I'm a richly blessed old chick. The summer of 2023 started with my first ever colonoscopy on June 13. The gastroenterologist who did the procedure was a real jerk. It's bad to be a jerk, but I think it's a lot worse to be a doctor and a jerk. This particular ass in...
My passion for baseball began at an early age and grew, as each year our family headed to St. Louis for a series, usually in July, which is just as miserable in St. Louis as it was in Arkansas. But I loved the Cardinals more than I hated the heat, and looked forward...
I admit I'm particularly freaky about thunderstorms, and when the tornado sirens go off, my blood pressure tends to riseprecipitously as the barometric pressure falls. I was raised in Jonesboro, Arkansas in the 1960s and `70s. That was during the time that CB radios...
I just ran across an interesting article on Lifehacker about the creative personality, called The Seven Elements of a Creative Personality. I read everything I can on this topic because it pretty much describes me. Especially this: You're creative if: Your Mind Has an...
So, baseball is back. The season could not have come at a better time — especially now, when we're not going out much anywhere, due to the unemployment thing. One of our simple pleasures is putting our feet up and ending the day with the Cardinals on TV, win or lose....
I love to watch old sitcoms like The Dick VanDyke Show, Leave it to Beaver, and The Andy Griffith Show. They are relaxing to watch, as the characters' problems, always wrapped up neatly in half an hour, would earn a #FirstWorldProblems hashtag in today's world....
Earlier this week, I wrote about Jim's sudden layoff this past Tuesday morning. One of the things that made it difficult was that he and the others were asked to leave the building immediately and make arrangements to pick up personal effects after business hours. So...
Insomnia. It comes and goes, and I never know when it’s coming or when it will go. It perpetuates itself; the longer you go without sleeping, the more you worry because you’re not sleeping. The anxiety keeps you awake, so you can’t get to sleep, because you’re worried...
Stan Musial died today. And it made me cry. Stan Musial, for those who aren't baseball fans, is the greatest Cardinal who ever played the game. He played his entire career — 22 years — in St. Louis. His statistics are impressive, to be sure, as he was the consummate...
I never try to hide my age; I'm proud of each and every year. I always say, no cancer survivor complains about growing older. I cherish and revel in my birthdays, because each one is another little triumph over the big C. For those of you who dread getting older,...
Thank goodness this election is over. Never in all my years of voting (and that's quite a few) have I seen such divisiveness and bitterness. I've seen rifts between friends over who is voting for whom. Over the past few months, many of my Facebook friends have talked...
We aren't quite to "after," but the new cabinets are in. It took an entire day, and, of course we're going to have to do some touch-up painting. And some drywall work as, shockingly, our furdown is not completely plumb. Haven't used the stove or oven yet, as we have...
We've been living with an outdated kitchen since we bought our house in 1991. Built in 1978, the kitchen was, and still is, of that vintage, complete with the lovely harvest gold stove and double ovens. The cabinets are original as well and the countertops date back...
Remember Mr. Potato Head? Better yet, remember when you used an actual potato to play with Mr. Potato Head? I do. The older I get, the more nostalgic I become. Maybe it's because I have increasingly more things to look back on. What I didn't remember is that,...
Yesterday was an epic day in my baseball world. We went to AutoZone Park to enjoy a Redbirds baseball game, some postgame fireworks and the main attraction, the World Series trophy. The same trophy former manager Tony LaRussa held proudly after the historic 2011...
Unremarkable. It means ordinary, lacking distinction. Not something we generally consider a compliment. But medical terms are strange. A test result that is negative is usually a good thing; positive means you have whatever awful thing they are testing you for. So...
A hysterectomy is no minor procedure. Like anything involving an abdominal incision, it's one of the biggies. So when I realized that's the direction we were going, I made plans to live it up with my family and a few friends before being out of commission for several...
You know that dream where you're naked in front of a room full of people? Yeah, I do too. A few nights ago. Even in the dream, I wasn't really naked in the literal sense. But it was that feeling. I often have weird dreams. Usually I can't tell whether they mean...
Update: 1:31 p.m. I just made it to the other side of the house. Wow. This is our neighbor to the south. I wasn't home at the time, but today's storm did a bit of a number on our backyard. Our neighbors got it a little worse, as this large tree fell on their roof. All...