I wrote earlier today about the death of my Aunt Carol. As I searched for things to say I found it hard to escape my frustration over some negative aspects of her personality. That journal entry is friends-locked. As I reconsidered it with greater detachment I realized I could share positive things, too. I'll do that here ( Read more... )

As a child I found my Grandmother B's house enchanting. It was so full of stuff. Stuff made with quality materials. In the house where I grew up, things were made of plastic and cardboard. The ostensibly fanciest piece of furniture we had, our china cabinet? Medium density fiberboard, with a rich-looking veneer glued on it. My parents spoke of it ( Read more... )

In episode 5 of Breaking Bad Walt's wife, Skyler, stages an intervention to pressure Walt to accept cancer treatment. Present in the family's living room when Walt comes home are Sklyer, their son, Walt Jr., and Skyler's sister, Marie, and brother-in-law, Hank ( Read more... )

In the fourth episode of Breaking Bad Walter White comes clean with his family about his lung cancer diagnosis. They react in different way, unsurprisingly. His wife, Skyler, tries to stay optimistic. She first insists he get a second opinion then urges him to pursue treatment with the best cancer specialist around. The best don't come cheap, ( Read more... )

Hurricane Helene struck the United States last week, causing widespread damage across multiple states in the Southeast. Recent reports have the death toll at 162 with hundreds of people still unaccounted for. When we think of deaths and property damage caused by hurricanes we traditionally picture images of gale-force winds pounding homes on the ( Read more... )

I've written a few times about my next-door neighbor whom police found dead in his house two weeks ago. One question we wondered about then and since is How long was he dead 15 feet away from us? Saturday night I chatted with two of his relatives who'd flown in for the weekend to start piecing things together after the loss.

• There won't be a ( Read more... )

All this week I've been thinking, "Wow, it's only been a few days since we found a dead guy in the condo next door." Well, we didn't find him; I was standing 10 feet back from the door assisting the police with their welfare check. They were pretty serious about it. They weren't just going to be, "Well, we knocked on the door and nobody answered, ( Read more... )

I was all set to post a blog this evening about how I've spent a quiet three-day weekend around home. I may still post that blog tomorrow morning... but it will be changed to how I had a mostly quiet three-day weekend at home. The quietude was broken this evening when there came a knock at our door. It was about 5:30pm ( Read more... )

This past week three actors from film and TV passed away.

On Tuesday Richard Roundtree succumbed to pancreatic cancer at age 81. He died in bed surrounded by family. Roundtree is most famous for playing the title character of 1971's Shaft. It was not just a classic movie but the kick-start of an entire genre. While that genre is customarily called ( Read more... )

I mentioned in my previous blog Hawk and I visited our friend, D, today. D is recovering from the loss of his husband a few weeks ago. He's at the point now where he's having to deal with a number of logistical tasks stemming from the loss. We visited not just to support him emotionally as friends but also because he asked us to help on two of ( Read more... )