Oh, the perils of parking lots

        One of the hindrances of growing older is not being able to find your car in the parking lot. One day when I noticed an older woman clearly searching for her vehicle in a crowded lot, I kindly offered to help. She responded by telling me she could find her car on her own. 

A more uplifting story about losing one's car comes from a couple of my older friends who sometimes drive an old beat-up blue Impala, and at other times, a slightly newer and spiffier red Caddy. On one of their weekday shopping excursions, they decided to drive their Sunday car, the Caddy, instead of the beat-up relic. 

Short in stature; tall in brilliance

    Mrs. Loggins taught English at a high school in rural North Carolina where I grew up. If she had stood on her tiptoes, she might have barely stretched past the five-feet mark on a door jamb. She was pleasingly plump and wore her dark hair in a cute pixie cut. As one of the younger teachers, she connected well with 16-year-olds. I had the luck and privilege of being one of her tenth-grade students.

A dress is more than it's cut out to be

     When my husband and I were invited to a semi-formal work-related event, I sailed into dress mode like a 16-year-old dreaming of prom night, envisioning chic bliss in the perfect dress, albeit in a Beverly Hillbillies sort of way. Thus the search began.

I ransacked racks of clothes at department stores and dress shops where I found selections in small sizes a pittance compared to the abundance in size 16. My choices were also limited by my ever-pragmatic frame of mind that refused to let me pay an outrageous amount for an outfit I would likely wear only once.

Funny Farm?

     In the funny movie, Funny Farm, Chevy Chase's character, Andy Farmer, quits his job and moves to the country to write a novel. He outfits an upstairs room with a desk and typewriter next to the window. After finger-pecking the title of his book, "The Big Heist," he stares at blankness. Words neither flow nor trickle and Andy ends up with wads of paper heaping over the trash can and littering the floor.