Month: December 2010

  • flexible holiday traditions

    Okay so Christmas is over. And I didn’t get what I wanted. All I wanted for Christmas was a good-old fashion, traditional celebration. As children, we gathered at my grandparent’s house on Christmas Eve. Because they had married on Christmas Eve, we celebrated Christmas and their anniversary every year. On their 40th wedding anniversary, they…

  • lessons learned from a fire

    Mid-afternoon a neighbor saw smoke, then heard an explosion as flames shot above the trees at my friend’s house. He called 9-1-1, but it was already too late. Fire spread quickly across the top of the house. While he called the owners, firemen gathered. They worked for hours controlling the outbursts of flames until they…

  • Necessary rooms

    Everyone uses them. Blue prints for any public building must include at least one. They even make the news occasionally – as seen in the following reports from Capitol Hill, scientific research labs and the streets of China – all discussing one aspect or another about the necessary room and its porcelain throne. The report…

  • lottery tickets

    All right, I confess. Secretly, I have always been a bit intrigued with the idea of winning the lottery, the big one, the Powerball variety that sends a person into untold wealth and unbelievable financial opportunities. Really, who doesn’t at least dream a few minutes here and there of having enough cash for anything and…