One day, I was washing a window, which is an activity I don’t much care for. I was in a big hurry to be done with it. Suddenly, the window fell onto my thumb and I was stuck. For a moment, I went straight into denial, took the cloth from my trapped hand and continued […]
The other day, I walked past a garden alongside a building. There was a beautiful, single yellow iris blooming against the wall, but barely visible because there was a giant bush in front of it. This seemed tragic to me. Here, this gorgeous flower is baring itself to the world, but hardly anyone will see […]
The other day, our dog Maude was walking around with a rawhide clenched in her teeth. She walked over to her water bowl, and clearly wanted a drink, but was unwilling to drop the rawhide to get the drink. She was holding on to it out of fear of losing it; a fear that comes […]
When I was in high school, all the bad-ass boys drove Mustangs. My brother called them “bellybutton cars” because, like bellybuttons, everyone seemed to have one. Of course, looking back, only certain heavy metal fans with mullets really had them at the time, but that’s not the point. My real point is to describe a […]
There is a story called “The Golden Windows” by Laura E. Richards. I read it as a child, and it made an impression. Every day, a boy sees a house in the distance with shining windows made of gold and diamonds. One day, he decides to find the house, and wanders until he does. When he gets […]
Spring has a way of sneaking up on me every year. Months go by without any green, and then all of a sudden, little plants are shooting up everywhere I look. The earliest flowers have already been blooming for weeks: forsythia, daffodils, crocuses. It is almost past time to get the early vegetable seeds in […]
Most people have had this happen: you wake up from a deep sleep and you can’t feel your arm. You might not even be able to find it at first- maybe it is tucked behind your head, or under your back. So, you take the sleeping arm into your waking hand, and put it where […]
On his album “Has Been” William Shatner has a lovely song about death called “You’ll Have Time.” He manages to be simultaneously funny and poignant. Repeatedly, he states, “Live life like you’re gonna die….’cause you’re gonna.” This brings to mind my friend Vinny, who I met when he was dying of cancer. He was 35, […]
If mice have been ensconced in your home for a while, they will become very resistant to the idea of any sort of change, especially if they have had unlimited access to food, such as that left out for your pet. As you remove food sources and set traps, the mouse population goes down. The […]
Mice easily enter a house that has openings, warmth, and easy access to food. Basically, they will come in as far as you let them, and take whatever you leave out for them, whether it is nesting material or food. To keep them out, you have to seal the cracks to the outside, and keep […]