• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • WRESTLING WITH GOD BOOK
  • CONTACT

Barbara Falconer Newhall

Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.

  • A CASE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
  • MY EVER-CHANGING FAMILY
  • WRITING & READING
  • MY ROCKY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
  • WIDOWED
  • FUNNY BUTTON

Sheltering at Home Chronicles

The coronavirus is having its way -- for now. We are sheltering at home -- ordering food to be delivered and taking careful socially distanced walks in the neighborhood. We worry. We laugh. We worry some more. And, like so many people around the world, we are inventing new ways to order and enjoy our lives.

I Miss My Grown-Up Children — More Than I Can Say. Sheltering at Home Week 30

October 10, 2020 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I-miss-my-grown-up-children

I last put my arms around Peter in January. He was here for his birthday, I haven’t seen him — or his sister — since. Read more.

Window Treatment Sticker Shock — $13,000 for Living Room Drapes? Seriously? Sheltering at Home Week 29

October 3, 2020 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

window-treatment-sticker-shock sliding-doors-need-drapes

With a window treatment costing 13K and a new patio costing more than what an entire house once cost, we’re also facing retirement sticker shock.  Read more.

He’s Not Bald After All. Thank You, Covid-19. Sheltering at Home Week 28

September 26, 2020 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

jon-newhall-Zodiac-News-Service

Thanks to the coronavirus, my husband hasn’t had a haircut in six months. It turns out he’s not bald after all. He’s got hair, lots of it.  Read more.

A Book of Essays From Cartoonist Cathy Guisewite — Did She Write It or Did I? Sheltering at Home Week 26

September 12, 2020 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Cathy-Guisewite-cover-subtitle

Cathy Guisewite’s thoughts about life in “Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault” look a lot like the thoughts running around in my own brain. Read more.

It’s My Birthday and I’m Really Old. Dang! Sheltering at Home Week 26

September 7, 2020 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

it's my birthday and I'm really old chocolate-birthday-cake-just-desserts

Today’s my birthday, another year has blown past, and I can’t help noticing that I’m really old, and I’m going to die sooner than I’d like. Read more.

Watching People Working With Their Hands — Why Am I So Fascinated? Sheltering in Place Week 25

September 3, 2020 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

concrete-being-poured working with their hands

In Bologna they call them umarells, men hanging around building sites, watching people working with their hands. I’m an umarell. Here’s why. Read more.

Hanging Pictures: Too Much Art. Not Enough Wall Space. Sheltering at Home Week 24

August 27, 2020 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

hanging pictures how-to-hang-pictures

Hanging pictures: we spent an entire Sunday on the project, pulling everything out of storage and propping it up all over the house. Read more.

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 12
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

GET MY Riffs on Life BY EMAIL

True stories often told through a humorous lens–because you just can't make them up!

We respect your privacy and do not share your email with anyone.

 

LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

I’m Bored. No, It’s Worse Than That. I’m Boring. Sheltering at Home Week 10

I'm boring. But I haven't always been. old-woman-pole-dancing

I’d love to chat with the neighbor I spot on the street. But nothing’s happening in my locked-down life. I’ve got no gossip, no big news. I’m boring. Read more.

MORE "ON THE FUNNY SIDE"

CATEGORIES

  • A Case of the Human Condition
  • My Ever-Changing Family
  • On Writing & Reading
  • My Rocky Spiritual Journey

 
Need some levity? Push my Funny Button!

TO MY READERS

Please feel free to share links to my posts with one and all and to quote briefly from them in your own writing, remembering, of course, to attribute the quote to me and to provide a link back to this site.

My Oakland Tribune columns, btw, are reprinted by permission of the Trib. With the exception of review copies of books, I do not accept ads or freebies of any kind. Click on the "Contact" button if you have questions. Enjoy!

 

DON’T MISS!

Clip from video of NBC News report on Donald Trump's statement to Chris Matthews that if abortion is made illegal a woman should be punished for having one. NBC News Video

Donald Trump Played Me. Here’s How

Squares of Turkish delight candy colorfully arranged in a shop window along the pedestrian shopping street İstiklal Caddesi in Istanbul. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Is an Istanbul Trip Too Risky for You? Here’s What You’re Missing

rollin-first-you-cry-cover

Betty Rollin: A Light Has Gone Out. And So Have Many Others

Did my long-lost dead ancestors live in old frame houses like these on Minneapolis's Seventh Street South? Photo by Barbara Newhall

My Long-Lost Dead Ancestors — I Found Them in a Parking Lot

MORE DON'T MISS!

© 2009–2026 Barbara Falconer Newhall All rights reserved. · Log in