Looks like fun doesn't it? A woman in uniform inspecting a restroom.  Oh, the good old days, the days of simpler times, decisions, and situations.  The days when there were no shades of gray, when white was white and black was black. … Read full post »

  I had thought to name this posting 2010 The Endless Summer or some other reference to this particularly opressive season.  Maybe it is the midwestern heat and humidity that is making me cranky or maybe the planets just aren't lined up. For whatever reason the energy is… Read full post »

facebook logo by sylvia

  I have been dragged kicking and screaming into having a FaceBook page.  You see spilling my guts to anyone who wants to see what is on my mind at any given moment of the day or night has never been something that I thought would… Read full post »

photo courtesy www.myauburnjournal.com

 What a crazed week.  Oil, that precious stuff of life continues to hemorrhage into the Gulf of Mexico and We The People in all our hubris are powerless to stop this new Frankenstein of our own creation. 

  In other news… Read full post »

  Recently I was invited to the local high school talent show by one of my daughter’s best friends.  The invitation was flattering as the year my daughter appeared in the same show I was told “this isn’t for parents, MOM!” Oh, okay.

  So whe… Read full post »

  I am on a tear right now.  I realize on a rational level that justice is something that is not dispensed equally; that life isn't fair; that sometimes bad things happen to people who don't deserve it and from time to time the the good die young.  Howeve… Read full post »

  I woke up out of sorts and gloomy this morning.  It has been raining steadily since midnight.  My back yard which is down hill from those of my neighbors has become a swamp.  I half expect to see an alligator rise from the murky depths of the puddles,lurking, searching… Read full post »

 I had an appointment this week with a man who wanted to refinance his house.  He works for a large international company that pays for most of his health insurance.  As we sat down to go over his paperwork, unsolicited, he announced to me "That Barak Obama is the worst presi… Read full post »

 About two years ago I had the television turned on to a football game between two major universities.  One team had made a drive down the field,the drive having stalled, called upon their kicker, a freshman, to score three points that they desperately needed. … Read full post »

This post is being written as a codicil to Voice Gal’s posting of January 2 with regard to misogyny, sexism and all the other 50’s and 60’s bunk that many of us “gals” (the favored word that men from that era apply to those of us who possess a double XX… Read full post »

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 courtsy of www.fs.fed.us

    In 1962 my dad’s wander lust compelled him to answer a summons from his sister who had just discovered a dying mining town in Colorado that in her opinion was the perfect spot to spend summers. She had purchased a house, fully furnished… Read full post »

courtesy of flickr.com

 When I was about thirteen and at the height of self absorbed and self conscious early teen dom, my father brought home a school bus.  It was the standard issue yellow forty eight passenger variety.  The year was 1965, a much simpler time regarding/… Read full post »

www.tvparty.com

  “You’re not getting older, you’re getting better.”  Anyone around here remember that advertising slogan from the 70’s?  ‘Course not, that would mean we are getting old(er).  At the time my rejoinder was, if that&/… Read full post »

 courtesy of www.twistedsnifer.com

  Here I am again, spending more ink, paper and time on a subject I consider troublesome and best ignored, Karl Rove.  The problem is, someone like Karl Rove can’t be ignored.

  What caught my eye this time was a reference o… Read full post »

courtesy of twistedsifter.com

 So there I was Friday evening September 11th, 2009 headed south on one of my favorite Indiana two lanes on my way to my older daughter's liberal arts college campus which is located in a very unlikely small town in the middle of cornfields. … Read full post »

Grey and Gold by John Rogers Cox

1942

Cleveland Museum of Art

  It is high summer.  It comes every year right about this time.  Long hot muggy midwestern days, dark thunderheads loom on the horizon, rolling in during the late afternoon; creating a perfect backdrop for e/… Read full post »

image: myspace.com

   I was pondering today, the unresolved feelings between my younger daughter and her ex boyfriend. (Or at least hers, his may be resolved to his satisfaction just fine.) To understand my concern, one must know that I am a big one for tying up loose ends.&nb… Read full post »

  I believe in an earlier post I referred to “the family idiot trip”.  A vacation, road trip, or travel plan in which anything can and will happen.  This is my favorite kind of travel. It   normally involves a destination of some sort (though th… Read full post »

www.thefairypaintbox.com

  Most high school graduates clean out their childhood room before leaving home for college.  I certainly did, however I had a coveted basement room (with a window providing egress to the outside) and sibblings lined up to take it.  College… Read full post »

www.asi.com.au

  Customer service.  I don’t know about you, but I find this phrase to be a bit of an oxymoron these days.  It’s a strange quaint phrase bringing to mind a simpler time and place, maybe Keokuk, Iowa, 1981.

 Customer service be… Read full post »

  It happened again recently.  I awoke from some far away place (I seem to inhabit them more and more frequently as I age) and realized I had made a decision for which there is no good explanation.  (I tend to disregard the &/… Read full post »

 blog.lib.umn.edu Dearest

Dearest Daughter,

No one tells you how to be a parent.  There are no operating instructions issued with each new baby.  No owner’s manual, tech support, or directions to follow. There is no toll free number at which you can reach a s/… Read full post »