When my oldest was in fifth grade, she told me that her head itched. I took her into the bathroom and looked at the top of her head. I didn’t see anything but I said that she should take a shower and wash her hair. She had a lot of it. It was long and… Continue reading A Lousy Story
Category: memoir
You Know You’ve Been Alone Too Long When . . .
(re-run) It’s week ten or eleven of the Covid-19 lockdown — I’ve lost track. I found out in a Zoom meeting last night that two more people that I know had a nasty virus in March that caused them to lose their sense of smell and taste. They are both well over sixty, as are… Continue reading You Know You’ve Been Alone Too Long When . . .
Peace Corps Fail
(re-run) It was in the spring of my first year of teaching when the call came. I was at Greenwood Elementary in Greenwood, Nebraska. I had applied to the Peace Corps the year before. They had just seen my application. They wanted to fly me to Chicago for an interview that weekend. They gave me… Continue reading Peace Corps Fail
The Toddler, the TV Stand, and Lost Contacts
Our oldest child was beyond curious. She licked ant traps that she found behind other people’s refrigerators during play dates, she drank lighter fluid that another friend left out in her yard, and she opened up the liquid tylenol in the diaper bag and tried to feed it to her brother. She also filled up… Continue reading The Toddler, the TV Stand, and Lost Contacts
Whatever is Meant to Be
(re-run) I’ve been on the hunt for bookcases for a while now. I have ten tubs of antique books sitting in a damp garage near the beach, and I think it would be good to get them into the house. I sold all my beautiful bookcases when I was getting divorced. I knew the new… Continue reading Whatever is Meant to Be
Government Cheese and Pinto Beans
I was nine or ten when my mom took me and my younger siblings downtown to a place to get some free food for poor people. Our dad was out of work for six weeks. My mother was humiliated. We waited in line until it was our turn. As the worker handed Mom her block… Continue reading Government Cheese and Pinto Beans
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
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
The ER Blues
I was supposed to drive to Monterey today. Holidays with football are good driving days. The dogs make sure I am up and at ‘em every day as their stomachs rumble for breakfast. The sun is shining, and it would have been an easy drive. But the damned Covid-19 is keeping me here. I could… Continue reading The ER Blues
No New Year’s Resolutions for Me
(re-run) Today’s the day I am supposed to resolve to do better, work harder, exercise more, and eat clean. Guess what? I learned long ago to do things in baby steps. It takes twenty-one days to form a new habit. Sometimes I can do it if I don’t think too hard about it. Like yogurt.… Continue reading No New Year’s Resolutions for Me
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 