Little things

Every time we learn a new tidbit of information about my father’s adoption, there is an emotional process that unplugs the present. It feels like a giant box of archived files has been spilled into your mental inbox. Forgotten and fuzzy memories have to be replayed with the new information added, like a newly discovered […]

Sounds like winter

Our tiny neighborhood’s hills, trees and creeks combine to create an acoustic oddity that peaks when the leaves have fallen and the air is crisp. Unlike the muted, echoed or separated tracks of noise that you hear in a city, everyday noises blend in our spoon shaped hood to create a perfectly mixed symphony. It’s […]

fingers

Once upon a time, Doug declared that he could build Amy a playhouse in a single weekend. Since Doug is a perfectionist/artisan, that project continues more than a year later. Sunday afternoon, while Doug fretted over making the perfect cuts in a tiny scrap of red cedar, I said “be careful” and wandered off to […]

Today we learned:

1. Never ride a Greyhound bus or walk barefoot in downtown Nashville. 2. In an earthquake, Twitter is more fun and informative than Facebook. 3.Even the most physically and mentally active people are vulnerable, but they remain superheroes. 9:30 pm Aspie Caveman quote: “Was there an earthquake today?”

December 31, 2010

It’s time to end my self imposed holiday hiatus from blogging and end the chapter that is 2010. How do I wrap up an entire year and file it with other memories? I witnessed several actual and metaphorical trainwrecks this year. Some were slow motion nightmares and others came from nowhere. Mistakes were made and […]

Betty

While Buster sat and watched the cove with more devotion than most people watch their favorite reality shows, Betty did what women have always done. She multi-tasked. She kept one eye on the activity in the cove and one eye on her husband. She maintained the tidiest house I have ever seen. Until a fall […]

my car is magic

I drive children all over town. This school, that school, scouts, meetings and activities are the dots that I connect day after day. With all that driving, you would think that the gas station is a regular stop on my routes, but it isn’t. My car is magic. It never needs gasoline. Every few days, […]

Beware the Monarch

I spend enormous amounts of time sitting in the car, waiting to shuffle children from one activity to another activity. It’s peaceful time that I spend writing, reading, chatting and (occasionally) killing zombies without the distraction of laundry and dishes. Unless the air is so funky that my breathing sounds like Wheezy, I roll down […]

Life lessons

Are you a teen or twenty-something who blinks your eyes, sticks out your bottom lip or whatever to get someone else to fix life’s little annoyances for you? Stop it. If you don’t, you will someday be a middle-aged incompetent, whining in the auto parts store aisle because the do-it-yourself wiper blade reference machine is […]

stuck on pause

My mental filing cabinet holds a vivid memory of the last place I see someone. If I never see them again, in my mind they are trapped forever in that place. My summer routines are completely different than my school year routines. This week, I’ve revisited places that I haven’t been since school let out […]