In 2014, my water company offered rebates to people who were willing to ditch their lawns to save water. I’d had a large front lawn and a crappy back lawn since I bought the place in 2011. I had no lawn mower and paid a gardener monthly. I applied for the rebate and a woman… Continue reading The Accidental Habitat
Month: April 2026
The Gift of Music
(re-run from 2022) Yesterday I went to a local library to hear two members of a Beatles cover band do one hour of lovely harmonies while they sang song after song. All the old people in the audience sang along. There were chairs for us, and the young people with small children, who didn’t think… Continue reading The Gift of Music
Smooth Operator
(re-run) His name was Ryan, and he wore the brightest shirts – screaming teal, bullfighter red, and obnoxious orange. It was easy to pick him out of the crowd. He was a dancer at the Thursday night venues and would come find me each night for one dance. “I just want you to know,” he’d… Continue reading Smooth Operator
Purple Friday
(re-run) If it’s Friday, that means Yuko is teaching aerobics. And if Yuko is teaching aerobics, you are going to have a good work-out and stretch. I still had my five-day-old headache but didn’t want to miss the class. When I got there and took my spot in the front row side (since I am… Continue reading Purple Friday
The Story of my Picker
(re-run) When I had an antique shop, it attracted lots of individuals who wanted to sell me antiques. Some of them had good stuff. Others had junk. Many wanted too much for their inherited mementos. One old guy brought me cracked and chipped tea cups and got mad when I wouldn’t buy them at any… Continue reading The Story of my Picker
Good Day
(re-run) It started out as a regular Wednesday with my online Zumba class. Hurray! Today the link worked, unlike Monday. After class I walked Pepper through the neighborhood. Everything was wet from the early morning rain, lots of fall color left, and the sky was bright. The clouds were dissipating. After the walk, I played… Continue reading Good Day
So Many Songs
The chorus is doing American music through the Ages, from the Revolution to Hamilton. There are medleys and mash-ups and lots of words to memorize. The notes are easy, the words, not so much. We ae singing Stephen Foster tribute: Beautiful Dreamer, Swanee River, Some Folks, Camptown Races, Oh, Susanna, Plink a plink. We are… Continue reading So Many Songs
Not Your Typical Monday
(re-run) Ellen DeGeneres has a special twelve-day Christmas giveaway on her show this month. I have rearranged my schedule to be at my sister’s board and care home at 4:00 each day so that we can watch the audience go wild when they get free stuff. It seems like a nice break from the fixer-upper… Continue reading Not Your Typical Monday
Slow Sunday
The weather is cold and sprinkly (not rainy). I have lots to do after spending three days doing yardwork at the beach, where it was also cold and rainy. Filling up three huge green cans in three days is a lot for an old lady. I had to run to the grocery store today, read… Continue reading Slow Sunday
Cut Loose on a Saturday Afternoon
(re-run) “I like the way you dance,” he said to me last Saturday afternoon. Margo and I had gone to Vino Godfather, a cool little winery in an old Victorian house on Mare Island in Vallejo. The island used to be a naval base, judging from the abandoned barracks on the way to the winery.… Continue reading Cut Loose on a Saturday Afternoon
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 