She is, unequivocally, the most charming puppy it’s ever been my privilege to know. (For those interested or even just wondering–or perhaps choking a bit over the unfamiliar word–it’s pronounced SHOO-sha, being a Basque girl’s name, native to the Pyrenees.) “She has such a feminine head,” said my veterinarian, when I texted her a photo. And… Continue reading Xuxa!
Category: Love
“Grief is the price we pay for love”–September 11, 2022
Those words were spoken by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, to the family members of those who perished on September 11, 2001. And I’ve often thought she must have been channeling C.S. Lewis at the time: To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.… Continue reading “Grief is the price we pay for love”–September 11, 2022
Feeling Grateful, Blessed, and Very–Very–Clean
To be perfectly clear from the outset, I've been living in a construction zone since 1986, the year the late Mr. Right and I moved out to the country and started on our house. Large swaths of the drywall were never painted. Much finishing was left undone. Doors have been missing. Floors were, in some… Continue reading Feeling Grateful, Blessed, and Very–Very–Clean
Blessings from the Great Beyond: The Machine That Thinks Like a Man
A few months ago, I was invited, by someone I've known slightly online for a number of years, to join a book club. Rather trepidatiously, I agreed, with the stipulation that I couldn't be much involved for several weeks due to some personal commitments around the same time as their weekly online meetings, commitments which… Continue reading Blessings from the Great Beyond: The Machine That Thinks Like a Man
Frank Zbozny: In Memoriam
Today is the second anniversary of my husband's death. I mark it by including the tribute I wrote for him at the time, and with the concluding quatrain from Tennyson's magnificent In Memoriam A.H.H: I hold it true, whate'er befall; I feel it, when I sorrow most; Tis better to have loved and lost Than… Continue reading Frank Zbozny: In Memoriam
Mother’s Day Hero: My Mum
Please forgive me. This is, largely, a re-post from many years ago, in the Ricochet group writing category “heroes.” I’ve changed it a bit. But the sentiment’s the same. I offer it today on what would have been my mother's 94th birthday: A few weeks ago, when I signed up for this post, I’d never… Continue reading Mother’s Day Hero: My Mum
Happy Birthday, Xena!
She is, indeed, my Warrior Princess. Eleven years old today. And a survivor. She was born on June 17, 2011, and–as a Great Pyrenees puppy–somehow ended up living in an apartment in center-city Philadelphia PA. God knows why. Or how. GPs are not–as a rule–high-energy dogs, and they can do quite well without an extensive… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Xena!
That Moment When You Realize You’re Old
It happened to me last week during a conversation with my darling Auntie Pat. (Ninety-nine next month; may she live forever.) I’d phoned her up, and after a false start in which she may have been holding the phone upside down and speaking into the earpiece (shades of my dad in the months before he died;… Continue reading That Moment When You Realize You’re Old
A Very Un-British Feeling
I’m proud of my country. Not in the Michelle Obama “first time” sense, but one which, for once, I’m comfortable “sharing” (as the abominable Markle might put it.) My Lord. So many flag wavers. You’d think the country had turned “American” all of a sudden. Loved it, from the Horse Guards, to the Trooping the… Continue reading A Very Un-British Feeling
Happy Birthday, Pierino Ronald Como!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffZI9ETWMmo He was born 110 years ago, on May 18, 1912, just a small piece down the road from me, in Canonsburg PA, home of (among other things) Sarris Candies and All-Clad cookware. Not to mention also Bobby Vinton, Marty Schottenheimer (giving the lie to the idea that the only good things, NFL-wise, to come… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Pierino Ronald Como!