Category: 2023
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Musings of a Mature Belly Dancer
My dance experience begins at the tender age of four. My mother enrolled me in a ballet class. I spent an hour a week pirouetting and spinning. There was a recital at the end of the year – my first and last public appearance as a dancer for decades. Imagine a line of a dozen…
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Comfort Foods for Troubling Times
I ruined my diet this week. I prepared a favorite dish – tuna noodle casserole. Another night I made baked ziti lathered in three cheeses. I went out to lunch and stuffed myself with fish and chips. Comfort foods. I have no one to blame but myself for slipping off the healthy food wagon. I…
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Every Year Older But Not Wiser
By the time my birthday arrived each year, school was out. No cupcakes for my elementary school class, no ribbon corsages in junior high, no friends to celebrate with as they scattered…somewhere. June birthdays are often relegated to second-tier status, shoved to the background, subordinate to end-of-school events, graduations, weddings, and the onset of summer…
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The Arrival of a New Season Yields Memories and One Plentiful Crop
We, meaning folks living in my town, state, and region of the world, have endured a week of dreariness. Rain, winds, chilly temperatures, and cloudy days prevailed. Grayness descended and refused to move on. The bleakness underscored the passing of summer and the arrival of fall. One rainless, windless day, blue sky and sun peeked…
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Boomers Boost the Economy
A trip to the grocery store, gas station, or favorite restaurant and today’s economic reality cannot be ignored: prices seem to rise daily. And my generation – the baby boomers – has been hard-hit. Many folks will not wholly recover assets lost during the Great Recession and recent skyrocketing inflation. But boomers are an optimistic…
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September Finds the Boomers On the Road, Reminiscing and Working
From Florida’s sizzling sun and balmy sea over Labor Day Weekend to the leafy green mountains along the Hudson River north of New York City, my September has been one of short travels and – Covid. Caught most likely in the Sunshine State while mingling with plane passengers, family, and strangers at a series of…
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Summer Sticks Around and Covid Comes
The unofficial end of summer came and went, but the sun gods did not receive the memo. Persistent, oppressive heat remains in my corner of the world, placing a damper on my desire to attack outdoor activities. I spent the Labor Day weekend in the Sunshine State on an exhaustive whirlwind of family activities, immediately…
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Touring the Edge of Two Worlds and Seeing My World a Little Differently
I spent two weeks touring Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, three small countries that were part of the Soviet Union during most of the 20th century. All three threw off the Communist yoke and declared independence in 1991. Today these Northern European states sit on the edge of two worlds – the West and the East, democracy…
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My Garden Bounty of Flora and a Couple of Fauna
My garden, small by most standards, a patch in the front of my house in lieu of grass, has been unusually luxuriant this year. Too often annuals planted, either seeds or seedlings, never sprout and bloom. Perennials die over the winter or, if they grow, look rather sickly. This year was different. Long, hot sunny…
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The Start of My Driving History with Cars
I began writing a blog post about my trip to the Baltic countries this summer, but got sidetracked when I walked to the drugstore a couple of blocks from my house for some much-needed toilet paper and a Starbucks Frappuccino (but I digress…). Situated in front of the store was the stunning vehicle pictured below. In…