Dad sat reading, “The Eureka Times–Standard”. It only came in the evening. Mom was absorbed in an Agatha Christy novel. The two girls and Adam were outside playing. Tommy came walking down the hallway and sat down on the edge of the couch. He let a big sigh escape as he did so. Neither parent…

The wind blew the double gate open and our chocolate-brown lab, being curious by nature wandered out of the yard. He was gone for three days and I was sick to my stomach and heart-broken. Worse yet, it was my lack of responsibility that had caused him to go wandering off in the first place.…

I have spent today simply observing the world around me. I haven’t taken the time to simply stop and watch in a long time. Here are some of the things I discovered along the way — While at Meadowood Mall I saw a man asking for money, so I gave him a couple bucks. This…

Last weekend I had to do what I have been dreading for a long time. I had to replace a major appliance in our home . My good fortune was that it was a small major appliance, the garbage disposal. The one that came with this home lasted nearly six-years and it was not the…

Several Airmen were assigned to a communication class designed teach us how to process our feelings as we continued in our careers. One of the main assignments the Chaplain had us complete was righting a brief statement titled, “Who I am.” It was a free-form assignment as long as we developed 10 sentences about how…

St. Paddy’s Day has come and gone, thankfully. I tend to stay home anymore because I no longer drink or party as I did when I was younger. In fact I have been known to attend AA and Al-Anon meetings the last few years just to help myself stay away from excessive drink. I still…

It was somewhere along the State Route 215 near San Bernardino, that I learned what makes Californians different from the rest of the nation. It’s in their approach to driving and a highway patrol officer pointed this out to me. The 215 at that point is a stretch of three-lane freeway. I was in the…

Adam and I used to get into trouble sometimes jus’ for fun. But nothing prepared us for the day we rolled our younger sister Deirdre down Mrs. Damm’s hill. Deirdre was nine years younger than me and six years younger than Adam. Yet she was as every bit as rough and tumble as either of…

“10-4, Theresa you could walk out to Whalers Rock right now,” I said over the radio. “I copy you, Tom,” she replied back. “Keep an eye on the situation.” “That’s affirmed,” I answered back. Graveyard shift was not half over and I was hoping for a quiet night as I drove along Crescent City’s Pebble…

For years the Lord had granted me time enough to work quietly on my degree, to study and write and study even more. And now when I was laid up I could not be bothered to spend anytime with him in prayer or in his word. I felt ashamed of myself. The first thing I…