I’m not sure how many more days I can take of Mr. T following me through the kitchen like my shadow while staring up at me through his cataract filled eyes wondering why I’ve chosen to torture him at this late stage in our relationship. I don’t want to be mean to him. If I had my way, his days would be filled with greenies and turkey dogs. But, like so many of us, he is now being forced to face the inevitable results of old age.
It started with a routine visit to the vet for a dental cleaning
I realize that trying to get any given part of Alaska’s elected and appointed leaders to stop tossing the fiscal gap around like a hot potato at a Fourth of July picnic game is probably asking for more than anyone is able to give. But I don’t think all the blame belongs to the people sitting in Juneau. Some of it does, but not all of it.
A lot of it belongs to individual Alaskans who keep sending the message to Juneau that they don’t want to pay for services but by gosh those services they use had better not
Before she died, my mother used to quote the poet Robert Browning’s line, “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.” Then she let loose with what was for her a very unladylike snort of derision. You got the feeling she wasn’t buying the sentiment.
When I was young, I’d hear the cynical tone she used when she said that and thought to myself that would never happen to me. Why? Well, because as all baby boomers know, we are never going to grow old.
And then I woke up one day and the unthinkable occurred. As
One of my younger cousins has died. She’s the first in our generation of cousins to do so. I guess that makes us lucky when you consider how many cousins we have and what a wide variety of ages.
Sometimes I have to blink and clear my eyes when I see my cousin Louie. I keep expecting to see the young man who used to swallow bottle caps to impress his little cousin who had such a crush on him. Instead, I see a 72-year-old grandfather who could easily become a great-grandfather in the not too distant future.
But I
Every once in a while you read something so outrageous in the news that you find yourself rereading it just to make sure you didn’t totally miss the point. Then you find yourself turning to the front of the paper to make sure you haven’t accidentally picked up some sort of satire publication. Then you look at the byline to see if it’s by some world-renowned humor columnist.
Only after exhausting all these avenues are you forced to admit that in fact, just when you thought life could get no weirder, someone pushed the envelope a little further.
And so
I couldn’t believe that my hot water pipes froze when it was only 13 below. I’d lived in Barrow for 28 years and never had my pipes freeze, even in 40 below. My first thought was what wimpy houses we have in Anchorage.
Then it was pointed out to me that the little room in my garage that contains my hot water heater and furnace was freezing because I had the door shut and the garage heater set at one degree above frigid. It was an expensive lesson to learn.
While waiting for someone to come thaw my pipes, I
I have already seen the movie “Something’s Got To Give” with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson twice. It’s a good movie, but the real draw for me was watching Keanu Reeves fall for a woman twenty years his senior. I don’t know how Hollywood did it, but someone from there clearly snuck into my fantasy life and made a movie based on it. The only difference is that my fantasy ends with me telling Jack Nicholson to get real and I stay with Keanu Reeves.
Each time I’ve seen this movie, the ending has driven me crazy. I want to
Did you notice it was 37 below in Barrow recently? Boy, talk about getting hit with an overwhelming wave of nostalgia and homesickness. 37 below. Just the thought of it sets my heart pounding and my feet itching to lace up and go out and take a long walk on the tundra. Of course, I learned a long time ago that expressing these opinions just gives my relatives another piece of paper for the file marked “Why Elise needs to go to a home” but I can’t help it. I can’t not express my exuberance at the idea of challenging
When I think of politicians in general, I think of lemmings all heading mindlessly over the cliff because that’s what the ones in front are doing. Many politicians nowadays shy away from taking a stand on principle that will cause them to break away from the pack. They don’t lead the people they represent to a hopefully higher plane of thought and aspiration. Instead, they wait for the latest poll to come in and then cater to the lowest possible denominator.
That’s why someone like Lisa Murkowski is such a breath of fresh air. She actually seems to have principles
Going east to visit my family is always a fun moment. Coming home to three birds and a dog who feel they have been sorely tried by my absence is not so much fun.
I was away for three weeks this go round and I believe they all felt that I had stayed one day too long at the fair. My dog Mr. T expressed his feelings by sitting on the carpet outside my bedroom and howling and barking till 1 AM. Mind you, the door to my bedroom was open. He could have come in if he wanted. I’d