Life Stories

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Doves, Bacon and Staying the Course

Provocative titles can make the difference between whether someone wants to read a book, news story or blogpost. I was about to call this Doves, Onions and Staying the Course but if you read on, you will understand why bacon also came into my mind. Anything having to do with bacon may capture one’s attention! Not that this expression is particularly worthy of attention (it is my own musings) but hey, if I’m going to write about something in my...

Paparazzi Children

You would have thought that my aunt and uncle were celebrities, and in a sense, they were! As the four of us prepared to travel to Boonsboro, MD in March of 1996, I remember (vaguely) asking my oldest son (then seven years old) why he wanted to take his toy binoculars to this 50th Wedding Anniversary. He gave me some version of, “I’ll be able to see them if they are sitting far away!” So much innocence and all kinds...

Resolutions, Game-Changers and Sirens

Early tonight I went into my guestroom closet to pull out my Christmas decoration bin. It seemed a good time-filler and 5-minute task while I was waiting for my Dill Pickle Bread to fully bake. By pulling the big tub back out, I would be one step closer to taking it back downstairs and perhaps tonight or tomorrow removing all the Christmas ornaments. And then, maybe tomorrow or the next day, to get this pseudo-live Christmas tree dismantled and outside–clipperful...

Leftovers

There’s a large story I like to tell about leftovers–I was looking for an adjective to place before story and after a few came into my mind I settled upon large. I’m not sure why, maybe there’s just a kind of largeness to this lifestory. Sometime around 2007 or so, I was doing caricatures for a monthly clubhouse party for residents that lived in upscale condos, somewhere up near West Chester. The condo management would splurge on a lovely party...

“Who Do You Think You Are, ‘Billy Graham’?”

“Who do you think you are, Billy Graham!!??” Those are my most definitively-recollected, specific words that my mother said to me in that particular encounter over forty years ago. __________ College days seem so far away, and the exact dates of my mother’s various (lengthy) involuntary State-Hospitalizations years ago, with the inevitably difficult encounters that surrounded each event, seem to blur together in my mind these days. As I try to write this piece, I sit here staring here and...

God, Flies, and European Hornets

(written to 9/6/23 to 9/14/23)When one is alone, a lot of things can start to feel worthy of writing about. Or at least thinking about. Or at least coming up with a grabbing title… I seem to have (or possibly create) odd-and-or-interesting experiences. And I dream dreams…sometimes…the very odd, memorable dream. The kind of dream that seems unconnected to eating jalapenos before bed or re-hashing the day’s events and images during the night. Back in late July or early August...