Tunes, a Car, and 120 Miles To Go

Posted in Ace Hardware, Adirondack chairs, Bay Area, Beatles, California, catalytic converters, CD player, memoir, Monterey Bay, Speedo, thrift store, weedsLeave a comment

I visit my little beach house a couple times a a month. Mostly it’s so my potted plants don’t croak (thanks, Mr. Gopher), especially during this very dry winter, but it’s also a change of scenery and a chance to blow the cobwebs out of my head . . . . . . while driving… Continue reading Tunes, a Car, and 120 Miles To Go

Government Cheese and Pinto Beans

Posted in beans, dad, government, hospital, Iowa, January, memoir, mental health, moccasins, mom, secret, therapyLeave a comment

(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

No Christmas Tree for Me

Posted in Bah Humbug, Christmas, dinner, divorce, family, food, gardeners, Grinch, humor, outdoors, pink, thrift storeLeave a comment

(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

Posted in attitude, babies, best, bucket list, California, cats, childhood, choices, chorus, climate change, dating, dogs, ex-boyfriend, expectations, friends, gender, high school, humor, memoir, relationships1 Comment

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

Posted in air quality, attitude, best, birds, California, contractor, daughter, dogs, family, flowers, fresh air, friends, humor, lunch, memoir, mom, movie, neighborsLeave a comment

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

Bomb Shelter Blues

Posted in bomb shelter, Camp Fire Girl, Cold War, fall-out shelter, family, grandpa, memoir, OCD, radiationLeave a comment

(re-run) My childhood house on 69th Street in a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa, had a big bump in the backyard. It’s where my grandfather built a fall-out shelter that connected to our basement. It was during the Cold War, and thoughts of atomic bombs being dropped on us was enough to motivate him to… Continue reading Bomb Shelter Blues

Ungrateful Daisy Dog

Posted in cell phone, dog walks, dogs, gates, girlfriends, harness, Jack Russell terrier, leash, memoir, rescue, sickLeave a comment

(re-run) I was sick today, and my plans to walk the dogs with my girlfriend were dashed. To my surprise, she offered to walk them for me. “You can’t walk them together,” I said. “It’s too hard.” “That’s okay,” she said. “I’ll come walk each of them separately.” “Okay . .. ?” I had the… Continue reading Ungrateful Daisy Dog