old yankee man | just ponderin'

… on signs and flamingos, but mostly signs

June 19, 2017 by Lisa Dingle

It all started with a pink, plastic bird – one of those ones with funky metal sticks for legs, so you can stand them in your dirt. Now. I am totally cool if you love these plastic birds in your yard. I have actually been known to point and smile at them in other folks’ yards. And I totally supported Mac’s high school senior project where she and her partner ‘pinked’ yards with oodles of flamingos for charity (okay… you […]

Categories: family, Feel good stuff, freakin' things, joy, just ponderin', memories, musings, Old Yankee Man • Tags: humor, joy, just ponderin', musings, old yankee man, secrets to happiness

… on a couple of toasts

March 12, 2017 by Lisa Dingle

Once upon a time Delia Ephron wrote a book called Hanging Up, and then her sister Nora produced it into a movie. It wasn’t a super blockbuster or anything, but it’s one of those movies that I tend to play when it comes on one of the bazillion cable channels, often when it is already in the middle or end of its little guide rectangle. Doesn’t matter, I’ve seen it before. Some people like music in the background of their daily […]

Categories: family, Feel good stuff, just ponderin', memories, musings, Old Yankee Man, secrets to happiness, unique observation • Tags: grief, humor, joy, just ponderin', musings, old yankee man, photography

… on gentle reminders

March 8, 2017 by Lisa Dingle

A gentle reminder… Tap on the shoulder… A whisper of a memory… Or that freaky scene in Poltergeist where Carol-Anne turns from the television and ominously announces that freaky ghosts are here… or back. Whatever. Lately, as we’ve been going through the house here, getting it ready for its market debut, the Old Yankee Man has seemed a bit more present. No… I haven’t seen him. But with each discovery of something he left behind I find myself smiling and nodding… […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, family, Feel good stuff, joy, just ponderin', Maine, memories, musings, Old Yankee Man, the maine thing, unique observation • Tags: death of a parent, grandparents, humor, joy, just ponderin', maine, musings, old yankee man, secrets to happiness

… on a snowy morning gift

February 1, 2017 by Lisa Dingle

The Nearly Perfect Husband and I were home in chic and trendy Dunstable last week for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that we met with a very nice young couple who wanted to take a look at the Disposable Shack*. I know! Our plan was to put the house on the market this spring and be totally chill during the selling process (meaning: me mostly in Maine ignoring the entire process (a deal I made with […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, family, Feel good stuff, home, just ponderin', Maine, musings, secrets to happiness, the maine thing, unique observation • Tags: humor, joy, just ponderin', maine, midcoast maine, moving, musings, old yankee man, photography, southport maine, winter in maine

… on quietly ponderin’ an old man’s shovel

January 8, 2017 by Lisa Dingle

That shovel above did not belong to the Old Yankee Man, no way… because plastic. But seeing it there, outside the back door this morning, reminded me of him. The Old Yankee Man had an old, rusted, steel shovel… the kind I told him he could not use on the new bluestone paths and patios… which was why we bought the plastic ones. Didn’t matter. He used his old shovel on the new bluestone paths and patios all the time, when he thought […]

Categories: family, Feel good stuff, just ponderin', memories, musings, Old Yankee Man, secrets to happiness, unique observation • Tags: death of a loved one, death of a parent, grief, Grieving, just ponderin', old yankee man, photography, secrets to happiness

… on the christmas thing

December 2, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

Each year on December 1st, I come as close to playing Mother Nature as I can get, when I choose to make it snow. Right here on the blog. All month long. I actually created the header up top so that the snow would show up better for you today (okay, and for me too). And seeing it fall, those white digital dots on a Christmassy, technologically manifested background? It slows me down, joins the season in taking the edge […]

Categories: family, Feel good stuff, holidays, joy, just ponderin', memories, musings, Old Yankee Man • Tags: Christmas, Christmas joy, christmas magic, family, joy, just ponderin', musings, old yankee man

… on hunting season and blending in

September 16, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

Okay, sure. Clocks weren’t melting and I didn’t wake up with a skinny, long and somewhat disturbing mustache. But the point is I could have. Seriously. To fit in, I may even change my name (I might hyphenate, as Lisa Dingle-Dali has a certain ring to it). So, turns out the surrealist movement in twenty-first century Maine starts out with gunshots. No, really. You wake up on… let me see… September 15th to two shots (which could also have been called blasts […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, just ponderin', Maine, musings, Old Yankee Man, the maine thing, unique observation • Tags: comedic writing, comedy, humor, hunting season, just ponderin', maine, maine hunting, musings, old yankee man

on empty chairs

July 8, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

It is an odd thing, this sandwich generation thing. The kids are off on their new adventures, and my dictatorship is starting to crumble. I never even had the time to embezzle money and jewels like other powerful despots. Dammit. I’m not really sure what I’m going to do, you know, to fill this power void but I’m looking at Marshal Dillon Dingle and he doesn’t seem to get the whole idea of dictatorship (says he’s all about the monarchy thing […]

Categories: family, Feel good stuff, joy, just ponderin', musings, secrets to happiness, unique observation • Tags: death, Grieving, just ponderin', musings, old yankee man, photography, secrets to happiness

… on the arms, and genes, of the angels

June 4, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

It is a long held notion that we pass down not only physical traits like eye color and nose shape and handedness to our children, who then pass it down to theirs, and theirs and theirs (and the beat goes on)… but that we also pass on skills, behaviors, and sometimes some pretty complex knowledge. Genetic memory. It has been studied (in one study, mice trained to fear a certain smell passed this aversion onto their ‘grandchildren’). It has been observed […]

Categories: child rearing, family, Feel good stuff, Granny, joy, just ponderin', musings, unique observation • Tags: death of a parent, empty nest, grandparents, high school graduation, musings, old yankee man

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