Doris is moving but I don’t think she’s going to notice. Doris is my friend with Alzheimer’s disease. Over the years I have spent many Friday evenings with Doris.  My first visit set up a pattern: I walk in and introduce myself. She graciously responds. We chat about singing, music, and teaching. We watch MSNBC  Read the Rest…

Three weeks ago I set out to write another blog post about grief. It was going to be a calm, wise little reflection on a remark my (beloved) voice teacher Tommie had made. We were talking about the abysmal technical support that’s available for anyone over the age of 40 who is trying to cope  Read the Rest…

The OK Chorale lost one of our long time singers three days ago. Quite unexpectedly, Hal, our resident funnyman, died in his sleep. He was cheeky, irreverent, and a reliable bass with a lovely voice. When I got the news, I went trawling through my blog posts to find the ones he had starred in.  Read the Rest…

Gwen, my neighbor who knows something about just about everything is home after what felt like six weeks but was only half that long. She was doing the European thing while I was home on Lucy duty. Lucy is her 15 year old gray and white with smudged-nosed cat. When Gwen goes away, she sets  Read the Rest…

“Bite of Broadview” signs are popping up in my neighborhood. They sadden me partly because this particular event used to be called “Christ the King Harvest Festival” and the whole “Bite of” thing is so played and partly because I won’t be going. As I gotten older I’ve contracted a condition called Tofts. It flares  Read the Rest…

I started writing this post at 10:00 last Sunday morning while sitting in my sun room surrounded by the junk of six households. It was day three of what I was calling my Farewell Yard Sale. It was the last sale I expect to do even though my mean friend (Tim) smirked when I said  Read the Rest…

Comcast changed its name to Xfinity (why?) a long time ago, but I still think of them as Comcast. Or more often, “Fucking Comcast.” For purposes of this narrative the company shall remain Comcast. Expletives may or may not be deleted. Several months ago Comcast began pushing a new and faster modem that would enhance  Read the Rest…

One of my side-lines is as a Value Village annex. All my friends know that I have a yard sale once a year. For years and years I slowly sold all the junk I had carted up to Seattle from my parent’s house in Olympia. As that stock declined I added things from the on-going  Read the Rest…

This was supposed to be Pajama Week at Local Dilettante Studio.  Instead I’ve been swimming in my own fluids for ten days.  Warning: bodily functions to be reviewed. I squelched a sore throat shortly after New Years and was still congratulating myself when some unforgivably rude, over-achieving bacteria got into my left eye.  I awoke  Read the Rest…

The All Present/OK Chorale Holiday Concert and Cookie Exchange took place over the weekend.  The actual Cookie Exchange was demoted to Cookie Potluck as in the end no one had the stomach for the politics of a formal cookie exchange. “Whose idea was this cookie exchange anyway?” asked Susan, my lovely assistant with All Present  Read the Rest…