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The case for running an analog errandShopping, banking, and book-borrowing can be done digitally 鈥� but at the cost of聽kind words and friendly smiles along the way, our essayist writes.
A lesson in fences and freedom from Royal the horseMy life felt bound by domestic chores, our essayist writes. Then a friend asked, 鈥淲hat do you do for fun?鈥�
Awash in a sea of shampooI have fulfilled this role, the consumer of my wife's rejected shampoo, for my entire married life, our essayist writes.
What鈥檚 to be done with a recliner in decline?Two cats and 35 years later, it鈥檚 lost some shine. OK, a lot of shine, our essayist writes. But it still works.聽
It鈥檚 19 below zero and the bird feeder is empty. What鈥檚 a birder to do?People who maintain bird feeders are trading seeds for delight. Sometimes that exchange is inconvenient, and sometimes it鈥檚聽 unexpectedly life-giving.
I make peace with my procrastinationFor years I took pride in arriving on the dot 鈥� sometimes to the mild chagrin of my host, author Robert Klose writes in an essay.
What my mama told me, and when I finally heard itMy mom told me that 鈥渁 to-do list is like a mental compass that you use to navigate the ocean of junk inside your head,鈥� our essayist writes.
Everybody salsa!Decades later it might have qualified as a flash mob, but on this day in 1983 it was a simply a spontaneous outpouring.
As English evolves, I鈥檓 increasingly stumpedI teach at a university. One of the 鈥減roblems鈥� this presents is that, as the years pass, I get older, but my students remain the same age.
A curlicue of hope for cursive writingWhen my grandson was about 8, he watched me as I penned a letter to a friend. 鈥淗ow do you do that?鈥� he asked, his brow furrowed.聽
In defense of punctuation, a texter鈥檚 lamentIf prose is music, punctuation is its notation. So what to make of the younger generations鈥� fondness for punctuation-free texts?
Reliability took a back seat to style and priceMy first聽car would be one of many I owned that had mechanical quirks and character traits that forced me to adapt, improvise, and grow.
When hills become mountains, and other life lessons from childhoodMy old house and the public pool both seemed smaller now that I had grown up, our essayist writes.聽But not the hill in the park.
Bats are cool, snakes splendid: I鈥檓 on the lookout for Sudden Dave鈥淢uch of what people believe about spiders or bats amounts to slander,鈥� our essayist writes. 鈥淲e usually have to be taught what to fear.鈥�
How to roast your own chestnuts this winterHot-chestnut stands dot the streets of Basel well past Christmas, and it鈥檚 the one downside to spring to see them disappear.
The presence, and the presents, of the pastAs a young boy, I don鈥檛 recall us ever walking; we ran everywhere, because there was so much to run to.
On having too little, too much, and just enoughWe bought used farm machinery at auctions and kept spare parts for breakdowns. Whenever gas prices became an issue, we鈥檇 hitch up our draft horses.
How I was tamed by a jungle of houseplantsAs housesitters, we鈥檇 agreed聽to water the plants. But this was a little intimidating.
On Thanksgiving and beyond, we basked in the shine of Margaret鈥檚 graceMy sister lived with daily challenges. We lined up to help change her life, for the same reason flowers track the sun. That鈥檚 how much shine she had.
I welcome winter鈥檚 gift of reposeSummer in Maine is the time聽to prepare for cold weather.聽But when it arrives, there鈥檚 no lawn to mow or garden to tend.
