Comment

Haugh About That?: Setting me free

Add comment (0)

As I stood ready to say goodbye, I shuddered. We’d been through a lot: four children, celebrations, the death of loved ones and my divorce. For 35 years, my girlfriend held my hand through it all, but it was time to let her go.

In 1982, my former husband and I went on the hunt for the perfect house. It was a buyer’s market and properties sat, allowing shoppers time to make their choices. After a month of seeing everything there was to see, we decided on a ranch-style home in a quiet enclave in south Los Altos.

Touched by God: The Villaj Idiut

Add comment (0)

Frank Hughes/Special to the Town Crier
Father’s Day at Lake Tahoe featured this spectacular sunset. More photos can be found on the Town Crier’s Facebook page (facebook.com/losaltostowncrier).

I have been on this Earth for nearly a half-century. I have always thought, if I died tomorrow, that I’d be OK with it, that I’d lived a full life and seen and experienced more than the average person.

And then I witnessed a sunset in Lake Tahoe on Father’s Day, and it was a reaffirmation of life. To the point that I wondered: What else could be out there that I’ve missed and didn’t know?

No Shoes, Please: A Sunday matinee

Add comment (0)

Years ago, I was sitting in a theater awaiting a performance of the Broadway hit “Dreamgirls.” Next to me sat a petite, elderly woman – 10 of whom you could easily stuff into the trunk of your car.

A Piece of My Mind: A modern-day visionary

Add comment (0)

On my travels in June, I met a modern-day visionary. His name is Zachary Brown and he is the co-founder, executive director and so far the sole employee of the Inian Islands Institute, a center designed, according to his business card, to provide “Experiential living and learning in the Wilderness of Southeast Alaska.”

Zach was raised in in Gustavus, Alaska, a town of 400 people at the northern end of the Alaskan panhandle, surrounded on three sides by Glacier Bay National Park and on the fourth by Icy Strait. Gustavus is accessible only by boat and seaplane. When the residents of Gustavus feel the need to escape the hustle and bustle of town, they visit the Hobbit Hole.

Learning to detach

Add comment (0)

As I opened the box filled with treasured pieces from my youth, I came across a letter I once placed on my mother’s pillow at the age of 7. Always fearful of confrontation when wanting my way, this means of communication helped me get my desires off my chest with no fear of rebuttal – at least in that moment.

Life in the Hills: Other Voices

Add comment (0)

Ten years ago, I went kicking and screaming to the Hills of Los Altos from our beloved home near Almond School. I had friends to the right of us, friends to the left – there I was. But then I wasn’t. Up in the Hills, down the long driveway, in our new flag lot on an acre, I was afraid I would never get to know my neighbors that I couldn’t see out my window.

But little by little, the charms of our semirural town of Los Altos Hills have revealed themselves to me. Much of the credit goes to my Portuguese water dogs, first Shasta and now Maverick. Two times a day these friendly, energetic, sweet companions required some kind of exercise, which translates into many hours spent walking around the neighborhood. We met our neighbors, also out walking, driving by or dragging their trash cans to the curb.

Chicken pox: The Villaj Idiut

Add comment (0)

My wife accompanied my oldest son last month on his school’s eighth-grade trip to Washington, D.C., for a week.

It was the perfect opportunity for “baching” it, I figured, me and my youngest home alone – which meant unmade beds, Taco Bell for dinner every night, dirty dishes piled high in the sink, soiled clothes on the floor and the unmistakable stench of body odor coming from different areas of the house.