Not much has been going on other than survival and carrying on. I’m still host or co-host of 3 podcasts, all on various aspects of Linux and open source software. I occasionally stick my head in an online music sharing session. I’m taking occasional jobs as a substitute teacher. And I’m trying to keep my marriage intact and the relationship improved. I’m reading on the phone to my old friend Rhonda Rodgers, now often bedridden in a facility in the Detroit area. I have been doing a lot of reading, lately becoming embedded in books by authors Lindsay Buroker and Charlie Holmberg. I haven’t written much else, other than the occasional parody song. I have never really recovered from my auto accident 2.5 years ago or the death of my mother 2 years ago, but I do the best I can. My kidneys are being rather resilient, refusing to fail entirely but still on a slightly downward trend.

Nobody calls me other than one cousin; nobody else keeps in touch other than another cousin. I’ve been trying to find better housing, preferably as buying a house, and been stymied and stonewalled. We are nearly out of debt, our greatest debt being the car my wife is driving. I have lots of online friends, which is in itself difficult as I refuse to use Facebook, Twitter, or most other popular platforms, but you can find me on MeWe, Mastodon, Discord, and Telegram.

I feel pretty isolated, which is never good for mental health, and have the occasional meltdown. If you want to help, the best way is to get in touch with me and stay in touch.

I’ve had a long life, some would say too long. I’ve had a lot of accomplishments, most of which will have long since been forgotten by most people. I still have a few things I’m doing, mostly in Linus. I still have the Bardic College but seem to be doing less than treading water in that area.

I hope everyone reading this is having the best life they can. I’d love to hear from you. bardmoss@pm.me is my email, I’m @zaivala@hostux.social or @bardmoss@neurodifferent.me on Mastodon.

Hugs,
Me

I was given the opportunity to perform at Festival of the Living Rooms this past weekend. I got good, clean audio of all but two of my songs, and have posted them to my Bandcamp page. I’ve learned a few things about cleaning up audio due to my now 76-episode run (and growing) of Full Circle Weekly News, so I know you will at least enjoy the audio quality, even though it is mono. Only have one microphone anyhow.

https://mordewis.bandcamp.com

So, it’s like I’m not keeping up on my blog. Or remembering which one to keep up on. I have this one, Dreamwidth, LinuxQuestions, three podcasts, and so on. I have been trying to work two days per week as a substitute teacher in the local school district but can’t stay healthy enough; so far only three days’ work. I was supposed to work tomorrow, but have a really bad chest cold, so I cancelled. I did get a podcast out two days ago, and should have another one to do in a day or two and need to get ready for one on the 18th and another on the 21st. Then I have a concert to do on the 24th, which I’m not taking enough time to get ready for. I put new strings on Carols but they are taking forever to stretch enough to remain in tune. I still need to get Lee and Gwen to repair shop for minor issues, and eventually need to get new strings for Rosaleen (25 of them!) and learn how to string her.

Nope, don’t have a thing to do.

Things are going better nearly all the time in the marriate. We are closing in on the six year mark, beyond the previous record. The 29th of this month she will have been here for six years, and two months after that will be our 6th wedding anniversary. We are still going back and forth over whether we are going to Chambanacon to celebrate (and potentially look at houses); neither of us really want to move to Illinois, but it would be safer and we would have some friends not far. Also, there are some really cheap houses, assuming we could find anyone to loan us money on them. But if we can find something in Eastern Tennessee, we will be much happier. Worse people, better scenery.

Guess that’s enough for now.

Hugs,
Me

I have decided to see if I can push my body into doing more work as a substitute teacher in the local schools this year. I have completed my application and been accepted, and completed my training modules. Let’s see if I can get more than a few weeks in.

This is besides still doing 3 podcasts — one weekly, one on alternate weeks with weekly meetings, and the third more or less monthly.

Might be biting off more than I can chew again…

We have replaced the Hyundai. In fact, we sold the Hyundai to the dealer who sold us the new car, paid off the loan, and had a couple hundred to spare.

The new car is a 2011 Chevy Cruze. Black. In better shape than you could expect a 2011 car to be. But…

We are the 8th owner. Yes, the 7th owner was just an auction house, presumably it was traded in on a new car. But 6 owners in 11 years?

We have discovered, reading the Carfax report, that one shop in Knoxville had serviced it 5 times, for 2 different owners. We will be going there tomorrow to check them out and see if anyone there knows anything.

We also found a service record in the glove box which had not been reported to Carfax. So I did just that. I’ve had an open account at mycarfax.com for several years.

Is this Cruze going to be the answer to our prayers, or just another disappointment? We will have more information tomorrow.

Hugs,

Me

A lot has been happening here. The relationship is up and down but mostly up. The new car we bought about 8 months ago is garbage, having shredded its timing belt thus rendering the engine kaput. I played a concert at a convention in Charleston, SC last weekend. I have another scheduled online for September. It looks as if we won’t have enough money to attend Chambanacon in November, nor will we have the down payment money saved for land or a house. It’s bad enough getting kicked when you’re down, but getting kicked harder when you’re finally able to get up is no more fun.

We continue to have zero friends visiting, except for a friendly trucker who comes through every few months. We have nobody to drop in on, either.

Life goes on. I still don’t think I could go back to teaching even 2 days a week. But I may have to try.

Hugs,
Me

I haven’t thought about this blog for a long time now. There is nothing monumental happening, but I’m still having trouble keeping going day to day. Not particularly depressed, but I just don’t have much energy, and going out and doing ANYTHING, just the driving alone takes too much out of me.

I’m still doing my three podcasts. One is weekly, by myself, and results in a <10 minute newscast; one is monthly-or-thereabouts, now with three other hosts, and usually comes in under 1 hour and 15 minutes; and the third we have weekly meetings. Anywhere from two to six of us, with a rotating cast depending on availability, meet weekly, do an open cast on one of every two Saturday meetings but don’t record it, and record a show every other Sunday which gets split into two podcasts released weekly. Yeah, I’m confused too. But I keep busy in a sense.

We got our second car all fixed up. Cost us a lot of money, only a small amount of which was covered by insurance. But we have two good cars now.

We still haven’t been able to SAVE anything to speak of. And with mortgage rates zooming to the sky, even when we DO have enough saved for a down payment on a house or property, we won’t be able to afford the mortgage. But we keep hoping.

Socially and religiously, we are at zero. Virtually nobody calls us except for one cousin, although there are still a few people who are happy to hear from us when we call them. I get feeling really isolated, even lonely. Nobody to practice anything with.

I do have a concert coming up next month in Charleston, South Carolina. We are also taking an extra day so Suzanne can see the ocean while we’re there, instead of spending the whole weekend stuck inside the convention hotel. If you feel like calling, please do… although mornings are probably not good.

Hugs,
Me

We finally made it. We are out of debt. Well, our old debt is paid; we have a current loan on a car and one credit card with a balance, but that will all go away by sometime in May. We couldn’t have done it without Mom…passing away last January. It has been a really tough year because of that, but our coming years will probably be better.

Hugs,
Me

This year came in with my mother’s passing and Joe Biden getting inaugurated. There has been a lot of stuff going on. I resigned as co-host of mintCast, and picked up as solo host of Full Circle Weekly News. There has been a lot of tension and depression and crying …

And I have written 5 lyrics this year, 2 of them to original tunes. I know some people who can do that in a day or a week as a regular thing, but 1998 was the last year that I wrote more than one or two songs — In 1998 I wrote 16 songs, all or most of them to original music. I don’t remember a better year before that, and this has been the best year since then.

If you’d like to check out the lyrics of what I’ve done this year, the originals are “The Angels Never Came” and “Incomplete”, and the parodies were “Lucky Cat”, “Back In the Con Suite Again”, and the just-completed “Free Callin'”. I still have more than a month to go, wonder if I can make it six…

I also got to go to Larry Kirby’s in August and play for/with some of my friends, whom I haven’t seen for well over a year. One person brought a theramin, and I got to debut “Lucky Cat” with it sounding so much like the original it was awesome. There may be a recording of that, but probably not good fidelity.

In other news, we got Suzanne a better car, a 2013 Hyundai Accent Hatchback, and sold the old Chevy Cobalt. I am wanting to sell my Mazda 2 and get another Accent, but nobody wants to buy a stick shift out here. We still are living at the same place after over 5 years. I hardly ever play anymore except on EuroFilk Zoom meetings. And I also upgraded Suzanne’s computer, from a ThinkPad T430 to a T560.

We will be going to visit my cousin Linda and her wife Sara next month in SW Missouri. I haven’t seen her since we were kids, her much smaller than me, but of all my family she is the one who has kept in touch the most other than Mom.

Hugs,
Me