Today we kick-off the eighth annual Memorial Day camping weekend with my in-laws. In that time we’ve experienced all kinds of weather which, if you’re tenting, can make all the difference. Most years the nightly lows would hover just above freezing. Other years we’ve nearly been carried away by the rain and high winds. And […]
I realize I’m putting myself out there as a computer geek with this post, so for those of you not inclined to talk megs and gigs, I apologize. Over the past 20 years I’ve relied on a great many forms of saving digital work. The true 5.25″ ‘floppy’ disk dates back to my junior year […]
It’s funny how your image of authority figures tends to change as you get older. As a kid in athletics there was sort of a negative stigma attached to the hard-line, uber-competitive coach. You know, the violently gum-chewing, whistle-blowing, arrogant, perpetually angry-because-his-team-didn’t-make-it-to-State-when-he-was-in-high-school-so-you’re-gonna-pay-penance-for-it coach. The guy who ran you ’til you either passed out or died […]
This soon-to-be 80 year-old actor/director/producer has had quite the career. Lately he’s had such a string of directorial successes some people probably didn’t know he was ever an actor. I’ll never forget the first Clint Eastwood movie I watched. It was probably one he’d just as soon the world forgot, but in ‘Every Which Way […]
The smell of freshly cut grass always takes me back to the summers of my childhood. My younger brother and I shared the responsibility of mowing an elderly widow’s yard every summer, a kind woman who we all had come to know very well. We spent time visiting her and her late husband when we […]
I always enjoyed the game of pool. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that we never had a table growing up. It was always something we wanted – especially after visiting any friends or cousins who did. It didn’t occur to me until I was much older that there […]
I was fortunate that I grew up in a town that made it mandatory for every kid to learn how to swim. Seriously! As eighth graders we were all shipped off to the local indoor pool and evaluated to see where we were on the swimming skills ‘food chain’. I think I landed somewhere between […]
The spring thaw is underway and things are getting wet. The milder temps have kept the kids busy outside playing in the soggy snow. It’s weird to think that just a few weeks ago you couldn’t get them outside if you paid them. The battle now is trying to keep them supplied with dry caps, […]
School playgrounds have gone through a bit of an evolution since I was a kid. Padded plastic and rubber have replaced the metal and timber structures that endured the use (and abuse) of hundreds of schoolchildren. It’s a wonder that more of us weren’t permanently maimed by these ‘slaygrounds’ of yesteryear. Next to today’s brightly […]
Nothing in the glutenous world beats freshly-baked bread. If you’re yearning for that homemade taste, store-bought frozen bread dough will do in a pinch, but I have to say, nothing beats mom’s homemade bread recipe. If you’ve never witnessed the making of homemade bread, it’s quite a process. I remember the long hours mom spent […]