-
Jan. 5-7 – I high-fived a guy
Published by
on
Continue reading →: Jan. 5-7 – I high-fived a guy“Customer number 7, your shower is ready,” says the overhead intercom at a Love’s gas station truck stop along highway US-69 south in Oklahoma, though I might still be in Kansas. I’m not sure where I am. I pulled in at midnight after 11 hours of driving—700 miles from Minneapolis…
-
In search of sand and cacti
Published by
on
Continue reading →: In search of sand and cactiThis blog will soon become more travelog than the thought-o-log it has shifted toward since I returned last April from my first attempt at working remotely from a camper in warmer climes. In late January 2023, I began traveling and staying at campgrounds in the great American South—Georgia, North and…
-
Continue reading →: Nothing burns as bright with the spirit of Christmas as a desiccated Douglas fir on fire
I can’t decide if it is more sad as a single 46-year-old man to put up a Christmas tree for the holidays or more sad not to. It helps me to think of it like an Onion headline: “Sad man erects Christmas tree and places present for self underneath” or…
-
The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated
Published by
on
Continue reading →: The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggeratedIt’s been a while since I posted, but it’s not because I haven’t been writing. Just the opposite, actually. When I started this blog last February it was more of a travelog, documenting my experiences living and working out of a camper in warmer climates to avoid some of Minnesota’s…
-
Ask a financial advisor who is sick of your shit
Published by
on
Continue reading →: Ask a financial advisor who is sick of your shitDear Advisor,I’m 49 and have $2.5 million in my 401(k) as well as $200,000 in a high-yield savings account. I earn $350,000 per year and put $35,000 of that in my 401(k)/403(b) plus a company match of 10%. I would like to retire at 57. Beginning at age 62, my…
-
I live on a busy street
Published by
on
Continue reading →: I live on a busy streetI live on a busy street A thousand cars a day or more must drive past my house. I hear them from my perch in the living room. If the cars are mechanically sound, they go by with little more than a whoosh, almost like a gust of wind. Sometimes…
-
October (short fiction)
Published by
on
Continue reading →: October (short fiction)Mother’s replacement arrived on a crisp morning in early fall. We were nearly first on the postman’s route, father and I, and as the postman struggled with the package he complained that he might have pulled a muscle in his back. But we got the box inside and father made…
-
We’ve all seen how this ends
Published by
on
Continue reading →: We’ve all seen how this endsDisclaimer: I mostly write about my life but sometimes I write about things that piss me off. This falls within the latter category. I’ve been thinking a lot about electric vehicles lately, and with that comes a whole host of related topics, from climate change, to the workers now striking…
-
Being human suuuuuuuuuuuuucks
Published by
on
Continue reading →: Being human suuuuuuuuuuuuucksI could feel my anxiety ratcheting up today, a warning light that flickered at first, then held steady, until finally, having not done anything about it, all systems began flashing “eject, eject, eject.” After a lifetime of this, you’d think I’d be familiar enough with it to take evasive action…
-
My First Experience with Grocery Delivery During Covid
Published by
on
Continue reading →: My First Experience with Grocery Delivery During CovidAfter avoiding it for more than three years I finally came down with Covid, and so this week used a grocery delivery service for the first time. I’ve typically been a slow adopter of consumer services that make it easier for you to never leave the house, because I’m the…
-
A large buffet of decay
Published by
on
Continue reading →: A large buffet of decayTwo days before I was supposed to get on a plane for a trip with some friends to Colorado that we’d been trying to put together for nearly a year, I got Covid. After avoiding it for more than 3 years, it has struck at the most inopportune time. As…
-
Squirrels are devious agents of chaos
Published by
on
Continue reading →: Squirrels are devious agents of chaosWhen I was about 15 or 16, I wrote a letter to the editor and submitted it to the Argus Leader, a South Dakota newspaper with its headquarters in my hometown of Sioux Falls. The letter was in response to some news that a squirrel had found his way into…
-
There is no better bathroom than an outhouse
Published by
on
Continue reading →: There is no better bathroom than an outhouseI remember taking a shit over a log when I was little and wiping my ass with fallen leaves, as I had been instructed to do, mind you, by one or the other parental unit. It must have been early fall, a beautiful time of year when the leaves turn…
-
Continue reading →: I caught my wife in bed with the Dish Network guy and she tried to pawn it off as necessary to achieve a monthly discount
I’ve been struggling with what to write about the past several days because not much is happening in my life. I’m a single, 45-year-old man who lives a fairly leisurely existence. I work, I take walks, I fish, I workout, I cook, and I generally enjoy my life, but it…
-
Continue reading →: I’ve lived in my home for 4 years and today I noticed a kitchen cabinet I’ve never seen
I was in the kitchen today and I noticed a thin cupboard door I’d never opened before. This isn’t the start of a fantastical piece of fiction where I opened the door and found a portal to a world I’d actually like to live in. It was literally a cupboard…
-
Planks and post-pre-diabetic positive body image
Published by
on
Continue reading →: Planks and post-pre-diabetic positive body imageI’ve never been a fan of diets. In fact, the fundamental role of exercise in my life is primarily to allow me to continue to eat excessive amounts of food that I find delicious. Were I ever to break a leg, it’s possible I’d inflate like an emergency life raft.…
-
Ricky is a friend’s dog, but he wants to be my dog, I can tell
Published by
on
Continue reading →: Ricky is a friend’s dog, but he wants to be my dog, I can tellThis weekend was a weekend of animals. A friend and her husband left town and needed a sitter for their dog, Ricky. Ricky is mostly a black lab, but he’s long and gangly and kind of goofy looking in the face, so he’s part something else—part nerd, I think. If…
-
I love lamp
Published by
on
Continue reading →: I love lampI saw a monarch butterfly todayA creature like a little painting that takes flightLittle more than air and art That’s a bit of a non sequitur, so here’s the real story: I found a lamp the other day, set out near the curb by a neighbor a few doors down.…
-
Deep thinks, by a guy who really loved Jack Handey (part 2)
Published by
on
Continue reading →: Deep thinks, by a guy who really loved Jack Handey (part 2)This post is the promised second part in a two-part series that might become a three-part series (because I have a lot of them) about how when I first started using Facebook around 2008, I just posted various jokes and one liners, many of them potentially inappropriate for the medium,…
-
My love is a banned book
Published by
on
Continue reading →: My love is a banned bookThere is a spider upstairs in my room, waiting for me. I saw him on the floor in the corner when I turned on the light. He was looking up at me. I know this because when I grabbed the nearest book to smash him, Travels with Charley, the spider…
-
Deadventures: Adventures for when you’re dead!
Published by
on
Continue reading →: Deadventures: Adventures for when you’re dead!I once had an idea for a business where instead of spending money on a funeral, a person’s loved ones could send them on an adventure that they’d wanted to do in life but never got around to. This might be skydiving, or it might be a cruise to the…
-
Deep thinks, by a guy who really loved Jack Handey
Published by
on
Continue reading →: Deep thinks, by a guy who really loved Jack HandeyWhen I first started using Facebook in about 2008, I had no idea what an online social network was nor why I would ever have a use for one. But I worked in internal communications for a university and my boss at the time suggested I try it out and…
-
The gifts of a garden
Published by
on
Continue reading →: The gifts of a gardenThere is perhaps no greater gift than a plant for your home or garden—especially garden. Nearly a decade ago a coworker who has since retired gave me a few garlic bulbs and counseled me on how to grow them, and though I’ve since moved twice, I’ve kept that garlic in…
Join trillions of subscribers
Take a break from the chaos and read about my life to feel better about your own.
Hi. I’m Adam Overland, a writer based in Minneapolis. These are the meanderings of my muddled mind. I’ve written humor columns for various print publications, so naturally that’s dead and here I am, waiting for the last gasp.
