(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
Category: humor
Worst Weekend Getaway Ever
(re-run) While student teaching in Venezuela, I learned how to have fun with not much money. One of the American teachers had stolen a couple of striped beach towels from an upscale hotel, and she had been sneaking into the hotel pool for years. “Just carry the towel and act like you belong,” Linda said.… Continue reading Worst Weekend Getaway Ever
One Night, Seventeen Babies
When our daughter came out, covered in dark hair just like her dad, the nurse slapped an i.d. tag on her tiny little foot. For some reason I reached over to read it.
A Great Dane Story
(re-run) When I was almost thirteen, I hung out at my neighbor Bonnie’s house, just one block away from mine, but it was different world. Both her parents worked full time, so we teens could hang there with no parental supervision. We were supervised, though, by the family’s Great Danes. I remember three dogs, but… Continue reading A Great Dane Story
Teaching in Nowhere-Nebraska Memories
After student-teaching in Caracas, Venezuela, and Des Moines, Iowa, at the local all-girls Catholic high school, I went to Spain for the summer to finish up my Spanish credits for my double Spanish-Elementary Ed degree, with a minor in teaching K-12. Then I was off to my job in Ashland, Nebraska, population 2000. The principal… Continue reading Teaching in Nowhere-Nebraska Memories
Two Bird Baths, One Fountain
(re-run) I love my yard. When I first bought my fixer house on a fixer third acre, the yard was full of rocks and rose bushes. Now it has trees, plants, bushes, flag stone, one fountain and two bird baths. The fountain is an advertisement to creatures near and far to come into my fenced… Continue reading Two Bird Baths, One Fountain
A Memorial and a Party
I got invited to a memorial service for a woman who lived to be 99. It’s hard to be sad when someone has had such a good long life. We were encouraged to wear hats since the woman loved hats. I spoke into the mike about my friend from my antique shop days (she covered… Continue reading A Memorial and a Party
It Must Be Getting Close to Summer when . . .
(re-run from 2019) I am sitting in my fave chair. My adult son just told me over the phone how to unfreeze my laptop (turn it off and then back on). I can hear the squeak, squeak, squeak of the swings in the park next to me. The windows are open just enough to let… Continue reading It Must Be Getting Close to Summer when . . .
Worst Professor Ever
(re-run) She taught the research class at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. I needed the course to earn my master’s degree. It would be easy. I’d written dozens of research papers at Iowa State. She said we could choose any topic. All we had to do was take a position, defend it with an… Continue reading Worst Professor Ever
Freaky Friday
(re-run) It was a beautiful day in Monterey County. I got up early, ate breakfast, showered, wrote a blog post, and stuffed more branches (blown down in the last storm) into the green can. Then I left for Carmel to be there when the thrift stores opened at 10:00 a.m.. One of them was having… Continue reading Freaky Friday
