Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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Going through a box of old papers, I found this poem that my mother had cut out from some newsletter and saved. No author credit, no publication credit, but an incredibly important and timely message: Children learn what they live If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn. If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight. If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy. If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilty. If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be...
As a kid I loved the Fourth of July, even though I didn't really understand what it was all about. The Fourth of July meant big picnics on the farm in Iowa with extended family, playing with the cousins outside all day, watching the uncles set off fire works in the evening and us kids running around the yard with sparklers. Oh, and we always had homemade ice cream. As a teen I loved the Fourth of July because in my small Iowa town there was always a parade (I was in the marching band) and a...
Dads sometimes seem like the forgotten parent, but believe me they are not. Here are some quotes on fatherhood and dads in general to honor this weekend's Father's Day: "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years." –Mark Twain "One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters." –George Herbert "The nature of impending fatherhood is that you are doing som...
I'm currently in the middle of packing and purging, and sorting and tossing, and consequently I can't help but think about a theme I've visited before: how I just have too much stuff. Every box I go through makes me think of an old Henry David Thoreau (of "Walden" fame) story that goes like this: Thoreau was walking through Concord one day when he saw a man carrying an enormous pack on his back, wading through the mud. Thoreau felt sorry for the guy when he learned that the man was carrying...
I gotta say, I don't understand the hysteria and controversy over wearing masks in these days of Coronavirus (or COVID-19). For Pete's sake, don't we have more important things to argue about than whether to wear a mask or not? According to my Facebook page, however, masks are a hot topic of discussion, and that is further verified by newscasts and letters to editors and radio talk shows. So what to do, what to do, what to do...wear a mask or not? I'm personally of the opinion that it may or...
Mother's Day is going to be a bit different this year, as many of you will not be able to be with your mothers or grandmothers. By the same token, many mothers will not get to see their children – the very people who make them mothers – face to face either. Nevertheless, we celebrate the day and the women (and some very special men) who love us unconditionally and mother us to the best of their abilities. In this day and age some of you will be able to FaceTime with mom through the miracle of...
Just another day in this time of Coronavirus. Just another day like yesterday was, and the day before that, and that other day, and all the others. I can't say I have much news to write about as I am, like all of us, homebound except for those exciting and somewhat daring excursions to the grocery store. But I have found the bright side to being self-quarantined, at least a little. For example, I am not a good cook – never claimed to be, probably never will be – but I am cooking for myself the...
These are trying times in which we find ourselves, and aside from bad news and the occasional moments of dread and terror, I'm heartened by the happy things I find online, and the happy and funny things that are being sent to me. It's good to laugh whenever possible in these dark days. So I've compiled a bunch of puns – one of my favorite forms of humor – to pass on some grins and giggles for you today. My favorites: My friend's answering machine says "Leave a brief message" so I said "fruit of...
An old curse goes: “May you live in interesting times.” Hmmm. Have we been cursed or what? Well, I don’t really think so. As bad as things seem to be getting in these particular interesting times, there is always an upside as well… a bright side if you will. And more than ever I appreciate hearing some of the good stories that are coming to us in these days of confusion and fear and concern for our very well being. For example, people in Italy have been staying home, self-distancing, doing w...
March is one of my favorite months. In like a lion, out like a lamb – the weather is always wild and unpredictable. Softball practice starts but is often snowed out; tulips and crocuses pop up and then get snowed on. Clocks change. Everything seems a little wonky until we all adjust. And it's Women's History Month, during which time I always learn something about the many women who came before me and who helped shape the world as we know it. Not to mention the ones who are making history today i...
An old curse goes: “May you live in interesting times.” Hmmm. Have we been cursed or what? Well, I don’t really think so. As bad as things seem to be getting in these particular interesting times, there is always an upside as well… a bright side if you will. And more than ever I appreciate hearing some of the good stories that are coming to us in these days of confusion and fear and concern for our very well being. For example, people in Italy have been staying home, self-distancing, doing w...
February is Black History Month, and March is Women's History Month. Since this issue of The Loop straddles both months, I'm going to talk about Black Women in History. Women in general don't often get credit where credit is due, especially regarding inventions and innovations that change all of our lives for the better, and yet they have been active and changing things for centuries ... and they continue today. Here is a small sampling of contributions by black women throughout history: Sarah...
I used to suffer greatly from a condition known as FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out. I wanted to see everything, do everything, be in on everything. As a child I hated bedtime, because if other people were staying up longer than me, I just knew I might miss something fun. My nightly whine became "I'm not tired and I'm not sleepy" in the hopes that I would be allowed to stay up a little longer. (I actually used that line through college and beyond, with friends as well as with my parents; it worked m...
Valentine's Day is coming right up, and Valentine's Day is all about love. And we all know love is... well, what is love, really? It's hard to define, for one thing. Love is something easier to describe than define, actually, although the poets have been trying to do it for years. Some of them have done a pretty good job of it too – "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..." thanks to Ms. Edna St. Vincent Millay, or Shakespeare's "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" For most of us, w...
I get a lot of wonderful and inspirational emails and messages, almost all with a note at the bottom urging me to "pass it on." And I do, sometimes via the Internet (i.e., Facebook), sometimes here in my column, like today. I enjoy passing on good thoughts whenever and however I can. I don't know who the author of this piece is (hate when that happens – I love to give credit where credit is due), but someone smart wrote it, that's for sure. It's called "Happiness on Hold," but you'll soon see t...
Another new year is upon us. And I'm meeting this new year once again with a plethora of mixed feelings and emotions. In many ways 2019 sucked and I'm ready for it to end. At the same time, I've always loved new beginnings, and the start of a brand new year is always a good one. It's as if when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve, everything changes; possibilities are endless. Everything old is new again. When the clock's hands both point upwards in the dead of a cold winter's night,...
Holidays are a tough time for some people, for a variety of different reasons, and I have been one of those people. But through the years I’ve actually developed a fondness for finding new ways to celebrate, new traditions to enact, new memories to be made. For 54 of my years on this planet, I only missed two Christmases with my birth family. Through my high school days my family always managed to have Christmastime with both sets of grandparents and a special day or two with a close aunt and un...
Here's another little gem from that prolific writer "Author Unknown" that came across my desk via email. I hope you take it to heart as I surely did, as these new holiday rules are sure to make for a really happy holiday season. To whit: "I hate this time of year," Author Unknown says. "Not for its crass commercialism and forced frivolity, but because it's the season when the food police come out with their wagging fingers and annual tips on how to get through the holidays without gaining 10...
I find myself struggling to write a Thanksgiving column this week, as no matter what I say, I am painfully aware of all the suffering going on in the world today. I know that in spite of all the burning disasters, killing sprees, ugliness and uncertainty going on in the world at large and even in our little corner of it, there is always something to be thankful for. And I am thankful, even as I also know I have much more to be thankful for than so many others do. So today this is a slightly...
Some people grumble all the way to the Department of Motor Vehicles when they have to get new license plates, while others make it a fun or memorable occasion. I never did grumble too much, but neither could I ever remember the series of random letters and numbers assigned to my vehicles. Over the last few years I've gotten personalized plates and, I must admit, while I do not show cleverness or ingenuity that many people do when they create their own personalized plates, I do like having tags...
Plenty of good things have happened in my life, and one of the best things that's happened is bringing Benny and Bailey to my home on May 5, 2012. It was a bit of an odyssey to get them, because that happened after a bad and painful series of events, but I did bring them home and that's what matters. About a year after my dog Charlie died, I was ready for another dog and I had my heart set on a Corgi. I heard about two adoptable Corgis whose person had died, and as it turned out, the temporary...
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, which makes this a good time to remind everyone to take care of themselves, especially by getting checked one way or the other. As a young adult in the late 60s and early 70s, I got checkups regularly, and I learned through the years that cancer takes many different forms and arrives at different times in different people's lives. Still, I've learned that early detection is usually one of the best ways to combat most cancers, and that medicine has...
A couple of issues ago I wrote about a wake-up call I had in the early 1980s when I went to pick up some little kids for a Big Sister outing. The kids, who lived in a motel in Marin County with their single mom, had the door barricaded and the curtains drawn because someone had been shot outside their room the night before. At the time I could not imagine having that kind of childhood as my own had been what I thought was normal and, well, not scary at all. I was proud to be a part of an...
(Once again, especially for S. and E., with love.) TV ads say, "It's amazing what happens when you quit smoking," and the pictures are of people smiling and enjoying the good life. As if quitting smoking makes everything better – amazingly so! – the very moment you snub out your last butt. I kicked the habit 16 years ago, and I can tell you it was amazing – it was amazing to me how hellish it was at the time. I finished my last cigarette at 3:32 p.m. on December 23, 1993 (ex-smokers remem...
In the early 80s I was Recreation Director for Big Sisters of Marin, which meant I planned and implemented a variety of cultural, educational and recreational activities for the big and little sisters and brothers. Some of our activities included the siblings of the kids in the program, some included their whole families. Occasionally I would take a little brother or sister to the day's festivities if their own big sister was unable to attend. So it was that I went to pick up 9-year-old Rachael...
