Ahhhh… Snow, glorious snow! We awoke to 12 inches or more of the beautifully, blissful, time-stopping stuff. And by some miracle we still have power, hence the mountain of wet snow clothes can toast in the dryer and the toilets will flush. MERRY Christmas! It is good to slow down–or be slowed down. William, at Continue reading

I think these Christmas form letters must be “out.” Or I am. I haven’t gotten any this year. But style never being much of a motivating factor for me, I press on with those passe items of print and paper (and–Ye gads, postage!) Think of it as the poor man’s Facebook page. Apparently, ironically, all Continue reading

My sister said, “Too bad he doesn’t have his shirt on, then you could use it for your Christmas photo,” and I thought… Am I going to get one any better? Because that’s who William is: part wild man, part trooper. He can sweep your kitchen floor, or rake your leaves, or mulch your garden Continue reading

I made a point of meeting the bus in an apron yesterday. I’ve never really worn an apron, cooking dinner in haste with my just-came-in coat still on or padding through breakfast in pajamas and slippers. But this is Christmas, and I happen to own a Christmas apron, full-length red and green with big 1980s Continue reading

As I stood in the wet, overgrown woods behind our vet’s office last Monday, I found myself wishing I’d worn different clothes. The lovely L.L.Bean sweater with matching handknit scarf and gloves from Mom were clearly not up to the task of tracking down our just-escaped cat. I had arrived on the heels of Bill, Continue reading

I don’t know why I told the perky Verizon store guy about the TV. Until two months ago, our TV was your basic 1995 Philips-Magnavox 27inch model that we got for $25 from the church yard sale. It worked just fine, especially with the toothpick jammed into the broken on-off button that Bill rigged up. Continue reading

I must need my head examined. Two weeks before Christmas and I’m standing in Pet Smart with Ellie, eyeing a yellow orange fur ball named Spock. Spock is up for adoption with the Hanover Humane Society. A kitten?? Beam me up, Scotty. No intelligent life here. We are at the pet store, mind you, to Continue reading

It has to be 95° on the Randolph-Macon pool deck, and I am seated in turtleneck and fleece watching Sophie, ninth-grade freestyler for the Hanover Hawks, start to turn pale with the prospect of the 500-meter race before her. Even from across the pool she is looking quite ill, but there is no stopping this Continue reading

Christmas on the inside. It’s a phrase I’ve used to console Sophie this month about all the broken, on-the-fritz, undone and un-decorative aspects of life at the Burk Motel lately. For starters, the siding has hung off the front of the house in big, bald patches all fall, unfinished after a siding company botched the Continue reading

Of all the props, puppets, and flannel board pieces that live in the resource closet of the library where I work as children’s storyteller, my favorite is the butterfly jar. We have a hungry stuffed caterpillar with his tin lunchbox containing a plastic feast, we have Clifford the big red dog, we have the “old Continue reading