Maddie's Mom Writes

Category: This and That

  • What to do in the Days to Come

    I wrote about hard choices yesterday. It was prompted by a scenario that is unlikely to ever happen to me. Thank goodness. But I thought the whole issue of hard choices was very appropriate to the current situation. I’ve asked myself what I would do if I thought someone near me might be sick with…

  • Hard Choices

    Sometimes when I am at a loss for something to write about, I turn to “The Book of Questions” by Gregory Stock, PH.D. I open it at random (or my best approximation of random because I’ve opened it so many times that some pages come up more often than others) and see if the question…

  • Corona Virus Panic

    I won’t say this is not a serious issue. But the panic over it seems to me to be disproportionate to the danger. And this business of stocking up for a siege is inconsiderate of the needs of others. I was at our local Costco last week on Friday. I go out every Friday and…

  • Weird Words, Part 9

    Oopsy-daisy I don’t use this much in its entirety, but I have been heard to say oops or whoops in polite company. When I’m alone, I might be a bit more colorful. A while back, while buying a new battery for my husband’s car, the handle broke as I was picking it up. I slammed…

  • Things I Just don’t Understand, Part 2

    Handicapped License Plates First let me say, I understand the need for these in certain situations. Someone confined to a wheelchair will need more space to get into and out of a vehicle so providing a parking space that is larger than most is a good thing. Also, someone who needs supplementation from an oxygen…

  • How to Paint a Bathroom

    I don’t normally do numbered or bulleted lists, but here goes: 1.  First select the paint color. (But of course this doesn’t take into account the fine art of negotiating with your significant other necessary to do that, or the hours, days or weeks that might be involved in said negotiation.) 2.  Decide on the…

  • Random Thoughts, Part 2

    Parallel Universes and a Perfect World How many times have you heard someone say something and your unspoken (or maybe not unspoken) reply was, “Yeah, sure, in a perfect world.” I hear that little phrase, or some close variation on it, more and more. Is our world becoming more and more imperfect? Or are we…

  • I Caught my Husband’s Cold

    If Bernd gets sick, I almost always catch what he had. Because of his job (optician; the guy who sells you your glasses after your exam), he comes into contact with a lot of people. Not all of them are in the best health. He does his best to keep the viruses and bacteria at…

  • Random Thoughts

    Bait and Switch My husband, Bernd, once did a a search for affordable term life insurance. We both have whole life policies, but they have a declining balance and as we get older, they will pay out less and less when we die. There is a side fund attached to the policies that, if we…

  • Income Taxes

    I hate doing our income taxes. Yes, I could pay someone to do them, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. I used to buy an income tax program, but with our current method of accessing the Internet the connection is too slow to download them. Tried that last year. Wasted all kinds of time…