A good relationship is like your favorite whoopie pie, you know? Sweet, simple and easy. Thing is, what happens when your bakery runs out of the kind of whoopie pie you’ve been enjoying for years? Well, a different flavor can still be good, especially if you’re realistic about your expectations. There’s this gal, Doris, in my book group. She lost her husband Mike a few years back, and just last fall, she started dipping her toe back into the dating pool. Boy, that can’t have been easy. But now she’s seeing a nice fella, Gerry, that she met at church. I run into her the other day down to the Busy Bee. “The weird thing …

Charlie come home from work last Friday, and I could tell he was a little thrown off. Usually, I got dinner all set out for him. “What’s up?” he says, staring at me with my coat on, ready to go. “Don’t you remember? Caitlin’s art opening?” “Oh, gees…” Clearly, he hadn’t. “Come on, Charlie. It’ll be good for us.” See, my niece Caitlin and her boyfriend Adam are part of this group art show at To Bean or Not to Bean, Mahoosuc Mills’s very own coffee shop and performance art space. Just opened up in one of the old mill buildings last fall. I don’t think they’re going to put the Busy Bee out of …

April nor’easter! Now, there’s two words that should never be used together in a sentence. It’s unnatural, but not unexpected. We’ve had such an easy winter here in Maine, we got lolled into taking our snow tires off and putting away the shovels, scoops, and roof rakes. But, Mother Nature had other ideas. What a kick in the pants! But, us Mainers hardy. We do what needs to be done to put things back in order. We bounce back, like the crocus and daffodils, all of us looking for the sun. Charlie had some cleaning up to do in the yard, as you can imagine. I’ll let him tell you about it.  Such Is April …

Now usually, if I’ve got shopping to do, I try to rope in my sister or girlfriends. But shopping for a bra, that’s different. It takes concentration and fortitude. There’s no fooling around. So last weekend, off I went all by my lonesome to the Bangor Mall. To be honest, I was not in that great a mood. In my opinion, shopping for a new bra is right up there with buying for a new bathing suit. Both score very low on the ol’ fun-o-meter! So, I’m on Stillwater Ave in the turning lane, within spitting distance of the mall. I mean, I can see it. And my car dies. Yup, it goes kaput, put …

A kitchen faucet is something that you use a lot, right? So when it’s running slow, it can be a real pain in the patootie. There you are, wanting a cup of tea, and it takes forever get enough water in the teapot. I mean, you have time to take a nap. It may be irritating to me, but poor Charlie sees that slow running faucet as his own personal failure as a husband. He’ll take this annoyance for so long, then it reaches a tipping point, and off he goes to Petey’s Plumbing with problem piece. That’s the end of the faucet that you can screw off and it has a little screen thingy …

Hard to tell what goes on in other people’s marriages, but sometimes you wonder. Can’t help it. There’s this couple from away that Charlie and me see when we’re out and about. They’ve only been in town a couple of years. We don’t know them and I haven’t been able to dig up much info. I think they pretty much keep themselves to themselves. Charlie and me have nicknamed them Fred and Ethel. About the only time we see them is when they’re out walking or riding their bikes. We’ve never once had just a Fred or just an Ethel sighting. Nope, it’s Fred and Ethel together, and Fred is always smiling. Ethel is friendly …

Sunday, Charlie and me were taking a late morning walk. It’s been hard for Cora and us to get motivated early in the morning what with the frigid temps. We all needed a little exercise and truth be told, we were hoping work off some of the bacon and Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls we had for breakfast. So, we’re walking ‘round our neighborhood, past a little wooded lot, when Orrin Libby pops out from behind some trees. Orrin must be in his late seventies, I’m guessing, and he has the walking thing down. He takes a jaunt downtown, about three miles ‘round trip, every morning to pick up the paper. Rain, snow, hot or cold, he’s …

Now we’re outta quarantine, the world is opening back up for Charlie and me. Getting Covid at Christmas was like doing a “force quit” on my computer. It’s never pretty, but it does clean things up and puts them back in order. It got me off the overeating treadmill of holiday events and has given me a new found appreciation of how good it feels to feel good. Plus, I lost that pesky extra seven pounds that’s been plaguing me. How about that for a Christmas miracle? After the first two days, when I was basically in bed, it was gratitude that got me through. I mean, come on! I’m in a warm, clean house …

Ladies, you know how you can ask, then bug and, I’ll admit it, nag your husband to do something? Then all of a sudden, he does it at the least convenient time possible! Like when the hand towel rack in our guest bath had gotten kind of rickety and I put it on Charlie’s honey do list. There it stayed for, oh, six months. Then on the day I’m hosting my book group’s annual cookie swap, Charlie decides to fix it. Seriously! And of course, it’s not an easy tighten a screw solution. No siree bob, we’re talking drilling, and patching holes and maybe a little touch up paint and why move the throw rug …

You’ve heard that question, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Maybe, maybe not. I wasn’t there, so I don’t really care. But, I was reminded of it last week when Charlie and me were out walking Cora, and we were passed by a jogger coming the other way. He’s this guy from away who moved in down the street. We see him out jogging quite a bit.  Meaning, it’s not like we’re strangers. So I do what I usually do when we see people on our morning jaunt. I smile and say, “Good morning!” I may even throw in, “Beautiful day, …