Sophie's Story

        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