Loose Leaf Notes

A week after dreaming that I was pinned under a large snake that I had to struggle to get out from under, I killed a copperhead.  It took over an hour and involved a yardstick, the leg of a kitchen chair and lawn clippers.  I was home alone and, after letting out a girly scream [...]

AKA Better Than Nature TV and Scarier Than Science Fiction

Something stinks in Denmark and on my desk. Stink bugs. Like skunks, they make you want to stay clear. They seem to have learned how to fly and they multiply.  They aren’t cute like the ladybugs we were infested with last year. I’ve been all together too nice to them and I think they’re taking [...]

It sounds so unromantic, but Joe and I are a couple who mutually forget the date of our wedding anniversary.  We both agree it was a blue moon in June but need a pencil to figure the rest.  Even so, sometimes we manage to pull off an occasional unrehearsed celebratory marking of our 24 year [...]

The following year review was done by excerpting the first few lines of one post of each month from last year. You can click on the name of the month for pictures and a  full accounting. January: We were driven out of our house by ice escapades, laden trees dropping frozen bombs on to our [...]

I woke too early with the weight of 1,000 year old melting glaciers on my mind, after watching last night’s Extreme Ice, a PBS NOVA program on the time lapse documentation of glacial changes around the world. Last year, after learning about the non-biodegradable plastic island bigger than the state of Texas floating around in [...]

After a few packed weekends full of back-to-back activities – hiking and staying overnight at a B&B with my friend Alwyn, covering Floyd’s 350 Climate Change Action and first annual Eco-Fair, dancing to the Kind for Halloween at the Pine, attending my woman’s dialogue, spoken word night, and more – it felt good to have [...]

1. The first night was like knowing one of us would die in our sleep. It would be Joe. He would get up at 6 a.m. and slip out before I was awake. Gone for a month long meditation retreat. No phone calls. No emails. No letters. I found myself staying up late, watching him [...]

The best thing about yesterday was something small and unexpected. I had just read a “Ladies Who Lunch” blog post at Naomi’s in which princess crowns and bags full of whimsical party toy-things were featured. From there I began my daily walk to the mailbox and found myself thinking about my trip to the pool [...]

Landing at the pool for the first time in August and the second time all summer, feels like visiting another planet. I’ve been trying for days to get here and now here I am all geared up and ready for take-off. My tankini, flip flops, beach bag, and sun visor feels like an astronaut pool [...]

I always wondered what that wall of photos of people wearing sombreros in the back of El Charro was all about. Then they brought out a Mexican dessert with a cherry on top, put the sombrero on my head, and snapped. Now I’m one of the photos on the wall. Aging may be bull but [...]

I call these guys (Joe and our friend Bernie) the Watergate Plumbers because for the past couple of days they’ve been stopping leaks all over my house (my New Year’s resolution). In this photo they’re replacing my old dishwasher, which was almost as old as the Nixon Presidency. While they were doing that, I snapped [...]

The summer in review, taken from first lines in past posts. Click on the last word in each line if you want to read more. 1. My mother and I have an ongoing conversation through the clipped newspaper articles we send each other. It’s the only comfortable way we can “talk” about politics because our [...]

In high school, I flunked the cartwheel test and so never became a cheerleader. I wasn’t as disappointed about not making the team as my older sister Kathy was when she didn’t make it two years before me. Dancing at the Surf Ballroom on weekends and marching in the CYO Drill Team filled the gap [...]

The thrift shop is my casino I keep going back to. Sometimes I buy clothes I don’t really need, or ones that end up not working out. But at $3 a pop I can afford the bet, whether I win or lose. The payoff is silk, linen, rayon, cotton, and merino wool in my favorite [...]

1. Mission accomplished. Joe and I have had so many false starts getting to the ocean this year. Finally we landed on Virginia Beach last Tuesday where we were warmly hosted to mix vacation time with some low key business meetings. With my recent ankle injury, I couldn’t walk the beach, but could limp to [...]