These past winter months, I noticed unusual bits and pieces in my daily life. My knees and sometimes my elbows ache. Some mornings my shoulder blade feels like it is on fire. I told my husband one morning and he said simply, “Oh, it’s probably arthritis.”...

I was pretty sure of what I saw on my brother-in-law’s boat last week. But I thought I’d ask anyway. Yes, he fixed his boat with duct tape. “Once you get in the water with it, it’s stronger than steel,” he says...

What is worse than a little boy having a bumper sticker? A little nephew putting that bumper sticker on his uncle’s car, that’s what. It caused a wee bit of a commotion. True, maybe his uncle takes his commitment to his automobile a tad too far. Yet, the little guy putting a bumper sticker on the car wasn’t the smartest thing he ever did...

A friend, whom I’ll call Suzie, reads her horoscope each morning as she drinks her coffee. Lately, she has been giving me advice on how I should handle the day. I am not a superstitious person. I do not believe in fortune tellers with a deck of cards, nor do I believe that my life can be ruled by the alignment of the planets. I do have to admit that every now and then, when she gives advice, she can come curiously close to the facts...

My Great-Aunt Sarah stopped by last week. She lives in a “tiny” farming community in southern Indiana. We enjoyed her visit, but late on Saturday night she mentioned that she was way too old to enjoy life in “a big city.”...

As friends relived old times during the course of last evening, the subject of nicknames arose. So, I started scribbling them down, which is basically what I intended to build this column around. I went to school with Carla, whose nickname was Hurricane...

If you’re like me, you have troublesome days getting into the groove. Try spicing up the conversation around the office. At the office today, the topic around the water cooler was: If you were recuperating in a hospital, who would you want in the bed next to you, excluding relatives?...

The senior class of Linton-Stockton School will hold commencement soon. As seniors, marching to get their diplomas, they will remember many things. They will always remember graduation night, the Senior Prom, the high school song and the various clubs...

There is NO truth to the rumor that my family is taking bets on how much weight I gained after vacation. However, it is true that there is something about eating at quaint restaurants on the road. There is NO truth to the rumor that when I saw my neighbor coming, I said “Here comes the neighbor and she’s bringing more zucchini”. Yes, one zucchini vine does produce a great deal of the vegetable. Thank you, we have had enough zucchini for this year...

A friend, whom I’ll call Suzie, reads her horoscope each morning as she drinks her coffee. Lately, she has been giving me advice on how I should handle the day. I am not a superstitious person. I do not believe in fortune tellers with a deck of cards, nor do I believe that my life can be ruled by the alignment of the planets. I do have to admit that every now and then, when she gives advice, she can come curiously close to the facts...

For those who fall in the category of thinking 4-H is just about agriculture and raising animals, you do not know the whole story. In Indiana, only about thirty percent of the total enrollment comes from farms, the rest from urban areas. 4-H is a chance for youth to handle responsibility, learn new things and work hard to achieve goals. ...

Last week the temperature was 62 degrees outside, today we are faced with rain. Students have given up hopes of missing school days because of the weather. On St. Patrick’s Day, one man in Linton was busy cooking supper on the outside grill. Two streets over, a man was out on his riding lawnmower...

Construction of birdhouses and bird feeders can be as simple or as complex as you wish to make it. Bird feeders can look like tiny bungalows, wooden A-frames or miniature chalets. Bird houses need no ornamentation to serve the birds using them, but an attractive design can enhance a yard. Thus, the custom-built bird feeders are for the person filling them not for the birds...

In spite of the recent rain and temperatures, yard sales flourish. “One man’s trash is another one’s treasure,” is a prime definition of the yard sales held each spring. On any given weekend from about May to August, signs will appear all over town for yard sales or garage sales...

My Aunt Sharon and Uncle Steven should return to Indiana soon. They are the family snowbirds. Just like our feathered friends, with the first signs of spring, they return. “Snowbirds,” just like many actual birds, leave Indiana for the winter but come back home in the spring...

Due to the cold and wet, I have not been able to do anything in my garden. From what I see around the town, many other gardeners are in the same boat. The daffodils that grow along the front of my house have put forth blooms and my tulips lived through this winter’s snow storm...

This past week, I noticed something in the closet I hadn’t thought of in years. I found my “Senior cords.” Senior cords were unique and once phenomenal, popular among high school seniors. Senior cords were pants, skirts, and vests made of yellow corduroy. ...

My friend Charlotte works for the Indiana Department of Tourism. She told me she was going to Samaria for dinner. No, it does not border Galilee but is located down south in Johnson County. Last week she went to Paris for lunch. Now who would have thought Paris was a simple trip down to Jennings County. Made me wonder if anyone actually owns any wooden Dutch clogs in the city of Holland, Indiana...

Just when should a person take down their Christmas decorations? February is here already! There is a house in the area that has their outdoor Christmas decorations still blinking each night. Driving by this house - I wonder why? True weather can be a deciding factor. No one really wants to take down outside Christmas decorations when the wind chill is below zero, but the weather has been mild...

With 2021 behind us and February creeping upon us, we find that keeping that dreaded New Year’s resolution can be harder than we thought. It was a cinch to make a promise in December. You can easily put your willpower to the test...