April 22, 2014
When a business’s sales figures drop on the graph, a savvy business owner seeks ways to reverse the downward trend. As a self employed person and/or business owner for over 35 years, I carefully watched my sales records. Negative impacts to my sales were bigger and better ideas outside of my business’s capacity to match; changing needs and standards in the market; or simply not paying attention to my customers’ needs or providing adequate customer service. For the record, a small business […]
February 24, 2014
This post is also featured in the SLO New Times Billy, a smart and handsome 30-something young man, and I cozied-up over […]
November 27, 2013
Yes, I am cherry picking words from the recently published Apostolic Exhortation by Pope Francis. I can’t slow dance with every statement in the document–I guess I’m too independent. Yet, when it comes to the well-being of humanity, I can not quit sloshing about in my happy dance upon hearing a person of immense influence speak against the loud vocalizations of what I must term as the politically far right. Years back, when I first heard the bellowing of the likes of Limbaugh, […]
November 22, 2013
A landmark birthday nears and I’m not as ambivalent as with other landmark birthdays: 40, 50, and 60. Reflection is like a mirror that won’t break and leave my presence. Some memories delight me and others can bring the flow of tears. I see the young faces of those who died in their youth. They remain young forever. No gray hair. No limps. No lumps. Bright eyes. Smooth skin. Abundant dreams–albeit unfulfilled. When a mirror captures me, I spin away so as […]
August 29, 2013
Passionate and powerful writers lay their words on cyber paper about the state of racism in America today. Some scribe and speak (lightly veiled) disgust towards the Civil Rights Act and the fact that America’s president is partially black—of certain African descent, no less. Others, and possibly the majority–based on the last presidential election—are color blind. Barack Obama’s karma led him to rekindle and review the state of racism in America. What I’ve read and heard during this 50th anniversary of the […]
August 19, 2013
Also seen in SLO New Times & Santa Maria Sun On an August afternoon 36 years ago, my world flipped upside down. I was 27 years old, mother to a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old. My college career was on hold while my husband considered a graduate degree. But that wasn’t going to happen because on this one August day a deadly accident terminated our dreams. This accident killed my husband and I stood in the desert wind unsure how I would move forward […]
May 8, 2013
As if Al Gore just farted in public, the blogosphere gassed-up a regressive debate about NOAA’s reported Co2 397.35 ppm reading at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. To me, this denial is akin to my personal denial of why I can no longer squeeze into a size 8 jean
April 9, 2013
Perhaps by this post’s end, the answer to my question, “Am I good-looking enough to run for a political office?” will find an answer. You see, I’m mightily confused about appearance, political office and political correctness. A confluence of events and random conversations pushed this question to the front. In one news thread, Hillary Clinton’s political future rivals her hair for headlines; another thread chats up President Obama’s complimentary quip about California’s female attorney general; pundits chat about other possible 2016 presidential […]
March 26, 2013
I’ve been thinking about being gay. I’ve been thinking about what if the absolute love of my life was a woman. I’ve been thinking about gay/lesbian couples I know that honor each other and their children. Then I thought about how same-sex life-partners share the same care, anger, drama, joy, and tragedy that Mr. and Mrs. Bob and Mary Doe share. This is not my outing. I am straight, but what if I was lesbian and my partner was Jane not Clif? […]
March 11, 2013
A rambunctious passion fruit vine overcompensates itself in a portion of my garden. A few under planted white calla lilies collide with the ravenous vine. But the lily’s determination to break through the thick vine succeeds and an over-sized lily blossoms thru the vine—creating a stunning garden contrast—and victory over the dominate vine. The recent arguments and defensive mechanisms by the gun industry is much like my overcompensating passion fruit vine. Through its root, the National Rifle Association, an intertwined, over-fertilized pattern […]
The Muse Pallet 