What is life about but the continuous posing of the questions: what happens next, and what do we make of it when it arrives? In these highly evocative personal essays, Douglas Bauer weaves together the stories of his own and his parents' lives, the mealsthey ate, the work and rewards and regrets that defined them, and the inevitable betrayal by their bodies as they aged. In these clear-eyed, wry and graceful essays, Douglas Bauer presents with candor and humor the dual calendars of his own mortality andthat of his aging parents, evoking the regrets and affirmations inherent in being human.