For three weeks my right pinky toe has been red, swollen and angry. I tried soaking it in Epsom salts. I tried changing up my shoes. Finally I made an appointment with my podiatrist, actually the replacement podiatrist since mine had retired and sold his practice to a woman half my age. I’d seen her… Continue reading My Angry Toe, a Soleful Tale
The Saga of the Spider
(re-run) Today at my sister’s board and care home, as I was reading her the newspaper, I glanced out the large sliding glass door and noticed a huge spider web with a spider in the center. It was one and a half inches across and yellow with red stripes on the legs. I took several… Continue reading The Saga of the Spider
Spinach Salad, Fog and Smoke
A change-up in the routine is not always a good thing. I bravely ventured away from my regular meals and went to lunch during the pandemic with a friend the day after Labor Day. My Android phone couldn’t scan the bar code to get to the online menu, so my friend read my choices to… Continue reading Spinach Salad, Fog and Smoke
Laugh More, Worry Less
The state is on fire, again. It seems that three of the last four years have been off the charts for wild fires. 2017 – Napa and Santa Rosa burned. Santa Barbara County, too. 2018 – Paradise, the town, was wiped off the map. 2019 – Because of heavier winter rainfall, the fires weren’t so… Continue reading Laugh More, Worry Less
Rocky Mountain Low
(re-run) He was the good-looking cousin of my best friend. Tall, tan, and bearded, with a killer smile, it was love at first sight. Marcus had moved from Minnesota to Colorado to be near his sister. He asked if I wanted to come out and go backpacking with him. I said yes but that my… Continue reading Rocky Mountain Low
Dating and other Things Over Fifty
(re-run) Sherry didn’t get her first colonoscopy when she turned fifty. She put it off. Did she have one done at 51? No, she did not. 52? No, she did not. Finally, Sherry scheduled it to be done at 53. She was so nervous when she went in that the nurses asked Joe, a regular… Continue reading Dating and other Things Over Fifty
Waitresses Make the Best Tippers
(re-run) After moving to Omaha and teaching for a couple of years across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa, I grew tired of driving a car that smelled like a mildewed basement. My poor Chevy Monza had suffered through a Nebraska flood back at the farmhouse, and the car stank. I couldn’t afford a… Continue reading Waitresses Make the Best Tippers
The Shame of my Generation
(re-run) I am ashamed of some of my friends. Let’s just say we are in the senior citizen range, from fifty-five and up. Way up. Some of them are in their eighties. They are making fun of youth marching in the streets for climate change. They are attacking Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who started… Continue reading The Shame of my Generation
The Story of my Picker
When I had a shop, it attracted lots of individuals who wanted to sell me antiques. Some of them had good stuff. Others had junk. Many wanted too much for their inherited mementos. One old guy brought me cracked and chipped tea cups and got mad when I wouldn’t buy them at any price. A… Continue reading The Story of my Picker
The Frazzled, Harried Shopping Day with No Money
(re-run) Yesterday I was busy, squared. I planned my whole day around running down to Dublin before 4:30 to get some free samples from my sister’s doctor. Sis is in the doughnut hole for meds with Medicare, which means they are expensive. On the way down to Pleasanton, I got a call from one of… Continue reading The Frazzled, Harried Shopping Day with No Money
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 