For the past month of September I have been enjoying a daily bowl of raspberries, harvested from the bushes along our screened porch.  A previous essay nattered on about the beauty of raspberries, and positioned the seeds and thorny bushes as only minor annoyances that could not diminish their perfection.  But enough about me, a…

The other day I was wandering lost in a Target Superstore, looking for one of those trivial items, like the darning needle that used to be sold locally until all the big box stores sucked the local sundry shops dry.  I found myself in the game aisle, and spotted the three board games that were…

Unintended Consequences In the US health care system, the people are represented by three separate yet equally important groups; the doctors who treat patients, the employers who offer health care benefits and the insurance companies who administer them.  This is their story.  Donque Donque (start Law and Order theme song) Actually, many people wish that…

When you turn sixty I suppose that it is inevitable to get misty eyed and look back.  After all, I am standing on what I hope is a threshold (and not a precipice) between middle age and the next phase – which I cannot bear to label “old age” or even “senior citizenship.”  I don’t…

Age 50 has always been considered a significant milestone, spawning endless parties, toasts, silly hats and, dare I say it, trite doggerel.  However, I have come to regard age 50 as merely another year, significant only because of our 10 digits and the resulting base 10 method of counting.  Far more significant is age 54,…

I 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. …

Over 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). …

What 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…

My father began to contemplate retirement in the early 1980s, and thought computers might be a suitable focus for his newly acquired free time.  When Nick spotted a computer seminar, we thought that this would be the perfect introduction.  As the speaker tried to explain the difference between RAM and ROM, I could see that…

One day I was sitting in the kitchen as my mother arrived from the grocery store and starting unloading groceries, as she had probably done almost once every day for at least 30 years.  But she hummed and there was a joyous zip to her step.  She suddenly turned to me and said in a…