Contrived pleasantries regarding the new year are not in the cards. I don’t feel compelled to promise you that I’m changing. I’m not even planning on doing anything differently. I’ll just stay the course, correct my foibles when I screw up, and I’ll try to avoid ingesting bacon outside of breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I’d…
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Just a Plastic Santa
Peering over the chipped and faded balusters surrounding the loose floorboards of a Victorian sitting porch stands a forty-six-inch-high plastic Santa Claus. This particular Saint Nick was picked up on a whim during a late fall shopping trip to Sears and Roebuck in 1968. His bright blue eyes have seen plenty of cheer from his…
Wealth, With Raisins
Sitting in darkness while letting the morning intrude slowly into the living room, I can watch dawn’s smiling face rise through the naked branches of that oak tree; it doesn’t belong to me. It’s on a neighboring property, but I’ve never seen anyone near it. I think of it as mine. Mine and some squirrels…
Testing, Testing 1,2,3
I was sick a couple of weeks ago. It felt like a common cold, but you can’t be too careful right now. I cannot think of the last time I booked out of work for a cold, but I had to due to the concerns surrounding the virus. I’ve learned not to let people know…
Coupons and Croutons
I clipped coupons for the first time in my existence. While I normally toss aside the warehouse club coupon book, I thumbed through it for a couple of minutes before heading out for milk, bread, eggs, “and some kind of meat.” That was the direction from the Significant One. She stopped by the house for…
See What A Card Can Do
Rarely talked about, the residuum of melting snowbanks can reveal to you what is going on just down the road from your chosen spot on the jagged edge. Frequent snowfalls in my neck of the woods cause the rumbling transitory snowplows to drop off a myriad of items in front of my house. Most of…
Lather, Rinse, Repeat (But Not On The Cat)
With autumn fading in my rearview mirror, I repacked my travel bags for whatever came next. While my travels are typically confined within the borders of Maine, there are a few nuances between summer dunnage and autumn gear bags. I’ve made the switch. To the kid’s house, I drive about one hundred and thirty miles….
Writing Less, Remembering More
There’s been very little writing over the last week. Storytellers who write stories about not telling stories are —clearly— not going to be nominated for, let alone win, prestigious awards. The only thing I’ve ever won—to date—is a 60-inch RCA projection television valued at over twelve hundred dollars. It was on a one-dollar raffle ticket,…
Egg Salad and Bing Crosby
Circuitously navigating the interior portions of the jagged edge has found me rethinking my Sirius/XM presets. For some reason, one of the seasonally available Christmas music channels has taken up space where something else had previously been. I don’t remember what had been there, but I know it wasn’t yule-related. I’m not gonna lie, during…
Flannel and Gas Are Not Exclusive To Bean Suppers
Malady-bound, I was stuck inside the house for the day. Other than regularly scheduled appearances on the back lawn for an audience of one black dog, I looked for inside chores that I’ve ignored. The laundry was easy. I recovered some flannel shirts that I left in the dryer during my last session. Even the…