Our linen supply is very simple: everything is white. That’s great when it’s new, towels and sheets glow with an almost internal light. The problem is they don’t stay white. Some background: I never cared much about these things until I went to nursing school and ended up wearing white scrubs. I had my own … Read more
I am the laziest person in the world. It takes me a lot of effort to switch off the television, get off the couch, and do what has to be done. As I sit here clicking away, there is a Pyrex pan in the sink that needs attention. I will get to that as soon … Read more
I am writing this last month. I don’t know if it’s me, but it has been really cold this winter. I, who never wear gloves — but have a large collection of single non-matching pairs — actually took to wearing them. I found myself preparing to exit the grocery store, car keys in my … Read more
Alas, it is that time of year again. I have about eight houseplants that I moved out onto the porch as soon as the threat of frost had lifted last spring. Spring took a long time to actually spring this year. The winter was hard on the crop, I lost two interesting specimens that … Read more
I bought a truck in 2010. It was the first new car I had purchased since 1984. Unlike how I treated that car two decades earlier, I have been a diligent owner — oil changes, checkups, all those things that are recommended by the manufacturer. For almost 100,000 miles this truck has been a team … Read more
The sound of a cardboard box bounces off the porch. Sometimes it is in the form of an impossible to open plastic envelope. Depending on my level of obsession it can be a daily occurrence. The packages pour in from eBay, maybe occasionally Amazon, maybe, if I am feeling in my chips, Zappos. The diesel … Read more
I am lolling about in bed, wasting the day, mentally preparing, at around 2 in the afternoon, to get ready for work. My faithful phone, now an extension of my body, goes “ding,” indicating a text has been received. “I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news,” the upstairs neighbor thumbs, “but the … Read more
Open the creaky door and once again have a peek into the old nostalgia closet with Uncle Ben, who starts every sentence with “I remember …” Coffee. A dark liquid, served scalding into a paper cup with a Greek motif or a china cup with a saucer. Many folks who went through rationing during the … Read more
Fall is here! It was here for me, a month ago when I was writing this. Who knows what it will be like outside when you are reading this. Yet fall is upon us with its bright colors and crisp, cider-scented air. I will be late for work, stranded behind a school bus full of … Read more
We nurses write a lot. We type a lot, too, but we sign the bottom of documents all day long. When I was in nursing school, I adopted a signature pen (ha ha), it was a made-in-France, four-color retractable Bic. This pen was perfect in that it had four different colors which was only slightly … Read more
Just a few words about keys. I seem to collect more as I grow older. As a child, growing up in lower Fairfield County, we never even thought of locking our doors. The family would take its annual summer pilgrimage to the Cape and leave the door unlocked. I am not sure anyone knew the … Read more
Now and then I pass a mirror and am shocked by the sight of an old man looking back. I have always theorized that if you look at yourself every day you will not notice the aging process. Photographs are worse. I have a series of pictures some anonymous snap-shooter took of me when I … Read more
Had a major birthday a couple months back. Here is what I got: a cardiologist, an orthopedist and a million pills. I will not go into gory details; after all, this is not a medical column. I have had knee issues for years, and as I departed from the office of my primary care physician … Read more
We picked up an old steel kitchen shelf unit at the Elephant’s Trunk flea market in New Milford. It was during a period when we were collecting such cabinets, refurbishing them, and furnishing the kitchen with the results. It became an obsessive collection wherein we actually drove to Indiana to pick up a rusty cabinet. … Read more
We were sitting on the couch the other night, minding our own business, when a moth fluttered through the room. It was not one of those large, dusty ones but rather a small, fluttery one. It being mid-winter, we surmised that this moth did not sneak in when we were lugging groceries through the door. … Read more