Crazy Hopeful

I like it here, it's quirky. Knoxville is a city on the rise. Businesses, shops and restaurants are opening, and the downtown is being revitalized. Things I value are held in esteem here -- music, movies, art, theatre, and libraries with actual collections of books in them. There are also farmer’s markets and natural food...

Sometimes, Life Hands You Lemons; Other Times, Life Chucks Them at You or… Life Makes a Hard Left Turn

“Dave wants the house back,” our landlord’s mother told me. In those five words, my life changed. Only an hour before, I lived in blissful ignorance, planning the coming months as I sought to rebuild my fortunes after a hard six months of helping family members (specifically Daughter #2 and her partner). Joy and sadness have...

Why Do Bad Things Always Come in Threes?

There is a strange horrible beauty to life, and death, sometimes. In the hours after a waterspout over The Chesapeake Bay turned into a tornado and ravaged our town in the earliest hours of Monday, July 24th -- by the flickering light of candles -- my younger daughter miscarried her child. Her sister curled up...

When a Facebook Friend Dies

When a Facebook friend dies there is no protocol to follow. Sometimes the person sets up a list of a few friends to notify and spread the word. Other times, you just hear through a long grapevine and, occasionally, you never know why someone stopped posting. Those latter friends hang out in a strange limbo...