It’s 2019. Our vehicles are another model year older. We’ve inched another digit toward the ‘20s. I’m trying to absorb the fact that today’s 18-year-olds were born in 2001, the year of 9-11. They have little if any memory of events before 2006–no memory of what life was like before the iPhone or Facebook. They’ve always written current dates with …
I still remember the toy telephone that Santa Claus brought the neighbor kids. I know. Christmas isn’t supposed to be about envy. I should be grateful for the gifts I did receive, but longing is a powerfully fickle thing. You think you want a certain gift until you realize what you really want is what some other kid got. So …
Last week we bid farewell to President George H. W. Bush–“41” as he’s fondly called. History may regard him as the best one-term president to ever to serve in the White House. He was certainly one of the best prepared. Bush was a successful businessman, a Congressman, UN ambassador, envoy to China, director of the CIA, chairman of the Republican …
Roy Orbison may have died 30 years ago, but his hologram lives on. I saw it just two weeks ago. In the age of fake news and other slights of hand, the mere idea of this concert was enough to lure my friend Carol and me to Greenville. As the curtain rose, sharp V-shaped beams of light shone from center …
I know this sounds crazy, but I’m convinced that my Smartphone is a two-way listening device. I saw an intriguing interview a few months ago. News anchor and technology reporter Brett Larson discussed how smartphone apps are programmed to listen to their owners whenever the phone is turned on. Tech industry leaders deny that such capability exists. I believed them …
Some odd experiences have made me a wonder about the paranormal. One of my first ventures into creepiness was years ago at the Andersonville National Historic Site in Georgia. We stopped for maybe an hour, but an hour was long enough. There’s something about a place where thousands have died in a short period that has residual energy. I didn’t …
Two years ago I became a grandmother, with the birth of Violet Wilson in Murrieta Hot Springs, CA. I had to get my head around this, as did my husband. We’d never ventured into baby territory in this century. Over the past two years, Violet had visited us here and there, but it wasn’t until this past August that we …
We’ve all heard about preppers who stock up on supplies in case something bad happens that puts them off the grid. Thanks to Hurricane Florence, most of us became preppers ourselves this past week, stocking up on water, nonperishable food, matches, batteries, medications and other supplies. I’m not a hoarder, but I do keep a full pantry. I learned to …
I know it’s September, but if you’re like me, 2019 began months ago with a scheduled dental appointment, club meetings and conference dates. By early August, my notes for the coming year were bunching up on the margins for December. It was time for me to buy a new calendar, one of those broad spiral notebooks with a vinyl cover …
You fumble through pockets, bags and check your surroundings and suddenly realize the horror: your brand-new cell phone has vanished. That happened on a recent trip to Boston. We returned our rental car at Logan Airport, and if you’ve ever flown in and out of there, you know what a challenge it is. The car rental center has 12 car …