athesaurus.com

…breathe deeply and often…

  • Tartle: Old Scots; to hesitate while introducing someone because you’ve completely forgotten their name

    Steve liked to joke that he “sang best ten or twelve miles away” when asked, but volunteered just the same. Read more

  • Flying Through Snow

    When there’s a foot of snow on the ground one cannot always count on a garbage bag to carry one to the bottom of a perfect and steep hill, not even with a head start. The snow was hard powder and ripe for sledding. A black trash bag had been all I had needed before Read more

  • All Nighters

    He’s almost finished with his first semester and his feet are being used for kindling. Read more

  • Snowday

    A civilian doesn’t get it, gets mad when they hear about it, gets furious if they have kids in school, and they hear the words “Snow Day.” Yet, those are soul soothing words to a teacher. Even one who believes her class to be so important that her instructional time is the most important part Read more

  • The Nightmare

    “I love the way you think, Cynthia.” John ordered their desserts.  Read more

  • Barefoot Willie, revisited

    Barefoot Willie sang to his bunny and his bunny sang to him. Read more


  • Portsmouth

    I need to go back to Portsmouth, UK to where my boys were born. I’d like to visit my neighbors, and hang with them a day or two. We’re good friends and good company. You don’t find that often enough these days.  I’d like to take the boys with me too. We could walk along…

  • But I don’t want to

    “Are you still working? Why don’t you retire?” Everybody wanted  to know because of the silver hair and wrinkles.  Fred asked at the wrong time. Janice was tired and not in the mood. He thought women were silly. He retired early five years ago.  “Why? Do you need someone to take care of you?” Janice…

  • Learning

    I’m too tired to argue and fuss about mess today.

  • Elvis and the Baltic Sea

    Drat, dammit, and O hell, my plans to go to the Baltic Sea for vacation had fallen through. I was at the pinnacle of despair, flustered to the very bone. It was the coffee klatches fault.  Susan’s husband had put his foot down, he said flat out “No.” He wasn’t about to let her go.…

  • Test Day

    It’s the little things that make mountains. Kaiden didn’t want to wear his headphones even though they were a requirement for the test. “I know how to read, why do I have to do this?” He was in the sixth grade, and his third grade reading scores indicated that headphones would be more helpful than…