People of a certain age will remember Joe Btfsplk as the character in the Lil’ Abner cartoon who walked around with a constant rain cloud over his head.  I thought of him the other...

When my husband’s mother started down the long road of dementia, she would say aloud over and over “to be or not to be”.  She said it so much that she came to be...

People where I live tend to be outgoing to the extent that might be considered inappropriate in some areas. I don’t mean “have a nice day” or “how’re you doing” — I’m talking about...

Every year I hang up those yellow plastic hornet traps.  Some years they have ended up being so full they need emptying midway through the summer but the past couple of years there have...

I’ve lived in this house for twenty-seven years and was frustrated about not knowing people right up the street — so I invited everyone to a pot luck and asked my accordion-playing neighbor to...

One of my friends recently sold her house and the folks who bought her place in the country contacted her shortly after the closing, voicing concern over an odd noise that the washing machine...

I love it when I hear “It’s a Small World” jingling in the background because it means the ice cream truck is nearby.  I live close to a neighborhood that’s heavily populated with kids...

Having an inquisitive child is a challenge, even more so when the goal as a parent is providing information with honesty and truth and as little judgment as possible.  There are so many questions...

My son who is an elementary school teacher and his seven year old daughter were talking about what could potentially get you in trouble at school.  One of the things they discussed was saying...

I listened to the annual reading of the Declaration of Independence on NPR and was once again touched and humbled by the thoughtful and precise wording, the straightforward logic and the outright power of...