My daughter and I sat side by side on her RV couch, holding our cell phones. I had just complained about how often I misplaced mine. “Mom,” she said, “why don’t you just call it?” “Pardon me?” “Call it. It will answer you.” She reached for my phone and adjusted …
Tradition. That’s why Ezra, aged six years and eight hours, sits at our table, eying his breakfast: a vast bowl of Neapolitan ice cream. He chose that yesterday in the store, over my suggestions of more sophisticated options. “How about maple walnut? Black cherry? Rocky road?” But, no. He had …
On the sixth day after the exterminator came, I walked in the door after work, as usual. And as usual I asked the question I’d asked on every return home from work for at least a month. “See any ants today, Hon?” Starting in late winter, as I mentioned here …
The surgeon waved my comments aside. “Your eyes are perfect. You could legally fly a plane.” “No, sir,” I responded. “I couldn’t.” I had tried to explain, during that post-op appointment following my cataract surgeries (both peepers, two weeks apart), that I was NOT happy with my new eyes. I’d …
“That’s NO serving dish,” the Preacher said. With emphasis. Christmas dinner, 2019. We’d planned to have it at our daughter’s home, a five minute drive from us, but the grandbeans had become quite ill, though well prayed for and taken care of. I tried not to worry much. We’d invited …
At a medical facility, one of my relatives was asked to say as many F words as possible in as short a time as possible. Startled by official sanction to release the four-letter word that may have previously more often crossed his mind than his lips, he started in. I …
I spouted a mouthful of fake news at lunch the other day. To the grandchildren, no less. With a federal election pending, it seemed natural that the discussion around our table turned to politics. “Nana,” asked one of the children asked, “does God discipline bad kings?” “Well,” I said, “When …
I don’t know much about buffalo, but they make me snicker. At the front end they’re all bravado: massive shoulders, barrel chest and beady eyes. But turn them around and their hindquarters are only slightly larger than my own, with a wannabe lion’s tail tacked on. God smiled, creating buffalo, …
A hundred kilometres an hour clicked smoothly by—until the harsh scraping sound from under the van rudely interrupted. “WHAT’S THAT?” The Preacher slowed and pulled off the highway. Fearing the worst, we got out and inspected below. A loose narrow rod, bent at both ends, rested on a crossbar. One …
“The reason grandchildren get along so well with their grandparents,” I heard someone say, tongue firmly planted in cheek, “is that they have a common enemy.” Our six live about an hour from us. Fortunately, on (almost) all things, the Preacher and I and their parents agree. We feel blessed …
