The Blond-tourage

(re-run) 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.… Continue reading The Blond-tourage

The Darwin Awards

(re-run) The world is insane. A snowstorm is predicted for the East Coast. It’s Mother’s Day weekend. The local news station reported that scientists may take llama antibodies for Covid-19 and give them to humans to see if it would help with immunity. Does that mean the humans might start spitting when they are angry?… Continue reading The Darwin Awards

My Twix Bar Habit

Her name was Pat, and she ran the middle school where I taught for six and a half years in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Pat knew everything, and everything went through Pat, the principal’s secretary. Pat was all business, and so was I. We didn’t develop a rapport past simple nice-ities.  Others could get Pat to… Continue reading My Twix Bar Habit

Uncle Frank and the Jar of Coins

I grew up with three uncles, one in Colorado, another on the other side of the state, and one near my home town in Des Moines, Iowa. Uncle Frank was older than the other uncles, but since his daughter, Nina, was my age, I hardly noticed.  He was married to my grandma’s younger sister.  They… Continue reading Uncle Frank and the Jar of Coins

Mornings Are for Blogging

When you’re mostly retired, like I am, you find that you think best in the morning. I’ve written and published 29 children’s books, and each one was born in the a.m., and not after midnight. At night I am pretty worthless. I can usually read until 7:00 or 8:00. Then it’s Snoozeville after that, which… Continue reading Mornings Are for Blogging

Pavlov’s Perfume

(re-run) My girlfriend, who shall remain nameless, lest someone recognize her on this page, has a three-time rescue dog like mine. Hers also started out as a voluntary surrender puppy after his owner first lost a home in the Redding fire. Or possibly he was at the Redding shelter and got shipped out to make… Continue reading Pavlov’s Perfume

The Crack in my Face

Because my son moved in, I changed bathrooms. He gets the new one at the other end of the house, and I get the hallway one with the skylight and window (the master bathroom is a cave). I was putting on my make-up the other day with daylight coming in. There it was, a huge… Continue reading The Crack in my Face

Hold the Crunch

(re-run) Jim’s job was to put the crunch in the new peanut butter, Jif. One machine chopped the peanuts into slivers, and another machine used pistons to plug the slivers into the creamy product. Jim also had to taste test peanut butter that had been sitting on a shelf for three months in 100 degree… Continue reading Hold the Crunch