I just saw a “veinviewer” image posted on Facebook–it’s a fascinating new technology that facilitates finding a good vein for a blood draw. From a nurse I know, I understand there’s research being done that demonstrates the ultrasound as a means of locating deep veins for lines, or that can be used for obese patients. … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Blog
A Check– Stolen from the Mailbox
A friend just posted on Facebook a warning to her neighbors that someone stole a check she was sending out that day in the mail. My first advice was, tell your bank– a check has the full bank account number printed on it as well as your personal signature. Apparently the bank advised her to … Continue reading →
Posted in: Blog, social and anti
Around the Corner
I have tried again and again to keep a diary, but the self-centered repetitions and petty quarrels I found myself trying to make into comedy read like belly button lint. My definition of belly button lint? The sort of meanders that no one but the author really cares to examine. If you keep a daily … Continue reading →
We’re Back
We’re back. I didn’t know we were going until about a week beforehand, so I never told you, but now I will. We flew over to Boise, Idaho for the annual Botanical Society meeting. http://www.botany.org It’s been seven years for my husband since he last attended a Bot Soc meeting, and then he went only … Continue reading →
If even one of you, my readers, has read any of Gladys Taber’s Stillmeadow books, I’d like to know. I read them as wandering but organized conversations with a well-read woman of sensibility and reflection, deceptively simple, unfailingly kind. Yes, what old-fashioned language I use here, because Gladys Taber is of another time. I sometimes feel … Continue reading →
Posted in: Blog, food, gardening, social and anti
He Pays a Visit
You finish writing a novel, you polish and rewrite, hand it over to your agent and re-polish and rewrite again, pass it on to the editor at the publisher and do that all again, sometimes writing new sections or insights to answer their queries. The book goes out, people read it, comment, give reviews. … Continue reading →
Ketchup Packets are Immortal
We walk in the evenings, carrying a bag or two, and pick up the trash on our way. Bottles, coffee cups, straws and all the debris left from fast food meals. Our neighborhood roads are relatively quiet wandering routes, with hilly profiles, so I find it interesting that we can normally fill at least one … Continue reading →
Chili baked fish
I figure it’s time to share another recipe. The white-fleshed Pacific rockfish is my fish of choice for this recipe, because we can get it locally fished and it’s a sustainable harvest fish with a fine clean taste and firm texture. Salmon gives a different taste, but is great in this combination too. Disclaimer– the … Continue reading →
After Isla Vista: Commencement 2014
(I co-wrote this commencement address, a version of which was given last weekend at a UCSB graduation ceremony.) This was the year. A year of change, of disorder, of assault, of murder, of the world moving without us, without our approval. A year of feeling the deep violation of our space and our peace. You have … Continue reading →
Posted in: Blog, education, science, social and anti
Fragment
I reached into the shopping bag, pulled out the tissue bundle and unwrapped it, drawing out the moment with anticipation. Was the little picture really so perfect, so evocative, as blurry with captured motion, as clear with individual power as it had appeared in the shop? Old photographs don’t usually appeal to me, but this … Continue reading →
