sunday scribblings
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Sealing Tragedy Out
There was something about the way he stood at that window that I found odd. Ignoring tragedy is one way to deal with it, I suppose. But was this really the right time to winterize the windows? Nails were stuck between his teeth, his face grimacing as he struggled to get his shoulder underneath the window frame to hold it up while he fixed the splintered wood. These older homes never run short on projects. In the kitchen, the table was covered with a bright, cheery, stripped fabric, with a dainty trim of tiny candy green apples. While he was busy sweating, she was making new curtains for the girls’…
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Midnight storm clouds dripping silver
Now, I will agree with you, that nobody likes to jump out of bed at midnight, after you just got to sleep, because the wind is howling like a bunch of dervishes, and the tornado sirens are blaring. Worse yet, you have to go into the rooms of those jumping monkeys of yours, who are finally still in their beds, and rouse them out of sandman land, terminating peace and quiet. Although there are many things about having my family room in the basement that I do not like; there is much to be said for having two nice full-length sofas to curl up on while you watch the storm…
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One hit wonder
My Junior year of high school was my best. An outsider would probably attribute my joy to the fact that I had one of the leading roles in our high school musical, but there were other factors. Things like getting my driver’s license. Geometry was over and done with, leaving me to pursue funner stuff, Algebra and Trigonometry. At that point, I knew which high school teachers I could count on to let us get away with goofing off, and which ones to avoid. I was settled now in my role as first chair, as the director gave me the role of last-minute tunings, on stage, before he appeared at…
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Every little thing will turn out OK
I tend to wrap myself so tight around decisions, trying my best to foresee every possible outcome of each side of the issue. This, of course, leads to paralysis… or indecisiveness. I look hard, I pray, I meditate, I think. Less than I should, I talk to other people. Even though talking seems to help the most, I rarely talk, as I am a bit isolated in my world of children now. Or maybe just because I’m thinking too hard to talk. Some days, a decision I made three years ago about one of the boys will come barrelling down so hard on me today, that I realize now, was…
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Finding Paradise
It didn’t help that each and every one of the 1,000,000 dogwoods that grow in my old neighborhood were blooming today, as I drove through to drop off a check. A stupid, time-wasting errand that could have been avoided if I would have just put a stamp on the envelope and mailed it days ago. The houses, many stone, and wood, look luminescent under the filtered sunlight of the dogwood flowers. They do that; the flowers of the dogwoods cast a shimmer down on anything that stands beneath them, for that so brief time when they bloom. Rather than houses, they suddenly look like large-over-sized pillows, beckoning me to take…
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Free falling like a feather
An amateur's first-time tandem sky-diving experience with a master jumper... more...
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The Quiet One
I remembered how quiet he was that night at the bar. This was in direct contrast to our own boisterousness. We were happy. No, we were elated. This was the eve of Columbus Day, no school tomorrow, and mid term exams were over. All the neighbors we could gather from our apartment complex were together at this bar. Guys, girls, cousins, none of us intimately connected, yet through the trials of college, intimately bonded, we were. Many of this group of friends would be the same ones who would stand up with me at my wedding. Many, many years away. The quiet one, was on a “date.” Dates were a…
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It’s Empty
With its 1,000-sheet commitment, I didn’t want this to end up being an impulse purchase I would later regret. Would I really use the 1,000 waxed-paper sheets, or would I toss the box aside with several hundred still left in the box? When I bough the box at GFS that warm morning one day in the spring, I had imagined myself serving sandwiches and pickles deli-style to our boys. Ideally, the meals would always be alfresco. These sheets, I hoped, would cut down on the endless conveyor belt of dirty dishes that runs across my sink. I bought red-plastic baskets to match. What I hadn’t foreseen was that the grease…
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Get more space in your refrigerator
How to organize your refrigerator so that you can find things quickly and easily.
