We’ve all heard about the Aboriginal tradition of young people going through a rite of passage when they come of age and go forth to explore the broader world around them but more distant than what they have known in their upbringing. Its’s a time of reflection of the soul, a return to one’s roots and family ancestry, a joyous revisiting of the wonders of the natural world. For someone like me that has spent…
I know I wrote about the healthcare system in America recently, so please don’t read too much into the fact that today I’m writing about medicine. It is purely coincidental…I think. It just so happens that meds are on my mind for all sorts of reasons. I will start with the most personal of those. I am expecting the delivery of two prescriptions today and I am in short enough supply of those two so…
It was the Star that led the way. In the vast expanse of the night sky, where countless stars twinkled like diamonds scattered across dark velvet, one star shone with exceptional brilliance. This was no ordinary star – it was a divine beacon, placed in the heavens for a singular purpose. Far to the east, in lands of ancient wisdom and learning where men and a few token women gather in Congressional chambers to do…
Given that we live in the county that occupies the bottom of California, just above the Mexican border at Tijuana, we find ourselves regularly heading north and debating the best way to do that. For reasons I can guess at, but cannot really explain, we do not head south into Mexico…ever. We used to go down to Cabo San Lucas with some regularity and I used to visit the west coast of Mexico mainland with…
About seven years ago, Kim and I were headed to a motorcycle ride that was to take us all across the mainland of Greece. In searching for the cheapest business class seat to that distant locale, I found that Turkish Airways had a great flight direct from JFK to Istanbul. From there it was a small hop to Athens. Since Kim had always wanted to go to Istanbul and I hadn’t been there for a…
It is not so unusual for guys of my age to say that they only wear a jacket and tie anymore to weddings and funerals. The last suit (and I really do hope it is the very last suit) I bought was last year when I needed to buy a tan suit (the sort that got President Obama into trouble) for my son Thomas’ wedding last Labor Day (2023). I haven’t worn it since and…
For several weeks now, Kim and I have had time to leisurely decorate the house for the holidays. I have gone through many different stages with regard to holiday decorations. In the mid-Nineties I can recall paying as much as $5,000 to a local decorator to decorate our ski house in Utah for the holidays season so that we could enjoy all the festive atmosphere of the holidays without having to detract from our one…
When I lived in Toronto, Canada for two years, I heard more Canadian colloquialisms than I remember hearing anywhere else. My time in Canada was an interesting few years that was a mixture of how to survive a remote distance existence (the kids were still in the Metro NYC area) and yet I needed to be onsite and resident in Toronto and all the other big cities in Canada (Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver, primarily, but…
We are approaching a year since we got Buddy. When he came to us he was only a year old, so sort of half grown. He weighed 5.5 pounds and survived on a diet of kibble and some canned dog food that his prior owners preferred. Kim has always prepared meals for our dogs. It is something she likes to do as part of bonding with her dogs. Both Cecil and Betty very much appreciated…
Yesterday while Kim was going in and out of the front door with some holiday decorations, there was a sudden thump sound and she unexpectedly swore audibly. I did the usual, “Everything OK?” lazy man outreach from my chair across the room. When she said, “This thing fell down”, I had no idea what she was talking about so I decided I probably needed to get up to investigate. What had happened was that the…