Day by day I remain a 24/7 couch potato… I spent the long New Year’s holiday weekend in the hospital, an unanticipated sojourn, the pull of the ER irresistible. I was pinched, prodded, and poked for four days before I had no veins left to jab and little blood left…

On a cold December morn, I found myself in a hospital pre-op room. — My heart pounded as I walked into the hospital. Surgery, scheduled a month previous, hadn’t worried me too much. But now it was real. It was happening. The lady at the information desk directed my husband and me to the surgery waiting area. …

Not an ideal retreat, a spa getaway or beach vacation, but a specific type of retreat I wish on no one. — I am preparing for a short hospital stay. The highlight of my visit — back surgery. I will rest, one benefit of a retreat, but I’ve been warned I will not be happy, especially the first week. I will be in pain. My caregiver, a.k.a. my husband, Steve, at various…

The turn of the hour backward or forward, the tick-tock of a clock, the beep of a timer — time seems to rule our lives — Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got. — Art Buchwald Time flies when you’re having fun…and when you’re NOT having fun, time can drag on, oh so slowly. How long did I sit on an uncomfortable chair in the doctor’s…

After a recent trip I devised a few travel tips for folks young at heart but trapped in older bodies. — Young folks have the audacity and capacity to bounce back quickly from minor adversities such as late nights, as in dating, and all-nighters, as in cramming for exams. They don’t need to adjust to time changes when traveling; they can jump into a new environment and move ahead at full speed. Alas, I am no longer young enough to travel carefree, with no qualms when faced with an environment different from my old, familiar, faithful one.

I am rarely political, but cannot resist adding my comments concerning the 2022 midterm elections. — Most polls and pundits misjudged, misinterpreted, and trusted pre-election data streaming 24/7 for what seemed like forever. It was difficult to avoid the constant criticism President Biden received. Everything was wrong in the country…he was dragging the country down…everything was HIS fault…Inflation!…Immigration!…etc. etc. etc…

A minor smash-up messes with my day — It was a busy Wednesday afternoon. I picked up my mother-in-law (“Mom”) at her assisted living facility. Our destination: the nail salon for a mini-pedicure for Mom and a manicure for me. Mom had asked me a few days earlier to cut her toenails, something I am neither qualified nor…

There is a new coffee shop in town — A new coffee and tea cafe, more precisely, that favors a tea shop, opened in my town. Friday afternoon I walked along main street — not the name of the street, but the primary commercial avenue in town. I got a haircut and stopped at the meat market to purchase a chicken to roast for dinner. On my way home I noticed the door open to what for a long time had been an empty storefront. Workers had been seen inside renovating the space over the past few weeks.

I grew up using wall and desk phones, yet somehow managed to survive my teen years and much of my adult life without a cell phone — My new iPhone is an improvement over my old one. I no longer need to charge it after almost every use, it sports a larger screen, and has a lot of apps I will never use but unfortunately cannot delete. These apps sit silently on my screen, staring at me…