This is a text exchange I had with one of my writing students this evening. He is a senior in high school and we have worked together now for several years. He and I are great friends and had planned to see each other several more times before the end of the school year. Now,…

I am sitting in my den here in Los Angeles this evening listening to rain drumming on the window panes. I associate that sound with peacefulness and it makes me want to curl up on the couch with a blanket and a book and just listen to that gentle pattering. I grew up in North…

I am, like most people, doing my best to adjust to our collective new normal. I have watched endless news coverage on Corvus-19 and then have found solace by binge-watching Doc Martin, where life is fairly predictable and Doc always makes people better. I spent several hours this afternoon weeding and I felt consoled by…

Today is my husband Ray’s 62nd birthday – such a baby – since he’s five years my junior. Every other year, we have gathered as a family for Ray’s birthday celebration, but this year Covid-19 has put a damper on a family party. Instead, we had a FaceTime party (of sorts) with the grandkids, Sarah…

Ray and I have driven up to Ojai to the orange grove. With temperatures dipping into the low 40s tonight, we are snug as two bugs in a rug in our Airstream. Rachael is feeling much better and looked glad to have ever-constant Mom and Dad need to make the northward trek for a quick…

Life in a city that is afraid is a bit challenging. Today, Ray and I went to two stores and found no paper products at all, no bleach, no hand sanitizer, no flour, pasta, dried beans, and almost zero frozen food. We did find lots of other food that we bought, including dairy products, meat,…

Today has been a bit of a challenge. Our daughter Rachael came down with flu-like symptoms yesterday: wet cough, tickly throat, running nose and a temperature that started at about 99 and then promptly went up to 101.5 for all day and all night. Normally, we would have simply said, “It’s the flu,” and done…

Daughter Rachael is in her bedroom right now with a 101.5 degree fever and a cough. She started out the morning fine, was helping me make vegetable soup and cornbread for lunch, when she suddenly said, “I’m getting the chills.” A trip upstairs to retrieve the thermometer revealed a 100.5 fever, which soon crept to…

We have been talking about having chickens at the orange grove for a long time and a couple of years ago Ray even built a fenced-in area to house any poultry we might acquire. A few months back, Liz and Ron discovered a partially broken chicken coop placed in front of a nearby house for…

Enough said. Talk again tomorrow.