It was a beautiful early fall day. Back then, streaming news was nearly unheard of, but in 2001 I was able to log on to MSNBC.com and listen to morning news. It was spotty “reception” at best and I always wondered if IT would someday tell me to knock it off, but for now it kept me up to date. Hearing reports that a small plane had somehow veered off course and crashed into one of the Twin Towers was…
My parents are nature lovers. (For a reason I don’t recall, this moniker was often pronounced “nay-CHOO love-OOS” over the years.) My two older brothers even went to “nature camp” back in grade school. Indeed, they each won a free week at Nature Camp for scoring highly on tests given following Saturday morning nay-choo films at the local museum in Pittsfield. I went just once. Sacrificing Saturday morning cartoons for a chance at nature camp just wasn’t worth it to…
Nearly four decades ago – on August 7, 1982 – Gary and I got married. We’d met 18 months prior. I was a reporter, he was a local farmer fighting the federal government to save his land. My first words to my future husband: What the hell’s a watershed? Gary’s animated response won me over, and I’ve never tired of his stories in all these years. We met in February of 1981. Gary popped the question in December. We planned…