This is my third attempt at writing an introduction to this post. I’m as narcissistic as the next guy, but the title might sound like a lot, even for me. Here’s my reasoning for using it.
I’ve alluded to some recent undeserved but much appreciated publicity for the Gazette and as a result, there are a number of new subscribers. While I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt as far as knowing what they’ve gotten themselves into, I realize that no one in their right mind or with a reasonably limited amount of discretionary time will wade through two decades of posts. So, I’ve done some of that heavy lifting for them (and anyone else who might be testing the waters, so to speak) by picking out a handful of articles that may, in the aggregate, provide a sense of how I go about describing my perceptions of reality. I hope that makes sense.
As far as narcissism goes, I enjoy writing and I also enjoy reading what I’ve written (for the most part; the cringeworthy posts — and there are many — are left as a reminder that humility is not overrated). However, that enjoyment is a bit tempered by an increasing realization that I’m slowly losing to age some of whatever skill with words I had in the past.
All that is to say that what follows might be the best you can expect, and I hope you, dear reader, will still stick around to support me in my dotage. Bless your heart.
I’ve selected posts from a limited number of categories. Click on the title or header image of each post to read it.
Category: Books & Writing
There’s a lot more to this subject category than the following post. There was a time in the distant past that a major publishing house provided bloggers with free books in exchange for reviews, and I was fortunate enough to benefit from that amazing situation. As blogging gave way to other social media, that approach was discarded, but I’ve left a number of book reviews on the Gazette which you can find if you’re interested.
This post, however, has none of the gravitas one should apply to a book review.
Category: Faith
My Christian faith informs much of how I approach blogging, although I don’t often write about overtly religious topics. I’m not a theologian and what I don’t understand about God would fill all the libraries in the universe and more…but isn’t that how it should be?
Category: Just Plain Silly
OK, while the Faith category might challenge me, this one is — as “they” say — squarely in my wheelhouse. I’m tempted to apologize in advance for what you read here, but, OTOH, it just might be a lunatic you’re looking for.
Category: Bicycling
My wife and I don’t do as much bicycling as we used to do (what’s with all the hills around here, anyway?), but we’ve had some great adventures through the years. The following post describes our initiation to a long distance day trip, and the wonder of it all is that we ever got back on bicycles after it was over.
Category: Wildlife
While I created this category while we were living in West Texas, it didn’t truly take off until we moved to the Hill Country and became close neighbors with a much wider variety of fauna. In fact, after a while it became necessary to split it into sub-categories, e.g. Mammals, Snakes, Birds, etc. Following is one of more than a hundred observations and experiences I’ve written about.
Category: Thinking Allowed
This category is a catch-all for subjects that don’t fit neatly anywhere else. At one point, it contained articles about politics, social issues, etc. but I’ve deleted most of those when I finally realized that I didn’t know what I was talking about.
Category: Health
This one’s self-explanatory. I do hope you’ll study the header graphic closely, and in particular, the two frames on the left side, because it took me a while to create.
Category: Abbye
We lost Abbye, a rescue pup, more than a decade ago. She was so special, not only to us but to Gazette readers, that when I programmed a randomly-generated series of Abbye photos that appeared on the Gazette’s home page, people would visit and reload the page just to see those photos. IOW, Abbye was more interesting than my writing. I took absolutely no offense to that reality.
This post is a brief memorial to her life. If you’re a pet owner, I know you’ll be able to relate.
Discover more from The Fire Ant Gazette
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.