Family Friendly

I don’t know if you heard about this story, but shortly before Thanksgiving at an elementary school somewhere in Utah, a substitute teacher asked the class, fourth or fifth grade, to take turns expressing their gratitude for something. While several were thankful for turkey or pie or no school, one 10-year-old boy told his classmates […]

Not What, But How, to Watch

I was not particularly paying attention to the conversation at work the other day until Gilly spoke up: “All we had to choose from was three channels,” she said. She was speaking, of course, of television, and she made this remark in response to Kara and James, who were probably discussing sharing passcodes for different […]

Snow Job

In the half-hour I have been vertical and looking out windows, this is what I’ve seen: the sun was shining; it started snaining; the wind blew; it started snowing; a short but fierce blizzard-y squall; snain; and now we have this fine little mist of snow as the sun tries forcing its way past the […]

Den of Iniquity

After a long build-up I finally went to my homeowners association meeting last night, which was much less contentious than expected. But I did learn Lynn and I have been hopelessly naive about this “idyllic” place in which we live. The meeting was hosted by our resident attorney, who said afterward that this would be […]

Saving the Planet?

No matter how you try to save the planet, someone is going to tell you you’re doing it wrong. I have owned grid-tied solar panels since 2006. There has been an eight- (now six-) panel array on the roof above Pat’s Screen Printing for lo these 13 years. Because it’s a business, the array paid […]

(C)Haste(ned)

I learned some hard lessons last night, at a time when I should have been blissfully uneducated, sound asleep. The overarching lesson seemed so vital that I feel it my duty — nay, my obligation — to try to sum it up in a neat phrase of my own devising and pass it along to […]

Snow Day

If ever there was a day to tuck in with a good book, particularly the book I’m supposed to be reading for history group, pausing occasionally to stare at the snowflakes drifting outside, it was yesterday. Did I do that? No. Did I take it several steps further? Yes. After an initial foray out in […]

Quiz Show(off)

I was taking a quiz the other day. Not like the quizzes that used to make you groan in school, the ones the teacher sprung on you to see if you had actually done the assigned reading or were paying attention during the previous lecture. Let me pause early for a lengthy aside: in my […]

Holidays Upon Us

Somehow it is December. I’m not sure how, or when this happened, but it must have been awhile ago, because we are at least six days into this final month of the year. And about 1,952 days into the holiday shopping season, if you care to follow commercials on TV, radio ads, newspaper flyers . […]

Tapped In

Tia was a bad influence on me yesterday: instead of blogging I was socializing. I may have been a bad influence on her, too: she left several items behind when she went to work late. For a long period of my life, it seemed that most of the groups I belonged to consisted primarily of […]