My sister travels at about 948 mph. And that’s while she’s on vacation. I travel at about 4 mph on a good day. That we are able to travel together at all is a tribute to the strong bond we have.
She came back to Alaska again this year for some more exploration of the state bringing her friend Janet, which has helped in two ways. One, I had someone to pass the baton to when I collapsed from exhaustion trying to keep up with her and two, Janet is a shopper like Judy and they both did their best
Do you miss me while I’m on this road trip? If your food is there on time, does it even matter? Are you torturing the dog because there is no one there to say, “Bad birds” when you call him and he thinks it’s me and he tries to find me in the house? Are you shredding and pooping on everything in sight to express your displeasure in the fact that your routine has been disrupted even though Nick gives you a lot of love and attention? These are the thoughts of a mother who leaves her four parrots and
Do you miss me while I’m on this road trip? If your food is there on time, does it even matter? Are you torturing the dog because there is no one there to say, “Bad birds” when you call him and he thinks it’s me and he tries to find me in the house? Are you shredding and pooping on everything in sight to express your displeasure in the fact that your routine has been disrupted even though Nick gives you a lot of love and attention? These are the thoughts of a mother who leaves her four parrots and
Having spent a good deal of my life in the Arctic, I think I come by my spectacular lack of gardening skills honestly. In my 27 years in Barrow, the only thing I successfully grew in my yard was a wonderful little patch of tundra grass that seemed to be fine growing all by itself. All I had to do each spring was look out the window and tell it how pretty it was.
Over the course of the decades, many houseplants came to live with me only to die after a very short visit. The cause of death was
I first noticed the odor a few weeks ago. But I was busy getting ready to leave town and figured it would wait for resolution until I returned. The smell was even more obvious upon my return and was clearly emanating from the corner of my bedroom where Mr. T takes his regular 20-hour naps.
At first I thought it was just him smelling like the little old man that he is. So I tried bathing him in banana scented dog shampoo. He was not amused and ultimately it didn’t do much for the odor. So I decided it was
My friends in Coronado, California had a daughter graduating from high school and another graduating from college. The day before the college graduation we had a small party for family and friends to celebrate. I was there because thirty years of friendship has made me part of the family.
After a brief consultation about the menu, it was decided that Costco trays could fill most of our food needs. Instead of cooking, my friend got to spend the day arranging flowers from her garden throughout her house and filling her birdbath with gardenias. Her husband took on the manly chore
I like to think of myself as a normally upbeat person. Every time I say this to anyone who knows me, I am greeted by hysterical laughter followed by the words, “Oh, I’m sorry. You were serious, weren’t you?”
I say there is ample reason in this life to occasionally be less than upbeat about the ways of the world. I’m not referring to the war in Iraq, the war on terror, the war on drugs or the war on family values. I’m referring to a war much closer to my heart – my daily war on poverty in my
According to an article in the June 6 Daily News, “Your dog or cat can win money, a year’s supply of pricey pet food and free airline tickets to stay at an �upscale, pet-friendly hotel’ by entering Hill’s 2006 National PetFit Challenge.” In essence, a weight loss competition for your perhaps slightly puffy pooch or tubby tabby.
And I think to myself, “Where is my Lovey when I need her?”
Lovey was a dog who adopted me when I first moved to Barrow. She lived with me through my marriage, a variety of questionable relationships, and the presence of way
It’s graduation season, a time of life changes for young people and their parents. I recently went to South’s graduation to watch a very special young man in my life graduate into what I fully expect to be a productive, contributing adulthood…even if his parents are a little nervous about that possibility right now. Senioritis can be a difficult disease for parents to live through.
Unfortunately, the kids I work with rarely have the kind of graduations that entail getting dressed up and notifying the relatives. They do have graduations. But it’s just not the same when you are graduating
My parents were part of the generation that weathered the Depression, WW II and the Lawrence Welk Show. In the 1960s, they watched as the cost of living inched inexorably upward, eating into their American Dream and making them even more cautious with their money.
Every holiday we would drive from Atlantic City to Philadelphia to celebrate with family. My father would go to the gas station and ask for a very specific amount of gas – maybe $2 worth, maybe $10 later on. You never said, “Fill it up”. My mother explained that if you said that, the gas