Happier employees, happier customers, happier us — I bought a new car. Car buying can be the most fraught consumer experience. I am a retired administrator who managed multi-million dollar budgets. I was an overwhelmed, muddle-headed customer. Fewer cars are on sales lots today, because of chip shortages and other supply problems, and fewer customers were in…

Review Follows — An Orange Flambe is an easily constructed but impressive dessert, served by lighting the Grand Marnier-soaked dish on fire. The time to construct the dish is thirty minutes, but it has a long, long afterlife as leftovers. Many prefer to serve Orange Flambe with a White Russian on the Rocks…

Single after divorce or death, not flourishing. — I know several men who are into older age, older than sixty, and not doing well. These struggling men include a former very successful businessman and others who also had respected jobs. They are now unemployed into retirement, divorced, and single. …

Better than reading with a flashlight under the covers — I grew up on Nancy Drew books, and remember reading those mysteries late into the night, under the covers with my flashlight. Then, I’d get scared, and couldn’t wake my parents. I laid awake wide-eyed listening to the sounds in the house. The furnace cycled on, or the clock chimed…

The writer who wrote about living until her death. — The notebook in the log cabin at the writers’ retreat had entries from previous occupants. The immediate occupant before me last summer was Cai Emmons, and she wrote happily about her most recent stay in that beautiful and remote place. I eagerly looked up Cai Emmons on my laptop, and…

Who misses work? Or not work, exactly, the stuff around work — 1. March Madness Office Pool I know little to nothing about college basketball. There was only one season I followed closely when my boyfriend was totally into it, and if I wanted to spend time with him I had to watch college games on television in March. But I love betting on college games I…

Most staff in nursing homes care for the residents — Nursing homes have a bad reputation. Periodically, a horror story makes the news about terrible conditions, or someone tells me the terrible story of a parent’s experience. I retired as a health and human services administrator. I was a licensed nursing home administrator; managing nursing homes was part of my…

Going gentle Into that Good Night — I did not expect to live with pain. I don’t have pain every day, but it comes from the various ailments that start to impact us as we age: the inflammation of arthritis and bone-on-bone movement. If I sit too long in a particular position — muscles and the skeletal…

OK men let’s hear yours — I don’t have to shave my legs anymore. My chin, sometimes. 2. I don’t worry about hangovers, unless I am wearing a belt. 3. My bikini top doesn’t ride up and expose my underboob. I no longer wear bikini tops and have no underboob. 4. If I’m bitchy, I’m just…