I must not be a writer. All my writer friends and acquaintances talk about wanting to write every day. They either enjoy writing so much they want to do it every day or they know they can only become good writers by writing something every day no matter how trivial. I want to write just now and I will for the next few days since I have ideas I want to write about. But I have just gone through such a dry spell that I did not even want to blog. And I know that will hit me again soon enough if…

The banks are penalizing me for the death of my wife of many years! Just tried to refinance my home and learned that it was not possible to get the attractive rates they had quoted me in an urgent message because my wife had died some months ago. It seems the refinancing must be done with the same signatories as the last version. Well, I finally did find a conscientious bank employee who did want to keep my business and did manage to get me the same deal through another program. Oh, it’s not…

Recently I have had two parallel occasions to meet a person for the first time. First impressions may be important, but are nothing when compared to the expanded view you get of a person with a follow-on meeting. It can be like a scenic panorama opening up. The first glimpse may be clad in fog, with only the expected highpoints showing through. The next view, based on a longer exposure, reveals so much more about that person’s likes, interests and even dislikes. Every person carries with…

When someone asked me how my life had changed since I have been alone, I thought hard and long. What am I now doing that I was not doing before- and more important, what does that say about me? Oh, I still cook my meals, haven’t resorted to frozen meals, except occasionally; I have not become a slob, since the house stays relatively clean and organized. Oh, but I don’t make up my bed every morning anymore! But I do read French books now as well as English ones; I participate in more outdoor…