Life Stories

It’s winter, and every morning, before dawn, a dog who can’t wait one more minute to go to the bathroom, begins to bark. I get up. I put on Jon’s barn coat, cinch the hood with a hand-knitted scarf, and pull on my great galumphing boots. Then I release two of the dogs into the back yard. Dugan, who tends to run off, has to be walked on leash. So while Bonnie checks the perimeter for deer scat or foxes, […]

Each semester, I sympathize with students who have to take my biology course.  Instead of just accepting their fate, and settling down in  the land of Eukaryota, they fidget in their seats, hoping to survive the battle without troublesome preparation,  anxious for the ordeal to end.  I feel their pain: that’s exactly the way I used to view algebra word problems.  You know the ones:  If Sukey leaves point A at 9:00 a.m. and walks at a rate of 5

Holidays don’t usually live up to their reputations.  Ask the dateless teenager on Valentine’s Day, or the young wife who finally realizes that hubby has forgotten that “day of days”- their anniversary.  And fathers?  Well, I refer you to the famous Bill Cosby routine, where the kid picks up a stick, puts a notch in it with his pocket knife, and presents it to his dad for Father’s Day.  And so, it wasn’t a big surprise when my birthday fell

My grandson Christian called me the other day and informed me that he was a “bee guardian”.  He made this announcement with the undiluted enthusiasm and sincerity  found only  in small children.  This is my fault.  Ever since they watched an organic, freshly-squeezed, Colorado- based beekeeping video with me a few months ago, all my grandchildren are determined to become “bee guardians”.  They plan to defend and protect  honeybees from pesticides, antibiotics, unnatural cell size and things that go bump

Today began as one of those “It’s 5:30 a.m. and the dogs are barking to be let out” days.  Nothing says “Wake up” so eloquently as a near-dawn  walk in frosty weather.  The temperature change wasn’t a great shock though.  I forgot to turn the heat back on last night, and awoke shivering, curled up like a shrimp. Star-shine gave way to a chilly gray dawn.  And it continues chilly and gray- but snow-less!  Due to the mildness of the