"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
What’s going on in my life
At Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, where we were stationed in the early 1980s, our Friday night routine revolved around dinner and drinks at the Officers’ Club. But one week the couple who lived next door in base housing inducted us into the Polar Bar Parking Patrol, and from then on we had a […]
Medical appointments. Working at a VA hospital, I see the same patients every few days, sometimes every day. The older they get, the more appointments they have, right up until they move into the hospice wing, where they have just one big appointment. Now I’m starting down the same path. Two months ago I broke […]
Our friend Mary Anne’s hosting a trunk show for Donna today, inviting people over to drink wine and look at Donna’s embroidery samples. I’m expected to put in an appearance, maybe even work the party as a shill, at least with people who don’t know I’m Donna’s husband: “I love that! Can I buy a […]
Arizona’s monsoon is here at last and we have rain, rain, rain. Sections of the main east/west rail line between Tucson and Phoenix washed out Thursday – you could see tracks and ties suspended in the air where floodwater had literally shoved away the roadbed underneath – but just one day later crews had repaired […]
A month ago, we started riding bicycles with a small group of friends. Each Saturday it’s up at 5:00am to brush, dress, fill water jugs, pump tires, load bikes, and drive to the starting point. We’re off by 6:00am, first for 8 miles, then 10, then 12, and this morning, 18. And we ain’t talkin’ […]
Sometimes I wonder just how independent I am: at 6:00am sharp Donna cracks the whip and I leap out of bed to start charcoal for the smoker, add water to the pool, sweep the patio, put up the umbrella, and empty our big green utility wagon so we can decorate it for the neighborhood parade. […]
I started an informational web site for Hash House Harriers in 1995 and worked on it furiously for six years – it may as well have been a second full-time job. In 2001 a couple of friends offered to help with some of the load, and in 2003 several additional friends joined in. Not only […]
My dad was 16 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He – like every other young man in South Sioux City, Nebraska – wanted to join up and fight, but without his parents’ permission the recruiters wouldn’t take him. As men aged 18 and older began to be drafted, local employers scrambled to hire 16- […]