Sophie's Story

     Well, this is it. We are now less than 24 hours away from a brand new year. Many people are very excited about this. It almost seems as if people think that at the stroke of midnight, everything is going to be good and troubles will go away.    Although I know it doesn't work that way, I'm still excited. This is my favourite holiday as many of you who have read this column know. The reason is that the beginning of a new year always feels like a clean slate to me. It's a chance to start again and to learn from the past year and to do better. I love the idea of putting the old year behind me and moving ahead into whatever is out there.    When you hear people talk about 2020, most of what you hear about is what a bad year it was. How difficult is was. All the people we lost. All the damage that has been done. All the troubles that just don't seem to have an end.    To me it wasn't that bad. Yes, there were things we couldn't do and fear and anxiety, but there

     The turkey is in the crockpot. Christmas music is on the stereo. The tree lights are on and will stay on all day. The sun is shining. It's a balmy 15 degrees outside. There is a nice layer of snow on the ground. C is live streaming Wonder Woman downstairs. I'm at the computer writing my column. Scamp has made himself comfortable on the bed. It's Christmas at our house.    There are no presents under the tree. No ribbon or wrapping paper on the floor. There is a selection of home made treats on the dining room table given to us from friends.     This is just about perfect. The only thing that would make this perfect were if my beloved Colby were sleeping next to Scamp.     I'm happy. The lack of material gifts does not bother me a bit. I'm finding as I get older, I'm more interested in experiences that in things. I care more about people than possessions.    This year I sent cards. I've posted some rather thoughtful things on Facebook. I made up cookie p

     C had a surprise for me. He was talking to his sister Elizabeth about the fudge that she and their other sister Mertis used to make. She said it was pretty simple and gave him the recipe. He was excited. This is the same recipe his mother also used to make fudge. He gave it to me.   I thought that this time of year would be a good time to try out the recipe. I had wanted to shake up my holiday treat making routine. I was getting bored with making the same cookies all the time. When I was younger and used to do the holiday baking for the family, I used to make fudge. It would be good to try making it again.    The recipe seemed a bit too good to be true. There were only a few ingredients, cocoa powder, sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla, butter and a pinch of salt. I thought that fudge making required more ingredients. The fudge I used to make required marshmallow cream and a few other things. I was told that there were two things that I needed to make sure the fudge turned out. The f

     Three days ago Washington National Cathedral tolled the Bourdon Bell. It is their largest bell, weighing in at 12 tons. It is typically tolled at funerals held at the Cathedral. On Tuesday the bell was tolled 300 times, once for every 1,000 lives lost to coronavirus. There was a video on YouTube. It showed a single candle, its flame wavering from the vibrations of the large bell. Behind the candle, slightly blurred, were cards that contained the names of people who died of the virus. The names were sent in by friends and families for remembrance during the weekly memorial service that the Cathedral holds.   I watched and listened to the video. Sometimes I sat sipping my tea. Sometimes I did some small tasks in my kitchen. It was hard to experience even second hand. Part of me wondered why I was doing this. Why was I listening to a bell toll for 30 minutes. Why not just shut it off and do something else? I felt compelled to keep listening to the steady tolling of the bell.    Part

     I have a page a day calendar called National Day. Each day has a list of things that are celebrated on that day. For instance, December 12 is Poinsettia Day. December 13 is Cocoa day.    Yesterday was Wear Your Pearls Day. I don't always celebrate each of the holidays that are listed. I have no idea how one celebrates Ding-a Ling Day. Yesterday I decided I was going to wear some pearls even though I wasn't working or doing anything special. I put on a pair  of pearl earrings that C gave me.   I like pearls. When I was younger pearls seemed so classy and grown up. Many I times I would see pictures of wealthy and prominent women wearing a strand or two of pearls. It is tradition in my family that when a girl is confirmed in the church, she gets a ring. This is her first piece of real jewelry. I picked a Black Hills gold ring with a pearl in the middle.    When I was in high school I had  pearl necklaces and a bracelet. (Not real of course.) One of  my necklaces consists of d

        A few days ago I ordered some candy. It was not just any candy. It was Aplets and Cotlets from Liberty Orchards. I had not ordered a box for many years. I was so excited about reviving this tradition of mine that I had a second box shipped to a friend of mine.    Over the years I got so busy with work that little by little, I stopped doing a lot of the things I used to do around the holidays. It got to the point that I was just doing a little baking and putting up a tree and a few decorations. Maybe I'd stick a few Christmas CDs in the stereo.   It's time to change that. I'm tired of December being something that I have to endure. This is a time for joy.     Yesterday I made a list of Christmas treats I plan to bake. I'm going to make plates of treats and bring them to our neighbors and a couple other people. One of those things is fudge. I haven't made fudge in years. My sister-in-law, Doris, gave me the recipe my mother-in-law used. I have no idea how it w

       A bit over three years ago I was dragged figuratively kicking and screaming into the smartphone era. I loved my little flip phone. It was small, compact and did just what I wanted it to do. It was becoming clear to me that I was going to have to have a smartphone as there were things I needed to do at work that just couldn't be done with my flip phone. The deciding factor was that our cell phone bill would go down if I would just embrace this new technology.     I was very reluctant. I had seen many people doing nothing but stare at their screens. They would walk down the street, eat in restaurants and attend worship services spending most of their time with their eyes firmly fixed on their screens. I had even seen teenagers riding bikes and texting. I called them phone zombies and I had no interest in becoming one.    C and I found a a refurbished phone for a very good price. We set it up and I began to use it. I realized that I liked it. I enjoyed being able to text, read

        This week I pulled out my Christmas CDs and put one disc in the CD player. I kept the rest out so I could slowly add one disc every week until my CD player has all Christmas music in it. I burned a pine scented candle. C and I made a list of people to whom we hope to send Christmas cards. We bought some ingredients so I can do holiday baking. We talked about a few people we'd like to give some treats to. I've been cheerful.     Anyone who has read this column for a few years knows that this is NOT normal behaviour for me. I have routinely aired my dislike for the month of December, the commercialization of Christmas and the wish that we could skip to New Year's many times.    Things are better this December. When you compare them to past  Decembers it's not much of a contest. Most Decembers found me working a lot, missing all the holiday fun, listening to endless cheerful holiday music and dealing with stressed out, angry customers. In 2018 I was three weeks awa

     One week ago Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, broadcast a video asking people to post messages of gratitude on social media for the next seven days. He asked that the posts be marked with #GiveThanks.     I'm sure thousands of people from around the world posted in response to this message. Certainly many of my social media friends did, including a few that don't post on social media very often. I did as well. (Scamp also joined in.)    This was not my first time doing this. Two years ago I wanted to do something to help me feel the spirit of gratitude. I thought about posting something for which I was grateful once a day for seven days. I posted pictures of my yoga mat, my furnace, my fridge, washer and dryer. We take these things for granted sometimes, but many people live without these conveniences. It helped a lot. I enjoyed doing it. At then end of seven days I felt better and some of my friends had commented on what I h

   My mother asked me to stop by her apartment last week. She's been doing some housecleaning and had given me  all her knitting things since she no longer knits. I already got a nice knitting bag, some patterns, needles and other knitting accessories.  I stopped by after work. She had a large bag of yarn.    When I got home I opened the bag. There were all sorts of yarn. There was eyelash yarn, wool/mohair yarn, fine cotton/wool yarn, wool yarn and one small hank of something that I think might be mohair. There's also various odds and ends of things that I'm not sure what they are. All of it is beautiful. The colours are lovely and a feast for the eyes.    I have no idea what I'm going to do with it.    I'm not an ambitious knitter. I like to knit flat things. I tried knitting hats once. It did not turn out very well. I still have one I knitted. It's way too large. I make it work though.   I asked my mother what she knitted. I know that she knitted sweaters bec

   C and I went for a bike ride on the last warm day that we had. We had a good time. Something happened during that ride that hasn't happened to me in nearly 40 years. I...wiped...out....    There's a difference between wiping out and falling. I've fallen off my bike a few times, mostly when I haven't been able to pedal fast enough to keep my balance. (Like going up a steep hill on riding on grass.) This was a full on, hit the pavement, wipeout due to my front tire going off the edge of the trail.   Fortunately, I landed belly down and kept my head from hitting the asphalt. Fortunately also my bike was just scratched a little. I got up slowly and assessed the damage to me. The heels of both my hands were scraped because I had used them to catch myself. I definitely had a bruised thigh. I had not torn my pants or shirt. I got on my bike and we kept riding.    My knee felt a little weird. It didn't hurt, it just felt like it was oozing something. When we got to our d

     Many people I know and others identify themselves as "pro-life". I've never really been comfortable with that term because it seems to imply that anyone who disagrees with them is "anti-life", which I don't think is true of anyone.   According to the online dictionary I've consulted, pro-life means "Opposing abortion and euthanasia". They believe that life begins at conception. I wonder sometimes if they understand that life begins at conception, but it doesn't end there. To me being pro-life is a larger issue than just opposing abortion. It's caring about the quality as well as the quantity of life. In other words everyone should have a a good quality of life.    A pro-lifer should be in favour of accessible and affordable health care for all starting with prenatal care. Statistics show that maternal death rates have risen in the United States. While no one can point out one cause, an article in the Scientific American (Has Matern

     Hi! This is Skamp!    I'm taking over the column for today. I thought that some of you may want to know how I am doing.     I'm doing pretty good. The humans are home and we are mostly back to our usual routine. There have been a few changes. Sophie has been getting up a bit earlier than usual. When this happens she spends time scrolling through Facebook on her phone. I don't think this is a good thing so I'm training her to play with me. I found a cool toy in the store room last week. It's a long strip of fleece on a stick. Sophie's job is to lay out the strip and pull on it so I can chase it and stalk it. She's pretty good at it. Sometimes she makes the strip run under pillows. I like this because then I get to practice my digging skills. I like getting my workout in early before breakfast.     Another change is that I've taken over Colby's job of Chief House Cat. The CHC job means that I am responsible for alerting my humans  to dangerous int

    Hi! This is Skamp!  As many of you already know, a few weeks ago my humans thoughtlessly went on vacation for a week. I was  not consulted about this and if I had been I would have strongly advised them not to go. Not because I'm afraid of them getting this virus thing that all the humans seem to be concerned with, but because I was left alone. I really don't think it was very nice of them to do this to me.    I'm very disappointed in them. I thought I'd trained them better than this. Colby and I spent a lot of time properly training our humans. I know some setbacks are inevitable, but this is inexcusable. It's not like this is something minor like forgetting a grooming session or serving a meal late. In their defense, they did have June, the cat sitter, come in to feed me and clean my litterbox. Sometimes she brings toys. However my routine was interrupted. Not acceptable.    I had to figure out some form of punishment for the humans. I peed outside the litterb

        We arrived home from our vacation in Door County last Saturday night. We are happy to be home. Scamp was happy that we came home. (Although he expressed his displeasure at our leaving by soiling a pillow to the point where it cannot be salvaged.) We brought our suitcases and other items into the house and left them in our bedroom. We were too tired to unpack them.    I did put away the things we had bought. I got a new pair of black shoes. We bought several pounds of cheese, a bottle of maple syrup, a present for a friend and a small oil from the innkeepers at the B&B where we stay.    Don't get me wrong. We love our time in Door County to the extent that we travelled during a pandemic. We explored several new places and found a few more that will have to wait until next year. However, there does come a time when you get tired of eating in restaurants and living out of a suitcase. I personally get tired of feeling stuffed. Whenever we eat at a restaurant on vacation I a

      We weren’t sure what things would be like here in Door County. Would anything be open? Would everyone be scurrying around with mask covered faces? Would it be deserted?     It’s been interesting finding out. We decided that we were going to stay away from crowds as much as possible which may mean getting a lot of take out. We also decided to be outside as much as possible.    Several places closed for the season early. Among them is a candy store and coffee shop where they have really good hot chocolate, a mini golf course where we like to play and Wilson’s, a hamburger place that has the best root beer. It’s so good even I will drink it and I don’t like root beer. We noticed that a custard place closed early as have a few restaurants.     Some restaurants and businesses are closed during the week. Some of this is because the bulk of the business occurs during the weekend. Some of it is because young people that would  normally come from overseas to work could not come this year.

      We weren't sure that we were going to go on our annual trip to Door County. There is a pandemic going on after all. Also Wisconsin is, at the time of this writing, experiencing a large rise in cases. Hospitals are full and the Wisconsin Board that deals with licensing health care workers is asking for help from anyone who is currently licensed and not already full time.    We also were not sure if the peninsula would be open for visitors. After all visitors could bring in the virus and spread it all around causing all kinds of havoc. C called the B&B that we stay at. Yes, they were open and so was the rest of the peninsula. We decided to proceed, but use caution. We checked our favorite restaurants to make sure they were open and to find out if we needed reservations. We made reservations at a couple. The rest had carry out if we wanted. Everything looked good.    The next challenge was Scamp. This would be the first time he would be at home alone. We had already told our

     October is Pharmacists Month. It is a chance for pharmacists and pharmacies to educate the public on their role in health care. To celebrate the occasion, I thought I would write a little about my job and include some fun facts about pharmacists.    I became a pharmacist in 1993. At that time women made up slightly less than half of working pharmacists. (Although I can't find a hard figure for 1993.) Today 55% of pharmacists are female (National Bureau of Economic Research).It may not seem like a big change, but it is. When I first started working, I was the only female pharmacist on staff. Any other women working in the pharmacy were technicians or clerks. I was the first female pharmacist to work in the town where I had my first job. It was not easy. Customers, used to older male pharmacists, would refuse to deal with me. I was too young and I was a woman. I had doctors who couldn't believe I was a pharmacist. One doctor said to me ,"Since when have women been allow

        Occasionally I sit down at the computer without a single idea of what I'm going to write about. Most of the time I have an idea or at least a glimmer of an idea. Sometimes I start on something and then delete the whole thing to go in a different direction.      Today I'm stuck. After watching clips of this past week's vice presidential debate (Why did they even have one?) I was thinking about a rant on how mysogyny is alive and well in the United States. We have not come a long way. For some reason if a woman displays confidence, intelligence and holds any position of power of authority, she's deemed unlikable, abrasive, bitchy and power grabbing. Heaven forbid that she should insist on being heard!  I could go on and on about this, but several other people already have. I'd rather write about lighter things, pleasant things. There is enough unpleasant in the world right now.    Normally I would write about General Conference. Last week was the 190th semiann

     Celine's anniversary is coming up. She sent me a card on my anniversary and I asked her when her anniversary was so I could send one to her. I put the date in my phone so I would have it in a safe place. Now at three days away I was panicking a little bit.    I needed to get the card sent today. It wouldn't get to her on time, but at least it would be close. I looked through my card stash. I had birthday cards, Thanksgiving cards, a sympathy card, and several relationship cards, but no anniversary cards. I sat at the kitchen counter and thought for a few minutes. I'd have to buy a card, take it home and write in it. Then I'd have to take it to the Post Office to mail. That would take time, more time than I have today. Besides, I really didn't want to spend $3.50 or more on something that I'd simply sign and mail. She'd get it, read it and maybe show it to her husband. Then it would go into the recycle bin. I wanted something a bit more personal. If only

     In the interest of full disclosure, I did not listen to any part of last night's presidential debate. I haven't watched a presidential debate in many years.     To me a debate between two or more people seeking to be elected to lead in any office should consist of the parties involved explaining how they would deal with various challenges that are occurring at the time. Since such discussions of policy do not lend itself to high ratings and TV viewership, these "debates" have disintegrated to exchanges of insults and grandstanding.     In many high schools, colleges and universities across the country, debate is a competitive sport.  There are strict rules governing the conduct of debate contests. I have looked at several sites that have competitive debate rules. I propose that any debates between those seeking for national pollical should be conducted according to the following rules. To simplify matters I am assuming a two person debate.   The debate will be co

   Helen was the Table Topics Master (or Mistress if you want to be correct) this week at Toastmasters. I always enjoy it when Helen has this role because she comes up with questions that are interesting, but not overly difficult. (I don't mind challenge, but there are some topics that are just too hard.)    She began one of her questions by talking about a night when she couldn't sleep. She picked up a book she had been reading thinking that it would help. The mystery she picked up was so engaging that it kept her awake reading.     The person that answered the question talked about a book on the history of philosophy that he had just finished reading. It was a long book and a hard book to read. He had to reread parts of it to make sure he understood it. He said that he had enjoyed reading it.    His answer reminded me of a book that has been sitting on my bookshelf for a long time. The book is Foucault's Pendulum. It is a mystery written by Umberto Eco. Eco was an Italian

     We are nearing the end of the political campaign season and I am looking forward to it. Part of the reason I've stopped watching television is because I've had enough of attack ads and mudslinging. I'm disgusted by the amount of money that people running for office have to raise. I live in a city where people are living in tents and people can't afford medications. Yet millions of dollars are wasted on campaign ads and people to get dirt on their opponents.    Maybe I've written this already, but it is worth repeating. Why don't we, the public, the voters, treat candidates like job applicants? Someone could write a job application for each elected office. Anyone wishing to run for office would have to  fill out an application. The filled out application would be made available in several formats so all voters would have a chance to review it.    There would be no debates. Instead there would be job interviews. Candidates for state offices would be interview

     Hi ! This is Skamp!     Some of you may have been wondering how I'm doing now that Colby is gone. (Although C assures me that Colby is not gone but in the spirit world, happy and no longer sick) I'm doing all right now.   I won't lie to you. It was very hard at first, I missed Colby a lot. He's my brother and I've known him for a long time. He was fun to be around and very humble. He used to finish my food if I left my dish without eating all of it. It seems strange that I can leave my food dish and it will not be touched. All his things have been packed up and put away. The only thing left is his blanket on the cat tree and some of the toys that he liked to play with. It was hard not having someone to hang out with after the humans have gone to bed. I felt very alone because I'm the only cat in the house right now.    I was very busy the first few weeks. Colby was the Chief House Cat, which meant that he was in charge of keeping an eye on our territory and

     Several months ago I was bored and started surfing You Tube on my iPad. I was tired of watching the same A Football Life episodes over and over again when I stumbled upon a channel that had short informational videos about the history of various people of royal birth. There were videos about the children and grand children of Queen Victoria of England, royal wedding customs and the off spring of a Danish king whose name escapes me at the moment. (It's either Christian or Frederick apparently the kings of Denmark alternate between the two names.)   One of the videos was about women from the United States who married into foreign royal families. The narrator quoted a statistic that caught my ear. She said that since the United States does not have a monarchy, girls born in this country can't dream of marrying a prince. However there have been more women that have married into royal families than have been on the Supreme Court. Then the narrator said, "There's still

      Sunday I did something I had not done in a very long time. I played my harp at church.     C and I are sometimes asked to play a hymn during our worship service and at holiday worship services. C plays a guitar and I play either my hammered dulcimer or my 21 string lap harp. Most of the time I play the dulcimer. The last time we were asked to provide music, C wanted to play the hymn 'Be Still My Soul'. We had played it a long time ago and we did a good job. I was nervous about playing it because I play it on the harp.     I can't remember exactly how long it had been since I played the harp at church. I remembered that I wanted to play 'Angels We Have Heard on High' and thought that it would sound best on a harp. (I couldn't resist playing a song about angels on a harp.) The challenge with playing the harp is the hand tremors I have. They aren't bad most of the time, but being nervous makes the tremors worse. At that time playing in church made me nerv

     C has many Facebook friends and enjoys seeing what they are doing. One of them is Mama Nee. She is in her middle 90s and lives in South Carolina.     A few days ago she posted that there was nothing to watch on TV except sci-fi, action, horror, thriller or suspense movies. She wrote about how during World War II movies were reassuring. Movies helped with morale, comforted and made people feel good. There were love stories and musicals, happy musicals to entertain and make people smile even during that uncertain time. She wrote that we need more of this kind of entertainment and also more uplifting music.    I have to agree with her. It seems most of what is on TV are crime shows, "reality shows" and talent contests. I miss sitcoms. Shows like Scrubs, The Bob Newhart Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Frasier, Cheers, MASH and WKRP in Cincinnati. These shows were funny and entertaining. They had a cast of characters that you could like or maybe identify with. Sometimes they

        A few weeks ago I watched the funeral of John Lewis. I went on to read the last article that he had written. I watched the movie John Lewis: Good Trouble. It was inspiring and hopeful. It made me wish that I lived back in those times where people joined together and got things done. What must it have been like to have the belief that you and other people could change things? Make things better. More fair. What would it be like to know that you could help make life better for everyone?    I would like to feel like that. Right now I think that it is impossible.    I'm not normally a pessimistic person, but I can't help it. Nothing I see in human behaviour is leading me to believe that it is possible for a group to get together and effect change. I'm looking at the groups of people of colour who are demonstrating and asking to be treated with dignity and to have equal rights and equal opportunities. They are right. They should have that. They shouldn't have to wond

     The usual spot for my birthday dinner has pared down it's menu considerably. The one thing I like to order is longer being served. I wanted to find a new place for my birthday dinner. There was a place that we could go, but it was in Minneapolis. C and I are a bit scared of going into Minneapolis. There have been violent riots and shootings. We debated for several days. C consulted news reports and did some research to see if the part of downtown we planned to go to was safe.    Finally he made a reservation. They recommended that we park in the ramp over the restaurant. We made an early reservation so we would be out of the city before dark.    Our reservation was on a Friday. About 40 minutes or so before our reservation time,  we left our house to go to dinner. The drive wasn't too bad until we hit one patch of slow traffic. We almost called the restaurant to let them know we would be late. Then the traffic loosened up and we were on our way.    As soon as we hit the ed

     COVID-19 had changed so many things I can't name them all. In fact so many things were going on that the beginning of August snuck up on me. I realized that I had not planned my birthday lunch. This isn't like me. Normally I have my planning as far as guest list and restaurant done by 1 August. Not this year.    Fortunately, restaurants are offering dine in service again. C and I found one in Hudson that had good food and an option for outside dining. The next thing was going to be who I would invite. Some of the people I had invited in the past had moved. One person I had lost contact with. I couldn't invite my dear adopted grandma, Evie, because her health is too poor to risk getting COVID. I couldn't invite Ellen and Mac for the same reason. Dana had been exposed to the virus and was nervous about possibly infecting others unknowingly. I had to have lunch with someone. It's tradition. I just couldn't have a birthday and not take someone out to lunch. I c