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[NOTE:  Cindy the shih tzu has taken over today’s post.] I first remember noise.  There was noise all around me.  I learned that it came from my mother, my brothers and sisters, and the others in the cages around us.  I made noise, too. My family and I lived in one cage when all ofContinue reading “Recollections of a Puppy Mill Mom”

When a co-worker retired several years ago, my last words to her were, “Congratulations!  You’ve escaped.  Enjoy your freedom!”  At last, at last, she was no longer a slave to someone else’s schedule.  I was deeply envious. I’ve always thought that true leisure time is a much rarer commodity than money, taking dramatically more effortContinue reading “I Had a “Retired” Day!”

I don’t know how they know, but they do.  Maybe my husband and I emit a different chemical signal for anticipation on the way out to a camping trip than for resignation — back to the grind! — on the return leg.  However they sense it, the little dogs react by being restless and neverContinue reading “The Shih Tzus Know”

I’ve written before about being unemployed, and about the emotional and mental roadblocks arising from that situation.  I’ve been living it for almost a year now.  Social Security benefits have not yet kicked in, so I’m in a state of limbo for the time being.  I spent more than seven months agonizing over efforts toContinue reading “Double Contraction”

“Violence is not a symbol, but a reality: people get hurt, businesses get destroyed, kids get arrested, and catharsis is always momentary. Always it is the most vulnerable – people of color – who get hurt, watch their businesses burn, get arrested, and then have their catharsis with tears in their eyes.”   Stephen Eric Bronner,Continue reading “We’re All Affected”

The bad guys don’t wear black hats anymore.  In fact, it’s getting to the point when even many of the white hats are gray and getting darker.  The aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police had an effect even the pandemic couldn’t produce:  totally empty streets in downtown Cleveland today.  Around 7:30Continue reading “Mass Insanity”

“Isn’t it funny how day by day, nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different.” – C. S. Lewis “Nothing ever changes for the better.” – Unknown It’s hard to pinpoint, exactly, when things began to change so drastically in this country.  Many pundits set the beginning of our current debacle at Reagan’sContinue reading “Why Is Everything So Hard?”

I’ll admit I have a bias.  I was raised to be independent; I didn’t have a choice about relying on myself.  Our family had a lower-middle-class life:  no frills, but a decent roof over our heads and food on the table that Mom invariably made from scratch.  It was never kept a secret from myContinue reading “Coping and Critical Thinking”

In every horror or sci-fi or large-scale adventure flick, there’s always someone who dashes through the door or flings himself into the fray before anyone else, frequently shouting something along the lines of, “I’m not afraid,” or, “Don’t worry, I’ll be OK,” or, in the words of many a Darwin Award winner, “Watch this!”  TheContinue reading “I Want to Be the Star”

It’s at least a week’s worth of news cycles ago that word came out about unemployment benefits and people’s return to work.  Turns out that, while Congress was reluctantly pushed into extending and enlarging unemployment coverage, there were strings attached.  Those being that employees who were recalled to jobs had no choice but to goContinue reading “And the Hits Just Keep on Comin’”