Sandy's Scribbles, Poetry and Prose

      Harley Wilkens had never owned a pig before. In fact, he never owned any pet. This was a continuous argument with his mother. He was just a high school teen who was getting ready for college, and he wanted to become a veterinarian. If he had a pig, he could study its behaviors, learn about the body parts and what noises it makes when hungry, mad or curious.                Tommy Flanders was Harley’s best friend since first grade. They did everything together. Tommy was trying to decide what to do with his pig – Bessie, while he was off at college. Harley thought and thought of how to help his friend out.                “I know” Harley stated, with a big grin on his face, “I will take the pig off your hands”                “You are crazy” Tommy said, trying not...

  My 5 th grade teacher Mrs. Whitehead would spend the last 30 minutes of the day reading to the class. She read great children’s stories that I had never heard of at the time. “Charlotte’s Web”, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, “James and the Giant Peach”. My favorite story was “Little House on the Prairie” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Through all of the books, she increased my passion for learning and reading. She would read a chapter or two for the day, then continue every day until the book was completed. Then she moved on to the next one. After she completed each book, I would go to the library and check out the book, reading it on my own time at home. When I found out that “Little House on the Prairie” was part of a series, I began my journey of reading all of Laura Ingalls books. I also re-read them over and over again, as well as researching about her life and watching the TV series “Little House on the Prairie” with Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert and Dean Butler....

As I mentioned in my last post, I met an author on the plane coming home from Washington D.C. to St. Louis. Her name is Susan Meissner and not only was she a delight to talk to, but I am truly enjoying her books. I have read 5 since we met last September. My second business trip was to Palo Alto, California for a week long training. Although the training was great, I did appreciate the opportunity to have some downtime to read on the flight to and from California to St. Louis. My trip was March 2nd to March 7th and although COVID-19 was just starting to spread in the U.S., there were not any restrictions of self-isolation or sheltering in place. However, once I returned home and to work, Northern California - Bay area, was on the list. So I have been working from home since. The reason for me setting the stage for this story, is that I found it coincidence, fate, ironic, what have you, that the book I chose was "As Bright As Heaven". Why am I feeling this way? It is bec...

It has been a long time since I posted on my blog. A lot has happened in the last 4 years. Job changes, travel, my husband retiring. Lots and lots of changes. I have always wanted to write, a book, a novel, an article, poems..... but life happens and excuses are a plenty. I have dabbled with writing throughout the years, such as school assignments, a couple of poems published in the local free news papers and so on. As I mentioned in the first paragraph, I changed jobs recently and with this job I had an opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. for a conference. It was a very interesting conference, we were blessed with beautiful weather, and had a chance to do a little sightseeing. However, the best part of the trip was when a pleasant woman asked if the seat next to me was available. "Yes" I said and then continued to get settled in anxious to get back home, and back to my routine. Then we began a  conversation. You know the usual "Are you traveling for business ...