"Where is it? Where did the weekend go?"

Ever find yourself lost? I know it's a random question. I mean, lost, in terms of where you fit in the world. This is a question that hounds both Loki and me. (more…)

Lately, I've had a bit of anxiety over the pups. They are both fine and quite healthy for seniors. They don't act much like seniors. They still demand their daily walks and adventures. I'm convinced daily exercise is what keeps them spry.  The problem is me. I'm the one who aged much faster than they did.  By some miracle, during the years I treated Lyme disease, I was able to continue our daily walks. And don't forget, I was fairly active in Switzerland when I didn't even know I had Lyme. As the years went on during Lyme treatment, we no longer bike-jored or ran long miles as we did in Switzerland, but we still managed about ninety minutes most days, an hour on others with only a handful of days each year where they didn't get any walks. Considering my condition, those stats are impressive. (more…)

Our mighty superhero scans the hillside for nefarious squirrels. There will be no evil-doers on her watch!  Pack your acorns rodents and move on. As soon as her spa treatment is finished, so shall any interlopers be.

"Hi, Pop! I see woo has bacon-n-eggs! I like bacon-n-eggs too!"

Don't worry readers. We recognize this thinly-veiled threat. Second breakfast was served to the husky acknowledging such a happy coincidence. After all, we value our shoes.

"Had bacon-n-eggs. Must rest."

Life is hard. So very hard, for the husky.

"No! I won't look on Monday! I just won't!" (more…)

"Princess, do woo ever look back at the path woo took wondering if woo missed the scent of a nearby bunny?"
"Why look back, Daddy-O? Been there, done that, bought the harness. I'm all about the bunnies and squirrels in the here and now!" (more…)

Notice anything, readers? Ah! I couldn't pull the wool over your eyes. Wild Dingo had little face-lift. I spent a long time getting up close with the inner working of my WordPress website this year. If you know even a little about WordPress, you can understand how giving your site a face lift after 8 years can be a daunting task. Like all things-tech, I have a love-hate relationship with WordPress. Although, it's mostly a love relationship. It's been a long journey, but hopefully I am past the hump of the learning curve and caught up to the rest of the world of WordPress and I can soon get back to writing and entertaining you.

When I embarked on re-launching Wild Dingo as a business site again (don't worry, silly posts about the cracker and the criminal and Mr. Wild Dingo will resume) I had to make the painful decision to move homes. In the world of WordPress and the web, that means, move hosts. When it comes to moving homes or hosts, I will almost always choose moving homes. Moving an 18-year-old web site with no glitches is not an easy task. I don't get attached to most objects in life. If you come to my house and break anything, it's no sweat off my back. But this web site has been, and still is, a reflection of my creative self. I'm particularly attached to it, which made the move that much more stressful. (more…)

Happy Anniversary to my husband and best friend. Seventeen years together. Ten of those years chronically sick. Five of them an expensive roller coaster ride. Thank dog we were both emotionally and financially fit before it all began. Even in my recovery, he continues to help me learn how to be a normal person again. I won't lie. We had a fantastic celebration. There was jewelry, lobster, gluten-free french fires and a gluten-free chocolate melt down lava cake. I think I did all right in choosing a life partner.

(It's an iphone shot. Selfies are not my specialty.  Realism transcends craft and becomes art. )

Once upon a time, there was a boy who married a girl who worked for herself. This was an attractive feature to the boy as he was a bit older than girl. It meant that he could potentially retire early on her income. It was a good plan. Even the girl thought so because she enjoyed her work.  Then the universe had a full-belly laugh. The girl got gravely sick and retired early. Not knowing what to do next, the boy and girl moved to Switzerland for a few years, because that's what people do when they are too young to retire but too sick to work. Oh, readers! There's only so many sentences I can write about myself in the third person. Self-narratives can be healthy up to a point. Then it's just creepy.

When I decided to return to work, I knew I would have to overhaul this blog. It once served as my business contact and it will again. But coming back from Lyme disease is a bit like waking up from a coma. With the brain fog now clear, information that I haven't been able to process in the last 5 years is suddenly flowing into my brain faster than I can deal with it. This can be quite uncomfortable, as waking up from Lyme disease is a bit of an ego-rebirth. Who are you now? What do you want to do?  How are you going to do it?  Why do you want to do it? These questions can be difficult to address, especially in this ever-increasing savagery of the political environment. Let me tell you readers, there is never "going back" to a life after Lyme disease.  You only go forward. You change. Change is hard.

One of the things I discovered as I embarked on my web redesign is that I don't want to return to my old job as it would definitely not be as challenging. Instead I took a step back and enrolled in courses that interest me and have been in school ever since. I don't know how long I'll be in school but I have taken on some fun ghost writing projects in the mean time and we'll see how it goes from there. All that anxiety of who I am after Lyme disease suddenly disappears when I'm in school. To me, learning environments are nurturing. School is always a good place to begin your self-discovery. It's especially a great place to escape the unabashed cruelty of politics.

Change is not just difficult for the individual, but also difficult for those around her. Much to his chagrin, Mr. Wild Dingo had to embrace giving up four-course dinners and entertainment to support my ego growth spurt. I found my old "business" license plate in the shop attic. I dusted it off and propped it up in the office which gave Mr. Wild Dingo a big smile. Maybe he won't get fancy dinners, but at least he'll have an income to support his European wine habit in retirement. Now that's something to smile about.

I've been internet-quiet these days. Since I "woke up" from the Lyme-induced fugue state I've been in for 5 years, I caught up with the news to discover Facebook not only contributed to the election chaos in our own country, but in 2 other countries as well, causing a rise of hatred and violence through the platform. It's one thing for a company to be so short-sighted to not be able to predict the worst possible use of it's technology, it's another to completely wash your hands of the mess it  created. Years went on before Facebook has done anything remotely contrite to make up for the harm it caused. Now after being investigated in the US, the company finally decided to do "as little as possible" about the multiple issues the platform created.  Maybe Zuckerberg's famous slogan "Move fast and break things," can be revised to, "Move fast and break countries."

But that's not all that's really irked me about the platform. Other than it's  uncomfortably targeted advertising, invasion of privacy and it's viciously addictive design, Facebook acquired a few other platforms, such as Instagram and WhatsApp, whose founders exited shortly after the acquisition after business disagreements-- mainly over advertising on those platforms. Facebook quite literally steamrolled the companies to fit within Facebook's monetization strategies.  To be fair, Zuckerberg, whose card bears the slogan "I'm CEO, bitch"  was always clear about his intentions. The more I learned about Zuckerberg's behavior and business dealings, the more distasteful it became to me.

In addition, that mobile phone number that Facebook has been hounding you for for years to enter? (Thankfully, I never supplied my number.) That mobile phone number is absolutely used for targeting ads. I find this to be the worst violation of privacy. There's a real pattern of continued privacy violations and thoughtless product development.

To be honest, I was never really a social media butterfly. MySpace never appealed to me. By the time I started treating Lyme disease, my own  (in person) social network crumbled. I used Facebook at that time to feel connected to human beings. I just can't ignore how dangerous this platform is anymore. I simply cannot support it. While I keep my accounts open on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, it's not likely I'll use them with vigor going forward.  If or when I see Social Media companies make a better effort to address social issues created on their platforms, I'll consider using them again. Until then, feel free to find me here, on Wild Dingo, where I never target you for advertising, where I don't even have a subscription base and I really don't want your phone number.

I am woke. I hope it's not too late for the rest of the country.