Virtual Brush Box

Photos of the outside world. Or not. The problem with Photo of the Year compilations is that events which lend themselves to dramatic photography tend not to be happy events. [A Vexillological Moment, more on same]

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Daily Short Walks

Birmingham. In town. Ran an errand. Zigged and zagged on the way home. Detour for doughnut? Nah. Sidewalk closed. Have to crossover. Told myself wasn’t gonna stress the exact distance since it was the second walk of the day. But then I was so close and waiting for the light anyway, so I circled the intersection to make the distance.

Birmingham, Friday the 5th. Did first leg. Happy to stop at 75%. Door was locked. Did second leg going around the block. Big block.

Publix parking lot. Was not the only one getting my steps in. Longest walk of the three but fewest steps. Suburban parking lot vs city sidewalks? Later in the month so I’m feeling better and therefore walking stronger? Who knows. Second walk of the day but did one mile out of habit.

Pasture, 7 am. The rest of the walks were in the pasture, 3 laps or 0.6 miles. Daily morning walks with horses. Same distance, second afternoon walks by self.

Monthly Long Walk

Cahaba Riverchase Greenway Trailhead. 5K! I would have stopped at 4K but my ride had not arrived so I tottered on. The walk affected my injured wrist more than I expected. I guess it didn’t appreciate being down gravity for that long.

Been at this park before, paved loop. [Lots of Little Walks, Moss Rock, Cahaba Greenway, Coker Park]

Dirt trail extension is new. Bham Now: Hoover’s new Riverchase Greenway Trail extension opens to the public, Hall, 12/11/25.

Fitness Photos

This is fun. Figuring out how to get a scenic photo from each activity. [Mixing Two Modes, Fitness Photography]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. LEGO: More sustainable packaging.

~~~

Hello 2026!

Happy official birthday to Rodney, born 1999, age 27, TB but not registered.

Happy official birthday to Major Conn, aka Milton, born 2008, age 18, Pedigree Database: MC.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Fix The News: The Telemetry, Hervey, Dec 29, 2025. Global recap of 2025. Long but worth reading, both for uplifting news & for writing style. The author celebrates the good without ignoring the bad. “If you’re … a single mother in New Jersey struggling to pay the rent … no amount of statistics or lines going up on a graph is going to matter.” Phrases that stood out to me, “Knowing which emergencies require immediate action means you need to watch all the instruments, not just the alarms.” & “… the truth, which is that some things are genuinely scary, some things are going great, and most of it is just really complicated.” & “The system isn’t run by anyone; it’s the result of billions of choices made over decades.” Content warning, the first section talks about progress with a disease, the symptoms of which are not peaceful.

~~~~~~~~

My theme for 2025 was a return to status quo ante. Either because not much changed, or because I had to work to get back to where I was.

Health

Broke two bones this year. Right metatarsal in March. Right radius in November. That’s gonna put a dent in a year. Good news is that the foot healed on time and well. Arm on schedule to do the same. Also, no pattern between the two, no disease indicators, just bad luck.

Horses

We continued with daily morning walks. They continued to be retired. I continued to have thoughts about this.

Other Horses

ASB. Enjoyed having no nerves at the show in May. Enjoyed fancy horses & fluffy ribbons at the inaugural academy regional show in October.

Hunter/Jumper. Lesson barn!

Writing

Stayed with the blog. This will be post 365 for the year.

Kept up with my professional assignments. I’m really proud of hitting the last one of the year. My initial occupational therapy was typing for the December deadline with my arm in a splint. My wrist may never get to 90o again but d*mn it my fingers will be nimble. Had husband proofread the emails for that assignment, to be sure the pain meds weren’t doing the talking.

Photography

Shifted from photo adventures to found photos. Am now talking all blog photos with my phone, both photos for content and photos for photography posts. There is no reason I couldn’t go somewhere, take pictures of something with phone camera, but I don’t. I tend to wander by something and think, Hey that would make a nice photo. [Autumn In The City]

Onwards to 2026!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Spotted on a bumper sticker. Friends don’t let friends litter. Please spay & neuter.

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Hand therapy appointment last week. 15 degree improvement on flapping hand back & forth. 5 degree improvement side to side. This was good to hear. It is so hard to feel one is making progress day to day.

Points in no particular order.

Added stretching exercises. As the therapist was demoing them, she said, “Relax your shoulder.” Have you met me? What is it with people and my shoulders?

The putty for grip exercises is known as a slow liquid. It squishes and squeezes like a soft solid, but will gradually assume the shape of the container. Weird.

Therapy included hot air, which I didn’t like at all, and moist heat which I liked very much and wished I could bring the machine home.

Therapist said I was the first one to ask her about juggling. Yes, as long as the balls are light.

Assignment. More of same. See you in two weeks.

Doing the arm exercises continues to wear me out. This continues to irritate me. [Changing Fashion]

Still no riding.

How The Sausage Is Made

I had set aside Thursdays for wrist reports, except this year Thursdays were/will be holidays. So wrist on Tuesday. Does anyone other than me care about sticking to a schedule? Shrug. Being organized entertains me. It gives me the illusion of control over my universe.

Previous Posts

[Changing Fashion and a Note on Word Usage, Wrist Update]
[Wrist Wear, A Survey]
[Housekeeping, Not]
[Taking A Break Before The Fireworks]
[Wrist Wreport, Short Version]
[Cursewords!]

In specific, these are the posts about the injury, most recent on top. In general, I find my wrist activity, or lack thereof, creeps into every post. “Other people want to know when they can drive. I want to know when I can pick up a loaded pitchfork.” [Horsekeeping, Still Not]

The hand injury has had much more of an impact on my life than my foot injury earlier this year. Yeah, it’s been a year. More on that tomorrow. [Foot 2025, list of posts]

Onwards!
Katherine

Animals of the outside world.

Charlotte Moore-Lambert
@cavaticat
<the domestication of dogs>
wolf: I’m gonna eat your babies
human: what if, instead of that: blankets and peanut butter
wolf: ……..I’m listening.

10:03 p.m. 23 Oct. 21 Twitter for iPhone
Cited from iFunny: Sounds legit, 28 Dec 25
I don’t know if this person is the originator. This seems to be the one the Internet is quoting.

Charlotte Reads is a website of a person by the same name. It is a resume for narrator work. A) I was impressed with the page as an example of data management, being that it is informative yet concisely presented. B) I had no idea what went into this career, notably the ‘What I’m working with’ section.

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Statuettes of Rodney & Milton. A holiday gift from a friend. (Waves hi!)

Allow me to point out the amazing level of detailing. Horse specific manes & tails. Color-appropriate neckwear: green for Rodney, red for Milton. IRL the Rodney cork horse is slightly taller than the Milton cork horse. Finally, admire how the artist put a different expression on each horse.

From which we may learn two things:

One. Friends are awesome!

Two. To know me is to become blog material. [Life with a Blogger]

Also appearing here, LtU&E: Finished and delivered last Xmas gift.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world, holiday version. Abe Book: An illustrated history of A Christmas Carol. Thus we bid farewell to our 2025 Christmas Carol adventure.

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Horse related cards that arrived in our house this year. Thank you to senders.

Photobombing courtesy of Mousse.

Artists. Sleigh by Kersten Brothers Studios. Info on the other two cards did not lead me anywhere useful.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world, holiday version. Putting the fact into fiction. UTHSC: Russell Chesney Publishes Article to Show Cause of Tiny Tim’s Illness, 2012. PubMed. Hat tip to Alex Falcone, from Instagram post @alexfalcone: 18 Dec 2025, with additional Muppets. In 1992, Doctor Lewis posited a different diagnosis, PubMed.

~~~

Archives [Movies & Muse]

Enjoy!
Katherine

🎄💻🎊

Writer: Hello, Muse. I have a word for you. Betweenmas.

Muse: That’s a great concept.

Writer: Right? My friend Jane mentioned it last year. [Muse and the Christmas Movie Again, comment]

Muse: I take it that means we are writing a movie based on the time between Christmas and New Years?

Writer: Yup. I made the sale based on that one word. Now I need to supply the movie to go with. That’s where you come in.

Muse: Before we do anything else, lets go over some ground rules.

Writer: Lay ’em on me.

Muse: We’ve been through this before. Twelve Days of Christmas now happens before Christmas regardless of historical origin. [Again]

Writer: … grumble …

Muse: Also, recaps happen in December, regardless of the fact that the year is not over. [Again]

Writer: … grumble …

Muse: I want to hear you say it.

Writer: … okay …

Muse: So, what do we have?

Writer: Right now, a word.

Muse: And?

Writer: A word and an idea. The betweenness of the moment. Even if one does not celebrate the holiday, I imagine trying to get anything done is hopeless. Much like Europe in August. Go ahead, try to work, see how that goes for you. I know at least one person who tilted at that windmill.

Muse: Do you have something there?

Writer: Hmm. Having a big project that lands during Betweenmas? Trying to get action while everyone is on break? It’s a good thread for plot tension, having to work when others are partying. We can all relate.

Muse: So why would this happen?

Writer: A deadline? Maybe the person always has X due on Jan 1. For them it’s the same as April 15th for accountants. And for plot reasons they can’t get everything done in early December. They are always doing the task in the last week of the year. Ehhh.

Muse: You don’t like?

Writer: Getting too much like real life. There will be an element of frantic scramble to completing this task. There needs to be an element of comic frantic scramble, otherwise, not a holiday movie.

Muse: So, amusing mayhem.

Writer: Amusing mayhem that resolves happily. Which is why we watch holiday movies because life often does not resolve and if it does resolve, it is not necessarily happily.

Muse: So holiday movies are a cousin of romance in that they have a HEA?

Writer: Yes, minus the love story. Romance Writers of America has this to say about the genre. “Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.” RWA: About the Romance Genre.

Muse: No love story?

Writer: That doesn’t seem to be my dish on the gravy train.

Muse: Your current dish, as you say, is someone who is working when no one else is.

Writer: Well, there are a lot of people who have to work. Hospitals. Restaurants. Airlines. That would be less abut a frantic dash to the finish and more about surviving the season. Maybe camaraderie? Enduring with the help of friends?

Muse: I’m hearing the words but not seeing the typing.

Writer: These are all set-ups, not plot.

Muse: What other options are out there?

Writer: (Looks out window.) A construction project? Maybe a construction project that was delayed by weather & now is on double time? The people losing money are not the ones doing the work. The construction workers are there because it’s the job.

Muse: Maybe they are happy about the extra pay?

Writer: Again, what happens? It’s not a cute Christmas movie with tree in the corner of an unfinished floor. They go to their normal job the 29th. Construction sites are fenced off. The workers don’t have contact with the non-construction parts of society while at work. They try very hard to keep non-construction people out of harm’s way.

Muse: So it has to be a main character who is trying to get people who are on semi-holiday to do things.

Writer: Can’t have comedy without conflict.

Muse: You’ve really fussed yourself to to standstill. We are usually done by now. You are usually lost in a creative cloud by now.

Writer: I thought you were supposed to be encouraging.

Muse: Tough love. Some people rise to a fight.

Writer: Nope. I cave like a soggy cracker.

Muse: Maybe your main character is a soggy cracker and they have to find it in themselves to get this done in the face of adversity from everyone else who is in the Betweenmas mood.

Writer: A character-driven story.

Muse: Sure.

Writer: We still don’t know the thing they are trying to do.

Muse: Maybe we never find out.

Writer: Hmm … it becomes the thing that is not mentioned … the doing of the thing is the important part not the specific task … Ms. or Mr. or Mx. Soggy Cracker must do the thing … not mentioning the thing becomes intentional … if management complains, I’ll just say it’s a self insert … we’ve all have things we need to get done … by being unspecific, the audience can project themselves … sometimes ya gotta spell it out for the money folks … so we start with this person in an empty office looking for someone to speak with … or maybe on the phone listening to voicemails … it’s really a form of quest narrative …

Muse: Hello, creative cloud.

Writer: (sounds of typing.)

Muse: Happy Betweenmas.

🎄💻🎊