Personal posts

The life and times of Toby

Dunc got skunked

My brother’s dog, Duncan, got skunked recently while I was walking him. They were very close quarters between, in a ditch / drainage pipe, so I don’t think I got any on me. It was dark, and around a bush from me, so I didn’t even see the critter, and didn’t know it was a skunk until after I had pulled him away and noticed the smell. But it was quite some work to get him cleaned up.

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Candle incident

Yesterday evening, I lit a candle while watching an episode of Columbo. It’s one of those fat kinds that develops a wall of wax around the outside. Previously, a hole had formed in the wall and some wax had dripped out. I had fixed the hole, but there were still some hunks of this wax left. So I put one in the candle wall yesterday, leaned up against it, hoping it would slowly melt away.

This morning, I woke up and thought to myself that I didn’t remember putting out the candle.

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This year, my larger redbud tree has only a few blooms on it and seemingly has gone straight to leaf. Last year, it fully bloomed and looked great. This year, it went to leaf right away while almost all the redbuds I’ve seen have bloomed nicely. It does seem to be growing faster this year than last: Must be focusing its energy on growth. So, hopefully next year it’ll be in full bloom again.

My tiny front sapling is still too small for blooms and has also gone straight to leaf. I’m glad it’s still doing fine.


Doing my federal (US) taxes this year, I was finding myself unable to create an account on the Free Fillable Forms site. I kept getting kicked back to the start after filling out and submitting my information. This Reddit thread led me to figure out that it was related to my T-Mobile Home Internet. I turned that off and turned on my phone hotspot and used that to get in. My phone is also T-Mobile, but apparently different enough to not have that issue. Later, I was able to get back in with my Home Internet, so it seems to be just related to something on that initial registration process.


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