Life in the fast lane--where's the on ramp?

By Pat_B - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Journal

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

White Trash Tragedy

My baby girl has the gift for putting her finger on things, telling it like it is with a side of grins, and since she was raised with two older brothers she learned the art of getting even in ways only a petite girl with a mind like a steel trap can do. There were a lot of pranks played in our house... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

The Occasional Butterfly

A few years back while I worked at Seattle Central Community College, there was a brilliant anthropology instructor named Jay Miller who taught one quarter each year. The rest of the year he worked in the field, primarily at a First Nations settlement along the Pacific coastline north of Vancouver,... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, January 6, 2014

So much for good intentions...

I filled the bird feeder on Saturday, the kind of seeds that redbirds and others seem to like best - a mix with dried fruit and sunflower seeds. Then I set a few peanuts on the upper deck rails in case Itchy or Mama WhiteEars decided to venture out. At the time it was practically tropical at a few... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

I remember the storm of '82...

It shut EVERYTHING down, extreme cold, over a foot of snow that blew and drifted into dunes as high as my head. The plows cleared the main roads, but blocked side streets and driveways, and the sidewalks were knee-deep. Getting to the garage to find the snow shovel was an Arctic expedition, trudging... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Footprints

In the nordic expanse of my back deck, pristine and untouched, I see footprints. They look like footprints, roughly as far apart as a person's would step. But they appear mysteriously a few feet inside the fence and stop a yard or so from the back steps, which I managed to sweep clear of snow. I... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, January 3, 2014

About Paying it Forward

I loved reading all the thoughtful comments on yesterday's post. We can all empathize with parents faced with an impossible decision to give up on their brain dead child. End of life issues are conversations we tend to duck, we just don't want to think about them. But... It's much easier when you're... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

On Letting Go

There's a story in the news about a little girl who went into the hospital for a tonsillectomy, probably one of the simplest and most routine surgical procedures there are. Something went wrong, there was a bleed and the child who should have been up and asking for ice cream a couple hours later,... Sign in to see full entry.

Write Your Memoir - a contest

If you are 50 or better, there's a contest sponsored by AARP and the "Huffington Post" to tell your life story. You could win $5,000 and get your memoir published by Simon & Schuster. A synopsis and 5,000 words are due Feb. 15. The 20,000 to 50,000 word memoir is due by June 15. For info/rules visit... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Poetry

SOCIAL STUDIES I heard a poet talk of homelands, of immigrant findings, of America what it is what it means how it differs from what he imagined. I thought about my old belief that I was altogether American by birth, by ancestry, by association; until one day I knew I was a world citizen tied to... Sign in to see full entry.

Nursery Rhymes to Real Times.

There's one old rhyme about a grouch or perhaps it was a selfish soul, who'd "pour a cup and drink it up, then call the neighbors in." The title and name escape me, but I remember this line. (Mother Goose, where are you when I need you?) Which brings me to son Guy's younger daughter. Rosamund is a... Sign in to see full entry.

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Sometimes you have to write it down in order to learn what you really think about life, what it means, how to do what's best. Sometimes you need feedback from someone else to put things in perspective.

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