Going Viral
March 21, 2025 by Lynn Rebuck
Filed under Humor, Stories
By Lynn Rebuck
“Going viral” can be positive if your yodeling cat’s video has spread like wildfire over the Internet and Ellen has called to invite you to appear on her show.
Parts of the country have been going viral in a less desirable way as H1N1 and other viruses have wound their way through the states this flu season.
When a virus spreads quickly through a community or population, it is called an epidemic. When it spreads around the world, it’s called a pandemic. When it spreads through a family, I call it a “famidemic.”
Failed New Year’s Resolutions
March 8, 2025 by Darren Marlar
Filed under Humor, Stories
By Darren Marlar
January 1st – I resolve to read my bible in one year. Day one.
January 2nd – I read day two in my bible.
January 8th – Say, wasn’t I supposed to be reading my bible every day? Well, I guess I blew it. The whole year is a wash now.
That’s how it always happens. In January I promise I’m going to do 100 sit-ups a day, give up sugar, run five miles each morning, and contribute all of my spare change to those less fortunate while making time for eight hours of prayer every evening before bed. About three hours later I find out exactly how weak my resolve truly is when I hear the muffled sound of the vanilla ice cream calling me from the freezer. I try to ignore it, but end up failing. I give up and say to myself, “Oh well – maybe next year. Now where’s that chocolate sauce? Hmmm… a new episode of CSI is on tonight. Ooh, it’s an eight hour CSI marathon… sweet!”
“I’m Still Sixteen Inside!”
February 25, 2025 by Kathi Macias
Filed under Stories
By Kathi Macias
Every now and then I have one of those days when I understand what my grandmother, “Omi,” used to say so many years ago: “My body is getting old and worn out, but inside I’m still sixteen.” We grandkids would laugh and wonder what in the world she was talking about. Now Omi has long since graduated to heaven, and I am slowly but surely taking her place as the “oldie but goodie” in the family. Still, most of the time I feel relatively healthy and energetic; yet, as I said, there are days…
At no time are those days more evident than in January. Years ago I looked forward to January, as the month represented a new year, a new start, new plans, new resolutions…and a new membership at a new gym. And in those days, I actually used the memberships. Now? To be honest, I no longer waste the money to sign up.
Football Highlights
February 21, 2025 by Emily Chase
Filed under Stories
By Emily Chase
Every New Year’s Day, my father and my three older brothers SuperGlued themselves to the couch in order to watch football for eight or ten hours straight. They’d tune in to the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Gator Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, one after another all through the afternoon and into the evening with only brief time-outs to reach for the chips bowl. I didn’t share their passion for pigskin but I could get excited about the occasional touchdown.
My mother had even less interest in football yet she always looked forward to this sports marathon. An hour before game time, she would retrieve all the family silver and pile it at one end of the couch. Serving dishes, flatware, vases, teapots and trays were all about to get their annual polishing. On the coffee table in front of the couch, she’d set out the polish, a plastic basin filled with warm soapy water, and a pile of soft rags.
Microwave Stalactites
By Rhonda Rhea
I opened the door to the microwave to reheat my coffee a few mornings ago, and then realized I just didn’t want to put it in there. Ew. Before the coffee was going in, somebody was going to have to clean out that microwave. It looked like someone had a tiny little ticker tape parade. So much food-confetti, so little space. Worst of all, there were a couple of spaghetti sauce stalactites in there. I like my coffee with lots of sweetener and plenty of creamer. But call me picky, I like it completely without spaghetti sauce drippings. And speaking of “picky,” I thought I might actually need a pickaxe to get to the root of some of those stalactites. Do they make a microwave cleaner that has dynamite as its main component?
Life can be a little like my microwave. Anytime I’m wondering why it doesn’t taste as sweet, I really have to look at what I might be hanging onto, stalactite-style. Hanging onto self-centeredness, bitterness, laziness—any of those kinds of things—will zap the deliciousness right out of life.
