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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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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 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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Northern Minnesota, Part 2
The days we spent in the Sawtooth Mountains above Grand Marais and Lake Superior were beautiful. We left sticky temperatures at home, so the cooler days and nights were a blessing. But we couldn’t linger in the campground because there were too many things to see and do. Every morning we drove from our campsite at Golden Eagle Lodge and Campground https://www.golden-eagle.com/, surrounded by the Superior National Forest, and traveled along the Gunflint Trail where Native Americans, French Voyageurs, miners, hunters, trappers, and loggers came centuries before us. The trail is now a 57-mile National Scenic Byway winding through mountains, lakes, bogs, and valleys. There are no towns along the…
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The Adventures of Orville and Narvel
Many, many years ago, we were part of a band of free spirits who went to Big Bend National Park and spent the month between Christmas and college spring semester backpacking. We all had names like Orville, Narvel, Doc Emmit, Wandy, Hecker, and The Booze; names that were to be spoken with the longest, most drawn-out southern drawl one could possibly muster. We named our group the Big Belly Sunset Watchers Club and we watched gorgeous sunsets from the canyons and the Chisos Mountains in the Chihuahuan Desert. Fast forward 35 years: Orville and I (Narvel) bought a camper and new car to pull it. We are a long way…
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Not Even Remotely Ghostly
I am in the process of writing my first book, Elusive Spirits: Paranormal Memoir of a Smalltown Teacher. As you might guess, I have had different kinds of unusual encounters in many places. They’ve all been intriguing, but when they happen in my own home, it can be a little unnerving until I’ve had time to come to terms with it. Such were the recent occurrences involving our TV. Our TV has been doing some weird things in the last few months. It turns off and on while we are watching it. At first, it happened occasionally. Then, it began happening more frequently. One day when I was home alone…
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LIGHTEN UP
I’ve spent a lifetime as a mom and teacher taking myself too seriously. I thought it was my job to try to keep kids on the straight and narrow pathway, always wanting them to learn and do the right things. Somewhere along the way, I realized I didn’t have much of a sense of humor. I kept things so serious because I felt I was put here to balance out the ridiculous. To right those who never took a thing seriously. To be ready for a heavy dose of reality or common sense smackdown wherever I saw it lacking. And believe me, there were often those lacking any kind of…
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On Hiatus? Not Really.
While working on my first book, I will be sharing stories and interviews from other writers. Maybe a little unconventional from my usual style of blogging memoirs each week for the past year, but I think you will enjoy it. When I mentioned to a reader I will be going on a blogging hiatus, she balked and said I couldn’t; she counted on and enjoyed reading them. Out of that conversation came the idea to keep up with this weekly blog in an interesting way while I focus my brain on the book. As a high school teacher, I appreciated a respectful student over one loaded with intelligence, creativity, leadership,…
