Blog
It’s now or never! Here I am, stuck in the house for an interminable time. Why not? The challenge? Thousands. Yes. Thousands… of pictures. They have been accumulating for my entire lifetime. It started with snapshots here and there. Tucked into a scrapbook or box of mementoes. A couple of baby pictures. A few from…
At one point in time, I had three file cabinets and a total of ten file drawers. All were jammed with folders. As we prepared to down-size…and move across the country, I made it my mission to “get rid” of all that “clutter.” The file cabinets were dispersed. The antique walnut one that Mr. Penfire…
“Christos Anesti.” “Christ is Risen.” It is Easter Sunday. But today is like no other Easter Sunday I have experienced. No Easter eggs. No church…overflowing with people dressed in crisp new outfits, bright spring colors. No abundant cascades of fragrant flowers. No Easter lilies. Pots of bright tulips. No choirs singing. No hymns. No Holy…
My mother died on Good Friday. She was just one month shy of her 90th birthday. The year was 2003, and Good Friday fell on April 18th that year, but no matter. Every year since, on Good Friday, I think of her. And I think of my Uncle Joe, her brother, two years younger, who…
It snuck up on us, didn’t it? This Covid 19 virus! For Mr. Penfire and me, the preoccupation since about Christmas was up the street…at our daughter’s house, where our son-in-law was undergoing medical tests…and, ultimately, some very serious surgery at the end of February…and there were four young children who needed to be driven…
My daughters claim I love paper way too much. And alas, they are no doubt right. For I am trying (it’s the zillionth time, at least) to “organize” my office, and it’s not going well. The file folders crammed with paper are mostly hidden in files drawers (and file boxes stashed under the desk). It’s…
Full disclosure: I haven’t read Thomas Wolfe’s famous novel though I have read about it. Unlike Wolfe, I have never written a Great American Novel. But I have, quite recently, gone home. Four years ago, Mr. Penfire and I sold our house in Massachusetts and moved to southern California to be near our children—and grandchildren….
Boxes. And boxes. And boxes…of photographs. Random envelopes of pictures. And a lot of albums, too. Do you have the kind of stash I’ve accumulated over the years? The albums contain pictures of me, my husband, and our two girls; for several years I kept up with dealing decks of prints into bargain priced albums,…
She asked to come along when I offered to drop off the dry cleaning for her mother. It’s a short drive to Patterson Cleaners, a little over a mile—six or seven minutes each way. Who would expect to cover topics ranging from scatological vocabulary to the origin of the species in less than fifteen minutes?…
The breath-holding suspense of Election Day (which still continues) The horror of Borderline, latest of the interminable succession of mass shootings, (which never seem to stop) The strong emotions surrounding Veterans Day’s (which feel particularly upsetting this year) And the California fires so close to home (which, of course, still continue). Mrs. Penfire’s head is…