Masks, a Rant
I was in a public situation recently where masks were a required accessory. I witnessed a fuckwit challenge a person in authority who asked him to put his mask on repeatedly. Like over and over. The fuckwit finally complied but not before filling the air around him with his unprotected breath. I was ready to […]
Work
Work has once again placed me on standby unemployment. A few things transpired to cause this: In the moment the company’s PPP loan funds were used up, I insisted on only working 20 hours a week, rather than 36. They need someone who has more flexibility than I do, and costs less. My program isn’t […]
Books
I purchased three inexpensive capacious shelving units in order to sort my parents book collection. It’s become clear, given the number of books, that I need to get them out of boxes and onto the shelves, and then sort them. The categories are many: Art, Photography, books mom edited, Volumes by authors my parents knew, […]
Hair Brushes
When I was a child, my mom bought our hair brushes, dish washing brushes, and other cleaning brushes from the Fuller Brush Man. this person was a door-to door sales man. I think mom was such a reliable customer that he called ahead to make an appointment before stopping by as it seemed to me […]
Shelving
In order to view the totality of my parents book collection, and begin emptying the storage unit that’s costing $168 a month, I just purchased nine linear feet of shelving. It’s 6’ high with five shelves. If you include the top shelf of each unit, there’s 54 linear feet of shelving. The shelving, not being […]
Island Tenants
The wonderful Island tenants gave me notice today. They are moving back to Europe this summer. I can’t say I blame them one little bit. We had a good chat about the general disarray of this country, and he let me know what his European friends and colleagues think of the US and its presidential […]
GF Matzo and Sushi
I picked up mom’s ashes today. They are sitting next to dad’s with a martini class upon them. I picked up sushi makings on the way home. Mom and I never had a chance to go out and slay sushi after (future) lifting of COVID-19 restrictions Since I was out, I made our weekly grocery […]
Watches
Mom started wearing a watch when dad’s medical appointment updates were handed to my folks on documents called ‘itineraries.’ Mom would take the itineraries and try to transcribe them onto her and dad’s calendar. As time went on this became more and more difficult for her. While a watch didn’t fix the problem, at least […]
Letter to a Neighbor
I found a letter mom wrote, but never sent, to one of her neighbors. It’s dated August 12, 2018: “Dear Mary. Here’s the bookmark I spoke of the other day. I’ve thought about ordering more from the Salesian’s, address at bottom of one side, but I’m hoping to be home before much longer, so I’ll […]
Dementia Dance - Travels with Mom 