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Not By Choice

Sep7

Not By Choice

Even though the weather was hot and humid, the minute I arrived home from work, I decided that I needed to prepare my fair entries for delivery to the Central Wisconsin State Fair. I looked forward to relaxing when that job was finished.

Allowing myself a few minutes of respite from my scheduled labor, I sat down at the desk and checked my email account. I found a message from the company that owns The Buyer’s Guide, a weekly advertisement newspaper that I’ve had a column in for the last 25 years and three months.

My eyes widened as I read, “As you may know, we are undergoing some changes in how we allocate editorial resources for the Hub City Times. As part of this, we have moved away from a paid columnist structure. Effective immediately, we will no longer be able to pay for the Lifelines column.”

I thought, “What?” I knew that the paper had moved away from publishing just advertisements and my column to having local news stories and other columnists. Since I never go to the office, I hadn’t known that my column was at risk.

Picking up the telephone, I called my daughter, Tammie.

“What’s up, Mom?” She asked.

I said, “The Buyer’s Guide just fired me via e-mail.” Continue reading →

It’s Snow Good

Feb11

The house felt warm and cozy. Not a glimmer of light from outside marred the bathroom’s black windowpane. It wasn’t the middle of night, though. Only half an hour before, the annoying, buzzing insistence of my alarm clock persuaded me to leave my warm bed. Unable to put off leaving for work, I checked my reflection in the mirror above the sink one last time, and turned out the light. Continue reading →

Indian Summer

Sep10

I hastily ran a comb through my hair, picked up my purse and headed for the back door. Tammie was applying her make-up and didn’t have her shoes on. I chided, “Aren’t you ready to go YET?” We had several things planned for the day, so it was important to get an early start. Continue reading →

A Taste of Summer

Aug27

A cool summer evening breeze sighed through the pine trees behind me. I stopped weeding for a moment to sniff the air. It smelled green; from mown grass that dried in the sun, of the freshly pulled weeds at my side, of nearby moist field grasses growing on top of last year’s mulch. Now in shade, the garden soil beneath me felt smooth and silky, still warm from the day’s heat.

Continue reading →

The Vinyl Robin

Jun25

Tammie held our old, battered, but still serviceable badminton birdie in one hand and her racquet in the other. There was a look of concentration on her face. Taking a swing, the taunt strings of the racquet made contact with the little orange rubber belly of the birdie. The contact produced a very satisfying, resonant, ‘Thunk!’

Continue reading →