Blog

Dr. Martin Luther King changed my life in profound ways. He galvanized people of all races and sexes to take action to make equality a reality. For this, I am genuinely grateful. As a woman, I was born into a society that denied me fundamental rights that we take for...

As a child, the refrain, “it’s Girl Scout cookie time,” filled me with dread. While I loved Scouting and stayed in the program for over twenty years, I absolutely hated selling cookies. My earliest memories are trudging the neighborhood with boxes of sandwich cookies...

Of all the New Year’s Eves I’ve celebrated, the most eclectic was the turn of the century; December 31, 1999. We’d just purchased our central Texas ranch and managed to put a camper on the premises. What a great place to hang out as we faced the unknown. After all,...

Unfortunately, as I age, I tend to forget that my possessions are also maturing. A case in point is my sewing machine. Not really a sewer, the contraption is reserved for making curtains, crafts, repairs, and other odds and ends. It's always done the job. My daughter...

Last week a head cold invaded my life. When ill, my general tendency is to work anyway and power through. However, I decided to give myself a break and watch television. This, in itself, is unusual, because I’m a reader. My weekly viewing habits are a short section of...

There was a time when I could walk into anyone’s house and answer the telephone, turn on the TV, operate the stove, and flush the toilet. Not anymore. Remember when you just picked up the telephone handset and said ‘hello’? Now it’s punching a button to talk and...

 Thanksgiving has become an afterthought, an impediment to retailers hoping to make a fortune during the Christmas season. Halloween will soon be gobbled up as well. Hints of red and green began to show at stores brazen enough to decorate before the trick or treaters...

  While sunsets can be gorgeous, I’ve always been a sunrise kind of girl. To me, dawn brings the excitement of a new beginning, the promise of surprising possibilities that await. My first recollection of the exhilaration of sunrise was in my teens during a trail...

Curious about my ancestors and not my predisposition to illnesses, I had my saliva tested by 23AndMe a number of years ago.   Imagine my surprise when the company recently shared thirty-four traits gleaned from my DNA. To think that they are able describe me from a...

Last week we upgraded our internet to fiber. After completion, the landline rang, and I saw the name of the caller flash across the phone screen. Shocked, I asked my husband what had happened. When moving to the area some fifteen years ago, we had declined caller-ID...

I spent the majority of my adult life in Houston doing jobs that involved working with people--hurt people, angry people, wronged people—seldom happy people. I was so stressed that sad movies were off-limits. Watching films like Steel Magnolias would throw me over the...

 Tuesday, July 30, 2019, I said goodbye to the love of my life, my 2016 fully loaded fire-engine- red Jeep Renegade.    Of all the cars I’ve ever owned, this is the only one I dreamed about, researched, and planned for.   It’s been a crazy ride. I’ve never...

Mandarin-language robocalls are back!  They first appeared in 2018, but now have become a staple on my personal cell phone.  I have a Houston area code, and their sizeable Chinese population is apparently fertile ground for the scam.  According to the FBI, the...

I received a notice recently about first responder training being offered in my community sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security.  The course, AWR 147: Rail Car Incident Response, is an eight-hour, awareness level course developed to educate rural emergency...

Measles does have consequences.  I should know.  It happened to me.  The memories of my childhood are faded but some things you never forget.  The year was 1960 and I was in the third grade. I remember my mother being on the telephone and me crying; I had a headache...

Recently I made a quick trip to Houston for a doctor’s appointment.  And, while I much prefer country living, I miss the food diversity of the Bayou City.  After a little arm twisting, my husband took me to a Vietnamese noodle house. I relished in spring rolls and my...

Compassion, according to Merriam-Webster, refers to both an understanding of another’s pain and the desire to somehow mitigate that pain.A recent review of medical research determined that doctors who treated patients compassionately improved the patients’ outcome. ...

Over the last several months, I have watched our local Walmart expand its self-checkout units exponentially. These days, only a few of the checkout lines are manned by humans during the busiest shopping hours. Because our community tends to be older, the queues are...

 For the last fifteen years, my husband and I have had weekly breakfast outings to our preferred taqueria.  Most mornings our favorite table is available, but recently someone was occupying it.  I found myself with a strong compulsion to scream “Get out.  That’s...

“Sweatworking”, networking while working out, is in; golf and happy hour are out.   Apparently, golf doesn’t burn enough calories and takes too long while happy hour makes you fat and susceptible to saying things you shouldn’t.  This latest craze is even pushing out...

I’ve lived in the country for fifteen years. And, yes, spiders are always with us. However, this year they have invaded my space! I can’t walk in my yard or to my car without running into several tightly woven webs. I even drove to town the other day only to open the...

 Many times, when we have a problem, we latch onto the first solution we uncover.  I found myself in that situation recently when icy weather hit.  I had gone up the steps of my office, which are Austin limestone, with no problem but later, when I was ready to leave,...

Do you have something you’ve just gotta have this holiday season?  I had fun thinking about my obsessions from the past.  The first one I remember is a Shetland pony.  Fortunately, my parents were in control and the equine never materialized.  We lived in the suburbs...

After three shows at the Round Top/Warrenton Antique Festival, Mr. Rickety, the table, had not been sold.  The problem was he had a hole in the top and he was, well, rickety.  My friend told me it wouldn’t hurt her feelings if Mr. Rickety found his way to my burn...

Worried about being killed in an ISIS-inspired attack? Think again. You are more likely to be killed on the job.  An average of 700 employees are killed in the United States workplace annually. Additionally, over two million employees are affected by some form of...

Recently I had my ancestral DNA processed.  The big surprise was that I am 4% Neanderthal!  Of all the individuals tested by 23andme, I am in the 96% percentile; the average American is 2%.  One of the characteristics of Neanderthals is full and straight hair, of...

Early Thursday morning my husband and I watched 30 years of my life go up in flames.  It took me several days to amass the huge pile of investigative files, training materials, client documents, tax returns, and other papers I was reluctant to recycle.  As I cleaned,...

Experts say that for you to be more successful at keeping your new year’s resolutions you should be realistic and talk about them.  So this year I’m taking losing weight off the table. Instead I’ve chosen the following: Be positive. Give back. Learn new things. Write...

IMPROVING YOUR CREATIVITY Part III   Hopefully you have now mastered Part 2 of improving your creativity.  I will now explore the last suggestions from Human Relations 4th Ed. By Dalton, Hoyle, and Watts. 10. Have a sense of humor and learn to laugh easily. Humor...