The Pickle Loaf Bologna File #3

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Aaron 101 - A Memoir in Parts

I belong to two writing groups that follow the Amherst Writers Association model. Aaron 101 will be a compilation of pieces I’ve written as part of those groups.

If you’d like to join the group that I lead, we meet via zoom every other Saturday morning at 9:00am-10:30am Pacific. It’s free, and you don’t have to share your writing or even write at all. Also, only positive feedback is allowed.

To join click on the button below at 9:00am Pacific on 10/15/22, it’s that easy.

If you have questions about the group, just email me at: mraarondonley@gmail.com

Below is an example of a recent piece I wrote during a group. The prompt was a poem about a car.

First Car

My first car was a 1978 International Scout with the steering wheel on the wrong side.  It had been rolled, and I bought it for $450.  I backed squarely into a tree once and didn’t bother to look at the damage.  The exhaust entered the cabin somehow, so I coughed a lot while driving, and during regular life as well.  I was 17 and the gas gauge didn’t work.  When I ran out of gas, I’d grab the can behind the seat and start walking.  There was nothing anyone could do about it.  I slept in the Scout once because my out-of-town girlfriend stayed the night, and I was trying to do the proper thing by not staying in the house with her.   In retrospect I think I just didn’t like her that much.  But she was an out-of-town girlfriend and required little maintenance besides the occasional visit and having to read her long handwritten letters.  I would go to the mailbox, find the thick letter package, sit on the front step wrapping my head around the number of pages, take a deep breath and light a cigarette.   The Scout finally seized up for good and I sold it to a monster truck rally passing through for $75.  I’ve told people I went to the rally and saw it get eaten by Truckzilla, but that’s a lie.  Doing things for the sake of having a story to tell takes a life-force I’ll never have.  Plus, I wasn’t going to spend a Saturday night with those people. (Close relatives.)

My Humor Books

Good Chemistry, and What We Once Called Out in Passing Clouds, are available on Amazon.

Good Chemistry is also available in audiobook on Audible.

If you enjoy, please consider leaving a review. I’m told it helps. Thank you.

My Daily Stoic Journal

Each day I read Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic and journal my thoughts.

My process: I read the journal entry I wrote the day before, then read The Daily Stoic piece for the current day, then journal my thoughts. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes.

My goal is to reduce unnecessary daily anxiety.  There will always be some anxiety in modern life.  I’m just trying to cut as much of the unnecessary stuff as possible, and I recommend you do the same.

Here’s my journal entry for 10/9:

True faith is living in this moment in a way I honestly believe is right.  That’s all there is.

Today I am grateful for: night walks.

The Think Funny Podcast: This Week in History for 10/17-10/23

Staring Aaron Donley, Nate Sadler, and Matt Donley.  A podcast about everything that happened in history, each day of the week.

This week’s topics include:

• The London Beer Flood

• A 101 foot unicycle

• Bigfoot debunked

• Thomas Edison’s last breath

• The great circus merger

• World’s first car dealership

• Circling the globe by balloon

• and more.

I plugged these terms into Midjourney, an Artificial Intelligence platform.  Here is what came back:

Until next time,

Aaron