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Category: Family

The Christmas-Tree Trade-In

the writer's mother in the pool
December 19, 2025December 20, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 18 Comments

This year we are bucking traditions and trading in the Christmas Tree for palm trees! A couple years ago my mom got herself a little winter place in California, as a way to get out from under the north-Idaho Winter Blues. It gets dark really early, in winter in northern Idaho. The days are short, … Continue reading The Christmas-Tree Trade-In

A Safe Bet

the writer at 18, setting up for certification dives
November 24, 2025November 24, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 13 Comments

Writing yesterday about the canoe trip my dad and I took together got me thinking about the other road-trip he and I took, five years later... The first thing I signed up for, when I hit college, was a course to get certified as a Scuba diver, because I planned to study Marine Biology. I … Continue reading A Safe Bet

The Daddy-Daughter Downpour

writer's dad standing iwht a canoe
November 23, 2025November 23, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 24 Comments

When our parents used to tuck us into bed at night, Mother usually sang something---they had a broad repertoire of folk songs---and Daddy was our stories guy. He had an ongoing saga about a pair of mischievous alligators, "the Lucys," who followed us on all our travels, getting into trouble as they tried to keep … Continue reading The Daddy-Daughter Downpour

Scanned-alous

cartoon of the writer with her head down on the desk, between stacks of photos on one side, and her desktop computer on the other
November 17, 2025November 18, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 23 Comments

I just spent the bulk of a rainy weekend scanning a load of personal photographs---several boxes-full, stuffed to bursting with the life-in-photos of an utter shutterbug. I actually have stiff muscles---not from heavy lifting, obviously, but from repetitive motions and sitting in the same position for hours on end. I bought the scanner several years … Continue reading Scanned-alous

The Accidental Cat Lady

a cat in the windowseat
November 13, 2025December 10, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 87 Comments

We didn't ever mean to have five cats. But how could that happen by ACCIDENT, you ask. Well, here's the thing. When we took this job managing an RV park, the job came with a house. We'd lived in an RV our entire marriage, so we moved into that house without a stick of furniture. … Continue reading The Accidental Cat Lady

Better Than a Fairy Godmother

fairy godmother
November 12, 2025November 12, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 26 Comments

What could possibly be better than having a Fairy Godmother? Having a REAL one, of course! When my dad was in grad school and my parents lived in Married Student Housing, they lived upstairs or downstairs (I forget who was where) from Klaus & Karen Sitte, and they became fast friends. The kind of prank-playing … Continue reading Better Than a Fairy Godmother

A Ramble, and An Ode to my Frameo

drawing of a breakfast table on a patio on Maui at sunrise
November 5, 2025November 13, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 7 Comments

GoodReads tells me I'm "behind" by 9 books. It's measuring against the pace I have to average, in order to meet my reading goal of 310 books this year. I've spent the year playing leapfrog with that number---sometimes I'm a number of books ahead-of-pace, obviously sometimes the opposite. But we're coming up on that time … Continue reading A Ramble, and An Ode to my Frameo

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"As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts."

~ Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

  1. yusefasabiyah's avatar
    yusefasabiyah on A Pain in the NeckJanuary 9, 2026

    Joanne, ramble on, into my arms, into my farm, into my blarmy, into my disregulated fold, not of sheep, or…

  2. yusefasabiyah's avatar
    yusefasabiyah on A Pain in the NeckJanuary 9, 2026

    My interest here is he has a problem money can't solve, nor can love, in any meaningful sense. Philanthropy can't…

  3. damagedskullwriterandreviewer's avatar
    damagedskullwriterandreviewer on Firefighter BobJanuary 8, 2026

    Thanks for sharing Boboo with us! I grew up without a dad and was constantly seeking people to fill that…

  4. Trish's avatar
    Trish on A Pain in the NeckJanuary 8, 2026

    I hope this route helps with the pain. My brother has been dealing with the VA for back issues for…

  5. Unknown's avatar
    Anonymous on A Pain in the NeckJanuary 8, 2026

    So sorry to hear this. As someone who has suffered from chronic neck pain most of my adult life (a…

"It is not down on any map; true places never are"

~ Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

A Pain in the Neck If the Present is a Gift, so is the Past Cow Physiology 101 The “Year in Books” On the Palm Tree as an Antidepressant Untitled Dragon Biography The Christmas-Tree Trade-In Technology & the SickBed-Nest
  • A Pain in the Neck
  • Avatar 3: Inadequately Imaginative
  • If the Present is a Gift, so is the Past
  • The Accidental Cat Lady
  • PSA for Readers: Hello, FREE BOOKS!
  • Cow Physiology 101
  • Amazing Grace, how sweet the SOUNDS
  • Breaking my own Rules: Observations from the NaNoWriMo Lab Notebook
  • 'Mythbusters' Edition: How NOT to Blog
  • Project Petroglyph

"Not all those who wander are lost."

~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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