Sophie's Story

   About a year and a half ago I nervously left my "safe" job in a corporate pharmacy. It was a nervous time for me. I wasn't sure where I could work or how we would manage. Less than a week later C took me to a nearby independent pharmacy he had found. He wanted me to meet Anne,the manager.   I instantly liked her. She and I had a lot in common professionally even though I am old enough to be her mother. I liked the store. We interviewed each other and liked what we saw. I was hired, first as casual on call, then as part time.   A little over a year ago we obtained the files of a pharmacy that was closing. Along with those files we got two technicians and a delivery driver. One of the techs is Marie. She is tough, smart, funny and can do nearly anything with our computer system. The other tech is Lynn. She is quiet, sometimes unsure of herself and very good with customers. Even though we barely knew each other we just all seemed to fit together for lack of better wor

   Yesterday C called me while I was at work. He had bought all the things we needed food wise for the next few days. He told me that he had been unable to find a Christmas present for me. "It's all right," I said, "Don't worry about it." We ended the conversation and I went back to work.    I had not got him anything either. In truth I didn't know what to give him. The fact of the matter was that Christmas had snuck up on us this year. The past couple months had been a bit challenging. For the first time in my life I was on the receiving end of health care. For the first time in his life, C was faced with having to take care of his wife. The stress of the situation had caused him to succumb to the worst cold he'd ever had. I'm on the mend now, but neither of us is in great shape.   The question of Christmas presents stayed in the back of my head the rest of the day. Do I really want anything? The answer quite honestly was no. We had spent qu

   Hi! This is Skamp!    Sophie isn't feeling well so I am going to write the column this week. We're not quite sure what is going on. Sophie is at home with us, but C is taking care of us this week.    The interesting thing is that C doesn't do things quite like Sophie. For instance, we do get fed but it is at a much later time. C also doesn't put water in our food like Sophie does. I asked Sophie once why she puts water in our food,she said it's because she doesn't want us to get dehydrated. We do have a water fountain to drink from.     Sophie also sits on the floor next to me while we eat. This is to prevent Colby from shouldering me away from my dish and eating my breakfast. I don't get it. Why does Colby have to eat so fast? It is much better to eat slower and enjoy your food. Colby doesn't do that. He wolfs things down like he'll never eat again. He's always been like that.    C sometimes forgets to give us our dry cereal. When he do

      I'm having a case of writer's block. It doesn't happen very often thankfully, but when it does it's a frustrating experience. There are few things worse than staring at a blank piece of paper or a blank computer screen and having absolutely nothing to fill it with.    I found an article on the internet on what to do when you get writer's block. The author had several good ideas of things to do to help cure writer's block. One of them is play, the author likes Legos. Actually that could work if I had toys in the house. One of the disadvantages to being a childless woman is that my house is bare of things for children to play with. The few children that visit either have to bring their own toys or play with the cat toys that I have. In fact, for some reason, children seem to really like cat toys.   Maybe I should get some Play Doh  and Silly Putty. I used to really like playing with those when I was a kid. I also liked the Slinky. Does anyone remember wh

   The week before last former United States President George Herbert Walker Bush passed away at  age 94. There was a funeral for him at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington DC. The service was televised and also streamed on the internet. Like many people in this country I watched the proceedings.   Four men were selected to give tributes at this service, Jon Meacham, historian and author, Brian Mulroney, former Prime Minister of Canada, Alan Simpson, former senator from Wyoming and former President George W. Bush, his oldest son. All were excellent speakers and gave their tributes from their varying points of view.    One of them touched me deeply and I've listened to it a couple of times. There were many lessons taught during that eulogy that we could all stand to learn and incorporate into our lives. I'd like to focus on the tribute given by Alan Simpson.   First a bit of background. Alan Simpson is 87 years old. Her served as a senator from Wyoming from 1979

   It's that time of year again. The time of year when I start getting the itch to put on my sweatshirt with the Christmas tree on it, get out the flour, sugar, butter, baking soda and powder and other ingredients and make some Christmas cookies. I want to dip some Ritz cracker peanut butter sandwiches in melted chocolate. I want the house to smell like gingerbread.   There just one problem. There are only two people in the house. We can't eat all the things I want to bake.    I know what you're thinking. Give them away. Take plates of cookies to your friends and neighbors. I'd love to do that, but that is another problem. Most of the people I know are either on gluten free diets,doing sugar detox, have various allergies to thing that are in cookies that I bake or trying to lose weight. I literally have no one to give cookies to.   It's a bit sad. Baking cookies while Christmas music is playing on the stereo is about the only thing about this time of year that