As I stood at the sink washing a pan that was left to soak overnight, I noticed that it was far cleaner on the outside than the inside where our meals are cooked. So instead of a cursory scrubbing, I put some elbow-grease into it and did my best to shine it up. And as…

“Maybe I should have waited after all.” Walking home in a thunderstorm was not Wilson’s idea of fun. The thunderstorm wasn’t the only thing on his mind; the memory of his brother’s death eight years before boiled in his brain all day — and now all he wanted to do was get home and have a…

Writing is perhaps the lowest profession available to mankind. It causes the writer to not only examine the people, the place, the things around him, but it also forces the writer into self-examination each time he or she picks up the craft. There is nothing like crawling around in the mud with yourself to learn…

I’m old enough to recall using a rotary dial telephone, recording songs from a transistor radio onto a tape recorder – using cassette tapes, playing records on a mono three-speed portable record player, watching black and white television on a cathode ray tube TV and only three channels with aluminum foil on the rabbit ears…

Paved in area’s while covered in gravel in others,  the road made for a less than smooth drive as Tad crossed Death Valley towards U.S. 395. It was a trip he’d made on several occasions while visiting friends in Victorville and Barstow. A full, bright moon lit the edges of the mountains and high desert…

It’s hard to take when the men simply walk away after completing their business. Sure, they did all they could for themselves, but what about me? It’s like I don’t even exist in their mind; always in a hurry somewhere. When they leave, there’s often a dribble here or a dribble there, perhaps a piece…

Vanity being what it is, I spent $400 on a cellphone for my 1988 Hyundai, only to learn I couldn’t afford the service, so I spent my time driving around talking into a ‘dead’ cellphone. For $19.95, plus shipping and handling, I could have ordered a ‘dummy cellphone,’ and done the same thing. Lesson: Anything…

As a youngster, I used to want, want, want and as an old man, I still want, want, want. The difference is in not only what it is that I want now versus then – but how what I want brings me joy. It has taken a life-time of frivolous consumption to figure out that…

You know the New Year’s Eve party next door must have been a good one when you find that random can of unopened beer in the gutter of your driveway. That’s what happened to me this morning. I can’t make up my mind if I should return it to them, or play ‘finder’s keepers, loser’s…

Awoke this morning to the dog’s barking alarm. We had a hot air balloon operating in the area and both Yaeger and Buddy are suspicious of such objects floating over our neighborhood. Made for a beautiful photo-op, though. Once I snapped all the pictures I wanted, I came in a downloaded them to my computer.…