My boyfriend John died last week. Here’s an obituary I prepared for him. John Teeter, 56, of Denver, died of pancreatic cancer Tuesday, August 4, 2020. He was born in Easton, Pennsylvania on June 30, 1964, and grew up in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. In the summer of 1978, John and his family moved to Colorado…
Nancy and I – we get it. When you work with or for a man-child, you have to be the mom. Stand your ground. No equivocating. No expectation of reasonable behavior. I work as a CNA for a home-health agency. My introduction into the low-wage world of basic medical care has been eye-opening. Management’s treatment…
I’m taking some online prerequisites through a community college as well as a nurse aide class in an ugly strip mall an hour’s trip from home on mass transit (bus and train). I’d like to go to nursing school eventually; but due to the shortage of nursing instructors, schools are very selective. Due to that, I’m…
I can’t get the image of the girl with the umbrella on the Morton salt container out of my head. I also imagine my mom saying, “Into each life, a little rain must fall.” In the last nine months, three friends have died. In addition, this morning I received an email from the clinic where…
I was delighted to read this week that the Watergate break-in was not the only noteworthy event from the week I was born. Title IX, which requires federally-funded schools to spend equally on sports for both genders, came into the world at the same time I did. As someone who attended Catholic schools from kindergarten…
I should’ve done more research although I am glad we went. However, we found out that in the Galapagos “rainy season” means “hot, humid season.” Charlie keeps reminding me that the highlands of Santa Cruz Island are more lush and rainy than the southern coastal town of Puerto Ayora where we stayed. Still, our weather…
Wayne’s dad, Leo Kruger, died Friday. I prepared this obituary. Leo Henry Kruger, age 93, of Cocoa Beach, Florida, died Friday, May 6, 2016. He was born April 18, 1923, in Germany to Henry and Olga (Klose) Kruger. He immigrated as an infant with his parents to the United States where they settled in a…
I’m so glad I listened to my inner John Denver and came home after 20 months of wandering. On the Road It’s hard to believe we’ve only been home two months. So much has happened, and we’re so happy to live in this beautiful Denver neighborhood. Our friend Patti picked us up at the Denver…
When Steven Colbert and his guests sang that song on his last show in December, Laurel said it was so sweet she felt like crying. Then she heard it playing in Cardiff Castle when she toured it in Feburary. The castle acted as a bomb shelter during WWII when “We’ll Meet Again” was a popular, British song.…
We took a 2-hour and 20-minute train ride from Dublin to Galway Tuesday morning. After checking in early to our hotel, we walked a mile and a half up a city hill lined with gas stations and industrial-looking buildings to a restaurant. After we ate a filling lunch, we walked out to the parking lot where…
We took the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) train 28 minutes northeast from Tara Street Station to Howth on Sunday. It’s a pretty town on the Irish Sea with a very popular (especially on a sunny Sunday) cliff walk where we heard more French, Spanish, and American voices than Irish. I’m sure it’s even better in…
One of our neighbors started BLARING horrible techno-pop and talking and laughing loudly at 4:30 this morning. This went on for about 40 minutes, and then we didn’t hear another peep. I don’t know what that was about. In the late morning the bells of St. Patrick’s Cathedral pealed for maybe an hour. Then we…
Friday morning we went on another group tour, this time in a large van to Wicklow, south of Dublin. I have a hard time staying awake as a passenger on a road trip and slept through about half of yesterday’s travels. I’m 42 going on 2, I guess. Our 70-year-old driver, John, spoke into a microphone,…
We left our apartment at 6:40 am today and walked to a Starbucks near Trinity College where we and at least a dozen others got on a tour bus at 7 am bound for Belfast. In Belfast our group split up into taxis to tour the city while a few others in the group chose…
We toured the Irish Whiskey Museum Friday, and I got to taste three varieties at the end. It’s smooth! (Unlike scotch which we learned is smoky tasting. I’m not a spirits conneissur, so all the info was new to me.) We learned: 1. The term “wake” for an Irish funeral comes (supposedly) from a time when…
Travels with Charlie and Laurel 