My granddaughter is 5-1/2 years old, and periodically spends the night with us on weekends, though really only every 1-2 months because of emotional, relational, and historical issues between my daughter and myself and overlapping but also separate issues between my daughter and my wife going back a few decades now. My daughter, son-in-law, and ( Read more... )

I am a creature of habit, and this becomes more ingrained as I age. Much like addiction, it is mentally and physically challenging to do most anything in my typical day differently than I've become accustomed. Some of this surely is just that, as with anyone, I tend do to do so many mundane routines on autopilot because I'm always thinking about ( Read more... )

It’s difficult not to consider today’s election as teetering atop thin precipice. I remember in my 17th Autumn visiting Roger, my slightly old friend from high school who was a freshman attending UT Knoxville while I completed my high school year in 1979-1980. On this trip we climbed to one of the higher peeks in the Smoky mountains, us stoned ( Read more... )

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Mom, like my now deceased father, was born in 1938. Her health, mostly related to mobility (she's had arthritis since her early 20's and was told in theory she'd be in a wheelchair by her 30's, but she told the doctor she didn't have time for that) has convinced her that it's time to move out of her apartment from the city elder housing apartments ( Read more... )

Dad passed away last January 2022, and working with my ever-efficient sister, we closed things out, sold his little zero-lot-line unit, did several garage sales after giving aunts and uncles and cousins and my children opportunities to take what they might want, after my sister and I kept the few things meaningful to us by the end of July 2022. ( Read more... )

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I really didn’t remember all the thoughts I wanted to jot down previously, partly because I came to the end (and just beyond) of my work day, and as was true back when I found more time to write about my days, I’m really typing randomly between (or during) meetings and deadlines and all the things that the university pays me to do. This ( Read more... )