Month: January 2021

You Know You’ve Been Alone Too Long When . . .

Posted in Barbie, beach, board and care, care giver, Coronavirus, Covid 19, dolls, flight, hot tub, humor, intervention, Ken, Medicare, memoir, neighbors, pandemic, wedding, ZoomLeave a comment

(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

Posted in dogs, memoir, Midwestern, Peace Corps, postal service, relationships, Spain, teaching, travel, Venezuela2 Comments

(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

The Toddler, the TV Stand, and Lost Contacts

Posted in baking, brother, curiosity, daughter, memoir, molecular cell biology, play, play date, Tupperware, TVLeave a comment

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

The Turquoise Trailer and the Homeless Couple

Posted in camper trailer, camping, dogs, easement, flower bed, homeless, land survey, lawyer, Monterey Bay, neighbors, property line, railroad, shared driveway, storms, USPS, winterLeave a comment

(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

Posted in beans, dad, government, hospital, Iowa, memoir, mental health, moccasins, mom, secret, therapyLeave a comment

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

Posted in accident, angel, children, coffee table, disaster, house, husband, Mama bear, memoir, repair man, sprinklersLeave a comment

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