June 24th, 2023 | General, Health, Society at Large, the world and Mother Nature
Home hemodialysis ends. It always does, whether that person gets a transplant, changes over to in-center treatment or dies. Right now I should be mourning my loss but instead I am consumed by anger and disgust at the assault on the environment that home hemodialysis...
June 22nd, 2023 | Family, General, Matters of the Spirit, Memory, Time Passes
Becoming a widow leaves me with an extraordinary amount of time. The Before Time I knew taking care of Dan was a full-time job: dialysis occupied four hours, four days a week, or a bit more. While the treatment itself, according to the computer in the Cycler, lasted...
April 2nd, 2023 | Cooking, Kitchen and Table, General
“You are so brave!” The woman next in line at the Wegmans looked gobsmacked. I smiled at her as the fella behind the fish counter weighed and wrapped the fillets I had chosen. Did she find the idea of eating something called “snakehead” gross? Or was it a matter of...
March 25th, 2023 | Education, General, visual arts
One pleasant morning, in the late 1980s, I started my work as the Education Curator at the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa. The phone rang; it appeared we had a problem with an upcoming tour of elementary school children who were also scheduled for a studio-art...
March 21st, 2023 | General, Health
The schlepping and stacking and priming and replacing of all the stuff associated with keeping the Cycler and Pureflow up and running is madness. I have absolutely no idea how anyone even slightly weaker or less competent than I—and I am seriously not competent—can...
March 12th, 2023 | Education, General, Politics, Society at Large
An ad has been popping up too often on my computer when I try to play a nice quiet game of solitaire. The tag line is, “Come shine in Miami where every day will make you want to stay just a little longer.” The copy sounds like a hybrid of a Maurice Williams song...