A young cousin Helen paid me a supreme compliment this past January as I laid…
Christmas Letter 2024
A new home, a new address, a new life. New Roommate Ping. She arrived at the Costco parking lot in Newington CT from Texas, late at night on August 23. The cheek swab says she is 67.3% Shih Tzu, 19.5% Lhasa Apso, and 13.2% small Poodle. A “shapsoodle.” I named her for...
Family Stories 1: Witches, Part Two
Pilgrim Witches I might have thought that was all the witchcraft there was in the tree, until January 2024 when I was wandering in Old South Church off Copley Square in Boston. The church has installed a series of panels along the back of the nave that describes the...
Changing Lives 16: Social Life With Dogs
People with dogs in the family lead fairly regular lives. Even more than the need to get to work and school on time, to show up at medical appointments, and get dinner underway at a decent hour, we are governed by the routines of pet bladders and bowels. Even the most...
Changing Lives 15: Changing Supermarkets
The nearest supermarket to me is the Shaw’s on Border Street in East Boston. I figured it’d be fine; I relied on a Shaw’s when I lived in Merrimack, New Hampshire, in the 1990s. And there was a certain convenience that the same shopping area included a Kappy’s and a...