Homeowners associations were getting mentally slaughtered via tweets on Thursday after one HOA defended itself for requiring residents to leave their garage doors open. I must admit that I laughed at quite a few of the tweets. (Just because I’m on an HOA does not mean I lost my sense of humor about a one-sided game of the Dozens.) If you don’t know what set the Twitter users off yet, here’s the story:

Now initially the idea of forcing residents to leave their garage doors up from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. seemed like a particularly ridiculous idea that…

Whenever someone tells a bizarre story, they usually try to expand on it to make it even more strange every single time it’s told. But sometimes you hear a story that doesn’t even require the extra pizzazz; it’s dumb enough on its own. Hearing from any of the 300 ridiculous people who were arrested for rioting the Capitol on January 6 would not normally be something I’d find even mildly funny. Some of it is just plain confusing, like rioter Thomas Baranyi serving two years in the Peace Corps from 2018 to 2020. …

I have walked dogs who are pullers, who are a wee bit aggressive, who are shy, who are crazy strong, and who stop and sniff everything possible along the walk. All of those dogs are easier to walk than the ones who belong to owners who have no idea they own actual four-legged animals. You know what I’m talking about. These pet owners dress dogs in human clothes, put them in dog shoes, feed their dogs with eating utensils, purposely misspell everything on their pets’ social media accounts and whine all of their pet commands. …

Dogs welcome. People tolerated. It’s a sign that’s prominent when walking through my front door, and I mean it. I could hang out with people’s dogs all day long and enjoy a people-free day. It’s one of the reasons social isolation doesn’t bother me nearly as much as most (give or take a few). But my full-time career is already freelance and a work-from-home position, so staying at home to work was something I was doing before I even knew who Chinese ophthalmologist Li Wenliang was.

How COVID-19 affects dog walking jobs

Dog boarding, dog sitting and dog walking seemed like natural side jobs to have…

I read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” in sixth grade and saw the Spike Lee film one week after my 11th birthday. I loved both equally. Some of the stories were intense. Some of the movie scenes were even more impassioned. But I completely forgot about some of the funnier anecdotes in the epilogue of his book until my father forwarded one of a series of Black History Month digital church booklets to me. (He’s a deacon.)

Each week, a black icon is highlighted. On Valentine’s Day, the Sunday booklet had all these stories about Malcolm X. I know I…

There are some reality TV shows that I can laugh at like comedy shows (i.e. “Love & Hip Hop” series in New York, Atlanta and Hollywood) and others that always put me in a bad mood (ex. “Real Housewives of Atlanta” in any scene Porsha Williams isn’t in). But there is one show that is the equivalent of vampires. It sucks every single positive thought out of my head to the point of dust: “Basketball Wives.”

There have been full seasons that I didn’t bother to watch. It’s “Mean Girls” with melanin — as long as the features are right…

I was walking back into my condo when I looked over at my neighbor, smoking a cigarette and looking absolutely stressed out. Her grandson has autism and is impatient with learning. She’s trying to be homeschool teacher to help guide him along, knowing that he really needs to be in a classroom. I nodded, listening attentively to her talk about how stressful it is to have schools closed.

Then there was another mother who I did volunteer work with. She had to drop everything, including her own computer time, to make sure her daughter was logged in for virtual learning…

Can you watch my dog in less than 24 hours? It’s the kind of question I receive on dogsitting, dogboarding and doggy day care apps that always makes me shake my head. While I’m always down for watching anyone’s dog for the day, there’s a peculiar connection between last-minute bookings and the pet owners. They’re almost always from pet owners who couldn’t find anyone else to watch the dog. And there’s a reason for that.

Three recent examples are two senior dogs with bladder issues and anxiety. Then yesterday I got a request for a dog with high anxiety who…