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Columns

  • A nightmare that never ends

    Hate is a strong word, one I try not to use often. Still, I hate crooks. In light of today's shaky economic situations, it seems they are coming out of the woodwork.

    Being a reporter, I've written numerous stories about scam artists and identity theft. I know all of the signs. I'm already a bit paranoid, and hearing the horror stories only makes it worse.

    Then it happened to me.

    The charge appeared on my online bank statement two days before Thanksgiving. I knew it wasn't a charge I'd made as I'd never done business with this particular company.

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  • A very, very sad Mac

    I just wanted to check my e-mail.

    I opened the door to my home office, waited until my three cats ran past me to get to their toys, sat down and clicked my computer mouse.

    Nothing.

    The computer froze. No big deal. I'll just hit the power button and manually turn the computer off and restart.

    The familiar Mac startup chimes gave me comfort. Then ... nothing.

    A blue screen ... then black ... then blue again.

    Then, it happened. That darn little icon with a question mark ... and a sad Mac face. At this point, my face was sad, too.

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  • Don't measure progress on Mondays

    Do you ever have those days when you wonder why you got out of bed? Monday was one of those days for me.

    It all started while I was making breakfast. First, I burned my hand on my stovetop espresso maker. No big deal, I thought. At least it woke me up. Then, I burned my pancakes. I ate 'em anyway. They were still better than those frozen things.

    When I got to work, later than usual and I'm not sure how that happened, things got worse.

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  • Liver has to be the devil's doing

    While out on my route the other day, I stopped at a diner that featured liver and onions for the lunch special, something I hadn't seen in a lot of years.

    Eating used to be so simple. A couple of eggs with grits, sausage, bacon or country ham in the morning with homemade biscuits. A quick hamburger or a bowl of chili at noon, and evening was your basic meat and potatoes.

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  • What an imagination can do

    Ingenuity: The quality of being cleverly inventive or resourceful.

    The ingenuity of today's kids amazes me.

    After watching the snow arrive Friday night, our kids kept walking outside to measure the accumulation. And on Saturday morning, the first question the kids asked when they woke was, "How much is there?"

    My husband simply pointed toward the window.

    The kids cleared the driveway and had some fun outside for a while, but it wasn't long before they begged to go to Miller Park for the "big" hills.

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  • Don't miss the next one!

    Wow. Sunday's meeting of the CKNJ Bookmarks reading group was the most interesting yet!

    And if you haven't yet joined, you're missing something.

    Our most recent meeting was Sunday at the Extension Office. Fifteen of us discussed the group's most recent book choice, "South of Broad" by Pat Conroy.

    It was interesting at Sunday's discussion to hear all the different opinions.

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  • Same old party, same 'older' Mom

    When a group of 10-year-old little girls can get the best of me, I'm getting old.

    This past weekend was my daughter's 10th birthday. That also means that it was her sixth sleepover.

    For some unknown reason when Madison turned 5, I agreed to her suggestion that she should be able to invite that many girls. And when she turned 6, that's how many friends she invited. When she turned 8, thank goodness, we put a cap on the invitation list.

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  • A few of my not so favorite things

    In my last column, I wrote about some of my favorite things. This week, I'll tell you a few of my not so favorite things.

    First on the list refers to a call I received recently from someone who said she reads my columns (thanks for that).

    She told me that some animals were being dropped off near the walking track behind Miller Park. She, like me, has a soft spot in her heart for innocent animals, and said she hated to see this.

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  • Make a resolution to be safer

    I drove there very carefully, stopping gently and not going very fast. The drivers behind me must have been frustrated.

    Two weeks ago, I wrote a story about the number of fatalities and crashes in our county last year.

    To go along with the story, I took a photo of a cross on the side of KY 55 marking the place where a local man lost his life, just one of the 1,000 crashes local law enforcement investigated last year.

    Whenever I write these types of stories, I begin thinking.

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  • Asking for help from readers

    "It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope."

    —Robert F. Kennedy

    A tiny ripple of hope ... Like most communities, ours has moments in its history of which its residents aren't proud.

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