Lucky Dogs

This is a true story. None of the names have been changed, because there is no innocent we need to protect. Once upon a time, not that long ago, but one superintendent and a different business manager ago (good thing, since now it’s my sister Tia), our school district hired a man named Cannon Leatherwood […]

Crested Butte Strong

Spoiler alert: This happened while many of us in the United States slept, but due to the time difference and people’s viewing habits, it won’t be shown on television until this evening. If you want to be surprised while you watch “live” this evening, you should just skip this. Or come back tomorrow. Crested Butte […]

The Inner Heat

An episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called “The Inner Light” is one of my favorites, but now that I’m starting to live it, I’m not enjoying it nearly as much as when it was strictly theoretical. In this episode, Captain Picard is rendered unconscious on the bridge of his own ship by a […]

Prognostication

If my car window is stuck in the halfway position, and I think it’s half open and you think it’s half closed, which one of us is the pessimist? Actually, it doesn’t matter any more, because Randy fixed it for me on Friday. Now, this was after two rainstorms last week, both of which I […]

Lucky and Charming, No Matter What Some Think

Yesterday at work I was going through Kara’s e-mail inbox — her work inbox, where the invoices I need get sent, not that this was some low-level spyware scandal — when I came upon an offer I couldn’t refuse: Quickbooks wanted to pay me, in the form of an Amazon gift card of course, to […]

If It Ain’t Broke, It Ain’t TL’s

Kara, made of sterner stuff than I am, had an extremely social weekend: high-school reunion (I didn’t make it to any of mine), friends from Denver, dad from New Mexico, and mom and stepdad from Oregon. Saturday, while Kara was being a good member of her class and lining up to be in the parade, […]

Reunionizing

I wrote 1,400 words on the topic of reunions yesterday morning and was just getting warmed up when I realized several things: it was already 10 a.m., my theoretical start time for work; I was over my word limit and still hadn’t made my point, whatever that might have been; and it’s very difficult to […]

Over It

Yesterday’s plans got derailed early when Omar texted — because no self-respecting teenager knows what the phone portion of his phone is for — Kara to say he couldn’t come to work because his throat was closed and he had a fever. Kara immediately suggested he get a covid test; with less faith in teenagers, […]

Feeling the Heat

Some day in June, I walked into my bank, sweat trailing in my wake, only to encounter Heather, a teller, in her winter coat. Her work station is right under the opening for the air conditioning, and it blasts down on her all day, so she freezes while the rest of us swelter. The bank […]

The Least Among Us

It is with a profound sense of relief that I report to you all that I have been excused from jury duty by dint of cancellation of the trial that was scheduled for next Monday. I maybe wasn’t supposed to do this, but I looked at the court docket last week and know the defendant […]