I took the train home from work recently and I looked to be the lone person on the car without headphones. I noticed it first on the platform: everyone was head-down, headphones in place, looking at their phones. Later on the train, I sat up at one point to stretch my neck and looked in... Continue Reading →
Take me home country roads
I can sense it coming. The feeling starts out like a distant ache. I’ll push it back to the back of my mind in the hopes that it will go away. My attempt to keep my focus to “the here and now” will work for a while, but the feeling will soon come back. This... Continue Reading →
Will you be my Valentine?
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, one of my coworkers plans to surprise his girlfriend by taking her to an expensive French restaurant that she has been dying to visit for the past year. He made the reservations on the sly a few months ago and he’s kept it top secret. The woman sitting next to me... Continue Reading →
Signs, sign, everywhere a sign
One sign gave an ominous warning, “Do not cross. Thank you.” Another advertised a national weight loss program. Still another promoted a new video streaming service. Finally two more announced a train crossing and “Road Work Ahead.” I felt like the Aerosmith song was playing itself out in front of me: “Sign, sign, everywhere a... Continue Reading →
The Ice Queen
The woman stood in the middle of the ice rink, one toe up on the edge of the skate, and watched over the rink like a queen inspecting her staff or a hardened general watching over a battlefield. The woman wore a matching blue jacket and pants and a white headband that kept her hair... Continue Reading →
Cold, hard cash
As a kid, I used to save my pennies in a glass Teddy Bear bank. Later I moved onto a miniature wooden barrel that my parents had picked up at a local bank. You’d turn the barrel up on one end and on the bottom was a plug that you would pull out to get... Continue Reading →
Erasing the past
I hesitated. I looked at my cell phone again. The "erase" button jumped off the screen. At my wife's urging, I recently purchased a new phone and was getting ready to trade in my old one. To protect my information, I needed to erase everything and return the phone to its original factory settings. In... Continue Reading →
A perfect day
The coffee was weak, my toast was burnt, and my omelet tasted bland. My wife’s breakfast wasn’t much better—her crêpes looked soggy and lumpy. That’s not all. The restaurant was loud and had a strange echo and a cold breeze shook me every time a customer opened the door. Despite the food and the surroundings,... Continue Reading →
Snow Day
As a young kid, you dreamed about the perfect mix: cloudy skies, brisk temperatures in the air, and the local television and radio meteorologists going crazy predicting an impeding snow storm. You’d cross your fingers, pull out the silly rabbit’s foot that you picked up at a Shrine Circus, all hoping against hope for snow... Continue Reading →

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