health

C'ville

Charlottesville Running Company: my favorite walk

The Charlottesville Running Company is running a weekly contest between now and Christmas. The following is my entry: My favorite walk is down at Riverview Park.  This section of the Rivanna trail has everything from the roar of traffic to the almost quiet of the forest to the sounds of the river. Between the birds (including a flock of geese),  cicadas and the regular deep croak of a bullfrog, it’s…

Comments Off on Charlottesville Running Company: my favorite walk
8 December 2009
C'ville / On the Path

On the Path

I got an early start this morning when Sissy (the 15 lb min pin) decided enough was enough - sleep that is. So we were on the trail by 7 this morning. The Rivanna River Trail, that is. Just one part of my path here in C'ville. We left Athens last fall, me after 27 total years there and Tommy after an whole lifetime.  The newness of C'ville is not…

Comments Off on On the Path
29 August 2009
Humor

Life’s Little Lessons

A friend of mine, Eunice Spratlin, took a tumble last week. Unfortunately, her 80-year-old ankle didn't hold up very well. Since she's a big fan of my columns, I thought to write one for her. When I visited her, ensconced in a hospital bed in her daughter-in-law's front room, she didn't even give me chance to ask if she'ld like that; she just asked if I had already written one!…

Comments Off on Life’s Little Lessons
16 June 2002
Humor

Who Me, Organized?

I, like so many others, kept saying I would be glad when the election was over and things could get back to normal. Oops. Normal, you know, like no more election news? In the middle of all this weirdness (electile dysfunction and no, I didn’t make that up), my life has suddenly ratcheted up into high gear. Before the election I would decide the night before what I would be…

Comments Off on Who Me, Organized?
16 November 2001
Humor / Oglethorpe County and Rural Life

Summer Vacation

One unanticipated benefit of living in the country is a feeling of permanent summer vacation. This I just realized today as I was picking the wild blackberries that line one side of our property. As a youngster, I did spend time in country with relatives that owned farms years ago. I can even recall picking cotton at my great grandmother’s though I don’t really remember her. I can’t even remember…

Comments Off on Summer Vacation
16 May 2001
Humor

Short and Sweet

After I returned from Japan, I kept threatening to write a book entitled "How to be tall at 5’2". I wrote for a weekly entertainment magazine while in Okinawa and was always on the lookout for the zany, the odd, and/or the different to use in my humor column there. (I was going to compile those witty pieces into one volume with that title.) The most obvious difference for me…

Comments Off on Short and Sweet
16 October 2000
Humor

Look Ma. I’m on Steroids!

The good news is the medical establishment has come up with some answers for me and my neck/shoulder problem. One of the answers - steroid injections. And, yes, I am, at least for the moment, relatively pain free. The bad news is - the steroid injections. The steroid side effects are many and have made my life very exciting recently… So you know you're on steroids (and, therefore, no longer…

Comments Off on Look Ma. I’m on Steroids!
16 August 2000