Until now, I thought hiring professionals to string Christmas lights was all about convenience and saving yourself the time and risk of being up on the roof. But a recent DIY attempt has shown me… 

Well, we did it. We thought about it for a long time, but something always held us back – vanity, frugality, perhaps a desperate grip on the last remaining scraps of our youth. But now… 

I’ve always been a “jeans girl,” and I still am. They’re a classic for a reason. But certain times in life require kinder, gentler clothing. And because we’re smack dab in the middle of that… 

If you’re a regular reader, you know that our dog Charlie has been in a years-long feud with a possum that often sits on top of our back fence. Charlie is our elderly Beagle mix… 

As Halloween creeps closer, we should talk about that ugly, four-lettered F-word — fear. I’m not proud of it, but fear and I spend a lot of time together. It’s the longest, most toxic relationship… 

I don’t know how old I was when my parents let me answer our family’s phone, but I was younger than most. In the early 1980s, my dad was a landscaper and tree trimmer, so… 

Early in September, just in time for the Labor Day weekend, Covid crashed our party. Two of our three kids had come home for the long weekend, and one of them had what looked like… 

Hold your head up. Not just because you’re a fine, upstanding human being. Not just because it makes you look better in photos. Do it because, if you don’t stop staring down at your phone… 

Last Thursday, I sat in a packed parking lot on a college campus teeming with people in a city of more than 100,000. But I might as well have been alone on a leaky raft… 

I hear voices. There, I admitted it. And I’d bet good money you hear them, too.  Here’s how it usually works: About one percent of the time, I hear the voice when I’m at my…