8r4d I am a bit of a sucker for convenience in location, so the fact that nearly half my #coffee adventures end up at one of the four starbucks within spitting distance of my house is a sad little surprise. I try to support local, but I spend almost as much on gas as I do on coffee, then, and oil money to me seems dirtier than coffee coin.

That’s my little political rant for the day.

Aside from that, I had accumulated enough points-stars or whatever and cashed it in today for a branded ceramic mug. So, at least if I’m not being consumer conscious, there is a chance I’m queuing up for the environment, huh?

8r4d The weather is still holding around freezing for some late #winter #running adventurers, but the forecast is not looking so lovely for next week. I’ll take ice and puddles over minus twenty and more snow!

8r4d #running has shifted to #hilltraining in the cold #winter blur that makes me yearn for something worth training for now.

pixelazy Atop the infamous #hilltraining hill at dusk is a precious view of the crazy wild world.

pixelazy The buggies are emerging from the long winter hibernation as the weather improves. Nature is a beautiful thing. #buggyland

castironguy Those day old #doughnuts are better than nothing, huh?

bradsalomons I’ve been spending a lot of time #writing and drinking #coffee but progress on the novel has been a little slow this year so far. I had a great big push late in 2024 to get though the second half and then hit a bit of a block.

Many writing folks will tell you to push through the block and put in the effort and just write, and I did that, getting in my daily word count on other side projects. And that was fine to a point, but none of it was dislodging the plot block in the novel.

Last week I decided to brute force the damn thing and so I’ve set my daily word goal a bit lower and have been writing a bare minimum of words into the novel regardless of other factors.

Specifically, where I was usually tasking myself with sitting down and writing a scene, usually amounting to between 1000-1500 words, now I’m setting the daily goal of 250 words. Yeah, that’s a lot less, but after a week of generously meeting my goal each day I’m nearly 2000 words ahead of where i was last Monday, and that accounts for (sadly) more than half of the words I’ve written in 2025 on this project.

Happily, progress is progress is progress, and the “just write” advice is definitely locked in and valid.

adventuredog Just a bit of #sidewalkart on a #winter #walk

adventuredog #march has come in like a big wet lamb melting all the snow and leaving a lot of #puddles and moments of #reflection in its wake

8r4dsfeets #running in slush is not for those with cold feets

8r4d The weather has been holding above freezing for some good pre-spring #running tho the trails are generously wet and slushy, so… adventure!

8r4d Great photo grad photo? I had to sit in the waiting area…

8r4d It’s grad photo day at the kid’s school. Her choice of prop? The dog of course.

8r4d #datenight and #shakespeare at the #theatre

pixelazy Our #running adventure this morning took us up to the top of Rabbit Hill for a view of #downtown

8r4d Tho #winter is nearly over the #running paths are #icy and a mess, but we prevailed.

8r4d The annual dinner and #dance show

8r4d You can’t see the cold on this chilly #winter drive but maybe you can see the windchill.

8r4d An evening out at a live performance of a local group performing the whole of U2’s The Joshua Tree album.

gamerdad I went for coffee with a friend the other day and while we were discussing my progress in the world of indie game development, she said something like oh my go you have to read this book.

So off I went to the bookstore and here I am starting yet another new book before I finished the last one.

I don’t know much about it other than apparently it has to do with game design and development and also that it was super popular last year and I missed out on the craze, so here I am, reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, today.

8r4d It’s minus thirty out on this blustery #winter day so #running was an indoor activity. I’m not a fan of the track, but it beats the couch.

8r4d Post dinner #dessert crew

castironguy #runcrew night out for a crazy good meal to celebrate the year of the snake

8r4dsfeets It’s beginning to look a lot like… oh wait, we did that last month already! Fresh #winter #snow