Behind My Back

I was feeling mighty pleased with myself.

I was taking a photo in my family room. The photo's main purpose was to show my second-born that the Stendig calendar she'd given me for Christmas had been properly updated to the new month. A few days earlier in Columbus, Ohio, I'd helped her tear away her identical calendar page for January and I wanted her to see that I was now up to date as well.

As I prepared the shot, I realized that there was one thing missing from my scene - something that would take my photo from good to great. And as if she could read my mind, Gracie ambled into the room, precisely positioned herself on the couch right in front of me, and settled back into her nap.

Perfection. 

I could not have posed her any better if I'd tried, and her fuzzy presence was the icing on my photographic cake.

Feeling very much the master of my domain, I snapped the picture.

And then I turned around. 

To find my cats running amok in the kitchen.

As his brother, Sirius, looked on from the safety of his perch on a counter stool, halo firmly in place, my darling Luna stood on the forbidden kitchen counter, brazenly licking the coconut oil out of a cast iron skillet.

Now this wasn't exactly a Chernobyl-scale disaster. One abrupt "Hey!" from me sent the two cats skittering out of the room and up the stairs to their lair, and in two minutes' time, I'd scrubbed the pan clean and re-seasoned it with a fresh layer of coconut oil.

Just to be safe, I stashed the pan in the oven for safekeeping. Let's see those clever felines figure out how to get their greedy little tongues on it now. .

But more important than damage control, what this interlude reminded me is that my pets, just like small children, traffic jams, and porch squirrels, are wildly unpredictable and any time I think I've got them under control is when they are ready to humble once again.

Because I never know what my pets will be doing behind my back. 

January Lights

If you've even been by my house in mid-winter, you know that I'm a fan of leaving my Christmas lights up for a long, long time. 

They are still burning bright through the start of the new year. 

And going strong for Martin Luther King Jr's birthday.

I don't even blink as Groundhog's Day passes by.

I like to keep my twinkling beacons of hope blazing away until Ash Wednesday, when the festive days of Epiphany finally wind down and we enter the somber preseason of Easter known as Lent. 

Now, I understand that many people probably find this a bit excessive.

It's not lost on me that most Christmas lights come down within a few days after the holiday, and my lights' extra six weeks of showtime could come off as a little weird.

I'm happy to be the odd man out on this tradition.

Still, imagine my delight when I rolled into my daughter's neighborhood on the last week in January and found that the streets were still lined with lighted trees. Despite the dreary gray landscape and bitter cold winds, I felt warm and cozy as I trundled along beneath the branches of lights.

And I'm very glad that they are sparkling through the gloomy days of winter. 

* * * * *

Who on earth would choose to go to the icy Midwest during the darkest days of winter? 

I do, and I invite you to read all about it. 

A Winter Adventure Begins

Columbus To-Do List

January Lights
Open To All

I'm With You

Columbus To-Do List

But first, breakfast. I like to start my Columbus days with an egg sandwich at the Fox in the Snow.

Seems like it's been only a hot minute since my second-born moved to Ohio, but the fact is that she's lived there over a year and a half now. And counting my latest visit during this last week of January, I've come to see her five times now. 

Which is amazing. 

And while at first, we fumbled around to find a rhythm to my Midwestern visits, we have settled into a predictable routine.  

During the first few days I'm in town, we run errands. 

Stocking up on household essentials. 

Rounding up supplies for a repair job or two 

Getting my opinion on possible purchases

And of course, tracking down more plants and more pots. 

Then, where these more mundane tasks are completed, we dip into her list of interesting places to visit: the conservatory, the library, the art museum. That sort of thing. 

And our meals are a mash-up of visiting our ever-growing list of favorite restaurants and cooking up her favorite meals at home. 

So over these past eighteen months, our visit agendas have settled into a comfortable and predictable groove. Not sure when I'll be next be back in Ohio, but I'm pretty sure I know what will be on our next Columbus to-do list. 

* * * * *

Who on earth would choose to go to the icy Midwest during the darkest days of winter? 

I do, and I invite you to read all about it. 

A Winter Adventure Begins

Columbus To-Do List

January Lights
Open To All

I'm With You

I’m With You

To be perfectly honest, today was a rough day. 

Oh, nothing too traumatic happened to rock my little corner of the universe. But it was a day marked by sad memories, waves of grief, and painful emotions. 

And sometimes, on days like this, the world feels like a dark and lonely place. 

I don’t know how to stop days like this from happening. Can’t imagine that there is a way to stop them. 

But I do know how to minimize their awfulness. 

By sharing them. 

By reaching out to other people who know those same memories and griefs and pain, and just saying, “I’m with you.”

Those three little words don’t change anything. 

But the effect they have on our hearts can change everything. 

And when I remember to say those words, the world does not seem so dark after all. 

Leaving Columbus, Ohio in the glorious light of sunset.

* * * * *

Who on earth would choose to go to the icy Midwest during the darkest days of winter? 

I do, and I invite you to read all about it. 

A Winter Adventure Begins

Columbus To-Do List

January Lights
Open To All

I'm With You

Reading Mysteries

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

An ex-cop buys the toddler she never had from an abusive drug addicted mom at the mall. A New Zealander searches for the truth about her birth family in Britain. And a private detective is saved from death in a trash dumpster by a sassy little dog he recently adopted named The Ambassador. 

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson

A sweet teenage boy works as a ticket taker in a horror arcade . Four men who are childhood friends may or may not be associated with a sex trafficking ring. And a private detective helps a young bride elope. 

When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson 

A mother and three children are attacked by a man with a knife; only one survives. A teenage girl is schooled in classic literature by an ancient woman dying of cancer. And a private detective briefly dies hmafter finding himself in a horrific train crash. 

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson (not pictured)

A man driving in Edinborough brakes hard to avoid a pedestrian and causes an accident. The man driving behind him emerges from his crumpled  car with a baseball bat and a bad temper. And our erstwhile private detective argues with his beautiful but bad tempered actress girlfriend. 

Though they are filled with an eccentric lot of seemingly unrelated  characters and unimaginable plot twists, Atkinson masterfully brings all of her disparate story lines together and by the end of the story, ties them up in a neat and immensely satisfying bow. Our private detective hero, Jackson Brodie, stumbles his way through his personal life as well as his work, and often ends up solving mysteries in spite of himself. 

I’m not generally a crime thriller kind of lady, but I find Atkinson’s Brodie collection to be smart, surprising, and always, always, well worth the read.

* * * * *

Read more about what I've been reading:

Reading Afternoons

Reading Mornings

Reading Children's Books

Reading Memories

Reading Recommendations

Reading Inspiration
Reading Insights
Reading At The Pool
Reading About The Desert
Reading On Repeat
Reading Natalie Babbit
Reading The Truth
Reading Books That Are Blue
Reading Mysteries
Reading About Walking

A Winter Adventure Begins

Crispy chips. 

Creamy queso. 

Tangy sweet margarita. 

This is the start of my dinner at Condado in Columbus, Ohio., barely an hour after my plane touched the ground. 

Things happen quickly in these parts. I wonder what tomorrow will hold. 

* * * * *

Who on earth would choose to go to the icy Midwest during the darkest days of winter? 

I do, and I invite you to read all about it. 

A Winter Adventure Begins

Columbus To-Do List

January Lights

Open To All

I'm With You

Enjoying The Holiday

source

"Hi ma'am. Are you enjoying your holiday?"

I stared at the Target check stand lady and my brain slowly sputtered into action.

Holiday? What is she talking about? Christmas is definitely over and Valentine's Day is a ways off.

Ohhhh. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Of course. 

My mouth stumbled into gear.

"Oh right! It is a holiday today. That explains why the store is so crazy crowded."

Our conversation veered into an analysis of today's traffic versus the usual Monday Target metrics and we never did get back to the subject of the actual holiday. But as I was pushing my cart full of groceries and household supplies through the parking lot, I revisited the topic.

And I wondered to myself what it might mean to enjoy this day. 

To consider the life of a good man, 

a man of peace

a man of justice

a man of courage and calm 

a man who had seen the promised land and told us that we would see it too.

A man who was shot down in cold blood on a balcony in Memphis, Tennessee, apparently because his passion for civil rights was too much for some people to handle.

Fifty-some-odd years later, we are still working on living into Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy. 

We are still waiting for that promised land that Martin told us we would one day see.

We still have a long way to go.

And until we do, Target check stand lady, I don't think I can actually enjoy this holiday. But I am still dreaming of the day when I can.