Phiddipus audax, the Bold Jumping Spider, on a Prickly Pear pad. He was doing a threat display for me as I leaned in to take his portrait. The audacity of the wee beast! To take on a human thousands of times his size! You have to respect the unflagging courage of it. It’s no wonder… Read More Inimitable Spider
This morning as I was sitting here looking up a recipe for crystallized violets I was thinking about the way children grow. I should elucidate. The Jr Mad Scientist is turning 18 in a few short weeks. For her sixth birthday, I believe, I decorated her birthday cake with violets from the garden. That… Read More Violets in a Storm
The Little Man was looking over my shoulder at my farcebook feed, and commented it’s too memey on FB these days. Well, I don’t know where the cool kidz hang out, but between MeWe and the annoying but ubiquitous FB, my friends are all there where the memes are. He followed up his commentary… Read More Die Hard Christmas
I’m feeling like perhaps I’m reaching some semblance of routine. It will take weeks, if not months, for me to be fully trained and comfortable at the new job. It’s just different enough to be a fresh challenge in ways I hadn’t anticipated… and the cold office isn’t helping any. I did go out… Read More Equilibrium
Sometimes I could get drunk on my freedom. It’s heady stuff, and just like alcohol, if you get enough of it it makes you giddy. I get in my car, and think “I could drive… anywhere.” I could. I don’t, but that’s a choice I make. I don’t have to carry my papers with me… Read More The Intoxication of Independence
I took a week off from the blog. It wasn’t something I’d planned to do, it just happened. Work has been work, but family has been… It’s an interesting season of life. You’d think, with four teenagers, one of them completely independent and out of the house, I’d have more time, not less. Ha. Hahahahaaha!… Read More No Babies Here
The hardest thing to do is to do nothing at all. I was reading an article about medicine, medical care, mental health, and psychotherapy, and the motto of ‘first do no harm’ which is part of the foundation of medical ethics. The Hippocratic Oath contains the phrase “abstain from doing harm” and the idea is… Read More Mother’s Touch
“Can you buy a gross of forks? If it were just the two of us, that would last us about five lifetimes. With the kids, it’ll be lucky if it lasts us five years.” We were standing in the kitchen looking in the silverware drawer, where there is indeed a dearth of forks. I’d found… Read More A Gross of Forks
Written by Sanford Begley Life is flux. That is a truism we are all familiar with. No matter how perfect, or perfectly horrible, life is, it will change. Now that change is sometimes good,sometimes bad, it is always changing. I am looking at examples of that in my life right now,and pondering what it will… Read More Life is Flux: Curmudgeon’s Corner
It’s the day we celebrate motherhood. I am a mother myself, and I find that today I am remembering those first months of motherhood, before the birth, when I was trying my best to prepare as much as possible for what was coming. I couldn’t possibly prepare myself, but I tried, reading books, talking to… Read More Mother’s Day
Written by Sanford Begley Are you man enough? I went to the barber today. New shop, my old barber retired. So the barber was making conversation. He asked me what kind of mileage I got. What he really wanted to know was why I was driving a girlie car. You see, I got a good… Read More Curmudgeon’s Corner: Are You Man Enough?
I don’t anticipate that you will read this, or understand. Actually, in some ways I hope you never understand. It’s difficult, to tell you what you need to know, since you are so distant now. Perhaps I should have said more, sooner, but your childhood was precious to me, and I did not desire to… Read More To my Daughter, on the Occasion of her 17th Birthday,