I Should Be on a Cruise Right Now

In the pre-pandemic days, I had planned a Viking River Cruise with my siblings and our spouses. The longboat was scheduled to leave Amsterdam yesterday, May 12. That did not happen—the cruise was cancelled, and we are all hunkered down in our respective homes. A long way from Amsterdam. We […]

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Lost and Found

A few days ago, a friend said to me, “You look thin. Have you lost weight?” “I have no idea,” I responded. “I can’t find my scale.” The bathroom scale is one of the things my husband and I have lost in the move. I remember packing it. I think […]

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The Summer of ’64: Pacific Grove

I’ve mentioned spending summers with my grandparents in Pacific Grove, California. It seemed like I spent several idyllic summers there, but there really weren’t that many. Only twice did my brother and I spend long vacations with our grandparents. In 1963 we spent a month there, but our mother was […]

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Life Changes in California, June 1848

By the beginning of June 1848 there were around 2,000 miners in the Sierra Nevada foothills above Sutter’s Mill. Most of these men had been in California when gold had been found, as the news was just reaching the far edges of the territory. San Francisco practically emptied in the […]

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Internet Dependent

Last Sunday I worked all afternoon on the Internet through my laptop’s wireless connection. I uploaded a blogpost, responded to email, read newsletters, and checked the answers to The New York Times crossword puzzle. (I didn’t do very well on the puzzle this week.) About 5:00pm the Internet suddenly vanished. Poof! it […]

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