We will never forget the night the balloon came for us — We were sitting on our deck with some friends one evening in 2015 when we became aware of a dark shape slowly floating toward us across the backyard. We sat and watched as it slowly approached us. I can’t say we weren’t a bit freaked out, but we also didn’t think of shooting it down. We should have, though. …

We just endured a major cold spell and broke new records in North America — All over the northern United States and Canada late last week, new cold temperature records were set. Climatologists are saying that this will continue as a side effect of global warming. These polar vortexes are showing up because of the changing weather patterns across the world. Mount Washington, N.H., which…

We are all experts now, right? — Pre-Covid, I barely knew what a supply chain was, but I am sure I know how to fix them anyway. I base my theory on conversations I had with my dad back in the 1980s, my experiences during a blizzard in the 1990s and the pandemic shortages in 2020. We…

… if I went back in time. Maybe. — Sometimes you don’t realize how weird you are until somebody points it out. Today, somebody pointed it out. My friend Berlin stopped in today. She knows I’ve been having some bad days lately. Grief is an unpredictable thing, and I’ve been struggling with it. So Berlin came by to offer a little moral support and probably…

Working class wages not high enough, Powell states in surprise move — The Fed today announced it will immediately change course, dropping rates aggressively until troublingly high CEO pay and corporate profits drop to more reasonable levels. “I don’t know what the heck we were thinking,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said. “We had it all wrong.” Clad in a pair of Wrangler…

Consider this another installment in my occasional free writing course — If you’ve ever had very long hair, or have cared for the long hair of a child, you know getting all the tangles out takes many passes. You might first try quickly running the comb through the hair, but you stop as you find a snarl that you need to…

My friend Berlin finally gets it — My friend Berlin has a trust fund and has never needed to work. I grew up in a trailer. These kinds of friendships don’t happen very often, which is a shame. People can learn a lot by being around those with very different lives. My husband is Dutch, yet he and I have fewer cultural differences to bridge than Berlin and I…

Spoiler: Not a darned thing — There is nothing at all magic about drinking a lot of water. If there were, I would know, because I almost certainly drink far more than you do. I am always thirsty. The first thing I do when I wake up is drink a full glass of water. The last thing I do before…

Let’s do some soul-searching — Medium is something different to each of us: It’s a marketplace where you can find customers for your course, book or coaching service. It’s a school where you can learn all the things about writing you didn’t learn as a student. It’s an online salon where writers can meet other…