Choosing Where We Live as We Age, Part 3: Finding Home
On my way to class at the Art Center I noticed the For Sale sign across the street. I stopped and looked over at the building that had first captured my imagination 12 years before. The little six-story midcentury modern with one entire side of windows. Hmmm, I thought. That night, I searched realtor.com, and …
Choosing Where We Live As We Age, Part 2: Assessing the Options
I love houses and often have one foot out the door, ready to try on a new one. The world is full of so many options. Our first house, which we bought right after we got married in 1970, was a modern redwood and glass, but we’ve also lived in a 100-year-old foursquare built from …
Choosing Where We Live As We Age: Stay Put, Move, or What?
My sister used to tell a joke she found hilarious, but which never seemed all that funny to me. It involved a man hiding in a closet in his lover’s bedroom when the woman’s husband comes home unexpectedly. The husband opens the closet door and asks the man what he’s doing there. “Everybody has to …
Feeling Lonely? Go to the Store and Say Hello to a Stranger
I recently completed two tiny landscape paintings and hung them next to a gargantuan abstract work that dominates the far wall of our living room. The small ones are a foot square; the large one is 4’X6’—the size of a walk-in closet. All three have strong blue accents. The room itself is full of bits …
One Couch, Two Friends, and 40 Years of Comforting
In the late 70s or early 80s we bought a couch at the Younkers Store for Homes in Des Moines, Iowa. It had simple lines and bright upholstery of coral and white flowers against a blue background. We kept that couch for more than 30 years. We sat on it with kids in our laps, …
I’m likely older than you; it’s not an insult to either of us.
I live in my head a lot, imagining things that aren’t there and not paying attention to things that are. The result is I tend to bump into and trip over the rest of the world. A few months ago, I was in my local Hy-Vee and, true to form, ran into a display of …