Queen Victoria, the Cat

(re-run) Renee already had three cats. She wasn’t looking for another. So when her daughter-in-law called and said, “Mom, you need to adopt this cat,” Renee was thinking, No way, Renee. But then she heard the kitty’s story, and she had to reconsider. Renee’s son Brian and his wife were moving to Tennessee from California… Continue reading Queen Victoria, the Cat

Hold the Crunch

(re-run) Jim earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He took a job with Proctor and Gamble in Cincinnati, which had just started buying up food brands, like cake mixes and peanut butter. Jim’s job was to put the crunch in the new peanut butter, Jif. One machine chopped the peanuts into… Continue reading Hold the Crunch

Q is for Quirky

(re-run) When I was in high school and bought some of my clothes at the DAV thrift store, they called me quirky. When I made a cool pair of bell bottom jeans out of my dad’s old work pants, they called me quirky, but they also asked me where I got them. When I broke… Continue reading Q is for Quirky

Mr. No Class

They met online through a singles website (not the swiping one). Tom lived and worked in Napa. Carin lived less than an hour away in the San Francisco East Bay on a horse ranch with her seven horses. She ran a small upscale hair salon.  After much texting and talking, they got together for dinner… Continue reading Mr. No Class

Government Cheese and Pinto Beans

(re-run) I was nine or ten when our 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… Continue reading Government Cheese and Pinto Beans

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

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

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

A Grungy Sponge Story

If a person had a rental unit near the beach and let her friends use it as a discounted rate, and one of those friends liked to clean everything with one grungy sponge, and then she left it under the kitchen sink, can you guess what would happen after that? The next friend came down… Continue reading A Grungy Sponge Story