745 words

By Barry Sparks

You don’t have to be a baseball fan to know umpires seldom lose an argument. But that hasn’t stopped players and managers from trying to get in the final word.

600 words

By Karen Telleen-Lawton

Numbers-wise, research indicates most couples enjoy intimacy throughout their lives. Consumer Health reports a near majority of adults over 60 convey having sex at least once per month; that same percentage would like it more frequently.

830 words

By Carrie Luger Slayback

I’ve trained myself to shut out all extraneous thought while racing. Still, in the last mile, I couldn’t help but look to my right at the sparkling ocean as we ran toward the finish. I felt good going through the shoot. As usual, I forgot to look at my time coming in. Yet, I wasn’t even winded, knees didn’t hurt. Good race.

710 words

By Wendell Fowler

I detest the full body, joy-sucking, hormonal release of anger, so when someone drives erratically, I shout, “I love you” and consider that person may have just lost their job, a loved one, or their dog.

700 words

By Sheila Velazquez

I do continue to plant a limited number of vegetables to eat, freeze, dry, pickle, and can. These are tasks I look forward to every year, even though I now grow only enough for one, with a little left over.

940 words

By Sally Breslin

The thought of having a tick that tiny, able to hide in any of about 15 quadrillion places on the sofa, caused me to instantly take leave of my senses.

1440 words

By Nann Parrett

She didn’t think he was capable of taking care of himself any longer. I knew the moment I walked into that kitchen and smelled burnt plastic that she was right. He needed help.

605 words

By Debbie Burke

Pirates sail the internet seas, looting and plundering treasure from a surprising source: obituaries. What is the treasure? Personal information that pirates use to scam the grieving family and friends or steal identities.

605 words

By Sharon Love Cook

During my annual visit to my ophthalmologist, he’d mentioned cataract surgery, which I’d dismissed. That was an “old folks’” procedure. Despite being a baby boomer, my vision wasn’t that bad. Yet it wasn’t the first time my eyes had tricked me.

1455 words

By Steve Heikkila

Fermented pickles are alive! They’re crawling with live bacteria, and that bacteria is good for your gut microbiota.

750 words

By Jacqueline T. Lynch

From the moment we see Flynn enter the castle with a killed stag across his shoulders, plunking it on the table in front of Claude Rains, we know this is going to be a hearty tale of knightly courtliness absent the table manners.

790 words

By Laverne H. Bardy

With rare exception, each time my primary doctor views my forwarded test results, he spots something unrelated to the reason I had the test, and, just like that, my life turns upside down.

745 words

By Holly Endersby

When it becomes too difficult for me to walk the woods, I’ll pass my favorite rifle on to my granddaughter. But until then, I’ll relish the quiet intensity of hunting on foot, matching wits with animals who know the ground intimately.

530 words

By Robyn Justo

And a shout out here to that aforementioned husband who never was (hey, Les), whose memories of our relationship 40 years ago appear to be a lot more positive than mine.

700 Words

By Arthur Vidro 

Let me get this straight. I’m in a supermarket. I want to buy a loaf of bread. We agree on the price. I am offering you the money. And you are refusing to accept it just because the computer that runs this joint has to give its blessing to the transaction?

695 Words

By Peter Merkl

We both knew my former, hyper-employed self would’ve reveled in this opportunity to wallow in self-pitying wrath at the pointless randomness of it all, loudly cursing Providence and my luckless fate. But somehow my three-month-retired self was handling it like a grownup.

890 words

By Victor Block

These folks unknowingly combined a bit of R&R with efforts to help preserve and protect Earth’s environment.

660 words

By James Patterson

When you see the Beyond King Tut exhibit at the National Geographic Museum, Tutankhamun’s New Orleans cousin could be in the audience. Be sure to get your photograph with him.

775 words

By Craig Thomas Naylor

My attention turns to putting the orchard to bed. It doesn’t whine and tussle like my grandkids often do, but my 60-some trees still need the equivalent of a bedtime story.

785 words

By William Levine

My sister worryingly brought up the question of when mom was diagnosed, and I pondered, “You know I wonder if Mom’s shopping spree at the shiva was related to the beginning of Alzheimer’s.