I have a bad back.  Well . . . actually, I have a good back, it just happens to ‘blow out’ on an annual basis.  I’m still not sure when or how to anticipate an episode.  Is it related to weather, stress, how well I stretched that day?  There do not seem to be any signs of impending incapacity — I’m blind-sided every time. (more…)

I was sitting at my desk on a Monday morning, calmly reviewing my inbox of emails, when I heard a yell and a sharp crack outside.  I raised my eyes to look out the window in time to see a huge pine tree – we’re talking at least 70 feet tall – fall from my neighbor’s property through the air and, landing with a thud, sprawl its green branches across the street. (more…)

I’m not a true died-in-the-wool, year-round chocoholic . . . and yet, when it comes to the day of red hearts and cupids, I go nuts for chocolate.  Sure, you could say that I’m just a puppet to marketing and a pawn in the game of retail consumerism.  And you’d be right; I am.  I admit it!  And I always have been — at least on this Saint’s day. (more…)

I have a tiger cat who lounges on the floor of my office or purrs in my lap when I write.  She has the most gorgeous markings:  black stripes on tawny fur, sand colored chin, pale emerald eyes.  As a kitten, she was taken from the wild, prematurely separated from her feral mother.  Her occasional skittishness tells me that she carries her early loss with her like a permanent scar. (more…)