The Red-tailed Hawk and the Toddler Fence

(re-run) I’m a bird lover. I feed the song birds and the finches. I have an ongoing water supply in the form of a fountain in my back yard. I’ve planted native plants for the hummingbirds. When I hike, I am thrilled to find a hawk feather to add to my hat. Twenty-odd years ago,… Continue reading The Red-tailed Hawk and the Toddler Fence

Creative People Make Messes

(re-run) If you’re 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 get agitated. The other side of the coin is the person who is so busy creating that he/she doesn’t notice the mess. When… Continue reading Creative People Make Messes

Deciding for your Children

(re-run) It’s funny how something pops into your brain and you think, that would make a good blog post. Today I mailed 100 books to a librarian in Menlo Park. They are old kids’ books that my children read back in the day.  My librarian Facebook friend asked for books for her students to read… Continue reading Deciding for your Children

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

My Three-quarter Bike Ride

(re-run) I was the one that suggested the bike ride with two of my adult children. They don’t spend much time outdoors or get enough exercise. They like to ride the Iron Horse trail. It is an easy, shady railroad right of way that connects towns up and down the I- 680 corridor in the… Continue reading My Three-quarter Bike Ride

Snow Day

Many of my Medicare friends are moving or contemplating moving to retirement communities.  A big one close to my town is called Rossmoor.  It’s a huge gated community built back in the sixties and contains 6700 residential units surrounded by open space.   At least one resident in each unit must be at least fifty-five years… Continue reading Snow Day

The Neighbors, the Pit Bull, and the Daily Pooper

(re-run) We bought a house on a street that was a long court with two courts coming off of it. We were up at the top, and it was a great and safe place for my kids to walk our greyhound mix dog. Until it wasn’t. “That was a short walk,” I said when they… Continue reading The Neighbors, the Pit Bull, and the Daily Pooper

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