First, let us say it simply - I am worried about them. Valerie and Luis. I say this to get the notion out of the way. They do not need me to worry about them. They are sturdy survivors. They have jobs in an era of pervasive unemployment among young people. True, they are working long hours, performing big tasks for small wages...not that I actually know what they make. And my worry? In many ways, it is simply that. More to the point, I have gotten through my life with help from key people at key Read more [...]

Don't you find it irksome the way young people turn their gaze away from passing natural scenery, vis-à-vis the view, burying their little post-adolescent noses in some little electronic toy? Damn straight, until you find that you have joined them, telling yourself all the while that, well, this is different. And it is, isn't it? I mean, after all, you have had such a hard time with your new iPhone. Having purchased the latter with great reluctance and after much delay...noting that your little Read more [...]

To establish the proper perspective, consider that this is the season of merry jingle happy Hanukkah Kwanzaa and so on, the perfect time for a bit of Holiday Breakfast Blend Tea. From Peet's, of course. I have considered this often. Only yesterday, in fact, I brewed a splendid cup of Holiday Tea, enjoyed it immeasurably, and was not the least bit daunted by the fact that it dates, this blend, not from the 2012 holiday, but 2011. Yes, a full quarter pound of Peet's finest has been sitting on my counter Read more [...]

The things that go bump in the night used to include me. Me and my partner, marital or otherwise. Until bumping became more of an afternoon thing. Then a less frequent afternoon thing. And so on. I mention this because life's course is hardly straight, wavering here, forking there. Utterly unpredictable in direction, but entirely reliable in general activity level, let us say. Let us say that again. Things keep happening. That is the point. They happen because what is really bumping in the old-age Read more [...]

Mornings are connected to all other mornings. They run in a straight line, a stratum as consistent as geological time. Which is their problem. Or my problem with them. It is a rare morning that bursts like a bit of finely aged Parmesan upon the tongue. Finely aged myself, I take this for granted. Perhaps I shouldn't. Not that this matters, for mornings, all of them, reveal their character early and completely. Most mornings commence with worry, and of the fundamental sort. Can I get out of bed? Read more [...]

'If Bixby starts running about,' said Jane, as she rushed out the door, 'well, call Lorna.' A quick Goodbye Love, and she was gone. I eyed Bixby in the kitchen bent over his doggie bowl, lapping up water. I considered Lorna and her dawn-to-dusk work habits, how her chances of being at a client's house this evening are extremely high. Me and the doggies, Jane and her church choir, everyone happily assigned to their chosen groups, awaiting whatever fate. A strange day. I awakened at 2 AM to the Read more [...]