sense of doubt

Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.

Friday, July 17, 2026

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4169 - Happy 14th Birthday to Satchel!!

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4169 - Happy 14th Birthday to Satchel!!

Happy birthday to my first ever dog, the greatest dog love of my life, the most amazing dog I have ever known (though I would say that about all three of my dogs), Satchel Paige, also known as "duh boo," her booness, and simply "boo."

She is at my feet right now as I type.

I try to do special things with Satchel on her birthday, things with just the two of us, which was the way things were before December 21st 2016 when we adopted Ellory Queen and Nov. 20-something 2024 when we adopted Essel Buttermilk.

For example, on her ninth birthday I took her to WSU to see the corpse flower. In 2017, I took her on a nature walk at Asylum Lake, one of our last in Michigan before we moved.

This year we did a short walk at the marina. We had not been there in many weeks.

Satchel tried to get into this bar, and they wouldn't let her. They said she was too young and did not have a photo ID.

Instead of posting a bunch of pictures, which I did last week (ass post link below), I am just listing all the Satchel birthday posts for the most intrepid viewers who like to click things.

Birthday Posts

There are no Satchel birthday posts prior to 2017, as I didn't start HEY MOM and dailies here until July sixth, 2016. Except for the T-SHIRTS blog where I posted when I posted about her FIRST birthday in 2013 (we adopted her in 2012).

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

T-shirt #117: Snoopy and Friends - Satchel's first birthday

Monday, July 17, 2017

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #741 - Happy Birthday Satchel, a five-year old Beagle

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1243 - Happy Sixth Birthday Satchel

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1609 - Happy Seventh Birthday to Satchel!

I didn't do a Satchel birthday post in 2020.

Saturday, July 17, 2021

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2342 - Satchel's Ninth Birthday

Sunday, July 17, 2022

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2707 - Happy Birthday Satchel - Ten Years Young!

11th birthday

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3073 - Happy Birthday Satchel!

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3438 - Satchel Paige Tower is Twelve Today - 2407.17

I didn't do a post in 2025 for some reason. Not sure why.

Thursday, July 9, 2026

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4161 - Letter to Dad #43 - Photos By Year of Satchel, Her Booness

July 17, 2021

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2607.17 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 4033 days ago & DAD = 687 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

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I am Christopher Tower the gmr

I am Christopher Tower (or Chris), and I am a writer of stuff. I grew up in Michigan; I now live in the Portland, OR metro area. I play Ultimate, ride a bike, and supposedly educate college persons while myself being educated in college. I am married with two kids, a beagle, a curly lab, and a fiesty pug/frenche mix. I like sushi. I love all SF, fantasy, comic books, D&D, board games, and Gnosticism. I am a Jungian. I am currently studying Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Walden University.

SENSE OF DOUBT STATUS AS OF 0705.04 - 16:45

Sense of Doubt is not currently dedicated to any themes or special interest. The subject matter is mine and may range from comic books to ultimate or from Baseball to feminist-centered media criticism. Until I feel I have enough content for multiple blogs, or until I am seized with a desire to create multiple blogs, this is it, and appropriately so. "Sense of Doubt" came about in Bowie’s Berlin period and the dark, ambient collaborations with Brian Eno. Like the Bowie of 1978, I have my own darkness that steals over me and through me, infecting everything. At the risk of sounding far too melodramatically obsessed with my own self-flagellations, this blog dedicates itself to that darkness, that infection. But it’s fun, too. Hey, I can be amusing? Or not. It’s the way of the [w]rench. Neurosis compelling action in insecure double-checking and misunderstanding evasions. It is my way.

More from the original description text that needed editing in 2015: Furthermore, Sense of Doubt is dedicated to the random. The theme is no theme. Just questions, doubt, and uncertainty. Feel the power of not knowing the answer. So dedicated on the last day of July 2006 by the Galactic Monkey Wrench.

The Galactic Monkey Wrench

This is the logo of the Galactic Monkey Wrench. I was given the nickname Galactic Monkey Wrench in college by a friend of mine who felt that I threw the monkey wrench into the cosmos at every available opportunity. Later, in discussions with my best friend, who is the Lord of Chaos (the Loc), he asked for my title and when I told him, without thinking, he blurted out "the gmr!" Since this was random and we appreciate randomness, I became the gmr, even though technically I should be the gmw. But gmw sounds like a car or some industrial manufacturing firm that makes a strange widget of which one has never heard. This acronym fetish may make no sense to anyone else, but my friend and I are quite driven to provide acronyms for many things. At the very least, it allows us to keep our conversations obscure and often private as no one knows about what we're talking.

Monkey Wrench Books

Chris's books

A Feast for Crows

by George R.R. Martin

This book is a little slower than the others. But if you become invested in this series, it provides key information about the history of Westeros and the lands across the Narrow Sea. It may not contain chapters with my favorite characters ...

A Game of Thrones

by George R.R. Martin

Do I really need to review this book? It's one of the best books I have ever read. Martin is a great writer. All the books are great, and I am loving my time rereading them. If you have not checked out these books, start here and get ready ...

The Golden City

by John Twelve Hawks

These books are immensely entertaining. Treat yourself to some strong writing, great action, compelling characters, and a mix of metaphysics and theology. The ending of this third book, which is presumably the last, is anti-climactic and so...

Pathfinder

by Orson Scott Card

This was a fun book. Not OSC's best but very good OSC nonetheless. The best thing about is the time travel, slowing, and speeding powers of the characters and how OSC engages the reader in discussion of causality and time paradox. For fans ...

Swamplandia!

by Karen Russell

This book came to me via my wife Liesel who discovered it and urged me to read it. Beautifully written with compelling characters and a sense of the magical (yet realistic, somewhat). Funny yet full of the pathos that marks a good if not gr...

Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Friday, July 17, 2026

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4169 - Happy 14th Birthday to Satchel!!

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