Over the years, Mom did many wonderful things for me, but one gesture stands out. Whenever Cath and I returned home to Ottawa from wherever we were living, we were welcomed home with unconditional love and my favorite meal ready for our first supper: potato salad and baked ham.
Continue reading “The Homecoming Meal”
My wife Cathy is a certified badass. Seventy years old, she still does CrossFit regularly, while I only get my exercise from peaceful walks in the woods. I was thinking about this in the weeks leading up to our 48th anniversary on June 16th.
Continue reading “Cathy, The Badass”
Baseball has started, which made me think about dad. How old was I when we first played catch? When he taught me to throw and catch a baseball? I know I was young. I also thought about some of the other life lessons that were a part of that process.
Continue reading “Playing Catch”
Home for the holidays and returning home for the holidays are not the same thing. This year, we are not staying home for Christmas. Instead, we are returning home to where we grew up in Illinois to see family and friends. The DRIVE in winter can be a challenge, but we have done it so many times over the nearly 40 years we he have lived in Virginia, that our car is on autopilot.
Continue reading “Home for the Holidays”
Cath and I are among the diminishing number of people who send out Christmas/Holiday cards. In our busy digital world, fewer people send them, and among the younger generations, it is almost nonexistent. That is just life today. Me? I still enjoy the annual “old fashioned” event of exchanging Holiday cards.
Continue reading “Holiday Cards”
It is one of my favorite photos from our time in the Army. I say “our time” because that is what it was. I was the soldier, but Cath and I were both a part of Army Life. To me, the picture brings back the memories of the great joys, along with the intensity of everything in the Army of the early ‘80s.
Continue reading “Army Times”
I opened the door to the room and the five of them were there. My brother-in-laws, Jack and Don, old friend Tim, Dad, and Cathy’s Dad, Max. All looked robust and in their 50s, except for Max who died at 41 and remained forever young. Tim looked up from the bar. “French 75 Maxie?” I nodded yes.
Continue reading “The Dinner Party”
September 11th is our National Day of Remembrance. I think back to that horrific day, and also recall the unity that came to America afterwards, for a while at least. I now also have something else to think about. I recently learned my dad enlisted in the Army 85 years ago, on SEPTEMBER 11th, 1940. He was all of sixteen.
Continue reading “September 11th, 1940”
Recently, my wife, Cathy, and her sister Bonnie spent three weeks touring the wilderness and National Parks in Wyoming and Montana in a camper van. I’ll talk a little about that. What I really want to talk about is the people who stole their firewood at a couple of campgrounds.
Continue reading “Stealing Firewood”
Although the sky was robin egg blue, it was more a Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” day. It was too beautiful to be driving to a hospital, but that was my destination. It was a Sunday morning, with lite Sunday morning traffic. I was making my way from the Northern Neck to the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia
Continue reading “The Drive (Sunday Morning Coming Down)”
Live Life Exuberantly 