There’s fire. And indeed there was. December 30, 2021, 1 pm. I’m driving home after taking a walk at Barr Lake State Park, a favorite place of mine, about 10 miles east of where I live. Heading west into the predicted strong winds, I smell smoke. A few miles east of home the smoke is […]
Read More Where There’s Smoke. . .A series of senryu written for the Blogging A to Z challenge. Today’s letter is R I. Re: reference referring to whatever is on someones mind II. reruns or retakes the hope of doing over that which we regret III. the verdict is in remanded to custody the losses remain IV. Reset all the clocks […]
Read More REI awoke to interesting things this morning. Six inches of snow, and a temperature of 10 F, that’s -12C. Happy April 20. While colder than normal, snow is not uncommon around here in April, or even May. And then, I checked my email. This morning’s Ragtag Daily Prompt is Encephalopathy. Yikes. I do know the […]
Read More Good MorningToday is Ziggy the cat’s twelfth birthday. He’s only been with us a year and a half, and like most cats, he’s well established in our lives. I didn’t want to get more cats after Lucy passed at age 20. Her brother Jules had lived to 19, so I know well that this can be […]
Read More Happy Birthday to A Quirky FellowWhen I hear the word percolate, coffee comes to mind, as a percolator was the standard way of making coffee when I was a child. Even though my parents didn’t drink coffee at home, it was the morning beverage of choice for adults in my friend’s homes. In restaurants, it was omnipresent. Back then, a […]
Read More PercolateI. over it had enough no more stop the violence now we are over it II. two eggs over easy its a classic breakfast order upsetting for hens III. overdone way too much says who? who are you to say its just your opinion IV. Sure I’m fine with that It doesn’t matter that much […]
Read More OVERI’m sound sensitive. I have been all my life, which made growing up in a household with 3 younger siblings challenging. I often retreated to my room (I am grateful I had my own room from the age of 8), closed the door, and read. I think I also learned to ignore household noises, and […]
Read More NoiseOne of the things I love the most about where I live is easy access to open space. There’s a bike/walking path behind my house. I can go out the back gate and be on my way. Turning left, I’m heading east. One path will eventually lead downtown and to my office, another, with a […]
Read More MallardsEarlier this week, Tuesday, I had started this post, about lilacs, inspired by their emerging flower buds noted on Monday’s walk: Lilacs are one of my favorite spring flowering plants. Their fragrance and colorful blooms are a delight. Like many seasonal treats, their blooming season is short, and I’ve come to recognize that this brevity […]
Read More Late Lilacs, or Life is What Happens While You’re Making Other PlansThings are seldom what they seem, skim milk masquerades as cream (from HMS Pinafore, by Gilbert and Sullivan). Another way of putting it is that one doesn’t always know what they think they do. Or, as been so well demonstrated during the pandemic, knowledge needs updating. Learning, I believe it is called. A very small […]
Read More KnowledgeI’ve worn blue jeans most of my life. As a younger child, I wore whatever Mom bought for me, sometimes horrible “girl” jeans, with a side zip and no pockets. By junior high, I knew more of what I liked, and by the time I hit high school it was 1970 and girls were finally […]
Read More J is for JeansNever Eat Inferior Ice Cream. We’ve used this quote for years at my house, attributing to Walter Kerr, a New York drama critic of the late 20th century. With a relatively brief search online, I haven’t found it attributed to anyone. Good advice, in my opinion, whether applied to ice cream or other foodstuffs. If […]
Read More Never Eat Inferior Ice CreamH is for horseradish, hospital and hope also hands, hearts and home hook and ladder hoop and hula hangers, hopscotch, hockey, hill hops for beer and bunnies but not for scotch horrible rhyme, best not to watch. homo, hetero hare and hair and heir hiccups and hairballs no raindrops or roses my heads random droppings […]
Read More HGrief. This time last year, I was struggling with grief. It had become abundantly clear that my retirement dream of spending at least half the year traveling, some of it overseas, and some of it in my van, was under major revision. A year previously, my partner BA had suffered an acute attack of vertigo. […]
Read More G is for GriefIn the A to Z April writing challenge, today’s letter is F. F is for Flowers. As the rhyme goes, April showers bring May flowers. True enough, and here in Colorado, the showers may be either rain or snow. We had a little bit of rain yesterday, and the forecast suggests we may get snow […]
Read More FlowersThis appeared yesterday in my Facebook feed from Barr Lake State Park: It is with great sadness that we have to report that our nesting bald eagle tree fell down. We got a report from a park visitor this morning. Park staff responded immediately to see what had happened. The nest was destroyed and two […]
Read More Eagles DownedDuty. It’s an interesting concept. I tend to think of it as doing something simply because it needs to be done. Over the years I’ve come to recognize that I may have become a bit skewed in my sense of obligation or perception of duty. Perusing Merriam-Webster online, I find: Obligatory tasks, functions, conduct or […]
Read More Duty and the Resent-o-meterCorona means crown or crownlike structure, and it is the gaseous outer rim of a star, normally visible only during a total solar eclipse, as shown in today’s featured photograph. This past year, we’ve learned much more than we ever wanted to know about coronaviruses, and one in particular, that which causes the Covid-19 illness, […]
Read More C is for CoronaIn her blog, Write Along with Me, Lois Roelofs mentions Blogging from A to Z and I like the idea; perhaps it will get me out of my non-writing mode. I haven’t been able to “officially” sign up, but I’m going to start anyway. The challenge is to write using the letters of the alphabet […]
Read More Blogging from A to Z: B Blogging, Boulder, Birds and BakingA mob tore through the US Capitol building on Wednesday. Incited to destructive action by a deranged president, this group of deluded individuals, largely white and male, fancying themselves patriots, but more accurately stooges of right-wing propagandists, broke through an inadequate line of police and into the Capitol. People were killed, breakage occurred, objects, possibly […]
Read More Its in Our Hands NowI know of people who don’t eat leftovers; they routinely discard any food not eaten after the meal. To me, that’s a tremendous waste. So many people don’t have enough to eat, throwing away food feels irresponsible. I can see discarding food that won’t keep, that will go bad. If its going to make someone […]
Read More Leftover = TreasureNo Resolution. Yes, that’s how I am greeting 2021. Happy New Year to all of us. May this be truly a year of peace and healing and growth. Back to No Resolution. First off, 2020 has certainly left us in an unresolved place. Many societal issues have been exposed with painful clarity. Resolution and reckoning […]
Read More No ResolutionAbout 6 weeks ago, I wrote about the Cameron Peak fire and the effects of its smoke and ash many miles away, where I live. Since then, there have been some changes. That fire has continued burning and is now the largest wildfire in Colorado’s history, at 206,977 acres this morning (see the InciWeb site […]
Read More Hot, Smoke and Snow, pt 2–Troublesome TimesOkay, so we all (or at least the vast majority of us) recognize that 2020 is an unusual year. Around here (Colorado) its been extra strange weather wise. Back in May, we had a record cold snap that took out a lot of fruit crops. Frost and freezes in May are not unusual, but getting […]
Read More Hot, Smoke and SnowAs some of my recent writings have reflected, my 90 year old father is actively dying, his replaced aortic valve no longer working. One month ago today, we formally enrolled him in hospice care. It has been quite the month. As Dad’s eldest child, I was given responsibility of being his general power of attorney […]
Read More On Mother’s Day in a Month of Father’s DaysIt’s my day to be with Dad. I’m packing up for a 24 hour stint. Toothbrush, pillow, coffee, laptop. Ziggy the cat knows something is up, and is following me around, howling to be picked up or simply climbing my leg. I’m due there in about an hour, so time to finish my packing, eat […]
Read More The only constant, part 2Change. Intellectually and professionally, I understand this just fine. And it’s my turn to live it in an intensified fashion. 5 April Dad sick. 6 April To hospital. 8 April Not Covid-19. It is failure of his previously replaced aortic valve. 9 April Discharged from Hospital. Home to his independent living apartment in a senior […]
Read More And the only constant is . . .Way back in the 1980’s, I was a resident in Family Medicine. Our training was a mix of hospital-based clinical training, rotating through all the usual specialties: internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, emergency medicine, etc. Another significant part of our training was outpatient clinical work. We started slowly, one half day per week […]
Read More Medical MisinformationIts Earth Day, and in fact the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. As someone who remembers the first one, and back then started adjusting my life habits to be gentle on the earth and continues to be aware, it is with surprise that so many people are unaware or unconcerned. For me, its “old news” […]
Read More Earth DayToday is Ziggy the cat’s 11th birthday. He joined our family at the end of September, so he’s been with us just over 6 months. He’s a family member now, the most athletic cat I’ve ever had, quick and with fabulous leaps. He’s a pretty quirky fellow, even for a cat. Head bumps, marking our […]
Read More Happy Birthday, Ziggy!
Curious Steph 