I didn’t know who was calling, because I didn’t look to see, but I answered my phone.

“Hello.”

“Who’s this?” a disagreeable voice demanded.

“You called me,” I said.

The caller persisted. “Who’re you? Where’s Cassie?”

“I’m sorry, I believe you have the wrong number,” I replied, and wondered why I should be the sorry one. Continue reading →

If you could go back in time three years and give yourself a piece of advice, what would it be?”

The family, ranging in age from one to ninety, had gathered for holiday games. Those of us in the middle, the fifty-somethings, were stumped. Yes, we had lived through cancer, the loss of loved ones, and a couple of toothbrushes each. But what counsel a few years ago would have made our lives better today?

A few years ago, my son was an unattached college student. Today he is a graduate, a husband, and a daddy. He could’ve spent a week writing advice to his past self, knowing what he knows today.

My pencil turned cartwheels between my fingers. Continue reading →

Made Glorious Summer by the Stove By Steve Carr This month we celebrate President’s Day. Holidays are significant to me. They evoke memories and give me pause. When I awake on President’s Day, grateful for the many blessings
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Talk about an offer we couldn’t refuse—a respite from our dreary, between-seasons, Idaho November to sunny Virginia and free board in a comfortable townhouse for a week exploring Civil War battlefields surrounded by moss covered, stone ledge walls.

Our son and daughter-in-law moved to Virginia recently for work, taking our grandkids with them.

“How about coming out for a visit and seeing the sights?” my son said during a Skype call, while we watched green leaves flutter in the warm breeze over his shoulder out his living room window.

And oh, by the way, maybe he and his bride would take a small vacation of their own while we were there, and maybe they’d leave the grandkids with us. “If that’s okay?” Continue reading →

Guess what, a recently discovered species has been named after my brother. Now that’s pretty cool.

This is what I know—which is more than I understand. The genus to which this newly discovered species belongs is unevenly distributed throughout all bio-geographical regions. Despite this global distribution, these animals are seldom collected, likely due to their crypto-biotic lifestyle.

For those of you who are non-zoologists, like me, a crypto-biotic state is one in which an animal’s metabolic activities come to a reversible standstill. Continue reading →

I’m drowning in passion­—everyone else’s passions. David’s passion for golf, Kitty’s passion for Idaho history, Pepper’s passion for her dog bone. Now even the advertisers are rubbing it in. A current ad for an electronic device that does it all, from playing Beethoven (the composer) to walking Beethoven (the dog) asks, “Everyone has a passion . . . what will your verse be?”

I don’t know my passion, dag gummit, and if your fancy computer is so great, why can’t it tell me mine?

Recently, on a flight east, while hunkered in my seat searching my know-it-all tablet computer for my verse, my seatmate introduced himself, saying he was an efficiency consultant for a chemical firm. In the same breath, he said, “So what’s your passion?”

My first thought was, this guy’s trying to pick me up. My reaction was a flush of embarrassment at the flattery—no one has flirted with me since high school. Next, I worried about how to let this guy down easy—after first soliciting a few compliments—for we would be sharing an armrest for several hours. Continue reading →