My dad was an outstanding mechanic. His gifts to me when I left for college were a flathead and a phillips screwdriver, a hammer, a pliers, and a 6-inch adjustable wrench. Unusual gifts for a college woman, to say the least.* I must have exhibited enough interest in helping Dad with little jobs and watching him work that he realized I’d want to keep my things in working order after I left home. I quickly discovered that those tools were some of the most useful things I brought to college, and I still have them. (Dad didn’t buy low-quality tools.)

Word got around, and my dormmates often came to me, asking to borrow one tool or another. The same thing happened when I worked in an office. Loose drawer handle? Picture to hang? My staff knew I had some tools, and they knew it was faster and easier to borrow my tools than to put in a maintenance order.

Ted has tools stored on the shelf below the workbench in our basement workroom as well as in some of the cabinets in that room. He’s less adept–but stronger–with tools than I am (his dad was not a mechanic), so I often say that I’ve bought him all the tools I need. All of Ted’s tools are useful, but many aren’t used very often. For those little fixer-up jobs that need attention, I keep a toolbox (actually, a plastic shoebox) handy in our laundry room so that I don’t have to go to the basement to get a hammer or a screwdriver for a two-minute job. My toolbox/shoebox is stocked with “essential” tools for little jobs. It has small, medium, and large flathead and phillips screwdrivers; a hammer; a level; a 4-inch and a 6-inch adjustable wrench; a 12-inch ruler and a pencil; a 25-foot steel tape measure; two sets of allen wrenches (metric and English); etc.

My toolbox/shoebox was getting pretty full, and it shouldn’t be (see “essential”), so I dumped it out one day to sort out my essential tools and those that could be stored with Ted’s for occasional use. During the sorting process, I discovered a second hammer that I don’t remember having. The hammer is small–only about 8.5 inches long.

But, . . . it comes apart and provides 2 flathead and 2 phillips screwdrivers as well. It’s a semi-essential tool kit in one unit. Nifty!

I can’t believe I didn’t remember that I had something this useful. Sometimes, you don’t know what you have until you find it!

* Dad was not a demonstrative man (huge understatement). On the day Mom drove me to college, Dad said, “I love you,” with the tools and with the words “Don’t get involved in any of those ‘Students for Lincoln’ or whatever clubs.” Translation: Those were the days of large, sometimes violent, student protests against Dow Chemical Company–the maker of agent orange–and against the Vietnam War. Members of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) were the most violent protesters. UC Berkeley and UW Madison were among the most active and vocal protesting colleges in the nation with large SDS memberships. Dad was worried that I’d be hurt in a demonstration and/or be put in jail like so many of the protesters.

Jeff was playing with an AI app one day and decided to make his dream of being in a band come true. He actually played the drum for a short while in elementary school. Look how far he’s come.

If his dreams can come true, I asked him to fulfill my dream of becoming a super model. He did it.

One day, while I was sitting on the patio, I saw the brightest-colored caterpillar I’d ever seen.

I searched “neon-yellow caterpillar” online and learned that it’s a Polyphemus moth caterpillar, a member of the giant silk moth group. The moth is one of the largest moths found in Missouri.

I don’t remember ever seeing a moth that looks like this, but I admit that I don’t generally spend my outdoor time looking for moths. Still, it’s good to learn something new every day and now, if I ever see a spotted moth like this, I’ll know its origin. If I catch one, maybe I can make silk. 🙂

A few days ago, Ted and I were shopping at Lowe’s. It was hard to know which seasonal decorations we should place in our yard–Hallowe’en on the right or Christmas on the left.


On another day, we were shopping at @Home and saw the largest display of Christmas decorations we’ve ever seen. @Home is a huge warehouse store and everything we could see from the entrance (this view) was on aisles that extended nearly to the back wall ahead of us and to the the outer wall on the right. Is this The Land of Plenty or what??

Jeanette was the first staff member I hired when I became an administrator at the community college. It was a great choice! She and I have been good friends since we first met. Other staff members used to joke that we shared a brain because our ways of doing things were so similar. Although she’s Hispanic and I’m blonde, we often came to work wearing the same colors–not something you’d expect from people with such different coloring.

Two years ago, Jeanette had a double-lung transplant. It was a tough recovery (h-u-u-u-ge understatement), but she’s doing well and, except for still tiring easily and wearing a mask outdoors to avoid contaminants in her lungs, she’s back to normal. We’ve been meeting for lunch since she became strong enough to do that, and we had a recent get-together at Panera’s.

We missed the third member of our trio, Gail, who moved to Virginia two years ago. We were “tres buenos amigas.”

Family and friends are the greatest gifts in life.

Kari invited me to an event at the library that sounded like fun. Two local women recently published cookbooks–one on soups and one on pastries–and were the guests at a book signing event.

The moderator had excellent questions and the two women had interesting answers. The hour-long event went by too quickly. Both women have always loved cooking. The “pastry lady” has a local bakery; I don’t remember if the soup lady works at a restaurant or not. Some of the interesting things they said in the interview portion of the evening included the following:

–When people ask me how long it took to write my cookbook, I tell them “30 years.” It only took 4 months to get the book published, but she had perfected her recipes over a 30-year period.

–When you write a cookbook that you want people to use, you have to be very clear in your directions. You cannot assume their knowledge of cooking matches yours, so you need to define terms like “simmer,” “cream,” “fold,” “dice,” etc. If they don’t understand your directions, their end result will not be successful and they’ll never open the cookbook again.

–You can’t take a recipe you’ve made at the bakery in a batch that yields 5 dozen pastries and divide it by 6 to yield only 10 pastries for a home cook. The proportions of the ingredients change with the size of the batch of dough.

–When asked which ingredient they could never do without, the two women looked at each other, laughed, and simultaneously said, “Butter!”

Kari and I each bought a soup cookbook and had the author (pink sweater) sign our copies.

As you can see, I’ve already selected the first 5 soup recipes I want to try.

A few days later, Kari was shopping and saw the pastry book on display (“Made. by Lia”).

It was a fun night out and we’re both looking forward to some new items on our home menus.

For many years, Ted and Kari have observed two fall traditions: (1) they wax her car together; and (2) they mulch her leaves together. 2025 was no exception.

This year, however, Ted added an event–he invited Theo to come over for a car waxing afternoon.

Ted also waxed our cars and mulched the leaves in our yard. The car waxing event repeats in the spring. If Theo participates again, that will count as a new tradition. Long live family car waxing and leaf-mulching!