The two brother brick layers worked as quietly and smoothly as polished granite – with seemingly little effort and without a word passed between them. While one yielded a masonry hammer in his calloused right hand to trim and clean bricks, the other lifted a trowel in his rough right hand to butter up bricks […]
To Ponder
Potholes R Us – A Short Story
I don’t know about you, but I got tired of driving my car over and lurching down the giant potholes on the road. I even had one by my drive way. That’s how it all began. Well actually, I was just starting to repair my own asphalt drive way. I watched a number of Youtube […]
Oyster Fest at Anthony's Point Defiance – Restaurant Review
When I sat down at my computer at 4:00 am, I didn’t have any plans for the day. I didn’t know Peg and I would be going out to dinner. The email promoting Anthony’s Oyster Fest was delivered in the early afternoon. We called Anthony’s at 4:15 pm to make sure there were tables available […]
Good-bye Black History Month – February 2021
“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” – Edmund Burke I for one, am sad to see February and Black History Month leave us behind. “Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. Also known as African […]
Across the Fence: It’s All Greek To Me
The other day I finished a book that my sweet friend Katerina in Athens had taken great pain to find for me. It was the English translation of a Greek author, in this case Ilias Venezis. A wonderful book to boot. But it made me thoughtful why, besides the great classics like Homer, Aristotle, Plato, […]
Letter: A Well-lived Life
He was king with numerous opportunities to rule well during his eight year reign. He had not. During that time he had not achieved anything for his country or people that qualified as a distinguishable accomplishment of merit. Nothing. The people he had ruled were glad when he departed. “He passed away, to no one’s […]
I Care a Lot – Film Review
Imagine someone explaining to you that your mother’s doctor and the court has given a person complete control over your mom, her home, her savings, and access to her . . . and there is nothing you can do about it. Rosamund Pike plays Marla Grayson, a crooked legal guardian who drains the savings of […]
The Little Shopping Center on South Cedar Just Around the Corner
Just a quarter mile from the Tacoma Mall, directly across the street from KFC on 38th Street in Tacoma, is a small, but friendly and interesting shopping center with only a handful of shops. Years ago we often visited the Mexican restaurant there, The Funky Iguana. It’s gone now, but in its place is Cocina […]
Reliving the Magnitude 6.8 Nisqually Earthquake 20 Years Later
I can only imagine that adults living in and around the Seattle-Tacoma area today, who were here February 28, 2001, have their own personal memories of the Magnitude 6.8 Nisqually earthquake that struck at 10:54 Pacific Time that morning. What follows is my story… My husband Charles and I opened a flower shop in the […]