Lifestyles

I am frequently amazed at how smart my dog Perkins is. She absolutely KNEW when it was Christmas morning this year. When we came downstairs, she bypassed the front door and ran straight to the Christmas tree, and then to her stocking, which was the ONLY one hanging over the fireplace. She didn’t remember this…

Isn’t it delightful when you happen upon a discovery, person, or situation that just makes your insides smile even broader than your face? I would call that “finding happiness.” That’s great! But if you are depending on that kind of happenstance to color your world, you might as well make a career of buying Lotto…

October 29, 2023 I confused Perkins this morning. I never get up at the Crack of Dark unless I have an early morning flight to catch out of Richmond, which requires me to leave 2 ½ hours before departure time. But that wasn’t at all the case this morning. I can’t say exactly why the…

A person’s eyebrows can say a lot about him or her. And they contribute more to a person’s overall appearance than you might think. Perhaps that is why some people become so obsessed with completely reconstructing them. I believe there are four basic elements that define a person’s brow; color, placement, and intensity. The fourth…

I used to fancy myself a super potential gardener. At one time I was dynamite with house plants. But I’ve discovered that I am not reliable with those, poor things. Nevertheless, I love nature and thank God every day for the trees and plants that surround me, especially the flowering ones. Unlike people who have…

I really know little about pre-history, but I know quite a bit about skewed perspectives. For example, as a very young adult, I considered Biblical times to be just this side of the stone age. Turns out, I was way off base there. Those folks were on the exact same cognitive level as we are…

After work, I like to sit at the end of my dock on Perkins Creek and watch the late afternoon sun shift over the water. Today was lightly overcast, so the waters were like moiré silk with the light gray ripples pushing green reflections to and fro before settling back into a cool mirror. Some…

There are dreams and there are dreams. I’m not talking about the moving pictures in your sleep, here. I’m talking about flights of fancy while sitting alone drinking coffee or other moments of contemplative quiet. I think one of the big drawbacks of realizing one is no longer a young buck or a spring chick…

“How’s your kitty, Frying Pan?” my friend asked. “Her name is Skillet.” “Why’d you name her Frying Pan, I mean Skillet?” “Because my daughter wouldn’t let me name her Drool.” This conversation took place several years ago, shortly before Skillet disappeared for the last time. She was an unplanned family member, a strange looking tortoise…

My father-in-law is so fixated on food that wherever he travels in the world, he must take scads of photos of the food (pictures that never get printed, by the way) either as served on the table or in neat stacks at a market. Meals with my late husband, or anyone in his family, always…