Bugged

Years ago I bought a Sleep Number bed from a woman so desperate to sell me things that she had to be working on commission. Sleep Number will only sell at their own stores, so that’s obviously their choice to pay people in that manner, and then it turns out that for all the money […]

Showered with Attention

I took a shower the other day (hold your applause) and went in determined not to come out until I figured out how everything worked. Well, I’m out, without even wrinkling, but much of my space-age machine remains a mystery. I have to say, the parts I’ve figured out I really like, and my showers […]

Volleyball, Anyone?

I was AWOL yesterday. I scheduled my annual medical check-up so that it slotted into my blogging and bike racing time and thus missed both. For some reason thought I might be able to get something written at lunch, but half of my hour is taken up with transportation, half with lunch and the third […]

Fireantsy

We had guests last night, unplanned and unwelcome. The ants that can be found everywhere outside have started to find their way in. Invasion of the Ants — wasn’t that some campy ’50s horror movie? It’s not as campy on your own doorstep. Which is where they seemed to be arriving from, so I went […]

Guns. Again. Still.

Here’s what I don’t understand about gun control: Americans, those most “can-do” of people, so far are just throwing up their hands and saying, “Well, that won’t work” to every suggestion offered. And when I say Americans, I suppose I mean politicians, except that (in theory at least), they work for we the people, and […]

Making (Micro) Waves

Our $50 microwave failed us last night, and I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a message in all this. Isn’t there some church — Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I think — that espouses wearing tinfoil beanies? It may be time to investigate their orthodoxy more thoroughly. Let’s review: Lynn and I left a […]

Fighting Fire With Water

We at Pat’s Screen Printing have figured out the secret to bringing customers in the door: all it takes is for Fire Marshal Hugo Ferchau to offer an impromptu fire safety training, and the world arrives. Hugo (the third, remember — not his grandfather the college professor nor his father the high school teacher and […]

Trading Spaces

There were choices to be made, after Oz woke me up way too early barking ferociously at something offending his sense of propriety. I leaped up, expecting to find a bear or mountain lion at the back door, the way he was carrying on, but I saw nothing. I heard something, maybe a racoon, maybe […]

Off in the Tall Grass

Sorry, I forgot to post this. Dusty arrived to inspect the second microwave, also badly dented, and then Shelf-a-Palozza planning commenced. In all the excitement, I failed in my blog duties. I have less for you than usual today. The third and final bicycle grand tour of the year, La Vuelta a Espana (Tour of […]

The Fine Art of Surfacing

I am going to a memorial service today. I have missed the last several I should have gone to, and this instance I’m feeling like this is too little, too late. Many months ago, my friend Narcissa told me she was going to Grand Junction to visit Joanne Williams, a mutual friend who was not […]