It seems wrong that tonight's full moon is called the Cold Moon when it's 59 degrees outside. (It's also called the Long Nights Moon; I wrote about that a long time ago.) It's also the Winter Solstice, when darkness falls at 4:39 in the afternoon and lasts until 7:19 tomorrow morning. A long, long night. So much dark. I have mixed feelings about the night. I'm scared of it, a legacy of another cold Winter... Read more →
As far as inspirational sayings go, I may have seemed a little snarky in my previous post. I didn't mean to, honest. I have nothing against inspirational sayings. I even have a few favorites, like this one from Nolan Bushnell: Just when you think the sun shines out of your ass, all you have is an illuminated landing strip. The Signals catalog (and others, I expect) have nice cuff bracelets engraved with inspirational words and... Read more →
Hello, my name is Mary, and I'm a notebook junkie. It all started many years ago when I was introduced to the Franklin Day Planner, a classic case of "first one's free." In 2016, I used a very nice planner from Ink and Volt, but it made me write down too many things. I wrote down goals - yearly, monthly, weekly. I reflected on my progress and celebrated my accomplishments. I kept track of appointments... Read more →
I've been stewing about this since I first read about it on the Clown College Graduates Facebook page. Big Apple Circus Clown Grandma Resigns A lot of wonderful people are very good friends with Barry Lubin, and they were understandably shocked and saddened by the news. I get this, I really do. It's a terrible thing to wrap your mind around - that your dear friend could do this heinous thing. Sarah Silverman discussed this... Read more →
This has been a week of melancholy shocks. I'd like to tell you about three very different friends of mine who have checked out of Hotel Earth. Janet I found out over the weekend that an old childhood friend died unexpectedly. Janet and her two sisters lived across the street and up two houses. Janet was a year older than I, and her younger sister was exactly my age. We all played together along with... Read more →
Today's random Holidailies prompt is: If you could change, undo, or modify one decision in your past, which would it be and why? This is an interesting question. On December 21, 1972, I decided to put off writing a four-page term paper to go to the movies with a young friend who didn't have his driver's license. We went to see Camille, starring Greta Garbo, at a theater in Georgetown, DC. I dropped him off... Read more →
I've been stewing over this article from the New York Times for a whole damn week. Go ahead and read it; it's short. I'll wait. Here's the gist: When elders -- Boomers in particular, but also Gen-Xers -- use social media, they become stupid and childish. Or, maybe it's that they remain stupid and childish, like the young people who use social media. Apparently we are supposed to be wise and serious, as opposed to... Read more →
I had a little bit of a tough time yesterday. I slept poorly, partly the result of a nagging, nasty backache that made turning over in bed a painful undertaking. I went through cycles of too hot, too cold, too hot, too cold. And, I stayed up too late. I seem to think that staying up later means that I'll sleep better, maybe straight through for six hours. It never happens that way and I... Read more →
What would it have been like, I wonder, to be standing at the back of the cold dark tomb on top of the hill in Newgrange, waiting for dawn on the shortest day of the year, to see the shaft of sunlight pierce the rockbox at the entrance and slide like a snake of light straight down to where you were standing? What would it have been like, I wonder, to be standing on the... Read more →
Hangin' Out on the River So it's August. We're on the downslope of summer; the dog days. Back to school commericials abound.The cicadas are singing the blues, looking for love (or at least sex) and trying to avoid the cicada killer wasps. The weather is changeable. Heat waves and thunderstorms are followed by more reasonable warm and dry days with cool nights. The most doggish of the dog days drives me back into the gym... Read more →