Two Pine Trees

I spent the other day looking at a washer and dryer with all the knobs labeled in Chinese. Why, yes, you would be correct if you just thought, hmm, I didn't know Evelyn can read Chinese, because I can't read a single character. If I ever got a tattoo and wanted some word in Chinese I would be just as likely to be walking around with the word Witch (or something worse) as the word Love, and be blissfully unaware. It would all be dependent on someone else providing the characters, and whether they liked me at the time. Our older son is in China for a study abroad, and he was attempting to do a load of clothes. He thoughtfully provided me with pictures of the machines. Now in his defense, the machines did look a good deal different from ours. In my own defense, yes, I did teach him to do laundry years ago. But front loaders look different from top loaders, and the selections were different, and hey, he knew I would help. I tried my best. He tried his best. I feel confident that he...

May has become a month of farewells for me. My mother-in-law was buried in May. My daddy passed away in May. Our sons finished high school in May signifying that they were men and would be leaving the nest. Now in May, our older son leaves for two months in China. So there is an irony that May is also Melanoma Awareness Month. Because we came close to a different kind of farewell to our oldest son. In November of his freshman year of college, I decided that he should get a skin check by the dermatologist. We had met our high deductible that year thanks to my sinus surgery, and he has a number of moles. So why not? It was almost a throw away thought, but I followed up, and made the appointment. After all, we could always go out for lunch afterwards or better yet (in his mind, anyway) hit up Best Buy. And it would be free. High deductible plan...met. So when he was home for Christmas break, off we went to the dermatologist office. Much to my delight, the physician assistant was origi...