or the one on the beautiful Hope Diamond or Kohinoor in the British crown. 

I mean a true curse. Something bad that will happen to the individual or associates that will cause harm. It is supposed to frighten away those who think to ignore it.

It doesn't.

If worded carefully, the curse will last probably until the death of the cursed. I'm all for that.

The elder women in my family were adept at casting curses. They were succinct on what would happen to the trespassers aaand they lasted until the death of the betrayer.

Like for instance. Someone stole something from my  Ukrainian grandmother. She wished that the perpetrator could get cancer and die. On a specific body part the normally does not get cancer. The person died of cancer of the ring finger.

Another potent curse was put on a man who double-timed my own mother. It was a death curse, to be sure, as mom was really pissed.

He died alone, penniless and hated. Shortly thereafter.

He deserved it.

But in order to accurately curse someone or thing (nobody does good things) one must be specific. Name the person to be cursed specifically. Word the curse and its limits exactly. Don't generalize.

Make the punishment sincere and hard. Death is good, so is an incurable disease to a specific body part. State how long the curse will last...forever is vague. A date or year is really good.

Then say it out loud. For the world to hear, but not in a really public place where strangers might hear you and call the police. It isn't against the law to curse, but you might get pulled in for psychiatric study.

Then so it.

Yes, I tried to cast a curse on someone.

I think I went a little overboard, because it came back on me. I guess I did something wrong.


Tuesday, September 22, 2026

Twice in a row

Well, here I am again. Two days in a row on the desktop. Herb changed the battery in it and paid for something new and I stillcan"t get on Facebook from here, but that will happen if I can get K to help me figure out a new whole account number or whatever.

My friend Neil is probably in Paris by now. He leads an exciting life.

We have a new baby in the family, which is cool. A boy. That makes girls 4--boys 2.

I keep thinkingup stuff for my latst storyt while trying to get to sleep. This isn't fun. Why lose sleep over someth


ing that probably won't happen?

 

Monday, September 21, 2026

Call my computer Lazarus

 Back from the dead.

This desktop has been giving me nothing but trouble for month.

I tried. I really tried to fix things by myself. Honestly. It has been so long since I felt moved to write anything, though, that I kept away from the desk.

Now, I have a raison d'etre. New story, perhaps, a friend who needs reading and Anastasia Pollock. Maybe.

We  have not been terribly well here at home. We've gone through some stupid stuff medically and time has caught up with us.

   I'm gonna have to remember stuff. 


This is the only photo I could put up.

Please enjoy our first tomato. We got lots more!

Sunday, August 16, 2026

Bigger pain in the butt

It has been approximately 97 days since I last opened up my desktop. today I decided I wanted to write but I had to jump trough hoops to open the machine. It resents me being away so long.

Had to find passwords Had to sign in four times after waiting two hours. then has to get a message or Email on my phone, back up the stairs. then my fingernail was too long.  cut it and somehow screwed up the clippers. That can wait.

What I weanted to say was that I have a story to tell.

It has been 20 years since my first book was published. I have written maybe five more, but didn't try to get them published. I was working with other writers, editing their stuff for money and frankly, I did not feel like going through all that mess to try to get into print.

Then I got really tired. And sick. Couldn't see well.

And unhappy. And no longer felt like writing. I have a great story in the computer that should have been published years ago but for one chapter that doesn't work.

But last week I got a story idea. Part of one. But a great title. Sometimes a good title prompts a good tale. I am sorta working on it.

Do not hold your collective breaths!