April 1, 2021
In spite of my reported mishaps with technical devices gone awry, I do love 21st-century technology. One of my favorites is the ability to read books on a handheld portable tablet ( IPad, Kindle Fire, Nook). This miraculous technology has allowed me to: *No longer lug a suitcase full of books on a week-long vacation. *Have an entire library of books from which to choose, on one tablet thinner than a notepad. *Adjust the font size of the print so that I do not need a magnifying glass to see it. Paperback book print HAS gotten smaller over the years. […]
March 20, 2021
29 Pounds! 29 pounds? Yes, you have gained 29 lbs. this past year if you are the average American slowly emerging from quarantine. Very slowly, since you are obviously spending a lot of time in your closet trying to find an article of clothing that will button, zip, or pull on over your hips. This was the news I tuned onto Friday night as I sat my tired “walked 5 ½ miles that day body”( more about that later) into my lounge chair. According to the story on NBC Nightly News, we have cooked, baked, eaten, and sat our way […]
March 13, 2021
It wasn’t my neighborhood Walmart. I happened to be on the other side of town for an errand when I noticed the Walmart a few blocks away. Oh well, I thought, as long as I’m here, I may as well run in and pick up the few items I needed. (If you’re a regular shopper, you immediately recognize that the phrase “few items” inevitably turns into a $100+ of an overflowing cart of what are aptly titled “impulse” buys.) The first thing I noticed in this Walmart was how fully stocked they were of the items I buy most often, […]
March 6, 2021
I am excited to report to you that I have something in common with Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Fonda, and Ali McGraw. No, I possess not a drop of royal blood. Of that I am certain because Ancestry.com confirms it. No, I am not a scream queen actress, an Oscar-winning actress, or a Love Story actress. What I have in common with these noteworthy women is………………I have allowed my hair to grow out to its natural silver color. This may not seem much of a big deal to you, but for someone as vain as […]
February 5, 2021
When did I lose control over my own life? I don’t remember relinquishing it, but it apparently happened without my knowledge or consent. You need to finish watching The Chef, read the email from Netflix. A few days before this admonishing email, I had watched one episode in a Netflix documentary series about various chefs around the world. The episode I watched was decent enough, but none of the summaries of the rest of the episodes piqued my interest, so I never watched any of them. Evidently, Netflix was miffed with MY free choice to stop at one episode. Well, […]
January 30, 2021
“Eat your beets,” demanded my mother, “or you cannot have dessert.” And so began my life long struggle to make peace with, if not love, vegetables. Let me explain here. My entire childhood knowledge of vegetables was that they came from a can. Except for basic salad ingredients ( i.e. lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers), I never met a fresh vegetable, and although frozen vegetables were around in the 1950s and ’60s when I was growing up, I never saw them in my house. Have you ever eaten CANNED beets? CANNED spinach? CANNED wax beans? (There’s a reason they are called “wax” […]
January 22, 2021
10 months in virtual isolation, seeing almost no one, going to no concerts, no theater, no restaurants, no crowds. I’ve masked and gloved up wherever I have gone, which has been the grocery store, drug store, and some select doctor appointments that were inconsistent with video, such as podiatry. No gatherings with anyone but my Bubble Buddies ( a closed group of 4 of us who do everything together). I postponed holiday travel in spite of depression and loneliness from not seeing my son in 19 months, my sister in 16 months, and the rest of my family in 2 […]
January 15, 2021
CRUNCH. Oh, crap, I muttered, as I got out of the car to see what I had backed into. The drainpipe on the side of my house was now just a bit squished. Not squished enough so rain couldn’t get through it, but still squished. Yes, I have a back-up camera on the car. That safety device is the reason I chose that car in the first place (Due to another unfortunate backup accident with my previous car that lacked a back-up camera). Still, this latest incident was NOT my fault. If the tall men who design cars would make […]
January 8, 2021
May I help you?, came the friendly, easily intelligible voice over the phone. Uh, um, yeah, I guess, was my hesitant response, so surprised and unaccustomed was I to talking to a live customer service agent. Still unsure that this was not a highly sophisticated “bot”, I carefully explained that I had purchased a 16-bottle spice rack (https://amzn.to/39dM52T ) from their company 6 months ago, was running out of my favorite spice, and asked if I would be able to order more. The nice lady explained that their company had set up a website, where I would need to go […]