March 15-July 6 2019 So, do you have hair? That’s a question that may weigh more heavily on men as most women I know have at least some hair, but I shaved my head (in public) on March 15th of this year to help St. Baldrick’s foundation, which helps children with cancer: https://www.stbaldricks.org/ and in doing…

February 2019-April 2019 After we lost Buddy, Joey the Chihuahua went crazy. He cried so much that he lost his voice, and we didn’t know what to do. I reached out to the excellent dog rescue community, and my friend helped us find Love Leo Rescuehttp://loveleorescue.org/ There was a pit bull named Norman looking for…

    January 17, 2019/June 21, 2019 Staring with the Bad Part, Moving to the Good Part (Skip this first section if you could never read about Jack’s death in the Little House on the Prairie books or if you, like me, feel you were emotionally damaged by books like Where the Red Fern Grows…

It took me a long time to publish this post, and I hope to catch up before the Bus adventures begin again this summer. December 25, 2018 I have always loved Christmas. I don’t think it is the holiday itself, but the holiday season, the cold and the cooking and the crafting and the gifting,…

Jim Roberson May 22, 1950-October 13, 2018   I first met Jim over the phone. We had just bought our house, and I was looking for a fence guy. We had three dogs at the time, and no fences, and life was pretty chaotic. There were moving boxes everywhere, and when I had to take…

(Talking About That Thing That Everyone Is Tired Of Talking About But That I Can’t Stop Talking About…and camping) For those who don’t know, when I was a little girl, I thought my father was Smokey the Bear because he worked for the Forest Service, wore a similar outfit, and reminded me of a bear…

The Third Way: The Last Trip of Summer When I am scheduling student presentations, I sometimes remind my students that oral reports or speeches are just like death. You know they are scheduled from the beginning of the term, but somehow you are never as ready as you would like to be, and yet, inevitably,…

The Second Way: The Pittie in the SplittyAnd then there are the dogs. We have had dogs since we first met, and our current pair has now been properly introduced to the Bus. Buddy the pit bull actually came from the Dodger Stadium rental. One rainy morning we were headed out to breakfast when we…

Three Ways of Looking at the Bus in L.A. The First Way: Lost Angeles August 6-15, 2018 I’m getting ready to teach a class about Literary Los Angeles, so I’ve been reading about L.A. and thinking about L.A. and now I need to try to write about L.A. and yet I know this is an…

For Robert August 1, 2018 Precious Cargo Years ago I had a friend who was involved with and later married her college professor. That they were romantically linked caused something of a minor scandal at the time, although it was her husband who in fact officiated at my own wedding through the graces of the…