Slightly Proud (opens in new tab)

The good thing about accumulating years is that you no longer feel required to keep up your end—at least not in everything. Once, long ago in a different city, my neighbors’ dog escaped. When I saw it near the highway, I went to their house and rang the bell. The grandmother was home alone. “Can you go get the dog?” I asked through the intercom. “Oh, goodness no!” she said with a trill of mirth. So I went and captured the runaway and brought him back myself. The old woman opened the automatic...