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 →
Death comes in threes, they say. Robin Williams. Lauren Bacall. And the third? For me, the third was not a celebrity. My old friend and high-school classmate, Mary Barnard, died this evening of breast cancer. She had been fighting the disease for years, but just lately, within the last few months, it became clear that her stay here on the physical was drawing to a close. She was admitted to hospice yesterday, and this evening... Read more →
I took today off to attend my cousin's interment. It took three weeks because of some stupidity on the part of the cemetery management. (The same cemetery that neglected my mother's grave so egregiously.) My relatives are buried all over this historic cemetery, and my cousin wanted his ashes to be interred with his parents. So on this cold, bright morning Joe and I walked up to the old church to attend my cousin's burial,... Read more →
I met Jim Lawrence at JournalCon DC in 2004. I liked him right off the bat and began following his journal. He started following mine too. We had quite a bit in common -- we liked the same music, we both enjoyed cooking, we were both instructional designers, and we both knew what APL stands for (A Programming Language, if you're curious). I enjoyed his political views, even when they differed from mine, because he... Read more →
Again. Another madman; another mass shooting. Only this time the madman slaughtered little children. Kids who were looking forward to Santa or enjoying their Hanukkah gelt are now gone in a hail of bullets, leaving their parents to grieve. Once again, I cannot wrap my mind around this. I cannot figure out what happens to a person to make them commit such a horrible horrible crime. How does a person determine that, not only must... Read more →
Image from BOTA.org My brother-in-law died last Wednesday morning, the day after surgery. His vascular system was too weak to sustain his blood flow. I miss him. I was going to post a picture of him, but none of pictures I have really captures his smile, his gravelly voice, his unique sense of humor. He answered the door one morning; the guy at the door was delivering a dumpster. "Hi, I'm from Solid Waste," said... Read more →
Once or twice a week Joe works a late shift, which gives me a chance to watch all of the weirdo reality shows that both fascinate and repel me. I catch up on the toddlers in tiaras, I watch bars being rescued, and I listen to ladies say yes to the dress. Right now I'm watching "Taboo", which is featuring segments on female bodybuilders, a woman who has undergone pretty extreme tattooing and piercing and... Read more →
It's raining today. Not a big thunderstorm or a brief shower, but a steady, gray rain -- sometimes light, sometimes heavier -- but always rain, soaking everything. It seems right, after yesterday's tragedy. It would be wrong, somehow, to have a bright, sunshiney day today. The police have defused the first tripwire in the shooter's booby trapped apartment. The living mourn their dead; the wounded begin to heal, if they can, both physically and psychically.... Read more →
This afternoon I took a nap in front of the TV set. The PBS series Moguls and Movie Stars was on. I had one of my surreal dreams - I know, all dreams are surreal. In the dream, I was watching the exact episode of Moguls and Movie Stars that was on. Now that's not so inexplicable; my brain simply transferred what my ears were already hearing into the dream. Anyway, I was sitting on... Read more →
I had to do Mom's final tax return last month, which meant that I had to root around in the records a little bit. I found her wallet in the blue steel records box and went through it to ensure that there wasn't anything else that I needed to take care of. (I suppose it's time to throw it out, but I can't quite do that yet.) At any rate, I found her stash of... Read more →