Friday, December 18, 2015

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Right after Thanksgiving I'm in my annual pilgrimage to the Christmas corner of our garage. I did it last year, and I brought out Christmas. Now, we've been accumulating ornaments and decorations for a lot of years now, and it's always a big deal for the family when they make their annual re-entry; all those decorations come back into our life again and all the memories. The house is actually alive with Christmas. Well, I mean for a while. But before very long, I'll reverse the exercise, repack everything in their aging boxes, and put them back in storage for another year.

Monday, December 14, 2015

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Suicide. It usually stuns those close to it. Hollywood has seen several suicides in the past years. A director that leaped from a bridge. Actors battling drugs and alcohol that had beaten the addiction. And others that were still battling until the addiction won. Families left crushed. Many people left asking that question that often defies an answer, "Why?" Well, we may never know.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

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The occasion was a city-wide art contest where the participants were told to paint paintings on the subject of "Peace." Well, you can understand that the judges were attracted to this beautiful "pastural" scene that a local painter had painted. It was a green pasture with puffy white clouds and this beautiful blue sky and a little boy going by with a fishing pole over his shoulder, little quiet brooks and birds flying around. Yeah. that one came in second.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

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I always look forward to it as one of the season's great Christmas moments – the lighting of that towering Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. And it's happening tonight.

I remember last year. It was just a tad more exciting, for me anyway, because I had sort of a second-hand personal connection. The tree came from the farm owned by our good friends' daughter and son-in-law. (Did you get that?) They were chauffeured to ringside (actually rink-side) seats for the big show. So, not only did I get to watch the tree and the performers. Hey, I had like friends on the front row!

Friday, November 20, 2015

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I really hate it when a five-year-old makes me feel dumb; especially when it's my grandson. I mean, he didn't mean to make me feel dumb. He didn't know he was making me feel dumb. But he is really smart, and he knows a lot about a lot! Like the solar system. He's got the planets down cold along with all kinds of facts about the universe. Things I either have forgotten or never knew. Another thing our grandson is really mastering is numbers. Man, can he count! He's working on thousands, millions, billions, and his favorite quantity, a google! When it comes to our universe, he's never going to be able to count that high!

Thursday, October 1, 2015

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Boom! Suddenly all the lights went out in the conference center where we were staying, just as we were all making our way out of our rooms and down this long hallway to breakfast. No windows. The hallway was longer than usual that morning because it was totally dark. Turns out the entire region experienced a power failure that morning. Because a squirrel got into a relay station and gnawed through a cable. That's fried squirrel and lights out.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

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Maybe it's because my father-in-law was a corrections officer for a while, and I've heard his stories about the wasted lives behind prison bars. Whatever the reason, I've always admired the men who minister as prison chaplains. That's a tough ministry, but it's a ministry so desperately needed.

Friday, August 21, 2015

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Princess Diana was what they called the People's Princess. I think that's a fair name for her. She fascinated the masses. Her life with the Royal Family was well documented and well followed; still talked about. It began with the fairy tale romance where they didn't live happily ever after. And then her struggles being a Royal, and then the awful night in a tunnel in Paris when the princess died. And then there was the unexpected, unprecedented outpouring of love and respect for her.

Monday, August 3, 2015

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My wife is like a human camera. She's able to record in her mind life experiences in living color and in full detail. I wish I could do it! And growing up on a little farm in the hills gave her a childhood full of memorable memories.

Monday, July 27, 2015

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It used to be a lot simpler to take out the garbage. The only decision we had to make that day was to take it to the curb. Not so much anymore! Now you've got to make sure you don't put out any grass clippings or limbs with your regular trash. We recycle everything! And those items are supposed to be separated. When we lived in the Metropolitan New York area their rules about garbage disposal were even more complicated. My friend Craig had recently moved there and wasn't familiar with the regulations. He let his garbage pile up for the first few weeks with odoriferous results. He finally found the instructions on handling trash and he told me, "It wasn't that I didn't want to get rid of that garbage, I just didn't know how to."