I love live music, and the pandemic has made it harder to find. Some of the local bands have gone online, putting out their virtual tip jar while they play for an hour or two. Sometimes they are sponsored by a business, sometimes they do it from their apartments. I love the Beatles, so when… Continue reading Virtual Tip Jar Fail
The Uses for a Nine Year Old
My Girl Friday (who works for me on Mondays) has a daughter, who sometimes comes along with her to work. Now that her daughter is nine, she is useful in many ways. 1. She entertains my dogs. 2. She entertains my sister, giving her someone to watch. 3. She brings music into the house, since… Continue reading The Uses for a Nine Year Old
The Blond-tourage
Every woman over fifty gets the same advice from her hairdresser — lighten up your hair. As our skin fades and our looks do, too, we need brighter lipstick, sparkly-er clothing and blonder locks to stay looking as young as we can. My apologies to women of color; this may not apply to you. So… Continue reading The Blond-tourage
Moon Over Lafayette
Trudy worked at an engineering firm. Joe was the visiting copy machine repair man, or as her office mates called him, the Xerox guy. One day Trudy had to make copies. Joe was at the machine, repairing away. “Oh,” she said. “No copies for me!” “Hey there,” Joe said. “We should catch dinner sometime.” “Okay.”… Continue reading Moon Over Lafayette
Joe Average
(re-run) Emily met Joe on Match. They both liked the Giants. They both lived in Livermore, although he worked in Alameda and had to get up early at 4:00 a.m. for his job. Joe made an exception to stay up late one night so he could meet Emily for dinner. Emily had looked forward to… Continue reading Joe Average
You Know You’ve Been Alone Too Long When . . .
(re-run) It’s week ten or eleven of the Covid-19 lockdown — I’ve lost track. I found out in a Zoom meeting last night that two more people that I know had a nasty virus in March that caused them to lose their sense of smell and taste. They are both well over sixty, as are… Continue reading You Know You’ve Been Alone Too Long When . . .
Peace Corps Fail
(re-run) It was in the spring of my first year of teaching when the call came. I was at Greenwood Elementary in Greenwood, Nebraska. I had applied to the Peace Corps the year before. They had just seen my application. They wanted to fly me to Chicago for an interview that weekend. They gave me… Continue reading Peace Corps Fail
M is for Music
(re-run) In a stressed-out world, one of the best things I can do for myself is to relax and de-stress by either singing music or dancing to it. Once a week I go off and sing with my chorus of 130 people. During those two hours, I don’t think about world news, White House news,… Continue reading M is for Music
The Toddler, the TV Stand, and Lost Contacts
Our oldest child was beyond curious. She licked ant traps that she found behind other people’s refrigerators during play dates, she drank lighter fluid that another friend left out in her yard, and she opened up the liquid tylenol in the diaper bag and tried to feed it to her brother. She also filled up… Continue reading The Toddler, the TV Stand, and Lost Contacts
Whatever is Meant to Be
(re-run) I’ve been on the hunt for bookcases for a while now. I have ten tubs of antique books sitting in a damp garage near the beach, and I think it would be good to get them into the house. I sold all my beautiful bookcases when I was getting divorced. I knew the new… Continue reading Whatever is Meant to Be
The Turquoise Trailer and the Homeless Couple
(re-run) My little beach house sits on land bought back in 1929 from the railroad company. The old deed shows the purchase price of $25.00. For some reason, the original owner didn’t want to buy the land up to the railroad tracks. Now, 90 years later, the land between my back fence and the old… Continue reading The Turquoise Trailer and the Homeless Couple
Government Cheese and Pinto Beans
I was nine or ten when my mom took me and my younger siblings downtown to a place to get some free food for poor people. Our dad was out of work for six weeks. My mother was humiliated. We waited in line until it was our turn. As the worker handed Mom her block… Continue reading Government Cheese and Pinto Beans
The Sprinkler Man and the Glass Coffee Table
When my two oldest children were 5 and 2, we moved from one house in town to another. We didn’t gain any square footage, but the new house had a huge yard, front and back, and forty trees in a better neighborhood. The house had been vacant for months. The sprinklers weren’t working in the… Continue reading The Sprinkler Man and the Glass Coffee Table
The Day my Dog Herded Me to the ER
Way back when, I had two children and a rare free day. The kindergartener was going on an all-day field trip. The two-year-old was going to daycare for the day. I had hours ahead of me to do all the yard work and gardening that I could squeeze in. I put on some old tennis… Continue reading The Day my Dog Herded Me to the ER
