The big ash tree in front of my house was dying. I’d had no clue since these days I don’t leave the house much and it had been weeks — probably two months — since I’d been out front. When we backed out of the driveway, I gasped. My big, beautiful ash tree was dead on one side. Dead! The gardener had told me I needed to water my tree more because it was not looking good. I explained to him, with a heavy heart, that there is an ash tree disease going through Las Vegas — and perhaps other parts of the country – that is killing ash trees and no amount of water can cure it. Last year I had watered it extensively and it seemed to be holding its own, but not now. The ash tree is right outside my window so I can see it as… Read More »
Letter from Grandmother
This is going to be brief. Ir’s part of a letter from my Grandmother Eloise in Chicago. I came across it while decluttering and although it’s a long letter, I found her last paragraph timely and thought you might find it interesting, too. Here goes: “I am forgetting about the election and what it may mean. Things are bad and they are not going to get any better in the near future – many changes are going on that are revolutionary in their possibilities – and we find even the days and temperatures and the climates making drastic changes in a few years. We have had almost spring-like weather up to now [this was written in December] – just an occasional cold day – and not anything like real winter. It was the same last year and then one did not need a heavy wrap until after January and then… Read More »
Life without a microwave
It was late — past midnight, going on for 1:00 a.m. I simply could not sleep. The cats were snoozing peacefully on each side of me and there I lay — a cat sandwich — thinking of all the things I need to do in the morning. And now it’s half past 1:00. No help for it – I was going to have to get up and fix my sure-cure-for-sleeplessness, a cup of warm Ovaltine and buttered toast. The cats would not like being woken, but hey, who’s in charge here, anyway? Oh, yeah, right. Well, maybe they’ll forgive me. Of course, as soon as I snapped on the kitchen light, they were there, dancing around my feet and uttering little chirps and yowls. “I am not getting you anything to eat,” I told them. “You had your dinner.” Smokey looked right at me and I could tell what she… Read More »
goat getting and all that jazz
“what gets my goat.” A favorite expression of my grandfather’s. As a child I knew my grandparents didn’t have goats — or livestock of any kind — so it always amused me to hear grandfather referring to his goat. Whatever that meant …
Cat Nap and other misnomers
Cats like to nap. They like it so much, they do it for hours at a time. Like 18-20 hours. And yet when we say “cat nap,” we don’t mean a sleep-a-thon. So how did the phrase “cat nap” come to mean a brief refreshing nap?
Cleaning out is hard to do
It’s time for this stuff to go. Family treasures, of no import to anyone but myself. Surely someone can list them on eBay, but it won’t be
For the convenience of our customers
“For the convenience of our customers,” the notice read, “We will be closing on Saturdays.” Wait — what?? This is going to make my banking more convenient how? “We are adjusting our hours,” the notice went on, “and will stay open an extra hour on Wednesdays and Fridays, closing at 6:00 p.m.” So wait — you’re saying that I need to rush to the bank after work, hoping I get out of work on time and there isn’t too much traffic. and if I don’t make it on Wednesday, I can give it another shot on Friday. How is this convenient for me? It’s not. Not one bit. And with the Covid thing, the markets and other stores have instituted “senior shopping hour,” which means getting there at 7 or 8 a.m. I realize they are trying to do something nice for us (and themselves), but why do stores assume… Read More »
Pets – Part II
Okay, this pet thing — I had never intended this to be an on-going blog, but just have to add this. I’m wondering once again why I put up with them. Let’s start with the food. the 3 trays of cat food — the shreds, the pate and fish. Just for a change-up, I got them fish. I put some in their dishes. Yes! fish! They were tired of chicken and happy with fish. For three days. No? You don’t like fish anymore? Okay, let’s try the shreds. But once the gravy has been licked off, the rest is left to dry out. How about the pate? No? You don’t like that either? Well then, how about NOTHING?? How about I stop giving you food altogether? How about I just let you STARVE!! Yeah, you think you’d like that? Do you know how much all this costs? No, you don’t.… Read More »
These creatures we call pets
What’s so great about pets, anyway? I have three of the feline persuasion. It is now 5 a.m. and Smokey has woken me up for the second time tonight wanting to go outside. We have a cat door, but she won’t use it. So outside it is – Outside as in dig-in-the-dirt. Like a latrine, you know? I have never been a fan of litter boxes and unless there is an extreme circumstance as endless rain, I don’t use one. Well, of course, I don’t use one. I mean I don’t set one up for the cats. I truly do understand and sympathize with going outside in the rain to do your business. While “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” sounds cute in a song, I’m sure it doesn’t feel so all-fired cute when you’re actually out in it looking for some dry dirt. As I stumble to the door,… Read More »
Is the Mediterranean really mysterious?
“Mysterious Mediterranean” the brochure touts. I’m not sure I want to uncover the mysteries of the Mediterranean, but the brochure also talks about a cruise called the “Magical Mediterranean.” Whichever it is, I can tell you that by the end of this blog I will know how to spell Mediterranean which, if my nearly non-existent Latin is correct, means something like middle of the earth. But I could be wrong. This is all brought on because somebody sold my info to Oceania Cruises and they diligently send me a brochure every 3 weeks touting their cruises which really do look exceptional. The brochure tells me that I can have “endless adventures” and is chock-full of pictures of happy couples dancing, getting massaged, taking cooking classes and zipping through the streets of Rome on a Vespa. Everybody is slender and well dressed and smiling like there’s no tomorrow. And there’s not… Read More »
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