Once again, Father’s Day is here, so I’m reposting some reflections on all fathers, be they biological, grandfathers, father figures, favorite uncles, surrogates, and others that have played or continue to play a role. I often think of my father, a man left without his own at age three and left him nothing but a name, and who survived two stepfathers, one of whom he connected with for a short time, and one with whom he didn’t, and of consequence didn’t really have a model. He was an only child, and thus didn’t have any siblings with whom to share the experience. Considering that, he did remarkably well in the parent department, raising three of us with generosity. He wasn’t a demonstrably doting parent, but we knew that he loved and cared deeply about all of us. I had a personality closest to my mother’s, so he and I were perhaps closer than my brother or sister, because I understood him. Oh, yes. He loved them both, but my brother was a bit of a challenge, and my sister, the youngest, was the princess. When it came to managing his affairs later on, that became my role.
Continue reading “Reflections, again, on Father’s Day”Tag: life
Returning to my routines
In the last few weeks, I’ve had to get up and out in the mornings quite a bit. My choices, of course, but reading my daily newspaper in the afternoon is a violation of, well, my routine. Definitely a violation of all things sacred. Mornings are all about starting the coffee pot, and gathering my newspaper from the front porch to be read promptly on the back porch. Along the way, I turn on the computer so that both it and the internet are nicely warmed up should I feel in the mood to write. This morning I am, inspired perhaps because a piece of mine on immigration was in the weekend edition of the local paper. And I’ve fallen behind on my blogs. (My apologies!)
Continue reading “Returning to my routines”Remembering Our Mothers
It hit me the other day that, of all the topics about which I’ve written, I haven’t done anything on Mother’s Day. An oversight that will be corrected here, and high time too.
Continue reading “Remembering Our Mothers”On Getting Sick
My apologies to my readers for a gap in postings. I’ve been sick. Nothing that serious, although I can still act like it was. Our daughter, known to you as the Princess, was a presenter at a conference in Chicago in early April, bringing back with her a nice assortment of souvenirs and the flu. Apparently, it was making the rounds, some thoughtful conference attendee spreading their germs far and wide. In a slightly amusing note, she had two job interviews the next week, zoom calls, and two of the interviewers also had caught what they were now referring to as the “Chicago Flu”.
Continue reading “On Getting Sick”Don’t Bother Leaving a Message
Some time ago – actually five years, if I’m counting, I wrote about answering machines and voice mail, which had been, it seems, the gold standard for reaching out to friends and family. Some of you older folks remember when they were first developed, with separate devices hooked up to the telephone. Cordless phones were the size of FBI walkie-talkies, and we had to plug in car phones. Yes, answering machines were so innovative, such an improvement. Until they’d be filled up with junk callers, telemarketers, and stuff we didn’t need to hear. Then, we’d get unseemly pleas from the technology to “please empty your voicemail.”
Continue reading “Don’t Bother Leaving a Message”Embracing Change
This is a departure once again from my usual writing. If you could see me, I have on my “serious” face. With an election coming up quickly, along with a number of philosophical issues and decisions to be made, it’s worth a serious discussion of how we, as older Americans, adapt to life’s changes.
Continue reading “Embracing Change”“Keep Your Thoughts to Yourself”
Thus said my horoscope the other day. Her Ladyship read it out boldly to me, and we had a good laugh, because, in all honestly, that’s not something I do well. Often over the years, I’d be sitting in a meeting where that little voice in my head would say, “keep quiet”. Sometimes I could, but sometimes, not so much. I come from a long line of “Did I say that out loud?” Irish folks. Discretion and restraint aren’t really our strongest attributes. When Abraham Lincoln said, “It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt.”, he may well have had a number of my ancestors in mind.
Continue reading ““Keep Your Thoughts to Yourself””Expanding Her Inheritance
How much really is too much? Can you have enough wealth? Most of us, and our immediate circle of friends, are what we used to call “comfortable”. Our immediate needs are met – we don’t face “food insecurity” or being homeless, at least I don’t think we do. As many of my readers know, I’m still chasing that illusive lottery payoff. My big check from Publishers Clearing House has not arrived, despite them telling me it’s on the way. They even have my address for delivery.
Continue reading “Expanding Her Inheritance”Oh, My Aching Back – More on Aging
Encountered a bit of bother this week. I’d been waiting anxiously until the weather broke so that I could start to tend the outdoor garden beds. I may have worked a bit too long – as all gardeners know, much of what we do is bending over to clear away the dead stuff, and thus, my back is sore. It’s been a festival of ibuprofen around here, and my whole gardening operation has come been shut down. The weather has turned colder again to accommodate my incapacitation. But Her Ladyship has been resistant to the idea of hiring an assistant or two to manage the estate. I know – penny pinching in the worst sense.
Continue reading “Oh, My Aching Back – More on Aging”Lottery Objectives At Odds . . . . . .
As I have written several times in the past, I’m a faithful and regular customer of the lottery. With every ticket purchased, I’m poised on the balcony of wealth. Sometimes it’s unimaginable wealth, sometimes just a few million. It’s always with a degree of torment to hear about someone in Ohio or Wisconsin, or most recently in Michigan, that bought the winning ticket, be it a ticket for Powerball or Mega-Millions, or just a scratch ticket. They’re quoted on the news, saying “I don’t usually buy tickets. I was just walking by the 7Eleven, and it was a spontaneous thing.” Are you kidding me? They shouldn’t tell me that, at least out loud. There was the story in the news years back of the lady that bought a lottery ticket – yes, a single ticket, mind you, in Florida while on vacation. It won, of course, and the reporter mentioned the irony of – get this – her driving her Rolls Royce back to Florida to collect her winnings. Did she need that? I’m thinking . . . . Then there are the repeat winners. The people that had a million-dollar scratch ticket two years ago and, how delightful, just got another one. Bought at the same store somewhere out in rural Oklahoma or Arkansas, although now they live in Palm Springs. Now that’s just God laughing at me.
Continue reading “Lottery Objectives At Odds . . . . . .”
I'm Thinking...No! 