Author Archives: hermitsdoor

About hermitsdoor

Up here in the mountains, we have a saying, "You can't get there from here", which really means "We wouldn't go the trouble to do that". Another concept is that "If you don't know, we ain't telling." For the rest, you'll have to read between the lines.

Faith of Our Fathers (and Mothers)

Posted on November 9, 2019

Spending a week with one’s parents as they age, helping with meals, running errands, and keeping up with family and friends, walking alone from home to Dad’s assisted living facility twice each day, and waking up on East Coast time, … Continue reading →

Posted in Ideas | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Kindling the Fires of Friendship

Posted on November 6, 2019

On my last day with my mother (sorry, readers, I wrote this a week ago, but have not been on-line since getting home…), she wanted to visit a college friend, who lives a few towns north toward San Francisco.  The … Continue reading →

Posted in Daily Living, Reflections | Tagged | 6 Comments

Merry-Go-Round

Posted on October 29, 2019

As I have mentioned in this series of posts, one of my objectives for this trip to visit my parents was to be my mother’s transportation for the days that I was at home.   She had decided to stop … Continue reading →

Posted in Daily Living, Reflections | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Expiration Date

Posted on October 27, 2019

Everything has an ending these days.  By the folklore of computer technology (e.g. built in obsolescence, 18 month life span, etc.) this computer has lived several lives since we purchased it for our trip to South Africa in 2012.  I noticed … Continue reading →

Posted in Daily Living, Reflections | Tagged | 7 Comments

Generations Crossing

Posted on October 25, 2019

Our generation is called “The Sandwich Generation”, for the implied dual responsibilities of rearing children and caring for aging parents.  I had not pursued the former, and accepted the later as an eventual duty of a son for parents.  If … Continue reading →

Posted in Daily Living, Reflections | Tagged | 4 Comments

Life in the Slow Lane

Posted on October 25, 2019

My older brother is my parents’ primary care provider these days.  According to our conversations, he has coffee and breakfast with our mother, then heads over to the assisted living facility where our father lives to sit with him during … Continue reading →

Posted in Daily Living, Reflections | Tagged | 4 Comments

From the Bookshelf: Hillbilly Elegy, A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J. D. Vance

Posted on October 13, 2019

In my project of reading-books-I-already-have-then-moving-them-along, J. D. Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, was next in the stack.  This came to me by way of my mother-in-law, whom I believe read it for her book club.  She then passed it on to … Continue reading →

Posted in From the Bookshelf, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments