What would a family trip be, without the option to look in on ourselves and other people traveling and gaining a better insight into the human condition? We start at the home front and look in at my own family as they prepare to depart. The closer we get to departure time, the more tense the situation is.  Are all the bags packed? Did you forget to set the air conditioners? What about all the plethora of medications that we always take on our trips, most of which will stay in their respective utility bags without being touched? The answer to this last question is usually yes we have packed them all, and yes we do need them all, because you never know. Then there is the packing of the car itself. What can be stored for long term retrieval and what has to have immediate access. If it is going to rain. . . maybe. . . we need to be able to get to our rainwear.
Continue reading Vacation travels 1…

She came to us a stray, pregnant, ready to give birth. It was 1990. We fed her outside the house for a few days before she gave birth in our backyard. Little did we know the effect this cat would have on our lives. She was a domestic shorthaired cat. She gave birth to 5 kittens, one was still born and the rest lived, but for how long would depend on our compassion and fortitude. Whether she gave birth on our basement porch or we moved the kittens there from under a bush, I don’t remember. I do remember worrying whether or not Rinny, which was the name we eventually gave her, would be willing to raise these kittens with us there. After a while we began to worry about predators since our porch was open and whether or not Rinny would abandon her kittens, so we decided to move them into our basement.
Continue reading Rinny…

I was never much of a reader when I was young. Though my parents encouraged me to read, I never found it interesting enough. I don’t know if school helped or not, since there were no books in my early years that I remember having read that excited me. My parents didn’t read to me and I don’t recall things that were read to me in elementary school.

Each year we had to take standardized tests to determine our reading and math skills. I always scored well on those tests. I would be a year or two above my grade level, so I did know how to read. If anything, the books chosen by some of my teachers for me to read should have discouraged me.

Continue reading What are you reading?…