Life Goes On Despite Miller Moths and Facebook Fits

by Abbie Johnson Taylor

Here in Sheridan, Wyoming, the sky is dark with clouds that could be an indicator of either smoke or rain. We’re supposed to get a cold front that promises a high of sixty-seven degrees tomorrow. But today, the forecasted high is 97, and there’s a red flag warning due to possible wind shifts and thunderstorms that could cause erratic behavior by the fires in this area.

My kitchen is infested with miller moths, and my cleaning lady is valiantly obliterating them with the vacuum cleaner. I wish I’d thought of doing that when I was in college when moths kept me awake at night by flying around my windows. Instead, I got up and, as quietly as I could, caught each moth in my hands and squashed it, tossing its corpse into the wastebasket. The vacuum cleaner would have been less disgusting, but it would have awakened the entire household.

Now, about forty years later, I’m staring at yet another notification from Facebook that one of my posts violated their community standards. For the past couple of months, Facebook has been either locking me out of my account or telling me my posts are violating their community standards. I’ve been careful not to post things in more than one location at a time and I’ve checked my activity log and found nothing suspicious.

I set up 2-factor authentication, at the suggestion of my technical advisor, thinking that would keep me from getting locked out, but it didn’t. Apparently, others are having issues with Facebook, and even my poor dear technical advisor is clueless.

I’ve disagreed with Facebook’s decisions regarding my posts and reported the problem. They claim to be short-handed due to COVID19 and say that my feedback will help them improve Facebook. So, all I can do is keep on keeping on and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, I just sent a batch of poems for possible publication to The Avocet, a quarterly nature poetry journal to which I contribute on a regular basis and hope at least one of them will be accepted. I need to review submissions for Magnets and Ladders, an online magazine of which I’m one of the editors, and submit some poems for possible publication in my state poetry society’s chapbook. Later, I expect to hear from my editor at DLD Books, who is working on my next novel, Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me, which should be released sometime this fall. So, life goes on, and the rest of my day will be great because I’m planning to make it that way.

About the Author

Abbie Johnson Taylor is the author of two novels, two poetry collections, and a memoir. She is currently working on another novel. Her work has appeared in The Weekly Avocet, The Writer’s Grapevine, and other publications. She lives in Sheridan, Wyoming. Visit her website http://www.abbiejohnsontaylor.com.

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