The OoT
In my day-to-day job, I come across these terms a lot: “Big Data” and the “Internet of Things” (IoT). Big Data refers to the massive, massive amounts of data being acquired on a daily basis in the oil and gas industry (all industries, really) and are too unwieldy or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software. IoT is kind of the same thing—it refers to the billions of physical devices around the world that are now connected to and interact with the internet.
So I’m going to coin a new term for this page: the Order of Things, or OoT. Because my blog has become messy and unwieldy.
I’ve approached the posting of these stories from my life in a rather random fashion, so many of them jump around by 30 or 40 years. For those of you who know me well, it’s not hard to piece it together. But for others it’s been confusing.
So, the following is the grand OoT—the chronological sequence of the stories as they took place, and where I was living at the time:
1. When a Mother Fails to Love: What’s Helped Me Move On (Grand Forks, ND, 1970)
2. A New Kind of Discrimination in the American Workplace (Dallas, TX, 1983)
3. Crash-Landing in Houston: Maxing Out the Holmes-Rahe Stress Scale (Houston, TX, 1988–1995)
4. Sometimes Our Heroines Wear Pointe Shoes (Houston, TX, 1996)
5. Woman Traveling Solo I: Learning to Pack Lightly (Houston, TX, 1999)
6. The Importance of Being Legal (Houston, TX, 2001–2004)
7. Celebrating Earth Day: Koalas and Cockatoos and Sea Turtles, Oh My! (Houston, TX, 2002)
8. Renters Who Become Crime Victims: How to Break Your Lease (or Not) (Houston, TX, 2003-2005)
9. Chased by Hurricane Rita: The Aftermath of a False Alarm (Rockport, TX, 2005)
10. Guard Your Heart in a Crisis: You May be an Easy Target for Manipulation (Rockport, TX, 2005-2007)
11. Unexpected Fun in the French Riviera (Rockport, TX, 2006)
12. Woman Traveling Solo II: Home Exchanges and Camping (Rockport, TX, 2007–2016)
13. Protecting Our Privacy Has a Cost. What Are You Willing To Pay? (Rockport, TX, 2008-2009)
14. Kayaking Misadventures on the Texas Gulf Coast (Rockport, TX, 2010)
15. The Hummingbird (Rockport, TX, 2012)
16. Trapping and Releasing in Rockport, Texas (Rockport, TX, 2014–2015)
17. Gail vs. the Raccoons (and the Raccoons Won) (Rockport, TX, 2014-1016)
18. Fred Goes Missing (Or, I Lose My Mind Over a Trapped Kitty) (Rockport, TX, 2017)
19. Preikestolen Kicks My Ass (and a Buzz Kill Named Harvey) (Rockport, TX, 2017)
20. Ghosted by a Friend Over Trump: Five Ways I’ve Moved On (Houston, TX, 2020)
21. Turning Tragedy into Charity: Helping Those in Need (Houston, TX, 2020–2021)
22. The Character of a Man (Houston, TX, 2021)
23. Merry Christmas (Houston, TX, 2021)
24. Happy New Year (Houston, TX, 2022)
25. Houston Art Car Parade (Houston, TX, 2022)
26. Losing the Queen; Losing Our Mothers (Houston, TX, 2022)
27. My Five Proudest Moments (Houston, TX, 2022)
28. History Through the Eyes of a Child (Houston, TX, 2022)
29. Second Chances Sometimes Lead to Miracles (Houston, TX, 2022)
30. My First 48 Hours in the Bahamas (Houston, TX, 2022)
31. Goodbye, 2022 and Hello, 2023! (Houston, TX, 2022)
32. Earth Day 2023⏤Seven Things We Can Do for Planet Earth (Houston, TX, 2023)
33. Florescence 2023, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX, 2023)
34. Notes on A(nother) Move (Houston, TX, 2023)
35. Christmas 2023: Three Shades of Grief (Moses Lake, WA, 2023)
36. Life in the Land of 25% Totality (Moses Lake, WA, 2024)
37. Kill an Owl to Save an Owl? What’s Wrong with This Picture? (Moses Lake, WA, 2024)