I Miss My Friend

Blog

It’s been 9 days since I learned she died.

Just over a week ago, I thought of her and looked her up and discovered she had died 4 years ago.

I found her memorial page. At first I thought it had to be someone else (it had to be someone else, just a coincidence of names), but there was her middle name (a family name, usually only an initial in her signature), and there was her photo. Her smile.

We met the first week of college, two freshmen stuck in a mandatory class. I remember commenting on her handwriting (it really did remind me of my father’s, the extended scrawl of ink across the page). I think she came in late that first day of class and sat next to me because there I was near the back and near the aisle. I could have that backward.

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Knocking Off the Rust

Bauxy, Blog, Webcomic

Yesterday’s Bauxy sequence was the last one I did back in 2024. I posted it to Instagram back then, because I still had my Instagram account. That has since changed.

I never liked posting to Instagram. I only created my account there so I could click “Like” on my wife’s posts. But it was easy to post there, and I was trying out the daily comic thing, so there it went.

I don’t mind posting free stuff (that will likely never be seen/read) on the Web at large (e.g., this blog), but I loathe doing so for the benefit of some billionaire who thinks I should accept exposure and thumbs as payment. I’m not grist for their fucking algorithmic mill.

But I wanted to draw and post more Bauxys. I’ve had a sequence I’ve been sketching for over a year, but hadn’t really tried to finish for a couple of reasons–including not being sure where I would post them. Now that I’ve restarted my Guns & Magic blog, tho, I have a place where I can post at my leisure without an algorithm breathing down my neck.

BUT…I had been using ClipStudio before, and that’s not currently available. For some of the same reasons I didn’t elucidate before. So I’m learning how to use Procreate, and get it set up in a way I can work with it. On top of being damn rusty with my Apple Pencil and line work.

My process, such as it is, begins in GoodNotes, where I sketch the panel.

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Old Man Sits on Porch, Watches Rain

Blog, Garden

My garden is in that state that has become popular to call “liminal.” Entire beds are now “closed,” except for the flowers I planted to (a) attract pollinators and (b) make my wife happy. The cucumbers, the cabbage cultivars (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts), radishes, and beets have been either been chopped off at the roots or pulled up and tossed into the compost bin. The okra and peppers are still doing well. The eggplants too. I’ve left the tomato vines in place (most of them) because the cooler temps and increased rainfall at the end of the season should generate some nice fruit.

This year didn’t set a record for produce harvested, but it did beat the previous 2 years combined. So there’s that. The cucumbers were still producing when I ended them. I had already turned 11 lbs into bread & butter pickles. If I was going to do more, I would have to can them. And this year I just don’t have the mental/emotional bandwidth to mess with canning. Hell, if the garden hadn’t already been underway by the end of April, it might not have happened this year.

I’m already planning for next year. How I’ll rearrange plantings in the bed (like swapping okra and peppers to get better mid-summer shading for the peppers) and how I’ll change the automated watering. And deciding which plants I won’t try again (e.g., eggplants; we don’t like them enough; which is too bad since they are steady producers) and which ones I’ll do more of or try to apply what I learned this year.

I wasn’t intending to give a full garden report, so I’ll stop. But, yes, I can and will go on and on about the garden. =)

-David

Uninvited

EBooks, Heidi Sees, New Release, Novellas, Series

Uninvited by David R. Michael

Heidi Sees Book #3

In most ways, Heidi Crolley is your typical remote IT worker. Single. Nerdy. Shy. Barely gets along with her mother. But she also sees ghosts. Which 100% makes the rest worse.

After nine years away, Heidi moves back to her home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She and Doris, her live-in ghost friend, have barely settled into their new apartment when other ghosts show up. Adjusting the thermostat. Opening the blinds. Eating diner food at her table. And refusing to leave when asked. When Heidi knocks on the door of her neighbor, Brooke, to borrow a can opener, she discovers Brooke is also haunted, by the ghost of her estranged father. And since his daughter isn’t listening, he decides to haunt Heidi.

Published by Four Crows Landing.

Available from Amazon and everywhere ebooks are sold!