Stories from the Slow Lane
Wanted: Another Extraordinary Dog
I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve recently visited the animal shelter so often that I know some of the dogs awaiting adoption by name. Yet, Emil and I haven’t felt a connection, that inexplicable spark convincing us a certain dog has been waiting just for us. In the last...
Old Home Goes From Jaded to Jewel
When the fierce February winter storm of 2021 spread a pristine coat of snow across San Antonio, Texas, a grand Victorian home on Guenther Street never looked more striking. Three years before, however, the house didn’t glow in the sunshine. Back then, the once...
Bitten By the Auction Bug
When I was a child, Daddy would occasionally load up and haul a few weaner pigs or several skim milk calves to MacLean’s Auction Mart on a Saturday morning. I was always thrilled when he invited me to tag along as he transacted business at that time-honored...
All Fired Up
Old Man Winter had a firm grip on that long ago February morning in the Alberta foothills. To walk the quarter mile uphill from our farmhouse to the main road where we’d catch the school bus, Mom had wrapped me in multiple layers Only a small slit across my eyes was...
We’ll Take Our COVID Shots To-Go
Since COVID-19 began disrupting our everyday routines last year, we’ve taken advantage of various drive-throughs, curbside pickups and to-go offers. Correspondingly, when Emil and I received our first Moderna vaccine shots on Inauguration Day, we never had to leave...
A Tale of Two Tomcats
My sister Shirley and I love cats and always have. Years before she married Harvey, he and his mother gave Shirley a tabby kitten. Furious at being trapped and relocated, the little guy earned the name of Yowler. He’d been born and lived quite comfortably in Harvey’s...
Miles of 2020 Smiles
For as long as I can remember, Mom insisted that tacking up a new calendar before the first day of the New Year was bad luck. Since we don’t need any of that, Emil and I waited until today to take down our dog-eared record of 2020. Flipping through the months, we...
Christmas in Her Heart
This simple yet remarkable true Christmas story from the foothills of the Canadian Rockies will lift your spirit and warm your heart. The aromatic promise of an epic Christmas dinner filled our farmhouse. Mom wrestled an enormous homegrown turkey from the oven of the...
Oh, Those Never-to-be-Forgotten Gifts
What gifts they were! Bob Odum, sisters Leah Zapalac Tietjen and Lestell Zapalac Villanueva and I remember childhood Christmas presents that made our hearts flip in excitement. Here are our memories. Hop on the bike, Bob Bob Odum of Katy, Texas, and his older brother,...
Stories I've Saved
