A water leak resulted in the casa’s front yard being dug up today. OK, not the whole yard, but a house-to-sidewalk trench almost two feet deep. After nine hours, the scarred landscape was put back together. The yard took on a Frankenstein appearance, its battle wound quite visible. Crabgrass stitches held the lawn together, dirt […]
I don’t actually remember this happening, as tends to be the case when something traumatic or core-shaking happens to me, but the story goes as follows. I was in fifth or sixth grade and had just started attending a Lutheran school. One day, for some reason, the topic during a class discussion turned to animals […]
It’s nice to have one in mind, but sometimes Plan A just doesn’t work out. The first option might be the best in your head at the time, but maybe you’re meant to experience a little tough love, a bit of character-building until it’s your time. Really your time. A friend of mine is in a […]
Today is one of those days that feels extra heavy — I think it’s the abundance of soul-depleting news headlines that I’ve read. I often try to find a decent, all-good news site to hunker down in for a while, but my homepage is set to iGoogle, complete with a clump of shocking blurbs in the lower […]
I can’t not create something. It seems there’s always something brewing, something in the works. Maybe it’s a batch of biscotti, perhaps it’s one of these blog posts. Sometimes I’ll hear a song on the radio and give it a classical spin on the piano, full of ascending and cascading arpeggios that give a nod […]
This morning ushered in the first of the season’s fog, at least in these parts. It stayed darker longer, the morning was fuzzy and gray, and I did something I’ve not done since before the summer began: I made a cup of coffee to accompany me during my morning routine. Something about coffee in the […]
I was heading home from the grocery store. It was dusk. I took one of my favorite side streets home and was the only car on it, so I drove slowly and took everything in. The street is well known for tidy yards, manicured gardens, house flags and illuminated walkways, and what was left of the day’s light […]
Earlier this week, our agency’s activities committee sent around an email asking people to bring a photo from high school. We’d be able to post them on a board, see what everyone looked like back in the day and marvel at how time a) flies and b) changes people. The ’90s — to me, anyway — […]
I have a cat that’s an odd duck. He’s a rescue that I adopted from my vet. One day, I decided that my other rescue, a young, sleek, all-black junior kitty named Jack, needed a buddy. I learned that Jack and the odd duck had been in neighboring cages and used to bat paws at one another, so Jack and […]
When I was little, I was fascinated by the moon, the stars — the whole of space. I wanted to be an astronaut, but I was terrible at math and science. I settled for a telescope and enjoyed the heavens that way. During elementary school, I decided I wanted to have horses someday. That day […]
Thanky 