I have always wondered what goes on in a locker room before the big game. Growing up in the pre Title 9 world of women’s sports, there was simply no such thing as a big game. The only thing going on in our pregame locker room was putting on the uniform, if one even existed. …
Read MoreMy summer vacations have always been spent hiking in the north woods of Michigan. Both the days and Lake Superior’s waters are crisp and clear, and the only fly in the ointment are literally the flies that occasionally arrive in hordes. Horse flies are generally a minor annoyance, since they do not arrive in droves,…
Read MoreMy childhood was decorated with a slew of family expressions. My father liked to say, “Well he really stuck his ass in a tub of butter,” which referred to a man who had an amazing stroke of luck. It typically referred to a guy who had married a wealthy woman, but when my father said…
Read MoreDuring my 30+ years of working life, I have migrated from working into the office to home to the office and back again, each time in search of the perfect combination of work environment and family demands. When Ned was an infant I made my first attempt to “work from home” and found it to…
Read MoreI stand here a stalwart but beleaguered member of the sandwich generation, a person who has marginal computer skills and even more tenuous tech support. Activities of daily living (ADL) is a commonly used medical concept that describes a person’s ability to function at the most basic level, focusing on bathing, dressing and preparing food. …
Read MoreOver the past seven years I watched helplessly as my mother’s bright and witty mind slowly unraveled. And then over a brief 5 day period this July, her physical self quickly unraveled and suddenly she was gone. Suddenly, I transitioned from a helpless bystander to “a woman of action,” (one of my mother’s favorite phrases). …
Read MoreWhat a gift to grow up next to next door neighbors like the Reeds, who had 5 children who pretty much matched up with our family. There was so much traffic between the two households that Mrs. Reed put stones along the path through the bushes so that we wouldn’t track mud everywhere. Johnny Reed…
Read MoreOn December 18th, with great sadness and some relief, I was officially booted out of the sandwich generation. My mother had died a year and half earlier, but her death did not change my every day life that much. She had really been in her own world for the previous three years or so, so…
Read MoreMy interest in idioms was prompted by an offhand comment by my cousin Susie who remarked that she had enjoyed a slim volume called “Hog on Ice,” which provided derivations for common American idioms. I then began to notice that our conversation is peppered with colorful idioms that must bedevil anyone aspiring to be bilingual…
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