Tag: self-indulgence

Midweek Recuperation

The Portly Politico1 Comment

My students had their big Spring Concert last night and it was incredible.  It was the longest concert I’ve ever conducted, with over two hours of music.  As it was my “swan song” of sorts, I wanted to go out with a bang.

I’ll have a full rundown of the concert—a “postmortem,” as I call it—this Saturday for paid subscribers.  Suffice it to say that the evening went quite well and I am utterly exhausted.  I did indulge in some late-night, post-concert Taco Bell, the greatest of budget fast food joints in the modern era (somehow, Taco Bell has avoided the “enshittification” of other establishments, even if the results of consuming it result in a different from of enshittification) before the long drive home.

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Midweek Koi Pond Update IV: Purple Leopard Ramshorn Snails

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Maintaining a koi pond is a hobby that can take on a life of its own.  In learning about keeping koi and maintaining a pond, I’ve learned that a common phenomenon is people getting hooked on buying more fish.  Given that a full-grown koi can go for $50 or even hundreds of dollars, the hobby can get very expensive very quickly.  I’m thankful, then, that the previous owners stocked the pond so well.

What I find myself looking for are not more koi (not necessarily), but more species that I can introduce to the pond to increase its biodiversity.  At least, that’s the rationale—I really just want an excuse to buy more snails and minnows and what not.

So far, I’ve added rosy red minnows, two small butterfly koi, ramshorn snails, and Japanese Trapdoor Snails.  My next planned addition is three dojo/weather loaches, which are a peaceful, eel-like fish that feeds along the bottom of the pond.  In searching for those loaches, I came upon an eBay listing for seven purple leopard ramshorn snails.

These are just a color morph of ramshorn snails.  Instead of the typical dark brown, they have a slightly purplish, speckled appearance.  I would not have bothered purchasing them except that they were eight bucks (with free shipping), so I figured, “why not”?  They should add to the genetic mix of the existing ramshorn population.

One thing I’m learning when purchasing live animals on the Internet (read that out loud and it will sound questionable) is that, like most things in life, you often get what you pay for.

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Midweek Koi Pond Update III: Japanese Trapdoor Snails

The Portly Politico3 Comments

Yesterday (Tuesday, 7 April 2026) was a big day for the pond. After noticing the water level falling, I purchased a Boogie Blue Plus Garden House Filter (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through this link, at no additional cost to you) and topped off the pond.

I also had a shipment of Japanese Trapdoor Snails from www.prettykoifish.com.  I have been dying to add these massive mollusk beauties to our pond since I first learned about them.  They are the cleaning crew of any pond, and as they settle in and become active, they’ll deep clean the water and the liner.

Right now, our pond water is very murky.  That’s actually good for the koi—they prefer it to be murky—and is a sign of healthy biodiversity.  The only downside is that we can’t see our fish unless they’re coming up to feed!  It will take a few weeks, maybe months, but the Japanese Trapdoor Snails should start to hoover up lots of detritus.

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Closing and Taxes

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Yours portly has spent the last two nights laboring over income tax returns for Dr. Wife and myself.  My taxes are always a bit unusual because I have so many side hustles (and 1099s as a result), but getting married in late 2025 changed quite a bit.  Apparently, the State of South Carolina treats all income reported on the federal tax return as income due to the State, but you can claw it back to avoid double taxation (which is unconstitutional) by pulling the AGI from another State’s return (in this case, Dr. Wife’s earnings were entirely in North Carolina).  I was shocked to learn that North Carolina has a lower State income tax than South Carolina, especially as we’re the allegedly more conservative of the two Carolinas.  Yeesh!

Quick note:  do not take any of the above as financial or tax advice.  I’m not even sure if I’m explaining all of that correctly (to my younger brother:  don’t panic—I did everything by the book, I just can’t remember every little exact detail at the time of writing, and don’t feel like looking it all up again, but I did it correctly).

As per usual, filling out tax forms reminds me of how much I despise the income tax, in part because it demands that we reveal so much of ourselves to the federal government.  Like with so many things, though, we reveal intimate details about our lives—like how big our home office is—so we can grasp onto a few more of our  own dollars.  At this point, we should do away with all deductions and just charge everyone a flat 5% of their income—or, better yet, abolish the income tax and shift to a flat national sales tax.  It’s way easier to control my spending than to try to calculate what percentage of my cell phone usage was for business purposes.

It’s also frustrating to hustle and scrimp and save all year, only to be punished for it come tax day (and, yes, I should start paying taxes quarterly—that’s coming under the new Dr. Wife/Portly regime).

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Decluttering

The Portly Politico2 Comments

No new music today, readers.  I’m working on a piece for Koi Dance called “Sunrise: Variations on Grieg,” which (so far) combines flute, xylophone, and marimba to explore variations on the famous theme from Edvard Grieg’s “Morning Mood” from the Henrick Ibsen play Peer Gynt.  “Morning Mood” is probably track one, side one of Romantic Music’s Greatest Hits; everyone who has ever seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon has heard the piece:

Unfortunately, yours portly is pretty worn out and, despite my best efforts, I could not sustain composing last night.  Yesterday was a “marathon” of sorts for me.  The way my classes and lessons shook out, I was going nonstop from about 10 AM to around 6 PM without a break.  That’s after working Sunday for an open house at school and spending most of Saturday moving.

That is not to complain, but to explain—posts are going to be a bit sporadic (especially in terms of quality—gulp).  I’ll catch up on content for paid subs as soon as possible.  With the house closing approaching imminently, moving the last of my meager (but, it seems, endless) possessions into our new home is taking top priority.  Indeed, the plan is to take another load of stuff up to the new house after work tonight.

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TBT: The Portly Politico Presidents’ Day Extravaganza

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The United States observed Presidents’ Day earlier this week, and yours portly is enjoying a decadent Winter Break for the next couple of days.  Of  course, the decadence will end abruptly on Saturday when Dr. Wife and I load up yet another U-Haul with the last remaining stuff from her house.

For today, though, I’m enjoying a little bit of time with the dogs while Dr. Wife slaves away at the hospital.  She’s a good woman.

It seems that February is always a bit of a low-point for the blog in terms of my own preparedness and output.  I’m not sure why that is.  Perhaps the initial rush of the New Year has passed, with Reality settling in heavily.  It certainly seems like everything has been busier lately.

Regardless, here’s to a few days off—probably the last for a good while!

With that, here is 17 February 2025’s “The Portly Politico Presidents’ Day Extravaganza“:

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Midweek Update: Home Selling

The Portly Politico42 Comments

A quick update from yours portly today, as I’ve been hustling to get my house ready to list.  Last week, my pastor (who just started a carpet cleaning business) did a deep clean of the house, which, of course, meant I had to deep clean before he arrived so he could get to the really bad stuff.  My mind boggles at how much junk I have accumulated in just seven years.

This morning my realtor came by with a photographer to get pictures of the house, so that required more organization, especially involving the artful concealment of things no one wants to see in pictures of a home—trashcans, the stuff you keep on the back of the toilet, etc.  I was really pleased when my realtor told me that I’d done a great job getting things together.

Now I’m just waiting for the disclosure paperwork, and soon my little home will be on the market officially.  Selling that will be a huge boon for Dr. Wife and me.  We currently own three homes between us, which sounds like some kind of decadent dream, but it’s really a huge time- and money-sink.  My house, fortunately, is paid off, thanks in part to the best bank of all, The First Bank of Mom and Dad.  The value has more than doubled (of course, the value of the dollar has probably halved) since I bought it, so I should walk away with a good profit, which will help to pay for the hefty mortgage on the new house.

Shew!  But I digress.  Please be praying that my house sells quickly—and Dr. Wife’s!  She’s had hers on the market since right before the wedding back in November, and while she’s had some showings, she hasn’t had any offers yet.  We need that albatross dropped onto some hapless chump happy new homeowner ASAP!

More to come.  Happy Wednesday!

—TPP

TBT^16: The Hermit’s Life

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

My mind is always a bit sharper during these cold, bitter wintry months, especially in the morning after a good cup of black coffee.  Indeed, I’m writing this post while sipping coffee in the wee hours of a very cold morning.  Dr. Wife and Nugget, the three-legged wonder dog, are still fast asleep; Murphy and I have been up for about thirty minutes.  The old girl (Murphy, not Dr. Wife) is munching on a beef rawhide in the other room as the morning light slowly pierces through the grey of January.

These early hours are about as close as I get to the hermit’s life these days.  It’s quiet to focus on writing, spending time with God, reading the Bible, and knocking out whatever little tasks need doing.

In putting together these TBT posts, it’s always fun—and occasionally cringe-inducing—to look back at posts from yesteryear.  One of the joys of maintaining a daily blog for seven years—whoa!—is the ability to explore my own, evolving time capsule.

It’s one of the things I love about WordPress.com.  It’s very easy to find my old posts and link to them instantly.  Oftentimes, I’ve forgotten about some of the topics I’ve covered over the years (in searching for “coffee” this morning, I found a post about coffee glasses).  Links are insanely easy, especially if you use the “Classic” block—still my preferred method of writing using WordPress.com:

They're like glasses, but made from coffee!

I currently use the $8/month “Premium” plan, which features the functionality I crave (for plug-ins, however, you’ll need the $25/month “Business” plan).  It boasts 13 GB a storage, which might not sound massive in our age of terabyte SSDs, but is more than ample when you’re mostly uploading pictures of your dog:

Also, WordPress.com is constantly throwing coupons at me.  It’s rare that I actually pay full-freight for my plan (which is billed annually).  For example, WordPress.com‘s sister site, Pressable, is offering 15% plans with code 2025PRESS15AFF.  I can’t speak to the functionality of Pressable firsthand, simply because I haven’t used it, but it offers hosting services for ecommerce sites, developers, and the like.

For everyday use, however, WordPress.com is fantastic.  I love the “Classic” blocks because I’m used to working with the formatting ribbon included, but the sheer number of available blocks is impressive:

So many blocks!

I literally just realized there’s a “Slideshow” block—my mind is already envisioning compelling slide decks of koi pond pics once the weather warms up!

I’ve been really pleased with the functionality of WordPress.com, which also comes with Jetpack built in.  Jetpack has functionality I’ve only begun to explore; that said, I love its Akismet anti-spam system. According to Akismet, it’s blocked 13,830 spam comments in the past six months alone—and 141,377 over seven-plus years I’ve been writing this blog:

Well, enough of my yakking.  If you’re like me, these cold, dark months are the perfect time to brew up some coffee, pet your dog, and start your own blog at WordPress.com.  Blogging has opened up so many doors for me, and the switch to WordPress.com back in Summer 2018 has been life-changing.  I may be a hermit, but I love the little community we’ve built here around TPP.  I have several readers who are bloggers, and many more who should be blogging.

I’d love to see our little community grow further.  WordPress.com makes it easy to get blogging, but I’m here to help!

With that, here is 2 January 2025’s “TBT^4: The Hermit’s Life“:

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Midweek Koi Pond Update II: Life and Death in the Pond

The Portly Politico21 Comments

This past weekend Dr. Wife and I visited our new home and checked on the koi.  We had unseasonably warm weather, which raised the water temperature just north of 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  That was just enough for the koi to come up when I spread (too much) food across the surface of the pond.

We did not get any pictures—d’oh!—but it looks like we have four or five existing koi in the pond:

  • A bluish one that Dr. Wife named Cobbler
  • A classic white and orange koi (Sherbet)
  • A white-ish one
  • One that seems black-and-yellow, although this might be Cobbler as well at a different angle
  • A more strikingly orange-reddish one

We also saw two or possibly three of the original population of ten rosy red minnows coming up to feed.  The others might have been hanging out below—or may have ended up as a snack for the hungry koi.  Gulp!

We did not see Milkshake or Brownie, the two younger koi we introduced the prior weekend.  I consulted with Microsoft’s CoPilot AI, which seemed to think that the two babies were playing it safe and resting down below.  That said, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

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Midweek Koi Pond Update

The Portly Politico16 Comments

I’ll be weighing in soon on the capture of the Venezuelan dictator Maduro soon over at Free Speech Backlash.  The quick version:  it’s the Monroe Doctrine, baby!  More to come.  —TPP

Yours portly has found a new obsession:  the koi pond that came with our new home.  I’ve been so passionate about tending to this pond, Dr. Wife bought me a book that is apparently the authority on all things koi (that link is an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of the proceeds from any purchase made through that link at no additional cost to you).

The previous owners constructed a very nice pond; from what I can tell from my research, they built a textbook pond for koi.  The problem right now is that the water is incredibly murky, so we can only see the koi when they surface to feed.  It being winter, our koi don’t eat often—they largely hibernate when the water temperature gets below 50 or 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  Currently, our water temperature is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

To that end, I’m looking to purchase some Japanese Trapdoor Snails (JTSs).  These snails are amazing:  they are cold-hardy, so they survive through winter; they give birth to live young, so they reproduce slowly, virtually eliminating the risk of overpopulation; and they are living vacuum cleaners for muck and algae.  However, Fishy Business in Columbia, South Carolina still doesn’t have any in stock.

I’ve been having late-night conversations with Microsoft’s CoPilot AI about stocking the pond, in addition to doing research on my own.  CoPilot brought up ramshorn snails, which I have read about as well.  Unlike JTSs, they lay eggs, so overpopulation is more of a concern; however, koi and the rosy red minnows I added to our pond will often eat the eggs and/or baby snails, so the population should stay in check.  I’ve ordered around twenty of them from a seller on eBay (apparently, you can purchase live snails from randos on the Internet) and will introduce those when they arrive next week.

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