Life and Fish Tacos

  Do you have a Bucket List? The other night my husband, Gary, and I sat down and  watched the 2007 film, from which this famous question was born, The Bucket List , starring Morgan Freeman, Jack Nicholson, and Sean Hayes. I had never seen it before. It is billed as a comedy, and although we found ourselves chuckling at certain moments, it was not slap-stick or sidesplitting. What was supposed to be one of the funnier scenes was when Carter, Morgan Freeman’s character, fulfills his dream of driving a 1961 Red Shelby Mustang with white racing stripes. He and Edward (Jack Nicholson) end up at a race track, Carter with his Shelby and Edward in a 1970 yellow Dodge Challenger. They are racing around the track and it’s a thing of beauty to watch…until they get overly-excited and out-of-control. They WRECK these iconic, classic cars. Oh my stomach! Yet the film was endearing, and left us with a lengthy discussion afterward about goals, dreams, and our need to know we’ve squee...

 

Happy beginnings happen. June 27, 2020, we officially married each other. Neither of us knew exactly what the other was planning to say for our vows. This morning, one week later, we watched the video of the ceremony. We were able to listen to each other without the distraction of our nerves. There wasn't a dry eye in the kitchen as we sat there on our bar stools at the island. If you have Facebook, you can watch at this link:  https://tinyurl.com/yanpwqko   There were two other shorter segments of our wedding ceremony that aren't viewable due to some technical challenges.  I don't have much else to say on this post. It's all there in our vows. But you may be wondering about the wisdom of having a wedding and reception during this time of pandemic. This was indeed a huge concern. We limited our actual ceremony to immediate family who live in the area, and our children & grandchildren--roughly 35 people spread out in their family groups, outside on a large plot of la...

I have thought that what I'm about to post here would never see the light of day. It comes from New Year's day 2019, which was not a day that I consider "light" in any sense of the word. I wrote it in a hospital waiting room, while my daughter suffered on the other side of a secure door through which I was not allowed to enter.  I can only share it now because we have come so far past that dark morning in the ER.  Much good has transpired since then. We are healed and are healing. She is now in college and living on her own, working on her coping mechanisms, and enjoying a new-found family with her soon-to-be step father & step siblings. She is beautiful, healthy, and determined to find happiness each day. COVID-19 has reminded me of the anguish of that January 1st of 2019. How many people since January of 2020 have been sitting out in their cars, or home alone, or in a waiting room, not being allowed to see a loved one in intensive care as they struggle with this...

“Hand me that wrench over there…”  “Sure thing! You mean the one with the blue handle or the hand-adjustable one?” Again with the hands! This is Part 2 of a column that Gary Bird and I co-wrote and posted back on March 19 of this year. In Part 1, we talked about our fathers and how their hands told the story of the lives they led and the values they lived by. Kelly Carswell added a poignant description of her grandfather’s farm-worn hands.  We also mentioned hand size, comparing NBA player Boban Marajanovic’s hands with those of tiny Kristin Chenoweth, the 4’11” actress from the Broadway musical “Wicked”. We mentioned Alan Alda’s unforgettable monologue from M.A.S.H. where he describes the miracle of the hand. I sent our family a text, asking to help me out today as I write. I requested that they think of the word “hand” and tell me what crosses their mind on the spot. What followed was a bombardment of phrases from the very silly to the profound.  “Han...