iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

How about dialing back the close-up photography so we don't have to see people's teeth in detail? (I would not want you to see mine!)

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Reposted by Laurel Busch

Pat Rice @patriceauthor.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The truly sad thing about all these scam posters on social media is that they prevent me from responding to what could very well be legit reader questions and requests. I can't trust any post anymore. How does one get around that?

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

My son texted from his cruise that the ship had been rocking for the past 12 hours and they put out the barf bags. They had to change the cruise itinerary to skip Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas and stop at Puerto Vallarta tomorrow instead. In case anyone is interested.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I live near a @tmfr.bsky.social station and just see the firefighters greeting me and my dog, washing their trucks, and generally doing nothing. I don't begrudge them any of that free time because I know they are willing to do this work at a moment's notice. They've had to do it this year for sure.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

For the #birdoftheday theme of #pairs. Mourning doves on my roof March 25, 2022.

Two mourning doves (grayish tan) on edge of brown roof shingles. A tan vehicles is in the background on the ground below.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I love wedding cake, and when my son and his fiance wanted me to be specific, I said I liked buttercream frosting. The frosting seemed bland last night, and now I know why. I refrigerated my leftover piece, and today the "frosting" is thick, solid butter with a trace of sugar. Solid butter.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme today of #LightAndShadow, a repost of a phone photo I took when taking my dog out while the sun was coming up. California quail/quails.

Birds lined up on top of a fence lit by sun across the center of the photo. The foreground is in the shade. You can barely see rabbitbrush and the head and shoulders of a dog looking at the quail. There are tamarisk trees with yellow foliage on the other side of the fence, also lit by the sun, and bright blue sky above them.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

World Gratitude Day is new to me, and I love it. Personally, life is much more pleasant when you consciously appreciate the good things in it. I have many. My son was married yesterday, and everyone was gushing with gratitude. I was grateful for all of it. 😉

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Who moved the slough, and am I ever going to get to it??? I've been waiting for a chance to use this photo! #BirdOfTheDay #CaptionThatBird

Against melting snow on grass covered with bird tracks, a great blue heron in the center foreground stalks from left to right. A flock of Canada geese is on the ground in the background.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

It would be impressive no matter what job the builder has! This is patronizing.

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Reposted by Laurel Busch

The Hoolet’s Nook @thehooletsnook.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Quick question for readers of online literary journals: when browsing a table of contents or author index and you click on a poem or story, do you prefer it to open in a new tab so the original page stays open, or would you rather it open in the same tab? Curious what you prefer! Thanks!

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

WTH? I left my house a few minutes ago to walk my dog and saw this. Looking from east across the Truckee Meadows (Reno) toward the Sierra Nevada about 1 p.m. Sept. 16. Peavine Mountain on the right has the blackened areas from the #hawkfire. Steamboat Slough in foreground. #FloristonFire #Floriston

Center: Mostly white smoke speading across most of the view in the center. It appears to be coming from behind mountain range. Deep blue sky with a few small clouds above. Muddy water is in the bottom half of the photo with shrubs and dead weeds closest to the camera.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

For today's #BirdOfTheDay alt theme of #BirdyLongLegs. I believe this is an American avocet. Steamboat Slough, Reno, Nevada, USA, April 4, 2026.

Bird standing in shallow water next to a raised spot with dead branches in front of it. The bird has a long beak that curves upward at the tip, a brown head, white body with black tops of wings, black tail, and long light blue legs.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

"It’s a useful read for, say, a historical novelist, so long as she doesn’t expect insights into criminal psychology." #histfic

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Reposted by Laurel Busch

Pat Rice @patriceauthor.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I'm trying out a new for-me genre, contemporary #mystery with a hint of #romance. There's a sample up on my website: patriciarice.com/books/close-... Let me know if this looks interesting! #books

patriciarice.com

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The quail/s lined up for us when we went out this morning. I count 29. #birds #nature #September

29 quail lined up along a redwood fence. Tamarisks with yellow leaves on other side of fence. Rabbitbrush--some dead and gray, some with yellow flowers--is in the shade in the foreground. A tan dog with erect ears is in the foreground with its back to the camera looking at the birds.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Actually, I skip past them, but you do you.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I got Wordle on my first guess!!! I decided last night to use it as my first word today. I have muted the word Wordle to avoid seeing clues, so I wonder whether I'll be able to see this post.

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Reposted by Laurel Busch

JuliaEdits @juliaedits.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

You guys, which romance novel has mentions of the intricately made glass flowers, plants & animals in Harvard's collection? I feel really certain these were mentioned in a book I recently read but can't remember which. (Some photos at the link.) #Romancelandia

hmnh.harvard.edu

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Happy Labor Day! So proud of my late husband. 50+ years in the International Union of Operating Engineers, and I'm still enjoying the benefits. Some of his crane jobs were glamorous, many were shitty, but he put in as many hours as he could to take care of us. This was Tracy power plant, 2007.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Can anyone tell me whether this is a catfish? There are a lot of these fish in my neighborhood slough, and catfish supposedly live there. I am guessing this one is roughly 3 feet long.

Fish with black and brown pattern and a black fin in shallow, muddy water.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Peavine Mountain today after the #hawkfire. Steamboat Slough is in the foreground with downtown Reno in the center.

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Reposted by Laurel Busch

This Is Reno @thisisreno.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

OK, who did this? Downtown Reno traffic sign hacked to say, "Release the files."

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

1 in 3 and rising. I had the luxury of being a freelance editor because I was married to a union member. #laborday

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I couldn't resist doing the dialect quiz, and it correctly identified my birth state. It also reflected my parents' birth state across the country, which isn't surprising. mydialect.us/quiz-standar...

mydialect.us

Standard Language Quiz — Dialect Map Quiz

Take the Standard Language Quiz to see your regional US speech profile on an interactive dialect map. Based on the Harvard Dialect Survey.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I'd rather not have people ask "Was she still alive?" when I die.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Gee, I wonder why my house is always dusty. #dogsky

Large, tan dog with white belly and black nose rolling on its back in scattered grass and dust

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme of #FlowerPower: hummingbird and gladiolus. Aug. 11, 2021, Reno, Nevada USA 🌱

A bright gold row of flowers (a stalk of gladiolus) crosses the photo diagonally in the center of the photo with foliage to the left of it. A hummingbird with a greenish back is approaching it on the lower right. A white pot with half a dark blue star shape ornament is in the background on the right.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I learned spelling and vocabulary by reading. (I think it made me a good editor.) I also took French in school. Until recently I pronounced "suitor" as "sweeter" and "bergamot" as "bergamo."

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

My new dash cams are smarter than I am, but they seem to have come with good instructions and I'm not giving up. Yet. My backup plan is my Gen X sons, but they tend to rush into things, ignore instructions, cuss a lot, and take just as long as it would take me.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme of #Parenting, I'm going with the mourning doves on my front porch again. I put the rocks on top of the pillar to keep them from nesting there. July 16, 2026, Reno, Nevada USA

Left, a tan, very plump dove with black eyes and beak is looking directly at the camera. Center and right are two small doves, partially behind a gray rock. They are all in a messy nest made of grass and small twigs. The roof ceiling behind it is cream color.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

And I just found it!!! I am a persistent amateur historian; you might call it compulsive. I searched for the name in the article, Sam Jung, all over the country from 1900 to 1935. So the people doing the work did it about 1921 or not long after, & they had at least one San Francisco newspaper handy.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

We found these when we ripped metal "tile" off the bathroom wall of our old house near the university in 1985. I have spent more time today than I want to admit trying to find this article on newspapers.com so I can have an idea of when previous owners covered this up.

Left image: Very poor (dark) photo showing bare wood wall to left, wallpaper with clusters of flowers in center, and a wall with remnants of glue to right. Right image: Yellowed portion of torn newspaper article showing "DEATH TOLL" beginning the top line of the headline, "TONGS" the second, and "FOR" the third.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Happy to see this. It refers to research in the past 10 years, so I assume it's not coming from JFK Jr.'s HHS. "Ideally, your healthcare provider would . . . use the most up-to-date evidence for deciding which antibiotic to prescribe and for how long."

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme of birds snacking on #NaturalSeeds straight from the plant. Not a pretty picture, but it's what all the quail in my back yard do. I hope they're eating all the weed seeds, including those of the saltgrass you see. (I hope this counts as "straight from.") 11/18/20, Reno NV

2 plump, gray birds with black, wavy plumes on their heads and white markings on their wings. One is standing on the ground with its back to the camera. The other has its head down pecking at whatever is on the ground. They are surrounded by dead grass with chunks of concrete behind them.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Cynophilist--that's me! 1964, my first dog (he was about 6 years old then).

Black and white photo of 12-year-old girl kneeling and holding on to a small dog with a black head, upright ears, white nose, and white chest and front legs. She has brunette hair with a hair band, bands, and a ponytail in a long braid pulled over her shoulder. She is wearing a jumper over a white blouse with big polka dots and three-quarters sleeves (modestly draped over knees as girls knew how to do in the 1960s). They are on dirt with a wood fence in the background.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I've found the best information on the #hawkfire on Instagram. Try biggestlittlestreets, tmfpd, truckee_meadows_firefighters, thisisreno, washoesheriff, renofiredept

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The cemetery my husband is buried in has an evacuation warning because of the #hawkfire. I want to see that!

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Sadly, I was just walking my dog and saw there is a fire on or behind Peavine right now. They are evacuating people already. Hawk Fire #hawkfire

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

For the #BirdOfTheDay alt theme of #Herons&Egrets, here are some white egrets in the Steamboat Slough on the east edge of Reno, Nevada, Oct. 2, 2015. The city and Peavine Mountain are in the background.

In the foreground, white birds with long legs and necks standing in shallow water. A large area of brush and grass is in the center of the photo. A row of high rises of the city is near the top with a hazy wide mountain behind it.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Reposting this for any fellow Nevadans who might actually be reading my posts.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Why is this getting more attention than serious news? Our national debt hit $40 trillion yesterday, and it's already forgotten. Climate change is here--NOW. Our president has lost his mind and is destroying everything in and about our country. But this is a major story?

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I'm glad the national debt is finally getting some attention, but it needs a lot more.

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Laurel Busch @laurelbusch.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

The clamor of grief and praise for Hayden Panettiere has shown me how out of touch I am with the entertainment world. I had not heard of her before she died.

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