Crack open the champagne bottles. Let the confetti and balloons fly. Ring the bells, it’s time to celebrate. September marks the five-year anniversary of my blog. Five years and some 520 posts later, I’m still writing. When I first started this blog, I summarized the site as a place to put a few thoughts, a …
Trouble in a foreign land
The young woman wore a white lab coat and smiled back at me, but before she even said a word, I could see that she had no idea what I had just asked. I was more than 3,900 miles from home and I was in trouble. When I had agreed to travel with my daughter …
Doggy guard duty
I get up from my nap groggy and annoyed. I had been up late the night before and was looking forward to catching up on my rest. Instead, Nittany, our beloved pet for the past 11 years, had other ideas. Nittany, a Lhasa Apso – Bichon Frise mix, spent ten minutes barking at what turned …
Tired daddy
I get up and walk downstairs to our kitchen to pour myself a cold glass of milk. I sit down at the kitchen table, the only light coming from a street light outside our house, and take a sip. I can’t sleep. My mind is racing with a million thoughts. Crying baby girl In the …
Looking forward to a crowded stadium
I grew up loving Major League Baseball. My wife isn't as big of fan as me, but she still likes to go to a game or two each year. As a treat to ourselves, we bought tickets to the Philadelphia Phillies game in late August against the Cincinnati Reds. We were excited about the game …
A battle of the generations
My youngest son likes to poke fun of me. One of his favorite recent statements is that my generation—Generation X—messed everything up for future ones. He’s of course talking about global warming, the political divide that separates our country right now, our reliance on gas and oil, the anger between the races, etc., etc. He’s …
A walk in the park
The ground is wet. I see that it rained the night before, but the sun is out and will burn-off the two or three puddles that I see along the trail in no time. We’ve taken a small handful of steps, but I can see already that my wife’s pace is brisk and determined and …
A fresh start
Here’s a small snapshot of headlines from the past week: --Thousands gathered for the 2020 March on Washington, 57 years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Monument, calling for racial justice and police reform. --Hurricane Laura pounded Louisiana killing more than 15 people and causing …
When a bear came calling
I had been worried about the rain and now it was here, the sky had turned an angry black and was ready to let loose with great big buckets of water. We had spent the week camping and hiking in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. I had seen the reports of rain and thunder …
Living my best life
I told my wife that I had a voicemail from my doctor asking me to give her a call. My wife looked up and told me what I already knew: the doctor only calls if she has bad news. If the news was good, the nurse would call and leave a message. I had a …
