#SoCS: A Yarn Too Far

Dad was good at telling long, detailed yarns about anything. Trips he and mom took. What they ate at every meal during their trips. The relatives they would visit. Their conversations. All of them. The people I didn’t know that they would visit. Stories from his days as a grocery store manager. I remember mom getting a look of frustration on her face on several occasions and then saying, “She doesn’t know who you’re talking about. Finish your story!” IRead more

Do You Still Have an Issue?

Natasha and I have been discussing technology lately. How our age and lack of IT abilities keeps us frustrated from time to time. Like dealing with the new WordPress block editor. Like not being able to play TV shows on CBS All Access via the cell phone when it worked the day before. Like taking two hours to hook up a TV monitor to a laptop that perhaps should have taken 10 minutes. Like how technology changes at warp speedRead more

She Wants to Go Home

I tell mom she’s 96 years old, but age is not registering in her mind. “I can’t be that old!” “Yes, mom,” I say to her gently, “You are 96.” She shakes her head in disbelief and responds with, “No, I’m not!” I ask mom how old she believes she is and the response, “In my seventies.” An aide attempts to confirm her age, but mom resists, and I eventually have to change the subject. This is how the conversations haveRead more