I don’t know if many of you know my feelings on soup. I have a lot of them, almost all negative.  “Try this wonderful chicken soup!” says someone, and I find myself eating a few chunks of chicken and carrots before setting down to the unappetizing (and frankly exhausting) task of sucking down a bowl... Continue Reading →

A while back, an old friend of mine was in Toledo on business. After her meetings, she swung by our house for dinner.  We were barely through the salad when she got right to it.  “What,” she asked Don, “is the deal with you people and Costco?” “Thank you!” I said. “Seriously!”  Don looked perplexed.... Continue Reading →

It’s freezing. Actually, strike that. It’s below freezing. This morning, around 6:00, it was a balmy 1 degree Fahrenheit (-17 Celsius). I strapped Pete into this weird blue snowsuit thing Don bought him and chucked him outside. He did his business and came charging  back in like the cold was a flock of Wizard of... Continue Reading →

This has got to be the most disorganized 500 Words Before Bedtime in the history of 500 Words Before Bedtime. I can see missing one night, but TWO? Two is just shameful.  Nonetheless, shameful or not, here we are. Yesterday, after taking a glorious afternoon nap, I sensed a scratchy throat coming on. It soon... Continue Reading →

You know that They Might Be Giants song “Your Racist Friend?” Well, I think I’ve found the guy. His name is Paul Walker Gates. He was born in 1901 and presumably died at some point. At some point between those two points (1954 to be exact) he wrote Fifty Million Acres: Conflicts over Kansas Land... Continue Reading →

It’s 8:02 pm, and all I really want to do is crawl into an actual bed. *My* actual bed. At her facility, mom’s in one of the two bedroom apartments. At first we thought might use the  spare as a study, but as things deteriorated, it became obvious that was a pipe dream. Eventually, we... Continue Reading →

Good evening, and welcome to the fourth and final Pittsburgh edition of 500 Words Before Bedtime. Tomorrow, Lord willing, I’ll head home.  Today was up and down. It started with pain and sobbing at 2:30 am, but had positive news from the doctor in the middle, and ended with a visit from a favorite grandson.... Continue Reading →

Good evening and welcome to the third Pittsburgh edition of 500 Words Before Bedtime. Tonight…tonight I’m tired. Mom’s in bed after an extremely rough day. I got cocky and tried to extend our “going down to dinner” streak to two, but that only lasted about fifteen minutes. Luckily, her fridge is stocked with Jell-O, though,... Continue Reading →

Good evening, and welcome to a second Pittsburgh edition of 500 Words Before Bedtime. I’m sure most of you are interested in mom’s condition, and I will get to that, I promise.  But first, let me complain about Aldi.  Aldi is the world’s most ridiculous grocery store. In fact, I’m not sure it even merits... Continue Reading →