Too Much of a Good Thing

It’s been a busy week. I flew home on Tuesday, well, arrived early Wednesday morning really. And it has been go go go ever since. All of a sudden it hit me that today was Friday and I realized as I was listening to my phone bing and bong with the arrival of emails that I hadn’t written my blog. As I scrolled through the just arrived emails, there wasn’t one that I wanted to open.

Remember when email used to be exciting? It was a new way to communicate. Instant, not as intrusive as a phone call and less formal than a letter. Most important, you wanted to read all the emails you got. They were from people you knew, organizations you belonged to, or a list you had joined. Your email address was private.

And then something happened. The number of emails showing up in my AOL account became like a fever dream. No matter how fast I deleted them, more kept showing up. Most of them were advertisements. Everyday the same ones show up joined by even more. I feel like someone is standing on a cyber street corner giving out my email address. Believe me, I never gave Donald Trump my email address.

I will admit that all email addresses are not equal in this abuse. The AOL account I have had since the days when AOL charged is by far the worst. With all the junk that comes in, it’s easy to miss a real email.

Determined to at least get rid of the junk emails that come in every day, I hit delete until my finger gets tired. But by then more junk emails have come in. The spam filter doesn’t seem to work very well anymore.

Yes, there are ways to unsubscribe, but it takes a lot of time and doesn’t always work. I guess as the saying goes, there is no free lunch. My finger is rested now, so it’s back to deleting.

Murder for Fun and Nonprofit

Hey all!  This week I'm blogging at Inkspot (the blog for the writers of Midnight Ink)  about some of my mystery writer friends and how we use our writing to benefit causes we hold dear. 

Check it out at
http://midnightwriters.blogspot.com/2016/09/murder-for-fun-and-nonprofit.html

Enjoy!

Tracy Weber

PS--all three books in my Downward Dog mystery series are now available!  Learn more at http://tracyweberauthor.com.  Thanks for reading!

Law To Save Dogs

Last week I wrote about loving dogs.  I had so much fun doing that... as always! 

And those of you who know much about me know that I'm an officially inactive attorney.

 

Those two interests came together this week when I learned that a law has been signed by the governor of California making it legal for people to break windows to save pets that are trapped in cars in the heat.

On Monday this week I visited Santa Monica, a nearby city along the ocean, and my car showed that the temperature was over a hundred even in an area theoretically cooler than many--certainly cooler than my home in the Valley.  If anyone were to leave a dog in a car for nearly any time at all anywhere around here, it could die. 

Now, there are conditions under the new law, such as needing to contact the authorities, and staying by the car till they arrive, but no one can be prosecuted for saving an animal's life that way.

A few months ago I did find a dog inappropriately locked inside a car in hot weather in a local retail parking lot.  At the time, he didn't appear to be in immediate danger, but I was still concerned.  I ran around trying to find the shopping center's security people and was unsuccessful.  Fortunately, the owner apparently returned since I saw the car driving away.  I wished I'd been closer then so I could yell at the person, but the main thing was that the dog was hopefully okay.

Will I break a car window now?  Depends on the circumstances.  But it's nice to know I can do it legally.

Meanwhile, as I mentioned last week, October is approaching, and that's when UNLUCKY CHARMS, my next Superstition Mystery, will be published. The promotional events I mentioned then have begun.  I really had a great time at the panel at the Woman's Club of Hollywood.  The Women of Intrigue event is next weekend, I'm being interviewed online by Duquesne Law School's magazine--my law school alma mater--and my blog tour is fast approaching.  All fun!

And though the weather here in LA is supposed to start cooling down, I'll keep my eyes open anyway for pets inappropriately locked in cars.

Amazing Goose

I seem duty-bound to follow the maxim, “It never rains but it pours.”  About ten days ago  I came down with vomiting, violent diarrhea, and headache, and went to see my doctor, who ordered some tests.  One one evening a few days later I got a call from a nice woman in Health Department wanting to know what restaurants I’d been to and what milk, chicken, and certain vegetables I’d been eating.  She got in ahead of my doctor’s office telling me I’d been diagnosed with salmonella.  Apparently there is a “cluster” of cases in the area, and Hennepin County wants to know what we’ve eaten in common.  I called my doctor the next day and she confirmed the diagnosis and prescribed an antibiotic, which took several days to work, but I’m just about over it at this point.  Whew!

But please, please, let this be the end of this series of miseries, which began back in early March and kept piling on and on.

We are now at the start of autumn, the trees are begining to show some color, and we are awash in apples.  There are only two of us in this apartment, so an apple pie would be too much, I needed something smaller.  I found a recipe on the Internet and adapted it just a little and it works wonderfully.  Buy a container of Pillsbury Grands Crescent Rolls and lay them out on a baking sheet.  At the wide end of each triangle, place a thick slice of apple, unpeeled.  Put a dab of butter on the slice.  Make a spice mix of a tablespoon each of allspice and cinnamon and a teaspoon of nutmeg.  Strew this along the triangles.  (You won’t use it all; put the remainder in an airtight container and make another batch later in the week.)  Take a teaspoon more or less (depending on how sweet you like your pie) of sugar and scatter that along each slice.  Crumble walnut halves (or buy chopped walnuts – but I like the bigger chunks) and scatter them along each slice, not too many, just enough to make the occasional pleasant surprise in your mouth.  Roll the triangles up and bake at 350 degrees for about twenty minutes.  Serve warm.  Yum!

One of the ways I know I’m better is that I had the energy to prepare these and the appetite to eat two of them.

Another sign of autumn is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, which is the 29th.  I’m getting the goose today and we’ll feast indeed this Thursday at a big pot luck.  I'll stuff the goose with a mix of garlic cloves, chopped apple, onion, and fresh parsley and roast him in a hot oven, basting frequently.  We’ll sing “Amazing Goose” (Amazing goose/How sweet the flesh/That saved a wretch like me./I once was broke/But now am flush/I’m saved from penury).  Who eats goose at Michaelmas will not want for money for a year.  It’s worked for us for over thirty years.  It doesn’t make you rich, it just puts an end to fiscal emergencies.

I’d had to cancel the Shawano appearance when I got sick, but now it’s on again for this Saturday.  I’ll be at the Beans and Books Coffee House in Shawano, Wisconsin, from 1 pm on Saturday till no one is interested anymore (maybe an hour).