Snake Charmer

Posted on by Giddyup,Linda!
I was born in the Year of the Snake. In the Chinese zodiac, a Snake year comes around every 12 years, with January 2025 heralding the start of this one. I'm neither Chinese nor astrology-focused, but I still take note of certain beliefs that have been around for a minute, like since the 5th century B. C. I digress. I asked my former husband to leave our home in 2013, also a Snake year. Coincidentally, my snake sightings back then came fast and furious: A black snake as thick as... Read More

Swim Lessons

Posted on by Giddyup,Linda!
I watch my friend Jo swim laps in our neighborhood pool and admire her steady stroke, cutting through the cerulean water with little effort.  As she glides to the pool's edge and somersaults under the water, I see her swim cap bob up again without missing a beat. She urges me to get in.  "Nah, I'll go down like a rock," I tell her. "Come on, I'll teach you how," she says. Not today, my friend.  When I was a kid, my mother told me that she had a bad... Read More

The Ache

Posted on by Giddyup,Linda!
It happened more than once during my single years after the divorce. I'd awake, startled, in my bed as I felt a man's arms encircling me, then squeezing me so hard I gasped for air.  In the inky darkness broken only by the white digits on an alarm clock across the room, I'd bolt upright, heart pounding as if I'd just sprinted a 5K. "Who is he, where is he?" I'd say to myself, reaching frantically across the bed to feel the coolness of the undisturbed sheets.  Nothing there. I'd... Read More

Stranger Danger

Posted on by Giddyup,Linda!
  “I would never do that,” my single friend Diana says every time I tell her about a match.com date. This restaurant owner meets people from all over the world and has never met a stranger. But sign up for a dating site? “I’d be scared to death to go out with someone I don’t know,” she adds. I understand her fear. It takes time to get comfortable with the idea of meeting a stranger. That’s why I require a phone call and a full name and phone number before... Read More

Lovey-Dovey

Posted on by Giddyup,Linda!
  The bird turned to look at us, its small, graceful head swiveling atop an elegant neck of beautiful blush pink feathers. “That’s the male dove, and it’s his turn on duty,” my daughter Megan told me, pointing up to where the bird sat in a loose nest of twigs and grass. Just then the female, her dusty brown feathers no match for her partner’s, flew up and dad swooped down and out the garage door. “The kids and I googled it, and doveys mate for life,” Meg told me... Read More