Author: Stacy Horn

I just read an essay about the dumbing down of America which made me want to weep. But it also made me look at myself. I don’t read a tenth of what I used to read, and I definitely used to think more. It’s hard to explain. I’m as curious as I’ve always been about just about everything, and researching one thing or another is still a favorite past time. But I used to question more, ponder more. There’s something about my thinking these days that just feels more passive. It’s not that I’ve ever been terribly informed or educated. I couldn’t pass the test they give to prospective citizens. I could never answer the questions on that show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

But I used to spend more time thinking about whatever it was I’d just learned, and talking to anyone who was willing to talk to me if it was something that set my brain on fire. Another thing that doesn’t happen so much anymore.

What else I’ve done so far on my day off today:

– Tried to fix my broken vacuum cleaner. Fail.
– Tried to trim the cat’s nails. 8 nails down before the first cat freaked, 22 to go.
– Oh shit. That’s it.

Another disturbing piece of street art that I love. I think this must be the same artist as the recent piece of street art I just posted about.

I’m posting a link to an essay written by my cousin, William G. Kaelin Jr, MD, for The American Journal of Medicine. It’s about health care, written by someone very informed and compassionate.

I’m going to lose my health insurance in a couple of weeks, and I have to decide what to do. It could be that I’ll only be without if for three of four months, and maybe nothing bad will happen to me in that time. But maybe something will! What to do, what to do.

These days it seems like there’s always a protest going on somewhere in the city. I passed this one in Union Square a couple of weeks ago.

I’m home from work while a workman tries to put my bathroom back together. In addition to the joys of being waterless, and now shower-less, I’ve missed so many training days at the ASPCA Hospital. It was going so well too. Today I was being trained on “appointments” when I got the call that a worker was on his way (I rushed home and he arrived four hours later).

The Hospital was until recently an emergency room. They are now appointments only, which is not to say that they’d turn a bleeding animal away. That said, they’re going to try to educate the public about taking emergency cases elsewhere from now on.

I enjoy the pace of appointments, and the chance to spend time with both the owners and the animals. They were also starting to let me do more hands-on today. I got to hold my first animal while they did a blood draw. Okay, it was a tiny little chihuahua who was muzzled, but it was still scary! And exciting to do my first!

I like this slightly disturbing sidewalk art.

My publisher asked for a new author photo. At 61, it’s hard to get a decent shot anymore. Here’s what I sent them, but god knows. They suggested something with a slight angle and not so head on, and maybe with books in the background. Of course I prefer the head on shot. I looked better in all the shots with my glasses on except this one. (I don’t like my full on smile anymore in photographs. Something about all my dental work makes it look funny.)

Update: I tried to get another at an angle and got one that doesn’t suck.

This is the first “at an angle” one I sent them, but I like the new one better!

The current state of my bathroom. I’m waiting to hear if anyone is going to come back to finish the work! On the bright side, the water is back on so I can do everything except shower. That is a huge improvement over how I’ve been living the past week. So there’s that.