Last week my mother and I drove up into the Sierra Nevada and stopped at a creek lined with aspens, their leaves falling on the water like lucky gold coins. We passed a wedding party, bridesmaids clutching bouquets with one hand and using the other to keep their sheer purple dresses from flying up in the wind. Minivans, […]
The slow stretch of river where I like to swim gleamed copper yesterday morning, reflecting sunlight tinted red by wildfire smoke. I sat and drank my coffee as the sun rose, watching the silhouette of a hummingbird zip across the dun-colored sky. Four mergansers cruised across the pond then dove underwater, leaving barely a ripple behind them. “Must be nice to be a boat, a plane, and […]
I can tell I’m going to need a stash of new vocabulary words to get through this pandemic. “Dumpster fire” and “shitshow” are worn thin from overuse. “Stressed” and “overwhelmed” lost their meanings months ago. Luckily for me, a fresh, unfamiliar phrase recently leapt out at me from a paper I was idly perusing in the journal Aging Cell. The name […]
I am writing this post from bed. I can’t get up, because (shhhh) there’s a kitten purring on my chest. We picked her up from the animal shelter yesterday. There were dozens of kittens vying for adoption, but as soon as I felt her nudge my hand — polite but insistent, green eyes steady — […]
Many years ago, when I was working as a river guide, a little boy accidentally knocked a girl’s front teeth out with his paddle. The girl was in pain, and understandably distraught about losing her permanent teeth, which had only just grown in. But there were still several miles of river left, and we needed her to calm down and get back in the […]
Dear Readers of LWON, Like everyone else, the People of LWON are still adjusting to life with Covid-19, especially those with kids at home, parents at large, and full time jobs, remote and not. We’ll be posting less frequently for a while, but please keep coming to visit every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We’ll keep serving […]
A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile. -Shakespeare, The Winters Tale I still am learning how to behave during a pandemic. Some things are simple: I know that I should wash my hands frequently with soap for at least 20 seconds. I know that I should cancel my social […]
Last weekend, I played a game with my family called Placing the Past. Each player gets cards that describe different historical events. You arrange the cards in the order you think the events happened, then check your guess. I kept wishing the game included more science history, so I decided to make my own, short […]