It was our friend Jack who recommended Aidan to us. We needed someone to paint the house interior, and he assured us that Aidan was the best.  He was also an artist, a perfectionist, and a quixotic Irish fellow who presented us with a four-page estimate in hand-written calligraphy.  Yes, he was available, and yes,… Read More

It was the dark winter solstice of December 2020.  Everything was shut down because of COVID, and vaccines were a mere glimmer.  Life was suspended.  Work had stopped abruptly one day in March—I was too old to risk showing up in person, and virtual options were poor—so de facto retirement came more suddenly than I… Read More

There was a phone with buttons for hold and intercom, and a blocky computer console sitting squarely in the middle of the desk.  I think it was a Dell.  The font was clunky and there were no graphics.  This was my first computer.  Read More

We were put on a bus, blindfolded, and driven around country roads this way and that.  At some point, groups of four were let out of the bus, given a map, and told to find our way back.  We were all fifth graders in East Lansing public school and this was part of the curriculum… Read More

Although I don’t look forward to going to the dentist, I do appreciate the importance of the work–maybe because I have always had dental issues, from cavities to crowns, partial plates and bridges to implants, orthodontia to tooth extraction.  Much of it is thanks to genetics, which forgot to provide me a full secondary set… Read More

We were looking for somewhere to buy a boom box to play CD music for our elopement ceremony in Niagara Falls, and someone suggested Canadian Tire.  Incredulous, we had to ask why an automotive service center would have such a thing and were met with an amused look and explanation that the store carried much… Read More

Big error:  I hadn’t actually checked the recipe before the day of the meal. Read More

But in 1961 our family was headed for East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) for a two-year stint and I was now eleven-going-on-twelve.  For me, it was an escape into the unknown, a reprieve from the prospect of junior high, and I was certain that all my frames of reference would shift. Read More

The house looked sort of lived-in, and we loved it, eclectic and thrown-together though it was. Read More

Are people merely “consumers” seeking to get the best deal from health “providers” based on market factors (and their satisfaction is important so they will keep being customers?) Or are they just people needing to heal?  Read More