Recipe: Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day (or Any Day)
I am not a cook, and I don’t aspire to be one. But like many of us cooped up at home, I have cooked more than usual this past year. One of my discoveries this year has been Irish soda bread. Although I am part Irish, and my mother always celebrated her Irish heritage, I […]
Nostalgia for Happier Times: Visits to Carmel
My OneDrive memories feed sends me pictures I’ve taken in prior years on that date. Lately, it has been sending me pictures of trips I took to Carmel, California, with my parents. Lovely pictures of happier times. My parents honeymooned in Carmel in 1955 and loved the location. Periodically, they returned to vacation there. In […]
New Technology: Short-Term Loss of Productivity for a Long-Term Gain (I Hope)
I’ve written several times before about setting up new computers and other digital devices. (See here and here.) I was at it again last month. Before the pandemic, my then-three-year-old laptop had started having battery problems. These problems took two forms. First, the laptop only held a charge for a few hours, and sometimes with […]
Colonel Charles Drew and the 1864 Treaty With the Klamath Indian Tribes
My current work-in-progress is set during the Civil War in Oregon. The Civil War was a factor in Oregon politics, but of more pressing concern to many of the citizens of Oregon were conflicts between whites and Native Americans. As emigrants to Oregon moved from the Willamette Valley into other parts of the state, conflicts […]
National Random Acts of Kindness Day: Musings on Small, Daily Acts
February 17 is National Random Acts of Kindness Day. This day originated in New Zealand, although there it is celebrated on September 1. But I think random acts of kindness fit well in the depth of our Northern Hemisphere winter. As of the morning of February 17 this year, Kansas City has not been above […]
Baby Boy Hupp: What’s in a Name?
I wrote an earlier post about my son’s birth. I put his first baby picture in that post, but what I didn’t say in that post was that at the time of that first picture, the only name that baby had was “Baby Boy Hupp.” That’s how the hospital labeled his crib, and that’s how […]
Vaccines Then and Now
As of early February 2021, the news is full of stories about vaccines against COVID-19, the pandemic that hit the United States early in 2020. For almost a year now, we have restricted our activities on almost every front. Working from home. Limited church services. No restaurants. Buying as much as possible online. We are […]
Childbirth in the Mid-19th Century
In my current work-in-progress I have two female characters who are pregnant, one for the eighth time and the other for the ninth. And they are only in their early thirties. This was not at all unusual for the mid-19th century. Pregnancy and childbirth in the 1860s were common . . . and a common […]
Marital Conflicts Between Precision and Efficiency
Because of the pandemic, over the past many months my husband and I have been at home together most of each day. It’s given me an opportunity to see our differences in a more concentrated light. The other day I came upon him transferring our laundry from washer to dryer. I always like to encourage […]
My Mother’s Dish Towels
Before I married in November 1977, my mother gave me six dish towels. “Here,” she said. “I received a dozen of these when I was married, and I want you to have some.” She and my father married in June 1955. The towels had had some use, but I think my mother mostly kept them […]