Author: Roberta
Father’s Day is already here, and I barely survived Mother’s Day! I say that for two reasons. First and foremost, I dearly miss my mother, who left this earth 45 years ago. I would have loved to share a cup of coffee and chat with her one more time, but I know that wouldn’t be enough. The second reason I’ve survived Mother’s Day is because of the hype surrounding it. Sometimes I receive a card—sometimes I don’t—but I always get a phone call. When my son was younger, he was more attentive. One year, he picked a bunch of dandelions…
We’ve had cats before….two, to be exact. Our first cat was Smokey Dawn, an exotic shorthair Persian show cat. My secretary raised pedigreed Persian cats, and when her mother became terminally ill, she needed a distraction, so she started breeding them. After her mother passed away, she found herself with 30 cats and wanted a break, opting to give away the ones she couldn’t sell. Smokey Dawn was a beautiful cat, 5 years old, and the mother of several show litters herself. Smokey Dawn won many awards for her beauty. I displayed her trophies on our étagère alongside Hubby’s Emmy…
Recently, we learned that scientists had successfully cloned the extinct dire wolf. The word dire comes from the Latin dirus, which means dreadful, ominous, or detestable. The dire wolf is an extinct canine species native to the Americas thousands of years ago. The original canis dirus weighed as much as 150 pounds, about 25% heavier than the modern gray wolf (canis lupus). The largest known dire wolf specimens were found in the Aucilla River region of north Florida. Scientists extracted DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull to create healthy dire wolf puppies. I’m not quite sure why they…
Recently, our normally quiet, law-abiding community was thrown into turmoil due to a tragic crime committed by one of our residents. According to news reports, an irate local golfer managed to kill a Canada goose with his golf club. No, it wasn’t an accident. The golfer apparently intended to commit the alleged crime for some unknown reason. Understandably, the local community – golfers and non-golfers alike—is up in arms about the fowl deed and demanding that the accused receive the appropriate penalty. When Hubby and I first heard about this case, we thought it was a joke. It’s not. The man…
I recently visited my favorite store, Costco, and while browsing the vegetables, a box of deep red, vine-ripened tomatoes caught my eye. I bought them on a whim. We used to have a large garden, and nothing could ever surpass the taste of our homegrown tomatoes. These Costco tomatoes looked like they might be close. A day later, Hubby came home from the grocery store with two pounds of tomatoes! He hadn’t noticed the four-pound box I had purchased in the refrigerator. We suddenly had a dilemma: what to do with all those tomatoes? I said I would fry some…
In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t written any posts for a while. Hubby and I went on a 33-day cruise to Hawaii and French Polynesia. Now we are home and in recovery mode. For two or three days, we had sea legs. So, what was this cruise like? Many of the 930 passengers were elderly and needed walkers, wheelchairs, canes, or another elderly person to hang onto. For example, people kept calling me “young lady.” I am 78 years old! Yes, I felt pretty smug. That all changed when I was leaving the ship for the last time. Based…
A loved one told me something I found hard to believe. I couldn’t accept it, so I researched it—lo and behold, it’s true. There is a very unusual human phenomenon in which some people relate to animals—not that they love or empathize with them—but that they actually believe they are animals! Which animals, you ask? Almost all of them. My loved one told me about a girl from our hometown who thinks she’s a cat. She initially attended one high school, but after being expelled due to her eccentric behavior, she started going to the high school I attended. My school…
The other day, Hubby went to get groceries and was back in the house in five minutes. When he started the car, it acted weird, so he came back in and called the dealer. After a short discussion, he made an appointment for me to take it in for service to have it checked out. “Maybe we just need a new battery!” I suggested. Never one to pay attention to my sage automobile advice, he said, “No, they’re not really that old. It must be something else. The engine turned over, and then several lights started flashing.” Hubby goes out…
I’ve noticed that some people are saying “Happy Christmas” lately rather than “Merry Christmas.” Is this more of the “woke” society, or is it only my non-American friends? I researched the origin of each of those greetings. The saying “Merry Christmas” is from the days of yore. (How many times do we get to say, yore?) Author Charles Dickens used that greeting in his classic, A Christmas Carol, in 1843. “Happy Christmas” was first used by British royalty, and that version of the greeting became traditional among the English. Some say the word “Happy” has a higher class connotation than”Merry,”…
This is a different type of Roberta Raves, as I would like your opinion on a few topics. Since retiring and spending a lot of time watching television, I’ve been reflecting on various societal issues. I’ve shared these thoughts with my husband, and while our perspectives often differ, they are not necessarily opposites. Please remember that my posts do not take a political stance. I recognize that social issues are complex and aim to spark discussion about them. I do not hold strong opinions; instead, I present them as food for thought and encourage thoughtful discussion. So here goes. Should…