Until March 20th, when Spring officially arrives, winter reigns, and walking around DC these days means wrestling with the season's obstinacy. Dribs and drabs of piebald snowpack laze on random street corners. Patches of sopping grass slow me down as I pick my way through sidewalk gardens. Mud - late winter's final insult. And I caught another cold. Or was it the six cats in the house we toured last Sunday? Whether virus or dander, my nose is running again. Another seasonal offense, and it makes me mad. As does waking to another grey day. We’ve had an intrusive string of them: foggy skies from constant rain, our two rivers, and the warmer spring air sneaking in. For me, tea is one defense against the dregs of winter, so I make another cup and sit down to reflect. Winter is not the only thing that’s getting me down. Back when we concocted the idea of a temporary move, we’d been feeling stuck in our old house and were overdue for a change. Friends were entering tiered ad...
The Palmville Globe Volume 2 Number 6 Checkout Control Center Named For Store Employee Joe McDonnell, 78 and residing in Palmville Twp, Minnesota, recently noticed his longtime self-checkout assistant had not been in his usual place. "I always use self-checkout because I hate waiting in line," McDonnell tells the press, "though I question whether I'm saving any time, because I invariably do something that locks my screen and triggers the flashing yellow light over my checkout station. Most of the time it's Leon who fixes my problem. Over the years I've gotten to know Leon, a short, trim man who used to drive semis, has a summer place at the lake and lives in the trailer park next to the store. I haven’t seen Leon lately and Justin, another asssitant, told me Leon had retired and moved out west with his son. I asked Justin if Leon had quit because he didn't like the newly installed control center screen on which assistants can now fix problems withou...
