Each year I buy a giant Costco sized bag of mixed candy for Halloween trick-or-treaters. And in the past few years, there has been no one home to pass it out. It’s been my custom to dutifully leave a sign next to the bowl ( like the Village Idiot in a ground hog day loop) asking kids to just take a few. And each year, a neighbor has informed me, that ...
Indian summer. It’s described as a period (usually in the northeast) of unseasonably warm and dry weather. It’s that shortish stretch of perfect temperature to be outside, or sleep with the windows open. It’s still shorts and skorts weather, flip flops with a sweatshirt, the days just before there’s a real nip in the air. It was Indian summer that ...
This month’s spotlight on an indie is a shout-out to Kepler’s Bookstore, founded in Menlo Park in 1955. With a fiercely groovy Bay Area backstory (The Grateful Dead and Joan Baez performed there) and a goal to democratize reading, the bookstore became the cultural epicenter and social heart of the community until eroding sales in 2005 forced it to close ...
Summer months were made for reading, whether you’re at the beach, lake, mountains or on your backyard hammock. As I downshift into six weeks of summer, I’m tucking in to write, hike and start training for the empty nest. Twenty-seven years of frontline mothering is about to come to an end. My navy fighter pilot friend calls this “a ton of time in-jet.” ...
The month of May is chock-a-block with good things. Mothers Day… OK, I lied, I’m not a fan of this manufactured day of worship. Every single day should be mother’s day in my book. What’s this once a year malarkey? About this time in May there’s usually a hint of sunscreen in the air. It’s the official kick-off to outdoor grill season and you can ...