Saturday morning, Jan. 28, I was taken to the hospital with severe back pain. After I was in the ambulance, I asked one of the young men to go back into the house to get my boots. After he brought my boots, we left. They took me to the hospital and before I knew it,…

Recently, while selling tickets for a local fundraiser outside the post office, I got cold and shivery despite wearing a sweatshirt. Just then, Barb Reese came by. Observing my plight, she went to her car and came back with a nice coat that she gave me and told me to keep. Only in Idyllwild do…

A few years ago, after being away for awhile, we were surprised to see a large pile of neatly stacked firewood when we drove into our yard. There had been a big storm and one of our tall trees had fallen on our next door neighbors’ garage roof. His insurance took care of the damage…

City folk run inside at the first raindrop. In Idyllwild, no one bats an eye at a powerful thunderstorm. I recently enjoyed lunch with a friend at Nature’s Wisdom. We were on the deck at a table under an umbrella. The sky ripped open and the downpour began. We continued our conversation with the umbrella…

Like many retired householders in this down economy, I have dawdled this year over home improvements. But the week before Christmas I was feeling energetic and determined that I needed to bite the bullet and take care of some long overdue tasks. I went over to Harold K. Smith Materials and asked Keith if he…