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...

Tough Choices with a Twist

What do you do when you went one way, but opportunity went the other? When it’s just you, a person can take their licks, cut their losses and move on. If others are involved, it’s not so easy. The decision to stand up and say, “I’m sorry I’ve troubled and inconvenienced you, but I’ve had...

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...