At times my mind races on about stuff that just doesn’t matter, as if a floodgate of concern has opened up, like this morning when I couldn’t get my Southwest tickets to print out 24 hours in advance of my flight to Tampa and what if I get stuck in C group and all that …
Here’s a good tip I have learned from my life. When I had a close friend and felt we had a special bond and then something happened that caused the friendship to go south, I felt the whole relationship was a tragic loss. That’s not right. Just because circumstances and …
Ever since I was a young man, I have appreciated the appearance of strong and delicate women of all ages. In the grand scheme of things, my favorite piece is a pencil drawing by Andrew Wyeth of his elderly neighbor and friend looking through her old window. Wyeth’s work …
I’ve lived on the same property for almost 30 years. At the time, Sherry and I borrowed over our financial heads, but now we are blessed with a modest home on a great 10 acres attached to mountains that reach up toward Lake Tahoe. The property was a lot like me when we first …
A cardinal rule as one ages is to keep your essential items in one spot: in a drawer, on the corner of a dresser or in the bowl on the coffee table. There, at immediate command, are your car keys, cell phone, wallet or purse. This is like kindergarten for older folks. The …
I was hanging out on my front porch with Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford when the topic came up as to why the three of us stay so dang handsome and popular as we age. Clint went first, “I just keep it simple. I don’t say much, and I always look tough and rugged.” My …
Did you know I dated the Homecoming Queen at the big high school I graduated from? I was a nothing, never allowed at the popular lunch table, stuttered my way to the lower half of my high school class and never made the varsity high school basketball or football team. What …
I’m no expert in how to handle traumatic experience. I was victimized two times while in grade school. I kept both of them secrets for decades. I mean I told no one. I locked them away. In middle age, almost as a surprise to myself, I shared with a loved one what happened to …
It isn’t how far or how fast I go up the mountain. It’s whether I get started. I’m blessed with living on the side of a mountain. Twenty years ago I could go out my back door and hike the 22 miles up to Lake Tahoe. Five years ago I made it to a bubbling …
Sherry and I were walking our way through the county roads of Iowa going from the northern border of the state to the south when we came upon a farm auction not far out of the little town of Boone. Pickup trucks and dusty cars lined either side of the road, and the miked …