I appear to have resolved one of my biggest daily hassles, removing all the spam off my blog site. It used to be that before I could start writing, I would have to eliminate hundreds of comments that were attempts to promote other websites by including a link within the veiled compliments about my writing. This would take at least 10 minutes every day even deleting them in bulk. Recently I found my own personal “Spaminator,” a service called Akismet. It was free to try as part of the various plugins through my GoDaddy subscription. I don’t know how long it will remain free, but it’s been a godsend in getting rid of all that damn spam.

There probably is a plugin that will write this daily blog for me, but I still continue to enjoy the psychological benefit of putting words to page. As you can see, there’s not much on my mind today, but at least it’s not full of spam. Football is about to start on the TV in front of me, and I.U. is scheduled to play for the BIG soccer championship against Michigan in about an hour. In the meantime, I’ll flush my mind of any other hassles I might be experiencing in retirement. Last night, we hosted our “Meet the Neighbors” reception that had a somewhat disappointing turn out. I was worried that our small apartment would be crammed with drunken strangers. Instead, only about 12 neighbors showed up, leaving us with a lot of leftover wine and food. We also got more wine and snacks in the process. I’m glad it’s over because the older I guess the less I like to entertain. I’m turning into a curmudgeon! If I actually had grass, I’d probably be yelling at people to stay off of it.

The “Damn Spam” put me in a bad mood every day, so I’ll have to find other hassles to keep me entertained. Without the stress of work or raising a family, I’ve had to lower my standards of irritation. Little things bother me now without the bigger issues that used to hold my focus. Problems like the mail not being here on time or too many keys to keep track of now take priority. I can also worry about running out of money if nothing else works. That morsel of pessimism has always been a part of me. Another thing that has never changed is my irritation over I.U. sports. Yesterday, football predictably lost to Penn State, while the basketball team won big but didn’t play up to my expectations. Soccer will have a disappointing season if they don’t win both the BIG tournament and the NCAA Championship. As you can see, I have a tendency to set myself up for discontent. It’s probably just a matter of time before that damn spam comes back to haunt me!