Don Kowalewski
Writer. Ad Sales and Marketing. Social Media Content Creator. Aeropress Coffee. Makes the best salsa in the world.
2026 Countdowns
Some important dates and I know how hard it is to remember, so here’s some countdown clocks you can reference. I use TickCounter.
Someone Has to Poo Poo AI
I hear this alot … AI will solve the world’s problems, cure disease, and let us all live to 100 years old.
Or, AI will eventually take over the world.
But what I keep reading, and the way I understand it, is that AI will only ever be as smart as the smartest ideas that the smartest people in the world write on the Internet.
Prove me wrong.
All AI does it take what’s “known” and finds it faster than we can. It connects dots faster than we can.
But we could connect all the dots and find all the answers given enough time.
A New Obsession: Avoiding Microplastics
Here’s my new thing … eliminating as much plastic from my life. We all should. At least, it’s a trend and movement I’m ready to embrace – even if eliminating all plastic is impossible. But some is better than nothing, at least if I believe the Netflix documentary The Plastic Detox.
Here’s my takeaway from watching the documentary … it followed 4 couples trying to get pregnant. All four couples had been trying for a long time. Then a lady came to their houses and threw away as many plastic things as possible – plastic things that could be replaced by non-plastic things – and by the end of the documentary, all four couples conceived and/or had babies.
Hey. I wasn’t taking notes. And was probably on my phone while also watching. But my takeaways are good enough for me.
Phew! Thought she was a goner!
Me and combustion engines do …not … get … along. That’s why this everything-can-be-battery powered world we live in is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Yes. I said “the greatest thing ever” . . . sorry wife and kids. Sorry you had to find out this way.
Remember I bought my dream Honda lawnmower? Bought it used because that’s what I do. If I had unlimited money, I would get a brand new battery-powered Honda lawnmower, but those things are around $1,000 … and $200 used gas-powered versus new $1,000 battery-powered? I’ll be frugal for now.
Anway. I got her (my lawnmower identifies as she/her) home, the oil looked OK. I got some premium gas. And I used a brush and compressed air to clean the dust outta the air filter.
Trying Something (Else) New: The Anderson’s (for my lawn and garden)
I don’t know how fertilzer brand The Anderson’s came to my consciousness. Could’ve been that somebody in one of the many lawn tips YouTube videos mentioned it. Maybe they served me an ad on YouTube or in my Instagram feed in between all the lawn pros and gardeners I follow. Maybe divine intervention? Maybe an angel appeared to me in a dream, or in a vision sitting at the foot of my bed and said, “when you wake up, Search The Anderson’s grub control and their full season lawn maintenance program,” and then I awoke and did what the angel said.
Or maybe on my many drives to and from University of Alabama, I drove by their huge facility in Maumee, Ohio and maybe I looked it up on my phone and declared, “aha … these people are serious about helping people who love their lawn.”
What “hooked” me right away was that, hey, this stuff isn’t sold in stores. I don’t know why my brain thinks “not sold in stores” means “better”, but it does. When I find stuff that feels “outside of the mainstream”, it makes me feel like I’m joining a secret club.
Trying Something New: Ike’s Total Pest Control
Here’s the thing … when I promise myself I’m gonna write something every day, sometimes you’re just gonna get a journal entry. But, you’re also seeing what energizes me …figuring things out. Before I was an “advertising sales guy”, I was fast-tracking to be an Engineer. No. Don’t laugh. It’s true. I liked math and science and was good at it. “Engineers”, as I understood it, solved problems. Any problem. Like, hey, there’s a river and you need a way across. Who do you call? You call an Engineer and he’ll scratch his head, put his index finger over his (or her) lip, frown and think, then do some math, draw some pictures and … voila. Engineers will design a bridge.
Skilled craftsman will build that bridge.
And a “ad sales guy” like me? I’ll sell the naming rights of that bridge.
New Landscaping. Who Dis?
Regular readers know 2026 is all about my “Power Weekends.” When I read an article on Art of Manliness that Ernest Hemingway was big on “planning his weekends,” I had an a-ha moment. That “a-ha” was this … weekends kinda used to stress me out because I’m not the type of guy who likes to sit-and-do-nothing. Unless that was my plan. If my plan was to read books, sleep-in, grill something, take a nap, and watch football … well, see? That’s getting dangerously close to a “plan” … even if the plan was “do-nothing.”
You get what I’m saying, right?
Is this Blog entry about how awesome I am at weekend? Or what I did this past weekend?
A little of both.
Mowing My Lawn Barefoot
Hear ye! Hear ye! From wenceforth forward and hereafter (and here to for), I will mow my lawn barefoot. Well, not barefoot, but in a minimalist shoe.
Hear me out. For years, I’ve kinda bought into the barefoot movement. In theory, our feet evolved to walk without shoes in a natural way and feet have muscles and arches and everything in our feet work the way the parts should when we walk without shoes. Shoes were a great invention, don’t get me wrong. They protect our feet … from sticks and sharp objects and from stubbing our toes. And from stepping on scorpions.
I wear shoes. Every day, in fact. And corporate America frowns on being barefoot at the office … or at the grocery story … or the library …or Church. Where was I? Oh yes … barefootin’.
As it relates to lawn care, I have a good pair of work boots. With steel toes. Why? For protection. There’s a story from my youth. It might’ve been my Uncle. It might’ve been an old wives’ tale. But my Dad said someone’s lawnmower rolled over his own foot and cut up the guy’s foot really bad and, so, my Dad said, “wear work boots … just in case.”
And I do. Because my Dad told me to.
Father’s Day, “I Love Don Week” and my Birthday Wish-Lists
Just a reminder, we’re officially in “Buy Don Stuff” season.
For those who don’t know or pay attention, I keep a list of “Stuff I Want” here on my website, and I’m constantly updating it so people know what I want (and then “what I have” once I receive said-thing as a gift)
I’m not greedy, obviously, because I really only point out the “stuff I want” at Father’s Day, the week leading up to my birthday, and Christmas. If you think about it … I ask for “stuff” only for about 48 days out of 365 days in a year. See? Not selfish, at all.
I mean, yes, people are free to buy me things year-round, and that’s why I keep a list, but I don’t expect it outside of the Father’s Day, Birthday, and Christmas Seasons.
What Is “Too Nice?”
Here’s something I’ve been chewing on for about 8 months. Late last year, a lifelong friend, when talking about jobs and life said to me . . .
“If I can give you some advice, and don’t take this the wrong way, but sometimes I think you’re too nice.”
This came from a friend. Someone I’ve known my whole life. So it kinda rattled me. I didn’t react (maybe that’s part of “too nice”). I just said, “hmmmmm. That’s interesting.”
I have to admit, in the moment, it was all I could do not to respond with an “F you” and start telling him all the weird, bizarre things about him and explain to him that while he has more money than me and using career as the only “success metric”, fine, but I was also biting my tongue and not telling him why he has so few friends and a failed marriage and why I had to apologize for his oddities back in our youth because people would ask, “why are you friends with that guy?” Or, “can we not invite so-and-so this time?”
Don Kowalewski 