• Blog
  • Waste Not, Want Not

    I wrote a few months ago about my dad’s passing. Mom is doing really well. My sister and I have been visiting her to help with some of the team projects. Last summer, I helped find a home for the 1980s electronics assemblies that my dad used in building Gamma Instruments (his thickness gauge business). […]

  • Blog
  • MCB 1942-2023

    This post covers an ending of one era and a beginning of another. In Spring of 2022, my sister visited my parents. In our debrief she gave me stern instructions: Don’t wait until Thanksgiving to visit. Dad’s health is not good. I called home and confronted my dad. Amy says you are not going to […]

  • Blog
  • Who Said That?

    Son #2 was home for a few days from NYC. I asked him what the strangest or funniest or scariest (which I added reluctantly because who wants to know that? not this mama) thing he has seen in the subway. I follow Subway Creatures on instagram; I know there is strange stuff to be seen: […]

  • Blog
  • A Sandwich

    These two people have something important in common. Aha! you say, the Yankees caps. Nope. The grandson couldn’t give a fig about the Yankees. Grandpa lent him the cap for for a day of fun at the ballpark. Grandson could give a fig about Grandpa’s Rule for such outings: Eat Whatever You Want. And it […]

  • Blog
  • The Luckiest Men Alive

    When I introduce him to one of my friends, DH has been known to exclaim, “I am the luckiest man alive!” Apparently this form of introduction makes quite an impression on people. The new acquaintance finds it charming and such a sweet thing to say. Me? How do I find it? Laden with subtext. Here’s […]

  • Blog
  • Dear, Dear

    I love advice columns. My favorite part of reading Dear Abby is laughing about whether someone I know is the correspondent. For example: Dear Abby: My calico cat, Rosie, seems to be fixated on my next-door neighbor Ron. Every morning Rosie grooms herself for an hour, then jumps in the window to watch for Ron…. […]

  • Blog
  • Chartreuse Dining Room Chairs

    Richard Russo writes in his memoir, Elsewhere: One of the sadder truths of childhood is that children, lacking the necessary experience by which to gauge, are unlikely to know if something is abnormal or unnatural unless an adult tells them. In the 1970s, my family had chartreuse vinyl upholstered dining room chairs. Chartreuse vinyl? Not […]

  • Family
  • Pool’s Closing! Everybody Out!

    When Son #1 was three years old, DH used to take him to swim at the Stanford pool. If they were there at the end of the day, they witnessed the closing drill. It involved the lifeguards blowing their whistles and hollering, “POOL’S CLOSING! EVERYBODY OUT!” Those lifeguards had spent a long shift in the […]