Mater Gladiatrix Today is International Women’s Day and I am inclined to write a story about the two most meaningful women that have shaped my life. They are my mother, Dr. Ludmilla Ann Uher Prosdocimi Marin Jenkins and Kimberly Ann Grogg Marin. I use all of their names because women have the mostly unique experience of living with the historical convention of assuming the surname of their husbands. This gives rise to many machinations and…
History for History’s Sake We were just visited by my nephew Jason. Jason is my sister Barbara’s oldest child and he is now over forty years old though he always seems younger to me. Jason did not go to college where his younger sister attended Cornell University as an undergraduate and went on to get her veterinary degree at Kansas State. Jason has supported himself by being a specialized garage door guy who apprenticed with…
Lighting the Hillside When I first decided to light up the landscaping of my house, I got a specialized outdoor lighting company to come in and bid on the entire job as they envisioned it, understanding that I would likely phase the project rather than do it all at once. The two biggest reasons for that were the likely cost and the fact that I was just starting to deal with the renovation of my…
Moving the Spirit Do you remember Fridays? They used to be such happy days. They were the end of the week and the beginning of our weekly breaks. They signified that we had done the hard work of the week and were now deserving of some rest and relaxation. It was such a universal phenomenon that there is now an 870 store chain called Thank God It’s Friday, where people can gather to celebrate the…
Feet of Clay Back when I was in my thirties, I recall having a problem with my feet. Having always been big in the extreme, it did not surprise me that my feet might give me trouble. There are very few parts of the body that can directly connect on a cause and effect basis to something like size. When I was a freshman at prep school, specifically Hebron Academy in Hebron, Maine, I was…
Shuffling the Deck I believe this story will complete my deck analogy repertoire. I have “hit the deck” and “decked the haul”, so now I am shuffling the deck. To begin, a status report on the work. As of today (Tuesday, March 2nd) I have a perfectly smooth, perfectly sloped deck of hardened mud or mortar that will allow water to flow away from the house and over the front edge. It looks and feels…
The Trusted Advisor I saw in the Washington Post today that Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. died at the age of 85. You may or may not remember the name Vernon Jordan, but I have the pleasure of having known him in very direct and somewhat intimate ways that I think deserve a reprise. I feel inclined to reflect on people at their demise if I have known them personally or they have had a generally…
Catatonic For some reason, I don’t like cats. When I am around them and when they want to be social, they seem fine, but I am slightly put off by all the things that others generally like about cats. Independence seems to be a big cat theme. They amuse themselves and seem to be less gregarious creatures than not and seem inclined to live more solitary lives, jumping from here to there and then casually…
Sleeping With The Enemy No, I do not think of Kim as the enemy and yes, we sleep together every night. But there is someone else in the bed with me every night as it has been for twenty-seven years. That would be Mr. CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), the machine that assists my nighttime breathing so that I do not snore nor have episodes of sleep apnea, which are shallow or paused breathing episodes…
Buck Naked The human form has inspired many artists and writers over the millennia, and yet, humans are the only species that have found it necessary to work hard to drape that form with coverings and clothing. From our perusal of the pages of National Geographic when we were young and rooting around in the basement, we learned that primitive man seemed less inclined to cover the human form as much as we in civilized…