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 27, 2021
“You are an excellent learner”, said the voice on the phone. “You did a fantastic job.” Was I accepting this lofty praise from an instructor from whom I was taking an in-person craft course? An online professor from whom I was taking a creative writing course? A teacher from whom I was taking a brush-up course on word processing? No. None of these. I was being complimented on my learning skills by……………..a Comcast Agent. As I was extricating myself from my pretzel-like position on the floor underneath my desk with 3 different cords in my hands, how could I not […]
February 17, 2021
With none of the drama or interminable wait of my first COVID19 vaccination, I received my second dose at the appointed time quickly and efficiently on Saturday. Although I had no side effects except for a very sore injection site from the first shot, everything I had read prepared me to anticipate more severe effects from the 2nd dose. Since my understanding of science is akin to a kindergartener’s, the friendly administering nurse explained it to me in language I could easily comprehend. She put both hands up in the air as if warding off an alien attack, and said […]
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” […]
December 31, 2020
****NOTE****As I did with my Thanksgiving Blog, I am taking a break from whimsy for my New Year’s Blog. Read below for my New Year’s Message. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” These are the opening lines of Charles Dickens’ classic novel, A Tale of […]