Making a List and Checking It Twice
I’ve been making lists since long before I could write. When I was a toddler, my mother, brother and I spent a winter living with my maternal grandparents in Klamath Falls, Oregon. There’s a lot of snow in the winter in Klamath Falls. “Hat, coat, boots,” I announced to whichever adult was around. I knew […]
Reunions, Memories, Age, and Wonder
I recently received a notice about my fortieth high school reunion this fall. Fortieth!!! How can it be forty years since I graduated from high school? I still feel seventeen. Well, except when my back hurts. And my knees creak. I remember when I was fifteen and my parents went to their twentieth high school […]
Working Through the Generations: Happy 80th Birthday to My Father
I’ve written before that I am a lot like my mother. But I developed my attitudes toward work by watching my father. My earliest memories of my father at work date back to when I was in pre-school. When he was in graduate school earning his Ph.D. in metallurgy, he worked a variety of jobs […]
Spring Has Sprung. Maybe. Finally. Again.
Forsythia have always signaled spring to me. Yellow is not my favorite color, but the appearance of these cheery flowers on the dead branches of winter brightens my mood. Every year, whenever they choose to appear. This year, the forsythia did not appear until April. Some years I see them in February. That’s the way […]
You Know Your Children Are Grown When . . . [Part II]
In an earlier post, I mentioned situations where I was confronted by the fact that my children are grown and independent. A family trip during this past Christmas season brought a few more such occasions to mind. You know your children are grown when . . . 1. They pick out thoughtful gifts for you […]
That Vision Thing
In addition to our 35th wedding anniversary, I have another 35th this year – thirty-five years of wearing contacts. I began wearing glasses as a child, and switched to contacts in the summer of 1977. My opthamologist that summer first tried me in soft lenses. They were easy to wear, and I could do everything […]
Internet Dependent
Last Sunday I worked all afternoon on the Internet through my laptop’s wireless connection. I uploaded a blogpost, responded to email, read newsletters, and checked the answers to The New York Times crossword puzzle. (I didn’t do very well on the puzzle this week.) About 5:00pm the Internet suddenly vanished. Poof! it was gone. When my laptop […]
Take the Plunge! Start a Journal
“The only way to start is just to start – take the plunge.” With these words, I started keeping a journal ten years ago this spring. I’d had a diary when I was a girl, one of those pink books with the gilt edges and cheap metal lock. But I was too afraid of my […]