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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend
@sandrafriend.bsky.social
790 followers 500 following 390 posts
Author. Science geek. History wonk. Nature nut. Space Hipster. Happily married. No DMs, please. SandraFriend.com FloridaHikes.com TrailsandTravel.com
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 7h
Sometimes a week calls for light, fluffy reading. #booksky
📚#cozy #lightreading
Book cover: Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi. Fuzzy cover, fuzzy story about cute fuzzy aliens. Book cover: Scone Cold Dead by Maddy Day. Diner with baked goods and clues that a baby's on the way. Book cover: Here Comes the Fudge by Nancy Coco. Cozy mystery cover with a wedding vibe, a cat and a dog, and a Mackinac Island setting. Book cover: Murder at a Cape Bookstore by Maddie Day. Cover of a bookstore with a bike out front and a potted plant knocked over.
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 3d
Exactly. Because one doctor a decade prior misdiagnosed my too much coffee intake as a bladder dysfunction, I was refused medically underwritten insurance as an independent contractor. A few years later I was diagnosed with type II diabetes. I'm not old enough for Medicare so ACA was a lifeline.
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Reposted by Sandra Friend
bertsbooks.bsky.social
Bert’s Books @bertsbooks.bsky.social · 5d
Good morning. We are open. 📖☕️
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 4d
Describes my weekend!
sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 4d
That has never, ever happened before in my thirty years of doing so.
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 4d
I've sent a couple care packages to a relative in Europe and they've been forced to pay a tariff of 50% of declared value to be able to accept the package from their mail carrier. That's after I paid for the items here and postage.
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 5d
#Stunday at the Mackinac Straits, Cheboygan #Michigan

#lmackinac #greatlakes #gull
Seagull perched on breakwater rocks along a waterway with grassy shallows with a shoreline of Mackinac Island on the far horizon.
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 6d
Some golden oldies found in used bookstores this summer and consumed in transit. #booksky #vintagereads 📚
Book cover of Panama by Thomas McGuane, set in Key West in the POV of a drug-addled rock star trying to rehab, or so he thinks. Book cover of The Good German, by Joseph Kanon, a thriller raising the real questions behind the ethics (or lack thereof) of Operation Paperclip Book cover of Starman Jones, by Robert Heinlein, Classic sci-fi from my childhood still a fun read (hillbilly heads to the stars) as an adult Book cover of Portofino, set in Italy in the 60s and told by a young male narrator eerily paralleling the trust-no-one religious vibe I grew up with and discarded.
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 12d
Headlands along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan from the observation deck atop Arcadia Dunes.

#greatlakes #michigan #arcadiadunes #geology #stunday #naturesky #geosky #photosky #photography #nature
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 17d
A recent retro experience made me realize that you never quite lose the skill inherent in tactile games, it simply degrades.
#pinball #owaa2025 #chattanooga

thoughtsafoot.substack.com/p/angles-of-...
Close-up of space art on a pinball machine playing field
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 18d
Ugh. No.
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 18d
Only if the manager remembers to order them! We stayed three days in one in Ohio where everyone passed the blame buck but offered no cinnamon rolls. None.
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 18d
I had no idea how treacherous they are until biking in Ohio and slipping sideways on one. We don't have these in Florida. We do, however, have coconuts, iguanas, and alligators as unique cyclist hazards.
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 18d
Read widely. Read deeply. Read for fun. Read for knowledge. Defend the right to read.
#BannedBooksWeek #booksky 📚
Books on a shelf: the ABA Right to Read Handbook next to the Constitution of the United States of America A storefront banned books display including both books and descriptions of where they were banned and the reasons given. Includes a broad range from Dr Seuss "Hop on Pop" to "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen A broader look at banned books in a bookstore window with a banner "In 2023-2024 School Year over 10,000 books have been banned" A checklist of banned books. How many have you read?
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 19d
#stunday Sunday: a delicate dance.

#naturesky #photograph #butterfly
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 20d
Descending to a massive swale between ancient dunes along Lake Michigan at Rosy Mound Natural Area near Grand Haven. #naturephotos #beautyspots #lakemichigan #hiking #nature #photography #naturesky 🌱
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 26d
#stunday share: sunset on Lake Michigan.

#sunset #photography #nature #photosky
Deep red orb of the sun slipping behind a horizon of gentle waves beyond a beach
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · 27d
#blueskyartshow #theroad #photography

Out in the country.
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · Sep 23
Yesterday's magical monarch moment.

🌱 #butterfly #monarch #nature #naturesky #naturephotos
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · Sep 21
#Stunday share: walking in the footsteps of ancients among their geometric earthworks under a blanket of forest at Fort Ancient, a Hopewell/Adena Culture #UNESCO World Heritage Site in #Ohio.

#fortancient #nature #photography #worldheritage #naturesky #hopewell
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · Sep 19
Delighted hubby and I caught the #OldCarFestival at #GreenfieldVillage en route to #SATW2025 a couple weeks ago. Mindblowing to see so many vintage vehicles in operation!
sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · Sep 18
Latest Hollywood-themed fiction reads. All worthwhile and enjoyable. Queen and Esme most engrossing and moving as faux (auto)biographies, Canteen and Poppy romps of mysteries through Hollywood culture 60 years apart.

#booksky #novels #fiction 📚
Book cover: The Queen of Sugar Hill by ReShonda Tate. Historical fiction about the life of Hattie McDaniel. A 1930s sedan races uphill towards the Hollywood sign. Book cover: Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen by Sarah James. Historical mystery set in 1940s wartime Hollywood with a thinly disguised cast of main characters. Woman's sunglasses reflect the bright night lights of Hollywood Blvd. Book cover: Poppy Harmon and the Shooting Star by Lee Hollis. Fun romp mystery set in Palm Springs featuring 80s actors decades after their prime years in prime time. Cartoonish cover of woman with a cosmo in a lounge chair by a pool with fireworks overhead at dusk. Book cover: The Magnificent Esme Wells by Adrienne Sharp. Fictional biography of a young woman growing up in pre-WWII Hollywood under the influence of a chorine mom trying to break into stardom and a petty con man dad going to work for the mob, and that girl's subsequent education and initiation into mob culture as a showgirl as Vegas finds its footing under mobsters building and controlling the strip. Stage floor view of a woman's ankles in high heels.
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · Sep 17
Don't move!

An opportunistic tree frog trying to snatch incoming insects before they enter a pitcher plant.

#naturephotos #frogs #naturalist 🌱
Tree frog clinging to the rim of a pitcher of a pitcher plant.
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · Sep 14
#Stunday share: Humbug Marsh, Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.

#photography #nature #satw2025 #detroit
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sandrafriend.bsky.social
Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.bsky.social · Sep 13
Latest nonfiction reads. Enjoying and thought provoking, the big surprise being the memoir by two of Jimmy Carter's longtime friends. Details in alt text.

#booksky 📚 #reading #nonfiction
Book cover: Jimmy Carter Rivers & Dreams by Jim Barger Jr and Dr. Carlton Hicks. Memoir about their long-standing friendship with Jimmy before, during, and after his presidency. Book cover: So Said the River by Colleen J Miniuk. Woman on a paddleboard in the Colorado canyon. Her memoir of life, loss, and rediscovering herself on this iconic river. Book cover: A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby. Published 1956, 50th anniversary edition of the book that redefined the travel memoir. A misbegotten adventure gone wrong as mountaineering plans went but rich in understanding of little-known Asian cultures Book cover: Bad Company, Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream, by Megan Greenwell. Chilling narrative following specific stories of how lives and communities unravel when investors take over companies with no interest but maximizing profit no matter the sector.
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