Change Leads to No Change
Buddy, can you spare a dime? Can you find a nickel in the couch cushions? Did you just roll up the pennies in your jar? If so, you might help resolve one of the pandemic’s unpredictable predicaments: the Unites States is facing a coin shortage. That’s right. A shortage of change. With everything else under undulating rules, zigzagging restart dates, and clouds of masking, one would think that things that clink in our pockets and rattle in the bottom of our purses would be something we can count on. Not so. The Fed convened a US Coin Task Force in July because it was so serious. Closer to home, Dollar […]
Turning Your Home into a Tropical Oasis
The millennial curse is this: we are paid less than our parents’ generation, we are often living in apartments or smaller homes without gardens, and we often still carry debt from college. Kids and pets are a near impossibility while we struggle to provide for ourselves, much less for another living creature. But the need to nurture is still there, and it is strong. So I introduce to you the Plant Parents. Plants have the additional charm of creating a meditative place. They clean the air. They are living home decorations. Instead of purchasing tinkety decor items that will end up in a landfill, you now have plants. Feel powerless […]
Pocket Poetry
Changing the World – One Poem at a Time Having been graciously selected by the members of The Aiken Poets to serve as Poet Laureate, I wondered what I could do to make people more excited about poetry and to make poetry better appreciated, noticed, read, memorized, written, and shared. Then I came up with this idea I call Pocket Poetry — a few lines in rhyme or free verse, written in calligraphy on white or colored cards, and distributed at random to people I meet. They go to people I know, people who provide a service, like the cashiers at the supermarket, the teller at the bank, the postal […]
My Rocky Road From Analog to Digital
I’m an analog person. I admit it. As a young wife, I was content with my books, my three TV channels, and my corded telephone. Life was so simple! And then computers rocked my world! It’s my husband’s fault, of course. He became obsessed with them and his obsession spilled over into every corner of my life. First he bedazzled me with a sleek looking word processor — so cool! I could erase without erasing! Just backspace and it was fixed. How much easier than carbons and white out. One problem though — you could only see one line at a time as you typed. Not perfect, but wait! Soon […]
Paradise In The Pandemic
People flock to beaches for sanctuary, but are met with crowds and exposure to more than the sun. Myrtle Beach, Isle of Palms, Sullivan’s Island, Folly Beach, Edisto, Hilton Head — all are summer attractions for tourists from around the world. There are large homes available for rent right on the beaches of South Carolina; some can sleep up to twenty people, providing a great destination for family reunions and house parties. The local economy depends on these tourists, but the hometown people have been flabbergasted by the recent results. Recently, cases of COVID-19 have spiked to record highs. The more private beaches of Pawley’s Island, Kiawah, and Seabrook have […]
