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We’ve Got It Going Our Way Now, Sis
My daddy was a jack-of-all-trades. He always had a purple nail on one of his rugged hands, from smashing it between two objects or having his hammer come down on it of his own accord. If we were close enough to where he was working, we’d hear him murmuring and having full-out conversations with himself. When he wasn’t talking, he was chewing on his tongue and contorting his mouth in weird ways that surely helped him get the job done quicker and easier. I don’t think we saw him work on anything without something going a little haywire because he always seemed to throw a few more colorful words in…
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Winter Update
Weather: It is said if you don’t like the weather ’round these parts, just give it a day. Sometimes, it can be mere hours. Either way, it is the end of January and we’ve not had much of a winter. I think many of us thought it would be brutal. The woolly worms I saw crossing the road were fat and black. Nearby friends count the fogs in August to correlate with how many snows we will get by April 1, and they promise three more. I guess flurries count. And how about those persimmon seeds? Surely umbrellas were found inside them this year. Then there’s Puxatawny Phil. How could…
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Thank You for Your Prayers
Thank you for your prayers and concern. I do appreciate them. But I am not dying. Nor am I sick. I am just embracing my gray! For a few years now, I have contemplated the fact I am aging. Not in an obsessive way, even though I have kidded about it like I am seriously bothered by it, but in what I think is a reasonable way. Why not? All the botox and hair dye in the world only makes for an eventual Joker-like creature with stark raven hair. While 2019 was a year of many changes, and true to my nature many of them were impulsive, I can never…
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Review of Raised in Ruins
Many of us have dreamed of escaping the stressful demands of our current life with the wish for a simpler one, surrounded by a breathtaking view. How far have you gotten? Me? Well, we did downsize three years ago. We moved into an almost tiny home (at 753 sq. ft.) on a little hill in rural America after bringing a 30 Yard dumpster to our backdoor, having a garage sale, and giving away the rest. And then just this year, we bought a very small camper to pull behind a larger car so we could have new adventures. All this was because Alzheimer’s forced us into a new reality. And…
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Light of Peace
The season leading up to Christmas has been a unique one at our house this year. Since neither of our sons and their families will be with us, we combined our celebrations for birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas in October and November in Missouri and Minnesota. For the only time all year, our entire family was together for our grandson’s 2nd birthday. It had to be enough. Jim and I went into Advent knowing we would have a low-key, less hectic Christmas and New Year and that was okay with us. What we didn’t count on, was that a sweet couple from our church family traveled to Busch Stadium last week…
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Kenai, Service Dog in Training
Last fall when our beloved chocolate labrador Lex died, my husband Jim and I both felt like we could never replace her. She had been a part of our family for so many years. As much as she was missed, and we knew she was still “around” (http://a-visit-from-lex), we also no longer had to make arrangements to kennel her when we left town. She was an alpha female and didn’t get along with other animals. Since both our sons lived out of state and had pets, kenneling had been a must. The freedom seemed like the opening for a new lifestyle for us, so when friends asked if we would…
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Appalachian Trail, Part 3
I felt no pain, but I was depleted of energy with every step and gasp for oxygen I took up Little Hump and Hump Mountains. It became worse with every false summit we encountered. I had stayed positive most of the trip, but it becomes devastating when you think you have reached the ultimate peak and see yet another in front of you when you think you can’t take another step. All I wanted to do at this point was get to the end of our section of the Appalachian Trail (AT), but I didn’t speak it. Looking back on climbing Hump Mountain, Dee Ann and I can’t agree on…
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Appalachian Trail, Part 2
Our first morning in Watauga Dam Campground came early. I turned the alarm on my phone off an hour before its scheduled blast at 5 a.m. because I was awake most of the night. Today was the day. Today we would hike a section of the 3,000+ mile historic Appalachian Trail. Adrenaline was surging through my veins as I woke Jim and we stuffed our packs with water, trail snacks, extra wool socks, and gloves in silence. The silence wasn’t for any reason other than Jim doesn’t talk much anymore. Damn Alzheimer’s. We drove into the dark to meet Dee Ann, our local hiking partner, at the McDonald’s in Hampton,…
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Appalachian Trail, Part 1
A few days after I bought the camper and we headed to Minnesota to begin our journey to outrun my husband Jim’s Alzheimer’s, I received a phone call from my brother-in-law’s cousin Dee Ann. I heard words I had never expected to hear. “I remember you and Jim coming over to our house when I was a teenager. You guys had just come back from a big backpacking trip and you made an impression on me. You two were wearing real hiking boots and clothing that were well worn, and you sat there and didn’t say a word until someone asked about your trip.” “Dee Ann, I didn’t have any…
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Creepy Creative Writing
In the spring of 2009, I had a terrifying paranormal experience that changed my life. After months of processing the occurrence (which I write about in my book to be published in 2020), I decided to share the story with my English I class and challenged them to write a descriptive essay of their own, about a legend or ghost story, true or fictional. It became a popular assignment each year during the month of Halloween. Interestingly enough, many students had their own truthful stories, as well. One of my bubbly, creative, and fun-loving former students contacted me a few weeks ago to say my scary stories from way-back-when had…
