Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
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By this time next week, Deutschesfest will be over, and a lot of hardworking volunteers will be able to step back and heave a sigh of relief. For a little while, anyway. We need to make it known that we appreciate all the effort that goes into making our hometown celebration a success year after year. There are the people who put in hours and hours organizing the biergarten, the parade, the vendors and entertainment. There are the people who are new and leap in with both...
It's Tuesday morning. I have an appointment with a dental hygienist at 9 o'clock. The Chamber of Commerce meets at noon. Want to guess which appointment I dread the most? I'll give you a hint - it's not the one that involves someone scraping my teeth. Now, I'm not deliberately trying to offend anyone here, but I really, really, really dislike Chamber of Commerce meetings. Not because I dislike the Chamber of Commerce, or because I don't see the value of the organization. I...
Today is Labor Day, so of course I’ve spent it laboring. I’ve moved a few hundred bolts of fabric. Some of them more than once, since I don’t really have a plan. Now I’m tired. Even though it’s a holiday, as long as I was at the shop, I plugged in the “OPEN” sign, and a few people stopped in. One was a regular customer from the Harrington-Davenport area. Another was a woman with local connections who was on her way home to the west side. Just taking the scenic route. And fi...
Oops. I didn’t get around to writing a column last week. It was probably because I was out sweeping the cobwebs off the storefront. Or maybe washing my feet. At any rate, time got away from me. My apologies. This week, I’ve been thinking about one of those things we learn as children, although perhaps not always intentionally. I’ve been thinking about “Practicing What You Preach.” I tend to think of this particular topic in capitals, because somehow I grew up thinking it was i...
I just got back from a short stay in my home town. I’m pretty sure I should have stayed longer, but I ran away. I usually do. My dad fell last week, and the results weren’t particularly pretty. When I arrived at his house Saturday afternoon, he was asleep on his bed. That was enough to alarm me. My dad has always been a pretty good napper (wherever he happens to be – on the porch or at the table) but if he’s in bed in the middle of the day, you know it’s serious. After he...
Recently, someone asked me to address (in this column) the issue of bringing more visitors to Odessa to shop in our retail establishments. Believe me, it’s not a topic foreign to me. Or to anyone else who belongs to the Chamber of Commerce. Or to anyone who owns or works in any of those aforementioned retail establishments. And I'’m including our restaurants in that category. The Chamber of Commerce, love ‘em or hate ‘em, has done a pretty good job of bringing people to town...
This past Sunday, I spent much of the day outdoors, trying to reclaim what little there is of a vegetable garden. Which got me to thinking about how much trouble I have managing my time. Which, in turn, got me to thinking about how fast we all seem to think we need to go. Mind you, there was probably not a direct line between those two concepts. It’s just the way my thinking goes. At any rate, by the time I was done spending some quality time with my hoe, I had decided that I...
I think I’ll poke a little fun at the editor this week. Really, I’m poking fun at myself, but I’m disguising it. Every once in a while, I forget to write my own headline for this column. That’s the first mistake. Then I read what the editor supplied. That’s the second mistake. It’s not the editor’s fault, you know. If I could just remember to go back to the top of the page before that final save and the email to The Record. If I could just figure out what the heck I was wr...
So, I'm sitting around this morning, feeling all glum and gloomy, because I hate summer. That’s right, you read it right. Lise hates summer. Lise has ALWAYS hated summer. I’m pretty sure that if you went back to approximately a year ago, you’d find a very similar column. Because I hate summer. I hate summer so much that I pretty much can’t stop thinking that I hate summer ALL summer. There are a lot of people around here who have SAD, or “Seasonal Affective Disorder....
I've always been pretty good at arithmetic. Not a whiz, you understand, but pretty good. Once beyond arithmetic and into math, however, all bets are off. But I've been thinking lately about one of the phrases from the past. I'm not sure how old I was, but I remember a light bulb going on in my brain when I understood what "the lowest common denominator" was. I really love it when the bulb goes on. I wish it would happen more frequently. In fact, I wish it would happen right no...
It’s Independence Day. Or the 4th of July, as we usually call it. But (as of this morning) I’ve decided to go back to calling it Independence Day. I have great plans for this day (also as of this morning.) I know I’ve talked before about my habit of measuring myself and my progress (or lack thereof) on particular days, such as New Year’s Day and my birthday. Well, Independence Day is going to join the ranks of those milestone days. It’s just not ever, EVER going to become li...
You know, I’ve always thought of myself as a basically honest person. In fact, I like to think of myself as above average in that regard. When I find paper money on the street, I attempt to find its owner. Usually, when something is my fault, I confess. I don’t steal. I don’t lie, unless it doesn't matter. “Aha!” you say. “There she goes, down that slippery slope of making God-like decisions.” For who am I to decide what matters? But that’s a bit off track. The lies I’ve b...
I'm a little cranky today. I've never read the Divine Comedy, the epic poem written by Dante Aligieri. Having seen paintings inspired by the first section, usually called Dante's Inferno, I've never really wanted to. That hasn't stopped me from imagining Hell as I would have designed it. Never mind the seven deadly sins. I would have a place in Hell reserved for people who abuse those weaker than themselves, whether that be spouses, children, or animals. This would, I...
I'm fresh back from International Quilt Market in Portland. Well, I don't feel particularly fresh - I'm still tired, but you know what I mean. Talk about a fish out of water. Now, in all the years I lived in Portland, I did not feel particularly bumpkin-like. I knew I wasn't a sophisticate, by any means, but I could usually hold my own in a conversation. As soon as I walked in the door at the convention center, I knew I was in over my head. Two days later, I was drowning. In...
I’ve decided I need a fight song. I was on my way home from town last night when the idea occurred to me. The first thing you need to know is that yesterday was the first day of my new program. (That’s right! I still haven’t given up on becoming healthier! Even though there are only 9 months until my 60th birthday, I’m giving it another try.) So I was ravenous. The first four days of this program involve two homemade shakes and a 2-cup bowl of soup, along with one crunchy...
I feel like a medical marvel today. Never mind that the medical professionals I spent some quality time with yesterday do this kind of thing all day, every day. I still feel like a medical marvel. For the first time in months, I got out of bed and walked, instead of crept, to the bathroom. When I walked down the sidewalk this morning, I didn’t have to stop and bend over to relieve the pain I’ve been dealing with for several months. I suspect I may have been swaggering a bit...
I have a recurring dream. I actually think of it as a nightmare, but it doesn’t feature monsters or murderers. It features forgetting. In the dream, I am sitting in the hallway of my college dormitory, playing cards with a group of my friends, when I suddenly realize that I have forgotten to go to my forestry final. A surge of adrenaline (or some equally uncomfortable biological substance) floods my body, and I know that I will never graduate. The dream goes on for quite a w...
This morning I was nearly witness to an accident at the intersection of Highways 21 and 28. A large black tractor-trailer rig nearly T-boned a white SUV. It appeared to me that the accident was avoided by mere inches. The SUV had the right-of-way, but I don't know if the truck had stopped initially or if the driver just blew the stop sign. The thought of being run into by a semi is mind-boggling. I think it’s really pretty amazing that there aren’t more accidents at that inter...
It’s time to change my theme song. This realization came to me as I was driving to Spokane last week. I don’t know why epiphanies only seem to happen when I’m doing something that makes it impossible to write it down so as to remember it later. It would be nice if I could remember it later. It would be nice if I could remember anything later. Fortunately, I recently discovered that my smarter-than-me phone will record my thoughts, if only I can remember which app to selec...
As I was reading (yet another) book that promised to have the solution to my weight problem, I realized that what I really want is to be a success story. Success stories are intended to be inspiring, I know, but when I read about other people who were a hundred pounds overweight and managed to lose it, I get depressed. Because, when it comes to my health, weight, or housekeeping, I just don’t seem to be able to stick to any kind of plan. Any individual who succeeds at changing...
I’ve been thinking about labels lately. Not the ones we should all be reading at the grocery store. Not the ones that tell us where our clothing is made. Not even the ones that warn us of danger, like a skull and crossbones. Those labels all are designed to help us make informed decisions. No, I’ve been thinking about the labels we apply to ourselves (and often to others.) Some of this labeling is obvious from our appearance. I think we would all agree that I’m fat. Oddly...
I’ve never really thought of myself as much of a gambler. In fact, I was stunned when I moved here and found out how many people just loved getting in the car and driving a couple of hours to throw their money away. Since that time, I’ve made that trip a few times myself, usually with that same result. There are some people in the world who can’t stay away, but I’m not one of them. Actually, it’s kind of a relief to know that there’s at least one thing I’m not addicted to....
They say it’s always darkest before the dawn. Mind you, I don’t know who “they” are, and I don’t really care. But I’ve been thinking lately, mostly as I’m driving to work in the morning, that it’s always ugliest before the spring. Every year since moving here, I count calves as I drive down the hill west of town. One day there will be one or two, then suddenly there are tens and twenties. This morning, there was a brand-new calf right next to the roadside fence. Mother w...
There’s a hole in my living room today. Not an actual hole, mind you. It’s just the space where my piano once sat. You see, I gave my piano away this weekend. My piano was just about the first major purchase I ever made. It cost $750 back in the late 1970’s, when I was a single working woman living in Yakima. It wasn’t a fancy name brand. But it was pretty. For the first few years, anyway. It was moved twice in Yakima, and then from Yakima to Portland. In Portland, it was mov...
