My friend, inmate number 63XX3-037 (let’s call him 37 for short), served time at the Federal Prison at Cumberland, MD. The Bureau of Prisons (BoP) released him for good behavior after serving three years of a five-year sentence. Visiting him in prison was always both sobering and interesting.
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Did you hear? A Big Parade is coming! It is the 250th anniversary of the United States Army, and coincidentally, a certain someone’s birthday. Let’s celebrate! Ever since Trump saw a military parade in France in 2017, he has wanted one and he is finally getting it.
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Strange as it may seem, bushhogging gives me both a sense of Zen and a feeling of accomplishment. It took me years to reach that point, and I was happy to relive it again last week. As a bonus, I had an ongoing interaction with a persistent crow, who turned out to be pretty smart.
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May 14th was the 75th anniversary of Mom and Dad’s wedding in 1950. They celebrated 60 of those years together, before Dad passed away in 2010. I’m grateful for the lessons about love and marriage they provided my sisters and me, or to anyone who knew them.
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Cathy and I recently spent a wonderful weekend with friends at Rodanthe, NC on the Outer Banks. The area is beautiful and somewhat remote, a perfect getaway. Part of the town also has a small problem – beach houses occasionally wash into the ocean.
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I’m ready for spring to end. I love the warmth and flowers. I love the world turning green. What am I not loving? The tree pollen with the continual burning and itching in my eyes. The coughing. My plugged nose. When the pollen forms a yellow slick on the pond, you know it’s heavy.
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Yea, we own a Schnupfmaschine (Snuff Machine). What, you might ask, is a Schnupfmaschine? An ingenious little German contraption for shooting snuff up your nose. And why would you want to do that? Well, that story is a little longer, and perhaps a bit nonsensical.
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It’s not a requirement to like your brothers-in-law, but it’s a good thing when it happens. I have been blessed with three GREAT brothers-in-law – Shawn, Don, and Jack. In my book, requirement one for any B-I-L is to love and care for your wife and family. All three do/did that and so much more.
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Tax Day! Mom was something of a pack rat – a neat one, but a pack rat nonetheless. My sister Roberta and I recently went through a box of old photos and papers and came across her 1948 Tax Return. She was a junior in high school at the time, and it turns out at a juncture in her life.
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It’s April 10th and I turn 70 today. As a kid, 70 seemed older than dirt. Now? I am simply happy to be on the right side of the dirt. At 70, 80 doesn’t look so old. Seriously, it’s all about perspective, isn’t it? Balancing the good and the bad, along with the choices we have made in our lives.
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