Memories Light the Corners of my Mind

(re-run) I used to be good at remembering people’s names and remembering to use coupons before they expired. Now I am lucky if I can find the coupon when I am at the store. (re-run) Today, at CVS, I checked out and was given a long receipt with $6.00 of extra bucks on it. My… Continue reading Memories Light the Corners of my Mind

Creative People Make Messes

(re-run) If you are an orderly person like Monk on the TV show of the same name, this column is not for you. You crave things in place, all the time. Otherwise, you are agitated. The other side of the coin is the person who is so busy creating that he/she doesn’t notice the mess.… Continue reading Creative People Make Messes

How OCD Improved my GPA

I’ve been doing research for a kid book involving the presidents. It got me to thinking how back in high school I needed to do a project for my government class about the presidential election. It was fall semester of 1972. It was between George McGovern and Nixon.  My class project was to make a… Continue reading How OCD Improved my GPA

How Pretty She Was ¡Qué Linda!

She was my roommate in Spain way back in the summer of 1977. She was a beauty, except for the scar that ran across her cheek and down her nose, a result of going through a car windshield in a teen-aged accident.  I didn’t know her well, since I was a year ahead of her… Continue reading How Pretty She Was ¡Qué Linda!

Rocky Mountain Low

(re-run) He was the good-looking cousin of my best friend. Tall, tan, and bearded, with a killer smile, he was gorgeous.  For me, it was love at first sight. Marcus had moved from Minnesota to Colorado to be near his sister. He asked if I wanted to come out and go backpacking with him. I… Continue reading Rocky Mountain Low

A Victoria’s Secret Box with Dinner

(re-run) Saundra met Duke online on Match.  They agreed to meet at Scott’s Seafood restaurant for dinner.  When she got there, he was already seated and waved her over.  As she approached the table she noticed a dozen lavender roses in a vase. She remembered that Duke had asked her favorite color. As she sat… Continue reading A Victoria’s Secret Box with Dinner

The Danger of Family Secrets

(re-run) To this day my mother says, “It was a different time. That’s what families did in those days.” She is talking about family secrets. Mine had a whole bunch of them. My dead Uncle David, with his farm painting on the living room wall of my grandparents’ house, was a mystery to me.  He’d… Continue reading The Danger of Family Secrets

The Weakest Link – my Low Back

(re-run) The good thing about the current Coronavirus Covid-19 lockdown is that I have a hundred projects to finish.  Suddenly I have nothing but time to do it all. Everything was going along swimmingly yesterday. I exercised. I painted (spray-painted picture frames), I picked up dog poop. I did a heavy load of laundry.  I… Continue reading The Weakest Link – my Low Back

Participation Trophy

My millennial children like to make fun of themselves for all the participation trophies they earned in childhood, for soccer, basketball, softball, baseball.  Two of them recently ditched the trophies. One of them kept hers. “Why did you guys give us trophies for everything?” Child # 3 asked. “The pendulum swung the other way from… Continue reading Participation Trophy