My brand new love seat and ottoman! I love ottomans. I am totally enjoying furnishing my new apartment! I'm getting as much stuff as possible in my favorite color: pink (rugs, cups, kitchen towels, etc). If an item doesn't come in pink, then red is my second...
Today is my last day as a live-in wife. I'm wandering among my labeled boxes, gazing at the last things that need to be packed. Twenty-four hours from now I'll be taping and sealing the boxes and getting ready for the movers to arrive. Once I'm in my new apartment, I...
Back when Bob and I were first married, I told him (and he remembers this), "No matter what happens -- if we end up divorced or you die -- I'm keeping the Martin. Okay? Just so you know. I'm not going back to Regina Rodríguez." He said that was fine. Reason: the...
Tuesday, 2 July 2013 So my husband and I are divorcing. It happens. I realized my marriage was over right around the time I found out my mother was getting hospice care. This spring/summer has been quite a ride. I'm packing this week because I move into my new...
The big secret I referred to on my blog last month was that my mother was in hospice care. That's why so many of my June posts were about death. My mother and I had been estranged for years, but we managed to say a loving good-bye when I flew out to California during...
Is there anyone else out there who avoids their home town because going there doesn't evoke good memories? Today I head out there one more time. It seems many people enjoy visiting the place they grew up because there are still people there who they enjoy seeing:...
Today in the Contra Costa Times of California.
Not everyone goes running to their parent's death bed: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yahxMDYH0rY/UbPg5fTcjHI/AAAAAAAAYqU/Ok07nt9I9BQ/s1600/25.jpg In fact many people take their time, if they show up at all, but just don't talk about it.
When a dying wish conflicts with the needs of the living, which should take priority? Some extreme cases would be pretty easy to call: if a person's last wish is that a friend should go murder her ex-husband, the friend might not have trouble disobeying. But what...
Blogging is hard when there are things you don't want certain people in your life to know. I hate secrets. I grew up with secrets. My mother does secrets all too well. I don't tend to keep personal secrets about myself (as my blog readers have probably figured out)...
[My original post on this question was written in February, 2012] Lately I've been talking to people who’ve been married fifteen or thirty or more years. For decades I've been hearing that “every marriage is different,” but I still thought marriage was supposed to fit...
I. The dirty stove (her job) competes with the uncleaned floors (his job) for most neglected surface, but the winner is her skin. Emotions balance and unbalance, shifting positions and changing sides Who's heavier? II. It turns out the buoyant boy can sink, while the...
I'm proud to be a member of AARP, which I've been looking forward to for years. Now I really feel grown up. The AARP newsletters sometimes have very intriguing articles and right now I'm focused on Bronnie Ware's Top Regrets of the Dying, first posted in February...
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin USA. Photo by Bob Martin Lake Geneva, Wisconsin USA. Photo by Bob Martin. Okay, it's bad enough to drive your car onto a frozen lake, but to then build a FIRE? Ozzie loves snow. Taking pictures with an iPad looks dumb, but the photo quality is...
Settling in for movie night I just had a great weekend. On Saturday morning the snow was coming down and I enjoyed being out under the cloudy skies. The EFT group was excellent as usual, and on the way to the meeting I visited Bulldog Bakery at Belmont and...