It was late summer when my wife’s Uncle Lenny Bell and his wife Ardiss stopped by to visit. They were on their way home to San Diego after visiting their daughter in Yuba City. Uncle Lenny was retired ship-pilot, who had worked moving ships from lock-to-lock in the Panama Canal. However he kept his license…

Kyle and I took a weekend trip in 2005 to the north coast of California. I wanted to show him some of my favorite places from my old hometown. One of those places is Margaret Keating Grade School, which is named after my sister Deirdre’s God-mother. There we found that two full-scale Yurok buildings had…

1997 Sam bet Corky he couldn’t wrestle a big ol’bear Then make love to a woman with long, black hair. Well, Corky couldn’t let the other buckaroos down, So he left the bar after having’ another round. A couple of hours later at the same local bar, Corky came in lookin’ really quite bizarre. His…

My landlord knocked on my door to tell me I had a telephone call. I gave his number out since I couldn’t afford a phone of my own. It was my commanding officer from Centerville. He told me there was truck from the station on its way to pick me up and we were to…

I took my son Kyle on a trip in 2005. We visited several states including Oklahoma, and while stopped for an ice cream at Braum’s on North 32nd Street in Muskogee, I turned and was hit with a case of de’ja vu.   I had been in the area before but couldn’t figure out when or…

The ward was squared away and I was sitting around bored, waiting for something—anything really—to happen. My boredom gave way to a tiny, but quick movement in the corner of the tent. As I focused on the area of movement, I realized I was looking a small field mouse. I grabbed my empty coffee cup and dashed…

When I arrived at boot camp, I was five foot-seven and about 160 pounds. The majority of others were a good four to six inches taller, 20 to 30 pound heavier and younger. Needless to say I felt intimidated. And while I only had to complete an indoctrination course, my biggest fear was failing and…

My son and I went for a weekend dig. It was a university-sponsored event and he found a Chinese coin dating to the late 19th century. The head of the operation said that he could keep the find since they had over a thousand of them from the site. My little man was very proud…

Daniel found himself in the middle of one political story after another. He interviewed statewide candidates as well as local candidates. Daniel was viewed as “somewhat of a political guru,” by the other reporters in the office. He wrote articles about each politician and each campaign using the information that the candidate’s handler emailed him…

It was a nice weekend to visit the City by the Bay. Kyle and I were looking forward to touring Ripley’s and the wax museum. He had never been to either and I really wanted him to see the places. As we headed down the sidewalk, we were also doing some window shopping, talking about…