I am not what anyone would call a spontaneous individual. The pattern of my life for the most part has bordered on the somnolent. So it came as a shock to me-myself-and-I, as well as those who knew me back then, that I should leave behind a successful career in Library-Land to pursue a degree…
Well, I managed to splatter myself face first on a perfectly benign sidewalk. And contrary to popular belief, my life did not flash before my eyes. It was nevertheless, quite a spectacular fall. Due to extenuating circumstances, it is beyond my capacity to relate the entire sequence of events leading up to my pratfall in…
Oy gevalt! Please save me from my fantasy life. Much as I might wish it to be possible, there really is no way I shall ever be mistaken for a sophisticated world traveler sitting at ease in a sidewalk café in Firenze conversing in fluent Italian with passers-by. For one thing, I shall never again…
Last year at this time I was dithering about what I needed to do before we left for Italy. Granted the prospects of travel were diminishing exponentially every day, as the pandemic took hold of the world. But at that time there was still what we thought might be a sliver of an opportunity, or…
Memory can be a slick shyster … a Monte Bank adept at shuffling our recollection of events, be they ghastly or awesome. Really gruesome events remain vivid for a time and then, if we are lucky, fade and lose their sharp edges. They are no less powerful, but their grip eases as our lives move…
I took this photo years ago while in Maine. I have kept it along with a few other special images that show up whenever I go into my photo gallery. Mostly I transfer new photos out of the gallery into storage files, and see them again only when I go searching. So, why keep this particular…
Sorry to say, our lovely two-week trip to Florence has been cancelled … yet another casualty of the coronavirus wars. We kept thinking that it might work out, but as you all know there is no future in planning for the future right now. It certainly feels as if life’s highway is chock-a-block with roadkill.…
Just a heads up … It turns out that as a toddler, I missed the lesson on left and right. As a result … do not act upon any spontaneous directions you might receive from me, unless those directions are reinforced with hand signals, such as tapping on the passenger window while yelling, “Take the…
In the midst of our cold New England winter, with snow and ice framing every view, I dream of Italy and the south of France. Like the memory of sun-drenched childhood, they are forever warm and alive in their colors.
This morning I watched as my neighbor trailed her suitcase down the walk to her garage. Ah I thought, she is off on an adventure. Good for her! I hope it is somewhere warm. Then she stopped and looked back at her house as if to check that she had not left some stray part…