After a summer of Too Much Togetherness, I have been space-i-fied for a bit. This is one of the photoos the GG *texted* me (thank you for texting, email doesn’t always work very well for photos). What are all those fugly marks on his legs? Sand ticks? Chiggers? Poison ivy? Stinging nettles? I do not know and neither does he. The word “tick” when used to refer to an arachnid context makes my hair stand up on end but a bit of googling indicates to me that “sand ticks” are coastal beings and probably aren’t where the GG is. But I am not an expert so who knows.

So. Where the heck is he? He is hiking the Sheltowee Trace in Kentucky with our friend Joan and a friend of hers. I had to keep going back to Joan’s blog to get an accurate spelling for Sheltowee. If pesky insects and plants were not enough, they’ve been dealing with 90-something degree heat. They are being careful, starting out early in the morning and taking it easy.

Kentucky is beautiful but I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a chigger, I do NOT get along with urushiol oil (i.e., poison ivy), and I HATE heat. And I’m not sure they have access to a shower every day. So I am here at the Landfill trying once and for all to recover the place from when it was pandemic central. It ain’t easy. My most exciting errand today was driving out to the Country Mouse’s house to pick up a package.

I suppose I should prob’ly alert LukeOfPNet (across the street) that the GG and I are not separated or something (as much as we disagree on polly-ticks). A few years ago, the GG was gone for something like three weeks and I met Luke in the woods one day and he kinda sheepishly asked me what was going on. Like, are you guys still together? I explained that the GG was hiking with Another Woman but that all was well. And there she is in the second pic, beating tracks through the heat.

I constantly puzzle over why the GG and I have been together so long and have survived our MAGA differences. I dunno. He is a part of my family and I am a part of his. That’s about the simplest way I can put it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2026 at 8:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.