Lighten Up!
My book club meets once a month, and each of our twelve members takes a turn hosting the meeting—serving snacks and lunch before we sit down to discuss the book. I always try to work the menu around the theme or environment of the book we’re discussing. Book Club was at my house this month, and the book we read was A Shadow in Moscow, by Katherine Reay. I highly recommend it, by the way—and since it’s a spy novel [...]
After the Storm
I hadn’t even heard of Hurricane Helene until a few days before it hit. That’s unusual. Normally, there is a week or more of weather reports saying something is developing somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean that may turn into a tropical storm or a full-fledged hurricane. We always pay attention to hurricane news, even though we live so far inland in Georgia that hurricanes usually don’t affect us directly. There have been some exceptions, of course, such as Hurricane Irma, [...]
A new candidate has a new agenda
During a visit with our daughter eight years ago, conversation turned to the coming election, and inspired a tongue-in-cheek column in which I appointed members of my family—myself included—to different government positions. Some of what I said is as relevant today as it was then, so I’m printing it again. I hope you enjoy it. The Department of Nice. That’s the federal agency I’m going to be in charge of after my daughter is elected president. My husband and I [...]
Time for a Change
Labor Day weekend is here. I no longer look at it as the end of the summer season, but as the start of the season of transitions. Kids and their parents are transitioning from summer to school. Depending on where you live, the weather is transitioning from unbearably hot and humid to—well, a little less so. And soon it will transition to comfortable, then to cool, to chilly, to cold, and finally to downright frigid. Trees start transitioning from their [...]