I drive these country roads daily. Mostly I encounter potholes, people driving in the middle of the road, quarry trucks, and tailgaters. But one morning as I maneuvered down a double S curve, I came face to snout with a black bull. I can’t even begin to describe how massive this creature was that was
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Mom and the Clinique Counter
Aging. The whole topic of aging is loaded with unexploded emotional and self-worth landmines. We never know how to navigate around aging safely. Young people want to look older. Older people want to look younger. People lie about their age so often they actually forget how old they are. They avoid talking about their age,
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The Tooth Fairy’s Assistant
The tooth fairy. What a concept. Apparently it’s French. My dad was the tooth fairy’s assistant in our family. He was in charge of pulling loose baby teeth. Dad was very sneaky about getting baby teeth out of my head. I thought I knew his latest trick and then wham! He’d find a way to
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The Mystery of the Brown Shoes
The other day I drove by the hotel where my mom and dad stayed years ago for my niece’s wedding. My gentle and loving father was showing the first severe signs of Alzheimer’s, and this was the last trip they took before he was no longer able to travel. . They’d booked a room at
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Gnatly won’t leave me alone
I have a new pet. I don’t want this pet. It’s a gnat. . It follows me wherever I go in the house. In general, I don’t kill bugs or other living things. I take them outside. I may make an exception with this one. . Gnatly will sit on my laptop as I write
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The Secret Handshake
The secret handshake or how I got an obstinate pain in the a** to follow the rules. . I once worked for a bank and part of my job was managing the wire department. Frequent customers could set a verbal passcode with customer service and then call wires in without coming in to the bank.
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You Are What You Eat
The other day I heard someone remark, “You are what you eat.” Since I was eavesdropping, I didn’t feel right asking, “Hey, are we talking only food, or can we include things like anger, disappointment, humor, weightlifting, books by Jodi Taylor or Netflix? . I’m now declaring, by the power invested in me by me,
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Driveway Follies
It rained last week and then sleeted and snowed. Then it snowed again and the temp dropped to 9 degrees. Net result was the mile gravel road down to our house was a luge run. . Three of the neighbor guys got together and spread gravel on the steepest parts of the hills and curves
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Mrs. K and the Cadillac
As a kid you always know when adults dislike you. No matter how you try to behave in front of them, they’re suspicious. And did you ever notice how when you’re trying really hard to not piss someone off, you unintentionally end up doing the very thing that does piss them off? That’s what happened
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Michael Proposes
Let me introduce you to Michael Coleman. Ken and I never missed Chicago guitar bluesman Michael Coleman’s gigs. He’d been blues harmonica legend James Cotton’s band leader and played the kind of funky blues that had people on the dance floor after the first few bars of a song. . Michael lived for his booty
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Are We Really Like That?
Name some of your characteristics. Negative or positive, your choice. Are you smart, good-looking, terrible at relationships, bad at math, a great artist, a supermom, fat, feisty or a hundred other self-images? How did these characteristics get attached to you? Did you decide what you are? I bet you labeled yourself with input from your
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Revenge: It’s a Family Thing
My family on my dad’s side was a close knit, clannish bunch. They have roots going back so far in that one time my grandmother called people who came over on the Mayflower “late comers.” They were a tough bunch, hacking out an existence by hand on their farm. They never did have running water
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