Twice a year – seemingly always on the coldest and hottest days – I lug my ladder out to clean the gunk from the rain gutters. For nearly a decade I have assiduously avoided buying gutter guards on the grounds that having to install them will double the time I’m up on that ladder. But [...]
To finally realize that your pet is more than just terribly sick is to be tossed nose-first into a suffocating morass of feelings. For me, one that sometimes bubbles to the top of this cacophony is the vague and unsettling wish for some kind of absolution: Dear little puss, please forgive all those times we [...]
Most of you probably understand the kinds of overwhelming heartsickness that permeate you when a loved pet falls desperately ill. For me nighttime arrives with a darker, suffocating feel, and ordinary happenings, especially those that mark the passing of time – the setting of Venus and the sun, waking up in the morning, the arrival [...]
The Austin Harts are home safely after two weeks of travel, and the kids are all snug in their beds with visions of the new school semester – alas – replacing the Christmas sugarplums. We got to see a fair proportion of the To: folks on our holiday trip and were reminded once again how [...]