Untitled

[pattidickinson]

A Heinz 57 blog: Grocery Cart Shaming, Exercise and Social Media

She didn’t have to say one word. The expression on her face was enough. Her grocery cart: multi-grain wheat bread, some green stuff that might have been kale, organic eggs. Almond milk. Not one food that I would walk across the street for. My cart: Shatto chocolate milk, ice cream sandwiches, rye bread, strawberries, eggs and an impulse-buy at the register — a Butterfinger.  I looked at her,…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

Slice of Life at a Monday Morning Pedicure

Every once in a while, I splurge and get a pedicure. Sandal weather is approaching, and these winter feet of mine needed to be put in the shop. Today was the day. My feet were submerged in steamy too-hot water, and I discreetly hid my grimace —because I didn’t want the woman whose job it is to turn the water on in the pedicure bowl to have her feelings hurt. I began taking in my…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

Scenes from a down sort of day

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” Ernest Hemingway It began with a text from someone very close to me. She is a mom of two.  A community rabble-rouser, someone who is steadfast in her beliefs and isn’t afraid to voice them. A passionate woman who’s ahead of her time. She wants fairness for all – the downtrodden, the homeless, the…

[pattidickinson]

The trifecta

The Covid Booster slammed me to my knees.  Then the mail brought a call-to-jury-duty.  And finally, I had to pay personal property tax on my car, which required a stint at the DMV.  A trifecta kind of day. The shot was first.  I had a 1:00 appointment at Walgreens.  Getting that appointment was an exercise in scouring the world wide web for availability all over Kansas City.  Clearly this wasn’t…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

How an HP printer can bring me to my knees

The small cardboard box, about the size of eight pop tarts stacked on top of one another, came in the mail. It said HP in big, bold letters. Replacement printer cartridges. The printer was still putting ink on the page, so naturally I was in no hurry to “poke the bear”. I am a huge subscriber to the if-it-ain’t-broke mentality. Several weeks go by and then the inevitable message, “Ink supply is…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

1,267 paint chips

I have had more than my fair share of decorating fails. The most recent, a blue paisley fabric on a couch.  A benign, conservative choice. I thought to jazz things up, to make the fabric seem more vintage-y, more trendy, more lived-in, to knock back the formality of the paisley, I decided a raspberry piping would be just the thing.  When the upholsters came into the house to deliver the newly…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

I loved him more than candy corn

I loved him more than candy corn

This beautiful man has traveled alongside me on this life’s journey. He has been the map, the steadfast we-can-do-this-leader. He has quietly made a difference at work, in the way he treated his employees. He put on countless magic shows for the kids’ first and second grade classrooms. He happily tramped through the neighborhood in the sleet and frigid evenings, overseeing the Halloween…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

Oh yes, yes we can....

Oh yes, yes we can….

A brisk 52 degrees in Kansas City on a recent Saturday morning. Perfect walking weather. A nice breeze, lots of sun, and Mother Nature unabashedly showing off her finest autumn palette. A terrific backdrop to pound the sidewalk for three miles. Dressed in black yoga capris, an old Oxford cloth button-down of Wood’s, topped off with a “WE CAN DO HARD THINGS” sweatshirt that once belonged to my…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

vroom vroom 2.0

I can never show my face at the Rainbow Car Wash again. Not after today. It’s where Wood got the car washed in times past. I know that only because “Rainbow Car Wash” showed up on the American Express bill each month. $18. Today, frugal woman that I am, I opted for the $12 wash. Super Wash. Not Super Duper. I stuck my credit card in the unmanned pay station and drove the car around the corner…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

Under the monkey bars

Under the monkey bars

I had a daughter who struggled.  Bullies tore at her, found her vulnerable spots and turned her approach to life into an I’ll-get-you-before-you-get-me, snarling, raging human. That was a ten-year detour.  A decade.  Half a score. I am a woman who values her privacy, whose mama instincts compel me to protect my kid with the exact same ferocity that the bullies used against her.  As I type this,…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

A dumpster fire

Sometimes my hair ignites and I am compelled to suit up and hammer out a blog. Although those instances are occasional, as opposed to all-the-time, it’s a way for me to “retaliate” from the comfort of my dining room table. It’s a throat-clearing way to give voice to something that matters to me. I don’t have to carry a sign, call a Congressman or write a check. Back in the day, I penned my fair…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

Vroom, vroom.......

Vroom, vroom…….

Recently, I drove over to the car dealership to get a new battery for my key fob. While I was there, I thought I could pick up a brochure or two and get a price on a lease car to replace my current car whose lease would expire soon. My thinking was that I could just pop my head in someone’s office, get a quick quote and be on my way. Apparently that’s not how things work at a car…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

Eulogy

This is the eulogy that I read at Wood’s funeral on November 24, 2021 at St. Francis Xavier Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Wood Dickinson was a beautiful soul.  He was a son, a grandson, a roll-up-his-shirtsleeves-dad, a husband, a faith-filled man, a volunteer, a board member, an uncle, a lector, a grandfather, a Eucharistic Minister, a photographer, a CEO, a writer, a movie-maker, a teacher,…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

Farmer McDickinson’s Garden

This shelter-in-place has brought me back to the basics. I ordered a sourdough starter online. I have baked bread, made a huge batch of spaghetti sauce and this house is spic and span. I’ve polished the silver. Organized every single piece of paper into file folders, washed the winter coats and hung them in the guest room closet. I’ve washed the slipcovers on the sunroom furniture. Wood has…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

Bossy, pandemic-style

I suppose it just goes with the territory of being a firstborn. Being bossy. Webster’s weighs in with

boss·y1

/ˈbôsē,ˈbäsē/ adjective : INFORMAL – fond of giving people orders; domineering

I really don’t like the sound of “domineering”, but admittedly, I do not shy away from taking the reins when I see the opportunity.

So, we’re in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. The grocery store where I…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

Don’t Go Banging on my Privacy

Don’t Go Banging on my Privacy

I know better. Really, I do.

I got a friend request from Derrick. His picture was of a be-speckled, middle-aged man in a suit. He looked like an attorney or a stockbroker. Not like a two-time felon or anything. Here comes the how-many-brain-cells-do-you-have part. I accepted. I figured we probably had a friend or two in common.

Not five minutes later, I get this:

“Hello Patti, I’m sorry for…

View On WordPress

[pattidickinson]

Kansas State Fair

Last year, as the summer was winding down, my husband and I took off early on a Saturday morning for Hutchinson, Kansas, a three-hour drive from our home in Kansas City.  Neither of us had been to a State Fair before.  Me, a girl from the Bronx, had only seen pictures of cows until I was fourteen.

I loved the sights and sounds and smells, and the people-watching was a huge bonus.

First stop:  Two…

View On WordPress