Memories
One of the activities I did at the nursing home was called music and memories. We would sing songs about a specific topic such as romance , and I would encourage residents to talk about their first...
View ArticleOde to Dr. Pepper
After reading a post on Writing Life Stories, I was reminded of a poem I wrote several years ago about my favorite soft drink. Don’t ask me how a poem about making real butter reminded me of a poem...
View ArticleFast Times at Central Junior High
In the seventh or eighth grade, my English class was visited by poet Peggy Simpson Curry. I don’t remember what form of poetry Mrs. Curry taught us, but I do recall writing a poem and sharing it with...
View ArticleMore Commentary on Food
I love to eat in Italian restaurants. The following poem from How to Build a Better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiverexplains what I like to eat and notes that unlike the...
View ArticleForward
We’ve all heard accounts of people killed or seriously injured during the events of 9/11. Here’s a remarkable story about a man and his dog who survived at Ground Zero. Michael Hingson, blind since...
View ArticleThe Bedroom
One of my many tasks as a family caregiver is to help Bill when he relieves himself. When he came home six years ago, he was able to use a urinal while sitting on the side of the bed. In the middle of...
View ArticleMaking Music
After my younger brother got his first drum set, and we started playing together with me on piano and vocals, my parents decided we needed a room in our house primarily for playing and listening to...
View ArticleKilling Two Birds with One Stone
I just received word from my publisher, iUniverse, that We Shall Overcome is now available in Kindle and other eBook formats from various sources.. While doing a search for these sites, I discovered...
View ArticleSpring Officially Sprung
Today is the first day of spring. The sun is shining in a cloudless sky. Birds are singing, and our thermometer says it’s forty-eight degrees. The following poem from How to Build a Better Mousetrap:...
View ArticleSleeping Late
Taking care of Bill is a twenty-four-hour-a-day seven-day-a-week job. I try to get as much sleep as possible so I have enough energy to tackle the day to day tasks of his care, housework, and my...
View ArticleHome
When I was growing up, one of my favorite movies was Mary Poppins. I loved Julie Andrews’ portrayal of the nanny with the umbrella and carpet bag who held a tea party on the ceiling, jumped in and out...
View ArticleChopping Down Trees
Several years ago, the people who bought the house next door decided to remodel the entire house and yard. In the process, they cut down a couple of trees. With the yard being virtually outside our...
View ArticleThis Time Together
I just finished reading a book with this title by Carol Burnett. In the 1970’s, I watched her show with my mother on Saturday nights. Although a lot of her antics with Vicky Lawrence, Harvey Corman,...
View ArticleA Cat’s Idiosyncrasies
When I was growing up, we had a white cat with black spots. She came from a litter born to a stray. My mother called her Wanda. I don’t know where she came up with that name, but it fit. This was a cat...
View ArticleHave a Gouda Day
Gouda cheese (pronounced gow duh) is orange in color, made from cow’s milk, and is named after the town of Gouda in the Netherlands. It has a semi-hard texture and is sweet and sometimes crunchy. It...
View ArticleAnimals and Therapy
I just finished reading Izzie and Lenore: Two Dogs, an Unexpected Journey, and Meby Jon Katz, an author of novels, memoirs, and children’s books who lives on a farm in Washington County, New York. In...
View ArticleComing Home
During the last few years of my mother’s life, she lived in Story, a small town about twenty miles south of Sheridan, Wyoming, nestled at the foot of the Big Horn mountains. She and my father were...
View ArticleLeaf Disposal
We usually get rid of leaves in the fall, but with Mother’s Day around the corner, I would like to share a poem about something my mother and I did together. In the fall of 1988, I was living with my...
View ArticleIf You Ask Me,
Betty White’s book by that title is pretty good, especially if you get a recording of her reading it. I downloaded such a recording from audible.com and had some good laughs. I also couldn’t help...
View ArticleNot the Man I Married
This may be the title of a new book of poems I’m planning to put together. When I sent the final proof of How to Build a Better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver to the...
View ArticleAn Irish Setter's Love
Mother once said that Irish setters only want to please you if it pleases them. Such was the case with Clancy, a male we acquired when I was a freshman in high school. We got him as a puppy, and Dad...
View ArticleDeliverance from Jericho
Imagine how you would feel as a child of seven if you were sent to a school far, far away from everything you knew and loved. What if that school were a strict, regimented environment where nobody...
View ArticleA Sighted Person’s Mistake
Summer is the season for street reconstruction. Being visually impaired, I’m always concerned about stepping in wet concrete or ending up in the path of an oncoming bulldozer. When I read in the paper...
View ArticleDad Speed
My father loves to drive fast on the highway. He also feels the need to pass every driver he encounters, even if it means going over the speed limit. One day, he and I were driving from Sheridan,...
View ArticleFarewell to Blogger
Since Google recently changed Blogger’s interface, Post to Blog, the program I once used to post to this blog, no longer works with it. I have trouble using Blogger’s new interface to post to this...
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