Which End is Up, Again?

My dad was not always kind when speaking about his college students. I doubt very much he said it to any of them directly, although there might have been one or two that at least tempted him, but at home we were very familiar with the expression, “He doesn’t know his ass from his elbow.” […]

Explosive Anniversary

Forty years ago yesterday, Mount St. Helens blew its top in dramatic, well-documented fashion, taking with it 57 people, thousands of animals and about 230 square miles of forest. This was sort of expected, and sort of not. The devastation certainly wasn’t planned for, nor the loss of life, but scientists from the University of […]

The Natural(ist)

I hope you won’t think less of me for saying this out loud in semi-public, but: all geese look the same to me. Well, not all geese, but all geese of any given species, including whatever species it is that makes itself t’home here at Riverwalk each spring. This shouldn’t be so hard; there’s the […]

Pig Farming

A woman whom I worked with early in my Pat’s years put her finger right on it one day. I have no idea what thing (or things, most likely) I was trying to do, or planning to do, or starting to do, but in half-exasperation, half-accusation and half (yes, that’s too many)-realization, she said, “You’re […]

Justin Credible

Today, although it probably won’t really seem like it, my nephew Justin graduates high school. There won’t be a ceremony, per se, just a couple of words you don’t usually like to put together: a school drive-by to pick up his diploma amid congratulatory honks. No speeches, no robe, no tassle-turning, no after-party. You’re done, […]

Out of Focus

I don’t know that I have any cogent thoughts for you today. I am on my third day following poorly-slept nights with large periods of lying awake, and for some reason this makes it hard to think. Some of this is stressing over a stupid $500 charge from a workers’ comp company I’m no longer […]

Driving His Life His Way

The Livermore children spent their earliest years in Denver, although Tia barely logged any time there before we moved to Gunnison. So Terri was perhaps 3 the day her mother looked at the very tall tree in the backyard and saw Terri at the top of it. The tree had a healthy lean, as I […]

Not Shy, But Retiring

I don’t think it’s just me, but these Days of Corona seem like kind of a blur. I know we finally left April a day or two ago, but I have not been been marking my calendar by the events I usually use to do so. Saturday, which is now sometime in the past, should […]

Among the Peasants

So I was looking for a book located somewhere in this house, The Black Death. Yesterday that led me to a complete sidetrack with wayward animals, and I never made it back to my search. I have been thinking about this book, a history book group selection, for some time now, inasmuch as it details […]

The Green Grass Grows All Around

There’s a book, somewhere in this house, called The Black Death. I was looking for this book for blogging purposes, when my quiet morning turned into quite the kerfuffle, thanks to Oz the Ever Helpful. I had put my bagel into the toaster, and to mark the passing toasting time, I was roaming around the […]