“But you have to take The Sound of Music tour if you’re going to Salzburg,” insisted my daughter. Several other friends chimed in with the same advice. My husband and adult son didn’t see it that way. They wanted to visit the castle and admire the armaments. So, feeling silly, I went by myself in March 2015. I faltered at…
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12 Days and Brides of Christmas: Raffle!
So while we’re still six weeks out from Christmas 2015, the authors of The 12 Brides of Christmas are sponsoring a giveaway! Over the next twelve days, we’ll give you an opportunity to win TWO books: What better way to prepare for the Christmas celebration, than to have one book to read for fun and one to concoct treats for…
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Ignorance and The Sound of Music
When my daughter was eight years old, I realized she had never seen The Sound of Music. So, I went to the local video store to rent it for a weekend. I couldn’t find it amid all the musicals and other garbage in the store, and went to the counter to ask about the 1965 Academy Award’s best picture Oscar winner. The…
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Clearing After a Fire: Personal Thoughts
After spending a day sifting ashes and clearing up after a fire, I and my companions have personal thoughts. A fire is a terrible thing, as I’ve written about here, here and here. I’ve also planned what to do in a fire, which I wrote about here. But seeing the devastation and my reaction to it, I have several other thoughts….
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Sifting the Ashes: Finding a Few Treasures
A dozen of us spent five hours sifting through the ashes of a friends’ home following the Valley Fire in Lake County, California. Four weeks after the fire roared through the neighborhood and destroyed everything around it in minutes, we descended on an ash-filled house. As explained here and here, our task was to clear a cement pad that used to…
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Digging through an Ash-filled House
We traveled to Cobb Mountain following 2016’s Valley Fire to dig through an ash-filled house. A sobering, dirty job for friends. Some eighty of us gathered at the Middletown Lion’s Club in the morning. After being given general directions and specific supplies, our leader spoke to us about our “mission” that morning. “You’re here to help, of course,” a fire…
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