No Christmas Tree for Me

(re-run from 2018) Eight Christmases in this house and only two trees. Both were living, and they got planted in my yard. Guess what? My yard is full. That’s what happens when you get rid of your grass, fire your gardener, and watch volunteer trees grow on their own, self-planting trees with a little help… Continue reading No Christmas Tree for Me

C is for Choices

Life is a series of choices: what to eat for breakfast, what college to go to, which person to marry, whether to see the cup half full or half empty. It’s much easier to look back at life and say what choices were good or bad. Whatever they were, they got you to where you… Continue reading C is for Choices

A is for Air

If a bluebird ski day is one without a cloud in the sky, then a dog-bird (bird-dog?) day is one where you can open all of your windows and air the doggy smell right out of your (my) house. All that stale winter air that has been recycling through my closed-up house during rain storm… Continue reading A is for Air

The Dog Crate Disaster

(re-run) When my pup was just over a year old, the Ghost Ship Fire happened in Oakland (2016). 36 young people died in a warehouse that had been converted into an artist co-op with an illegal dance club on the second floor. When the fire started, the young people dancing upstairs were trapped, and they… Continue reading The Dog Crate Disaster

The Bonus Daisy Post

(re-run from 2018) Normally I write about my rescue dog on a monthly basis, on her adoption anniversary date, the 26th of December. Consider this a bonus post, since she has been making news these past two days. Every morning I get into the hot tub with my cup of black tea, and Daisy perches… Continue reading The Bonus Daisy Post

Chuck’s Drive-in Movie Date

(re-run) Chuck drove his powder blue Bonneville Pontiac to pick up his new girlfriend for their drive-in movie date during his senior year of high school.  He had tricked out the interior of the car with his two taxidermy quail on a bed of shag carpeting in the car’s back window. When he drove his… Continue reading Chuck’s Drive-in Movie Date

The Six Stages of Thanksgiving

(re-run) I’m having Thanksgiving at my house today for nine or ten people. I say that because my brother-in-law may or may not show up. There is lots of football to be missed if he comes ninety minutes north to my house.  It will be me, my three kids, my two sisters, my niece and… Continue reading The Six Stages of Thanksgiving

Worst Thanksgiving Eve Ever

I had to go to the doctor’s office the day before Thanksgiving. My finger was infected. I was lucky to get an appointment. I had eleven people coming for dinner the next day. I had no sitter and no luck of getting one, and no local relatives, so I loaded the three kids in the… Continue reading Worst Thanksgiving Eve Ever

How to Relax for Bed

(re-run) I decided to close my online costume shop this past summer. I donated 500 dresses to a charity for 3rd world girls and sorted through my aprons, pulling out all the hostess ones, the sheer ones not for cooking. I had 150 of them. I gave them to my local thrift store, the one… Continue reading How to Relax for Bed

Almost Toast

(re-run) Marlene and her friend Beth came out to California from New Hampshire after college to work for Bank of America. They each made a new friend, and each new friend brought another friend to the party (plus one more) until they were a group of seven recent college graduates, living in the city of… Continue reading Almost Toast