Yesterday marked the nineteenth Father’s Day since my Dad took a jarring, premature detour into eternity. I still miss him and often consider how different life might have been had he remained. I am sure I don’t think about that as much as Mom, but I think about it. He was a good dad…better than…
Category: Personal Observation
The Over/Under Man
What I do not overvalue I underestimate. I put that as my Facebook status this morning because the thought hit me like a subway train. I realized that much of what I am today – and where – could be explained by my either overvaluing or underestimating a thing or person. I never saw myself…
Hip Shots, Deux
Quirky is cool. Donya and I visited Gerty‘s, a little shop in one of those antique mall type settings (only this is not an antique mall; it is more of a collection of quirky shops, catering mostly to women), which Donya’s mom and three other ladies own. As I browsed the various shops while trying…
Hip Shots
Blackie Sherrod, One of my favorite old-time newspaper columnists, wrote a column of random observations for the Dallas Morning News . He called it Scatter-Shooting. In the column, he would offer a collection of observations, opinions, and news items that were completely unrelated. Since imitation is the finest form of flattery, I tip my hat…
The Worst Day Fishing…
You have seen the bumper stickers and t-shirts declaring, “The worst day fishing is better than the best day working.” Yesterday, my brother and I put that theory to the test. It was a gorgeous day, barely into the 80’s, sun shining brilliantly from it’s perch in a clear, blue sky. There was a breeze…
Knee-Jerking My Way Through Georgia
Here are some observations from my first week in Georgia: The word “Georgia” has no “r” in it; at least, not if you’re from Georgia. If you eat out and you order “iced tea,” they don’t even bat an eye, just bring you sweet tea, as if there were no other kind. If you order…
Where East Meets West
Having lived for seven eventful, fun-filled, wonderful years in California, I have always figured that, where coasts are concerned, West is best and East is least. I have slowly been changing my mind. Well, adjusting it. I still love the west coast. California is peerless. But the East offers so much in terms of history…
Devotional: Change!
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man,and he will increase in learning. Prov. 9:9 (KJV) Few people enjoy change. We get in a comfort zone and tend to want to remain there. Economist John Galbraith observed, “Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind, and proving…
Your Boredom is Boring!
When I was a middle school teacher (which is roughly tantamount to being a riverboat captain on the River Styx), I would hear with regularity this complaint from my charges: “Mister, I’m bored!” (They called any male teacher or administrator “Mister” because, I suppose, they couldn’t be bothered with actually learning to say difficult names…