Entries by Sallie

Ain’t it just the pits?

Nobody wants to be in “the pits” if they don’t have to.  You don’t go there on purpose.   Unless you are a group of smart women, with a broad base of experience, thought and perspective.  Then being in “the pits” becomes something else entirely. Not too long ago, a group of women decided to gather.  To talk about […]

TARGETED

Once upon a time, I was targeted.  As in “target-market” targeted.   Stores carried clothes, shoes, cosmetics that were “targeted” to the likes of me. I was of an age when retailers, advertisers and marketers wanted my business.  Happily, I could afford a little more than the bare necessities.  Ergo, I was an economically attractive “target-market.” […]

To Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749 – 1832)

Dear Mr. Goethe: You may not know this but I have quoted you, many times, through the years.  It’s just one teeny-tiny little quote but it’s served me well.  Not being a logician, computer guru, scientist, or anything like that, I learn by osmosis. By absorbing. By feeling.   And so it is that your famous little quote “If you […]

Political Yard Signs

Ah yes, I remember them well. Once upon a time, we lived in a community that allowed them.  Even encouraged them. The signs were rampant.  Everybody’s political biases and preferences screamed from their yards. If it needed a vote, it had a sign. Red and Blue co-existed, not just in neighborhoods, but in single yards. […]

Where, Oh Where Has She Gone?

How often can you go to a friend’s house, settle in, then abruptly get up from your seat, walk to another room, sit down, relax and be gone as long as you want? How awkward is that, for the most part?  Won’t people wonder where you’ve gone?  What you’re doing?  Why you left the party/bridge game/ book club?   Are […]

Notes From a Slightly Crazed Person

I sit.  In my bathtub.  Cocooned in bubbles.  It has the best view in the house.  And as long as there’s hot water, I’m happy.  Puckered skin and all.   Bird life is plentiful from my window.  Up on the third floor, I’m in the treetops with them.  I can also see further out where […]

Sounding the Alarm: A Short Story

It was a Christmas morning, somewhere around 1976 or so.  We had opened our presents.  The children were fighting about who got what and how much.  The Mister and I might have been drinking Bloody Mary’s.  Probably were.  There was a fire in the fireplace because that’s what you do on Christmas morning.  One of us suggested that we put the […]

I Cannot Tell A Lie

How silly.  Of course, I can tell a lie.  I just did.  I have told lies in the past and I will live to tell more. Even though I always remember my mother’s dire admonishments about lying. To anyone and especially to her! Most, if not all, of my lies are slight exaggerations or are of “the dog ate my […]

My New Car(s)

It’s been a long process.  And not an easy one.  There have been mistakes. I/we have been lured, compelled, beguiled, and ultimately sucked in to buying the wrong car(s) for me.  In essence, I’ve been looking in all the wrong places.  And for all the wrong reasons.  The big schtick these days is the wonder of the car’s electronics.  Its […]

I Could Use A Muse

But I would not choose a Greek muse.  That famous group of winsome ladies is a bit esoteric for me.   I’m looking for a muse of a different sort.  A muse not so much for inspiration but for affirmation. I’d like my muse to sit on my shoulder and tell me that I’m still doing the best I […]

BUSTED!

Yep, The Mister and I got busted.   Exposed.  Caught.  Guilty. There’s a new blight on our reputation and one we may never live down. It all happened one evening last week when the phone rang.   At 7:30 PM.   It was a Face-time call.  Not only that, it was call from family members and family members […]

Do You Remember Your First Bicycle?

Of course, you do. Who doesn’t? First bicycles were rites of passage. On wheels, no less. That simple question, perhaps posed at a dinner table, can unleash memories, not all of them necessarily factual, that can fill many hours. Everyone outdoes everyone else with stories of their first bike.  Everyone had the biggest, the shiniest, […]

My Mother Disliked Rosalynn Carter

I mean, she really, really disliked Rosalynn Carter.  It was a visceral thing.  Having nothing to do with politics.  I’m sure she voted for Jimmy, what with her being a life long Democrat.  She approved of him.  It was his wife she didn’t like. It was a third-rail thing with her.  A land-mine.  You never knew what would kick it off but […]

Corona Conversations

         It doesn’t take much these days to send a perfectly good conversation into ridiculous and macabre territory. That’s what happened during a phone chat recently with a dear friend of many years and one who has a year or two on me.  We took a turn into the morbid with much laughter as a consequence. […]

Dear Doctor Fauci,

Dear, Dear, Dr. Fauci, What have you gotten yourself into?  Oh, how I wish you’d called me before you agreed to be the face of Covid 19. See, here’s the problem.  You actually read.  A lot.  You study the facts, you absorb them, you evaluate them and then you make informed decisions.  You come to […]