Finished reading: Kinfolk by Sean Dietrich 📚

The book is a heartfelt Southern novel set in post–World War II Alabama. It follows Nub Taylor, a troubled veteran struggling with alcoholism, and his family as they confront hardship, loss, and unexpected responsibilities. When circumstances bring a young girl into their lives, damaged people begin forming an unconventional family. With Dietrich’s trademark warmth, humor, and compassion, Kinfolk explores redemption, forgiveness, friendship, and the idea that family isn’t always defined by blood—it’s often created by the people who choose to love and stand by one another.

This is the first book of Sean’s that I have read and thoroughly enjoyed it. I started reading Sean’s posts on Facebook several years ago. With each story/post I would find myself laughing, crying or getting choked up and sentimental over. Evidently he is quite the entertainer, but I haven’t seen any of his live performances. His other Facebook page is Sean of the South. Enjoy!

This was a simple prompt: cowgirl riding bucking bronco realistic

Also finished watching another season of Silo on AppleTV. Season 3 of Silo expands the mystery surrounding the underground world as Juliette’s discoveries expose deeper truths about the silos, their origins, and those controlling them. As tensions rise and long-held secrets unravel, characters face dangerous choices that could reshape their society—and challenge everything they believed about survival and the world outside.

A very interesting mosaic garden was one of the scenes that caught my attention while watching an episode of Reacher yesterday. After a little bit of sleuth work, I learned that the location for the scene was Philadelphia’s Magic Garden. After watching the video about the creators of the garden, I’m adding this to my bucket list of travel destinations.

Finishe watching the latest season of Reacher. Season 4 of follows former military investigator Jack Reacher into another dangerous mystery, where his sharp instincts, imposing presence, and uncompromising sense of justice quickly put him at odds with powerful enemies. As Reacher uncovers layers of deception and violence, he must determine whom he can trust while staying one step ahead of those determined to stop him. Expect the series’ familiar mix of mystery, dry humor, brutal action, and Reacher-style problem solving. All in all, this series is pretty predictable but it’s nice to just dumb-down and watch something sometimes.

My neigbor Vivian texted me this morning wanting to know if I wanted to go on a bike ride. She is so encouraging. At the tim I was surfing the interent and looking at a bike rail trail in the New River Gorger area.

I haven’t been on my bike since before my cancer diagnosis. Some of my chemo medications make the bones more brittle and I’ve been a bit afraid of taking a fall while riding. The tires on both of my bikes were flat, but I asked her to give me 30 minutes and I was good to go on a short ride. So I pumped up the tires, changed into some comfortable shorts and got ready to ride.

We agreed on a short ride to the Greenville Zoo which is about 1.5 miles away. From there we could stop and decide how I was feeling. We made to the zoo and Swamp Rabbit Trail with little effort and I decided I could go on further. We took a slight detour through the zoo parking lot and learned that the bridge we needed to cross to get back on the Swamp Rabbit Trail (SRT) was closed. We back tracked and road along the main road past the Cleveland Park tennis and pickle ball courts in order to get back on the SRT.

We countinued on the SRT for a while and I deciece to turn back. Vivan decided to got a little furter before she was going to turn around. The ride back was fairly pleasant until the uphill pull to get back to my starting point. All in all it felt really good to get out and ride. I need to start taking short rides everyday and then build up to something bigger. I have great aspirations for doing a long ride along one of the many old railroads converted to bike trails.

The Strava recording below is from where we stopped and I turned back. I didn’t realize that I didn’t have cellular data turned on when I started the ride so it did not record that portion of what we had ridden. My Apple Workout indicated it was close to 5.7 miles total, including the detour through the zoo parking lot:

Below is ride imported to Plotaroute from Strava export:

Route map for 2026-09-19 Morning Ride by Doug Gregory on plotaroute.com

Below is ride imported to Velo Planner from Strava export:

Below is the ride imported to Bikemap from Strava export:

I’ve watched a few episodes of Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders on HBO Max today. I can’t decide what is more disturbing - the stroies, or the fact that I’m watching them.

Below is a modified prompt I used from a MidJourney challenge posted in one of the many AI Facebook groups I follow:

Prompt: 2-Character relationship sheet of a lively grandmother and her mischievous granddaughter in 18th-century Istanbul, two clearly distinct but visually related characters, shown through six natural interactions, cooking together, arguing playfully over a household object, walking through a market, sharing food, fixing a piece of clothing and laughing together, varied body language and changing physical distance, affectionate everyday relationship, authentic Ottoman clothing and surroundings, expressive faces, charming humor, historically grounded details, cinematic character storytelling, clean relationship reference sheet, 16:9 –ar 16:9 –stylize 250 –hd –profile xcqy5ig –profile r8rn9lw

It seems that this could be a really useful tool for a creator or author developing a story line. I can imagine a multitude of possible uses extended to wide variety of creative uses.

Currently reading: The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old by Hendrik Groen 📚 I am enjoying this read. It offers a funny, poignant reminder that retirement and aging don’t mean retreating from life. Hendrik’s friendships, adventures, frustrations, and determination to stay engaged encourage newly retired readers to embrace freedom, cultivate relationships, try new things, and keep finding reasons to laugh.