A weekend when Everyday Worries Floated away Every day we're pelted with so much alarming news—political wars, dire predictions and yesterday, even a report of a tsunami—that you are left feeling like someone caught bare-assed in a hailstorm. Some friends have concocted escape mechanisms, most commonly going on a "news fast," or in my case, …
What we've worn, never to be worn again When Stew and I moved down from Chicago some twenty years ago, the packing began in an orderly fashion, boxes clearly labeled and sealed—books, tools, kitchen utensils and such—but we were nowhere finished when the crew from United Van Lines showed up. The pace of the packing …
Climate change? Heat dome? Or too much whining? For the past three or four weeks we've been hit with temperatures routinely in the 90s that on a few days almost reached triple digits. May is supposed to be our hottest month, but that has meant highs in the 80s, with only a few days in …
How i went from 'getting old' to 'being old' Lifestyle preachers may talk about "70 being the new 50" by profiling some 85-year-old guy who swims a mile a day in Lake Michigan in the middle of January. Such inspirational epistles never impressed us though. Less so after my husband Stew underwent serious spinal surgery …
An afternoon of muscles, posing and flaunting Two weeks ago, when Stew and I were looking for the pickleball courts at a municipal athletic center—a first-class facility open to all—we noticed a poster for the Mr. San Miguel 2023 Contest, to be held the following weekend at the center's assembly hall. For some time we …
A safari to an African country with teeming wildlife treasures Itinerary: (1) from Johannesburg to Maun in Botswana; (2) Camp at Linyanti River; (3) Camp at Kasanee in Zimbabwe; (4) Victoria Falls; (5) Fly back to Johannesburg. Botswana is boxed in on its northern and western borders by Namibia, on the south and southeast by …
Are the usual pieties of putting an animal "out of its misery" sometimes self-serving? Stew and I seem to be on a sad streak lately in the pet department. Our Alpha dog Lucy died about eighteen months ago, quietly and I should add mercifully, because she spared us the decision of having to put her …
Enough pandemic stupor. Time to move your butt and go somewhere Lately, Eric Burdon and The Animals' 1985 hit "We Gotta Get Out of this Place" has been echoing in my head. Download and play the video and you might feel the same. It's not that we want to pack up and abandon our very …
Rampant water hyacinths are choking the Presa Allende If you were charged to engineer the perfect invasive plant, you could hardly do better than the water hyacinth (lirio acuático, in Spanish), which has been nicknamed by some as "the weed from hell" or "the terror of Bengal," and is now spreading explosively throughout the large …
Tomorrow evening Stew and I will be going on a thrice-postponed trip abroad, our first since the Covid-19 pandemic began more than two years ago. We've been vaccinated twice and received the booster, in addition to a flu vaccine and the first of two shingles vaccines. And of course, we'll carry our KN-95 masks in …
Continue reading To mask or not to mask? But why? Does anyone know?
El Rancho Santa Clara 