Tag: family
100 Word Challenge: Parent
My daughter called me last week in a fine fury. She wanted to vent about an encounter she had with someone who works in the same building where her office is located. I won’t go into detail, but the crux of the conversation was that he deigned to “mansplain” something to her, something that 1) ...
Grampa butterfly
Huge tangles of black and orange hung in the trees, quivering with anticipation. Each butterfly’s beat of rice-paper thin mosaic wings, stirred the air, wafting perfume from it flowery perch. Mesmerized, Jorja sat beneath a kaleidoscope of butterflies, watching as a single monarch flitted from the rabble to settle on another swarm. Her mother, Laurie, ...
Waking up
A small, subdued group of people gathered around the hospital bed watching the still patient. The rhythmic beating his heart was a regular beep synchronized with the whoosh of his respirator. His visitors hoped for the telltale flicker of an eyelid to tell them he was awake. Alan Poole was coming out of a 15-year ...
100 Word Challenge: Hungry
I enjoying cooking for my family, but don’t always make a full dinner. What with the menfolk having such diverse work schedules, many nights there isn’t a full contingency for a meal. When they are both home, I try to prepare something homemade. Whenever I try a new recipe, I always ask later if it’s good ...
100 Word Challenge: History
I got a new book this week, a retelling of Norse Mythology written by Neil Gaiman. Aside from Gaiman being one of my favorite writers, I also have an affinity for the subject matter. Back in the day, back in the dark ages before the internet and Google, my grandfather researched our family tree, tracing ...
Not so silent night
The family was gathered for holiday dinner. Being the youngest adult, I still got relegated to the kid’s table where the conversation was a scurrilous attack on Debbie Bishop who had brazenly flirted with cousin Pooky’s tenth-grade boyfriend. The level of vitriol spewing from these high school Mean Girls rivaled the juiciest TMZ scandelmongering. Talk at the ...
100 Word Challenge: Dinner
Tomorrow, Thanksgiving is celebrated in the U.S. I’ve been cooking for the past couple of days. The menu includes the standard fare: turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole (with crispy onions), gravy, homemade rolls, cranberry sauce, and two kinds of pie - pecan and apple. I’ll brew a pitcher of sweet iced tea and ...
100 Word Challenge: Transform
This morning my niece posted an old photo of my daughter and me on Facebook. I say old because my daughter can’t more a year old, so that makes the photo about 27 years old. In it, we are outside our home in Middle Tennessee, you can see the Appalachian Mountains in the background. I’m ...
