Stick Horse Cowgirls

I am a baby-boomer/sixties-to-eighties-rock-lovin’ old person.  I am sitting at the computer listening to my Pandora “Dire Straits” Station.  (I have an opera station, too, so don’t judge me too harshly). Along came the old Journey hit, “ Don’t Stop Believing .”  It made me think of a post— inspiration !  You just never know how the Muse will strike, right? Journey said: She Took the Midnight Train Goin’ Anywhere Wow . These lyrics made me think about advice I wish young women everywhere would heed.  It is advice borne of my longish life, tinged with sorrow now softened, and of my very-long work as a divorce lawyer.  Ahhhhh , if only they would listen to me. As I age I am learning the importance of living life intentionally…making conscious decisions about what I like, what I want from life, how I want to live it.  So many of us, women especially (hang with me, here), just drift through days, taking life’s midnight train to anywhere....

Jo and Jim did not have a perfect marriage, but it was a good one, Jo thought. They had been married 26 years and had two beautiful college-student daughters still at home. Each had worked with large companies for over twenty years. They did not make huge salaries and they were not wealthy, but they had no big monetary concerns and had decent retirement funds. They were conservative in their spending, and had enough to make the payments on the home they had lived in for the last 18 years. They lived a bit too much on credit cards. It was hard not to with two college-aged girls, and all four members of the family had cars. Thankfully, two of them were paid off, but they all had to be insured. Monthly payments took planning, but they were able to maintain a good credit score. Jim's father lived alone about thirty minutes from Jo and Jim. He was a bit emotionally removed from his only child, but Jo did her best to include Ben in the family celebration times and she prodded Jim to vi...

Back in 1999 my Son was graduating from high school.  He had a long-standing desire to visit Israel, and we decided to spring for a two-week family visit to celebrate his achievement.  We did our trip ourselves—eschewing tour groups—and we traveled the country by means of a rented car.  We had many adventures and, now that I am recalling the trip anew, I may share some with you later, but right now what is on my mind is breakfast.  Breakfast on that trip sort of symbolizes for me a little breaking free from the “box” of my own acculturalization…at least temporarily, as you will see and as only now occurs to me. During our initial days there, we stayed in a very nice kibbutz-run hotel called Ramat Rachel. That is an aerial view at the top of this post.  It is situated on a hill between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.  Its grounds are gorgeous, as you can see better in this picture. Our first day we arrived early evening exhausted from the overseas flight and...

I mean, Merriam-Webster defines tradition as: a way of thinking, behaving, or doing something that has been used by the people in a particular group, family, society, etc., for a long time So, is the term “new tradition” an oxymoron? (Dn. “oxymoron” is: a combination of contradictory or   incongruous words such as cruel kindness… my own suggestions are honest lawyer-- I can self-deprecate-- or internal revenue service ….but I digress. We just had our first Thanksgiving Dinner of the season.  Today, Thanksgiving proper, it was Son, MIL and me.  The three of us had our own not-so-little feast so that we would have all those luscious leftovers.  And I think I may have started a “new tradition.”  Fine Cooking had this recipe for mashed carrots.  Being a carrot-lover, I tried, it and we all loved it.  I am taking it tomorrow to Sister’s house for all my family to enjoy.  I thought some of you might enjoy it, too: Carrot Mash with Or...

A couple days ago Son was in the car with me.  We had both had a tough day and decided that we “deserved” a Starbuck’s treat.  This something I do not do very often, and after I had placed the order at the drive-thru speaker, I remembered why. “ Your total is $9.98, ” the voice announced.  Wow !  Almost ten Dollars for the two of us!  Yes, the coffees were “specialty” coffees.  Yes, Son had a baked treat, too.  But, still, it was more than I had expected. We were in line behind two cars.  The topic of conversation as we waited was the above… expensive ! When it was my turn, we rolled up to the window.  I had my ten-dollar bill ready for the clerk.   I could see our order awaiting us  The sales girl smiled and said, “ The lady ahead of you paid for your order!” I looked up in time to see the white car pull slowly around the corner.  I could see the driver well enough to know that I had never met her.  I loo...

Yesterday I had occasion to be in a part of town I rarely visit.  I noticed that Wal-Mart had put in a “Neighborhood Market.”  Wanting to grab our Thanksgiving turkey and ham, I decided to give it a try. I was so pleased.  The Market was about the size I remembered the new “supermarkets” of my childhood.  I confess that I resist going into Walmart Superstores because of the size—Want dog food?  It is waaaay over to the other side of the store.  But this smaller version was great.  It had everything I needed and all within fairly easy reach.  Our holidays are different this year.  I will be cooking for MIL, Son and me on Thanksgiving Day.  We have promised to indulge MIL with her football while I sit before the fire, listening to her urge Navy on to a goal and working on my rag rug.  The next day we will go to my sisters for my family’s feast. As I passed one of those mid-aisle displays, I grabbed a couple of bottles of spar...

So, it had been a hard week; hard enough that my little car did not move all day Saturday.  I just stayed home, piddling around the house.  When we left for church Sunday morning, I found my purse—and my dead phone—right where I had dropped it Friday night. I was looking forward to a restful time of worship Sunday morning.  MIL and I slid into our pew just as the music began.  It was good. As the music subsided, Pastor moved to the front to begin his sermon.  As he did, I reached into my purse to find an ink pen, inveterate note-taker that I am.  As I fished around, my thumb landed on something soft, and then I felt it pierce some unknown object, squishing.  I could feel something cover the end of the thumb, squeezing up under the nail, soft, wet, downright slimy. I jerked the hand out to find my thumb and part of the hand covered with a gooey, gross mess.  I sat in the pew horror-struck as my mind tried to comprehend exactly what had hap...

Does it seem trite to write about the season, autumn?  Today I am feeling very grateful for the season.  It is brisk and beautiful out, and it caused me to stop and think about what I love about autumn: Pots of soup on the s tove Coyotes yapping more than usual Warm afghans on the couch Wood neatly stacked on the back porch An excuse to light a fire Hearthside chats Color of its own, not found in other seasons These pleasures are enough to chase away the gloom of darkening days and slow-arising mornings.  Each season has its own pleasure, but autumn seems to me to be the most peaceful.  Summer and Winter are extremes that my aging self is finding harder and harder to tolerate.  Winter sometimes has hushed beauty, but it is interspersed with hardship. Spring is gorgeous, of course, but it seems so busy with the bursting of new life and volatile weather. For me, autumn...

Okay, boys and girls, here is your vocab word for the day: Consanguinity: Kinship characterized by the sharing of common ancestors I learned this fancy word in law school.  It is important in estate law to determine inheritances. You need to know how folks are related and who is “closest” to  a dearly-departed.  For example, it is critical when you have to ferret among the clamoring long-lost relatives who want to claim pots of gold left by childless, eccentric old aunts who died among dozens of cats and such. Yes, yes, I learned all this esoterica in law school…haven’t used it since.  I had occasion to reacquaint with a cousin yesterday.  K is the child of my father's cousin, which made her What??? to me?  Consanguineous, to be sure, but how else to describe our familial relationship? Being the smarty-pants lawyer that I am, I knew about and, therefore, consulted the " Tables of Consanguinity ."  There is one below for...

This video has so much to say.... Technology .  It is supposed to ease our workload--it makes me accessible to clients 7 days a week unless I use restraint.  Call that "easier?"  Nope. Technology .  It is supposed to "connect" us.  I think this video makes a strong case for the opposite.  Handwritten letters and mailed invitations have gone by the wayside to be replaced by emails and evites.  Timelines for Facebook have taken the place of check-in or report phone calls.  Facebook posts have all the transparency and sincerity of Christmas newsletters.  We are robbing ourselves of community. I think technology is great...if we have the smarts and the discipline to tame it and make it work FOR our good, not against it. --C

Well, we're at about a week and a half since Secretary of State Kerry all but declared an operation of "limited" intervention against Syria, only to have the President publicly do a trajectory change...it's only gotten worse in my view. I awake this morning to this "crawl" across the bottom of the screen: " Russian and Chinese warships being moved to the Syria coast . "  No one's talking about it on the news shows, but the crawl got my attention and raised my hackles.  You can do an internet search on this, or go right to this CBS source or to this   page .   Yep, the Russian and Chinese are beefing up their presence in the long wait between the President's first signal and while he weakly vacillates in his resolve. I also saw this morning his chief of staff saying that the reason the President went to Congress for approval (a bit late the day), was that he cannot honestly say that there is "imminent" danger to the US from ...