Turn over the tables to avoid temptation

The workers at Onondaga Lake Park were not subtle in their manner of telling folks what they cannot do when they take their socially distanced strolls along the trails. No sitting at the tables or benches. Those that could be turned over, are. Others are adorned with paper signs that tell people not to use…

Let’s try to enjoy our Not-Opening-Day

This new way has brought a terrible phrase to the forefront of our lives. We Would Have Been. You know what I’m talking about, folks. We wake up. We go about the things we can do around the house, the routines of our now restricted lives. And we think about what would have been on…

No boats in yet

After a month of staying away because of a fear of crowds, my dear wife Karen and I took the chance to take our self-care walk to the trails of Onondaga Lake Park. We chose Easter Sunday, thinking the special day may have brought less folks to the big park a couple miles from our…

These cookies are well protected

Taking a walk around the blocks, my dear wife Karen and I allowed ourselves to orient this one time toward commerce. And sensible social distancing of course. There’s an open bakery down on the main road. No other customers were spied inside the big front windows. We were glad to see both a bottle of…

Learning to DIY, trimming the beard installment

My every-four-week vanity appointment fell on Friday. The beard, she does grow fast. My great friend Theresa can’t open her salon. Decades of trims of the hair and beard, cut. My dear wife Karen and I planned for it. I chose the Panasonic trimmer out of the many listed on Amazon. It was delivered to…

A really tough Easter week

Easter is a day to celebrate a rebirth. We won’t get into the hard-boiled religious implications of this day that has slowly given way to bunnies, eggs and, hopefully, family celebrations. I wish to include the spirit of Passover, too, in this tale of a day meant for signaling love, spent and to come. We…

Thank goodness for our digital family connections

I won’t see my terrific daughter when I want because, well, you know why. She’s got a big, important birthday to celebrate. I will sit at home and admire the photograph she sent me of the windows she decorated to spruce up the place where she lives with wonderful George Three. We tell each other…

Even the cherished rescue mutt knows the current rules

We hadn’t seen the kids since mid-March, but terrific daughter Elisabeth had added two cloth masks to an order she’d made for her and George Three. So over they came over for a drop-off so my dear wife Karen and I would have them for our essential (and sparing) trips to the grocery and pharmacy.…

Roses are trying hard

They’re not near the flower stage yet, but I am heartened by the greening state of our rose bush branches as mid-April nears. The big specimen up from looks great as it starts year two of its life in our yard.