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 …
California’s fire season has been a record-breaker. This latest wildfire, dubbed the Holy Fire, has had me keenly interested. Photos of a suburban neighborhood showed thick smoke billowing from hills overlooking the area where our son and family lived less than two years ago. Thanks to an arsonist, the streets and buildings we visited south of Corona were evacuated as …
If you’re like me, you’ve spent most of your working life in Catawba County. I hadn’t thought much about that until I attended docent training at the Museum of History on the Square in Newton. That’s where “The Way We Worked” will be exhibited from Aug. 10-Sept. 18. I will be one of the volunteers helping to guide visitors through …
On Friday, July 13 I stepped into a house built by my 9th great grandfather, Benjamin Balch. No, I am not making this up. The Balch House, located in coastal Beverly, MA, dates to 1679 and is one of the oldest wooden houses in North America. I discovered the amazing house last summer while poking around on Ancestry and other …