It was another sunny day, a good day for a drive. I took Rosie to Wellsville, to show her where we bought her plaid coat when she was a baby. I took her to the park and to the marina to see the fish. She brought a jar which she kept dipping into the water ever time the schools of minnows came close to the surface, but they were too clever for her. She didn’t catch a single fish. When... Read more
I drove to Wellsburg, in search of a family I knew wasn’t there. I have told you the story of the time I met a homeless woman and her daughter in Wellsburg, sleeping in a store front that didn’t have heat at night and plotting to move to Wheeling for a fresh start. I didn’t have a penny to help Cherry and her mother. My friend had scarcely more than I did, but she did spend a few dollars... Read more
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to John: When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and... Read more
I went to Divine Liturgy again. Last time I’d wandered in when I drove by a church and realized it was starting. This time I went on purpose. I looked up the liturgy time ahead of time and tried to dress unobtrusively. I noticed most women at Eastern churches around here wear trousers instead of skirts, so I wore trousers. I’ve noticed that most don’t cover their hair, but I still don’t have much hair due to PCOS and... Read more
I needed another get-out-of-Dodge day, to make up for my terrifying get-out-of-Dodge day yesterday. Rosie had been very good at the dentist, so I took her on a long drive to a brand new park and pool as a reward. We never could have afforded this a year ago. Truthfully, it’s still quite a splurge. But it’s been a hard summer, so we packed up some snacks and went for a day trip. Yesterday, the rain had been so... Read more
I needed an adventure, and I got one today. After the neighbor’s frightening tantrum over the weekend, the workmen came back, with a machine that goes brrr. They are, inexplicably, still not done with painting the house. They put a yard sign advertising their home improvement business in her yard, as if what they’ve done is a good representation of their company: picking away at her old paint job and slowly adding a new one, little by little since mid-May,... Read more
I don’t know much of anything about the Olympics. I don’t know much of anything about gymnastics. I don’t know much about Simone Biles, except that she is an Olympic gymnast and the best at gymnastics in the world. Once in awhile I see videos of her performing a gymnastics routine online, and I watch, and I don’t know what to say because I know next to nothing about gymnastics. But I’ve certainly never seen anybody do gymnastics better than... Read more
I want to move back to Columbus. I could not afford to move back to Columbus any more than I can fly. The houses are far too expensive and the property taxes are astronomical. Every formerly cheap neighborhood is being gentrified just as fast as rich people can buy and flip the houses. So instead of making concrete plans to move back to Columbus, I’ve made a grim hobby out of watching Columbus’s real estate listings. Columbus real estate... Read more
Hey folks, This isn’t a real blog post, this is just the periodic reminder that my blog, and my family, run almost entirely on tips. I get small royalties from my books and a small check for clicks in the United States, but well over eighty per cent of my income is when satisfied readers decided to put a few dollars in my blog’s virtual tip jar. We are extremely grateful to all our readers who keep us going from... Read more
We went to Toronto. Not the one in Canada, but the one in Ohio. I had driven through Toronto a couple of times, on my drives through the Ohio Valley. I’ve taken Rosie to the pool there quite a lot the past few weeks because it’s not very expensive. But this was the first time Michael had been. It was the first time we’d gone there just to go exploring. It wasn’t a good weekend. The Menacing Neighbor continues her... Read more
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