Posted by: Brenda Kula | January 31, 2008 I think today may be my mother’s birthday. I’ve met her only twice. I was a preschooler at our first meeting. Then we saw one another again when I had young children, and she and my half brother were visiting a great-aunt I was close to. This relative, who has been dead for 22 years now, once told me that my mother’s birthday was at the end of January, either the 30th or 31st. So out there somewhere, if she’s still alive at age 73, (information which I’m getting off my birth certificate in front of me), she would be celebrating her birthday. (more…)

Posted by: Brenda Kula | January 24, 2008 The kitchen remodel is almost completed. Thankfully, we do not have to jackhammer up the floor, as the plumbers thought we might have to do last Friday. I called another company, the same one who rushed to our rescue with the gas leak dilemma last week. (more…)

Posted by: Brenda Kula | January 24, 2008 Sometimes I am digging out in the dirt, weeding gardens and creating new ones. And conversations crop up in my memory, edging their way into my consciousness. People have always told their tales to me. I am truly interested in what they have to say. Sometimes they just need to spill out their secrets. The stories knock about my head like dusty old artifacts in an attic. (more…)

Posted by: Brenda Kula | January 18, 2008 Day four of the kitchen remodel. Pablo hooked up the washing machine before he left yesterday. I’m one of those people who can’t stand the laundry piling up, even though it’s hidden from view. (more…)

Posted by: Brenda Kula | January 17, 2008 I was lying on the floor yesterday doing my stretching exercises while the evening news droned on in the background. I had heard about the terrible incident the newscaster was referring to earlier in the week. A nine month old baby boy was in the bathtub with his 19 month old brother, and the younger boy drowned. The mother, 21, and her boyfriend, were in the apartment. They found the baby face down in the water. As I stretched my hamstrings, I heard them mention that the boyfriend was 46, and then they said his name. I went absolutely still, shocked. I know him. He is my handyman, one of two men who do lots of work around my home. I felt sick inside. (more…)

Posted by: Brenda Kula | January 16, 2008 I’ve been a volunteer for the organization Meals On Wheels for over a year now. I called and offered to help after a local television station made an appeal for volunteers to help make deliveries. I met with the volunteer coordinator, Dianne, and started right away. (more…)

Posted by: Brenda Kula | January 14, 2008 Saturday evening we were about to sit down to watch a Netflix movie. The doorbell rings. I’m in my night gown and robe. My husband is in the shower. The stranger says he is from Center Point Energy, the gas company, and needs to get inside to check our furnace. He has a company label stitched on his shirt, but I am wary. He says a man walking his dog detected the smell of gas coming from our house, and called in to alert them. (more…)

Posted by: Brenda Kula | January 9, 2008 I had a great-great Aunt Lillie growing up. She was quite a character. If someone had explained to me what "eccentric" meant, I’d have said that defined Aunt Lillie. (more…)

Posted by: Brenda Kula | January 8, 2008

I find myself singing in the garden. Truth be told, I find myself singing lots of places. It’s not that I have a good voice. I don’t. I guess it is just soothing to me somehow. (more…)

Posted by: Brenda Kula | January 6, 2008 After a rather uncommonly wintry week, I was able to get outside this weekend. It went from a low in the teens at night to 70 degrees yesterday. So I backwashed the fish pond. I worked all afternoon, sidestepping the two fish that call it home. My algae eater, who had grown close to a foot long, came to his demise due to the plunge in temperature. I reached down to scoop out some gravel and instead came up with his hard scaly body. (more…)