I never use it, that X Twitter thing. But being on social media it's impossible to avoid it entirely. Not that I'm trying to avoid it...I just don't use it. Is it for short little bursts of writing?  Like: Someday I'll be old (and lonely?)...but I'll have a clean house! Summer: when 9pm is just the beginning. Summer: when 9pm is the most magical hour of the day. Summer: when it seems like everyone is out having their dusk walk, and sometimes I am too. But not enough! Remember when you used to bring your stuffies, kids? On road trips? Having a little one, with big ones around, offers more opportunities and gaps and spaces to reflect together. Wasn't it just our last road trip that they all brought stuffies? And we had to limit the number they brought? And they spilled out of the car as doors were opened? Got dirty, accidentally? Some kept in bags in the trunk and others designated for the car ride? Oh yeah, I remember that...they say. I'm glad they do. Oh! I...

Once upon a time... When I was in middle school, our acclaimed choir teacher Mr. Strid took a year off. I think it was a stress leave kind of thing, at least that's what the swirling rumours said. He always did seem a bit of a stressed guy. But he was a passionate choir teacher! That in between year, in between Grade 6 and Grade 8, we had a teacher named Mr. Kretz instead. The rumours that swirled about him were that he was a former used car salesman, taking on this temporary choir teacher thing as a novice.  Thanks to Mr. Kretz I know every word of The Beatles' In My Life--a small group of us sang it for a concert! (Where you at?) Every practice, instead of Mr. Strid's strict choir-style oooohs and eeeeehs and ahhhhhhs, well we sang pop songs instead, soft rocky kind of pop songs by lyrics only, printed on white papers. 80s/90s hit songs like: You're the Inspiration, like Looking Through the Eyes of Love, like oh gosh now that I'm writing this I can't remember,...