“Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You” is the magnet on her refrigerator. It is a brave, optimistic attitude. Joy summons it up as she copes with her husband’s illness and their growing infirmities. We first met in the late 1960’s and have stayed friends. Her sturdy Russian husband, Walt, worked well into his […]
Read More...A Case for Organization When Living with Home-Mates
Ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you to make a case for organization. By this I mean if you find yourself living with someone who has the mistaken notion that the expensive Henkels paring knife belongs with the tools, it’s time you and your home-mate have a heart-to-heart discussion of where certain items belong. I […]
Read More...“I’m Bourgeois Now,” Says the Former Commune Member
Richard doesn’t look like a former commune member with his starched oxford shirt, fancy watch and short-hair. “I’m bourgeois now, but I’m a hippie inside,” he says. The commune he helped to found, Packer Corners Farm, lasted for twenty-five years. In its day it was famous. The Experiment It started when Richard and friends from […]
Read More...Anxiety Attack Raises Questions About Living Alone
Last winter I had an anxiety attack. Over the years, I’ve shared my home with flat-mates as well as with romantic partners, but I won’t lie that I love living by myself and the freedom of doing whatever I want in my home. However, having noted that, I’ve come to the realization that as a single, middle-aged […]
Read More...Is Airbnb a Good Choice for Retirement Income?
Airbnb allows a friend to earn her property taxes. Right now, as I post this, I’m at an Airbnb quite close to a family wedding which I’m sharing with my siblings at a fraction of what it would cost us to stay in a motel. We had dinner together last night and my dog is […]
Read More...The Five Commandments of Keeping a Tidy Household
As someone who has lived with a series of flatmates, I learned for that initial interview to ask, “Are you neat?” Of course, everyone answers in the affirmative yet the the reality is that we have lapses when it comes to keeping our home in order. That’s why I came up with five commandments for […]
Read More...When Bureaucrats Mandate Sharing
The bureaucrats – who I am sure were well-meaning, nice people –thought it was a great idea. The residents will share kitchens! This would be nice, they could cook together, have meals together and wouldn’t that be a good thing? Nope. It was hell. Bacon Congregate Bacon Congregate came into existence in 1984. An old […]
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