Smell that? It’s the freshy fresh freshness of a brand new year. Happy New Year, everyone! I don’t know about you, but I always approach a brand new year with the nervousness of a kid opening his “big” present on Christmas morning. You know what I mean, right? That kid braces himself for disappointment,…
The Greybeard Chronicles| Christmas, 2011: Too Soon Past
Seven months and counting. That is how long I have been away from home now, working in Mobile, Alabama, doing my thing or, what passes for “my thing” until I can really do my thing. I came in May and now it is almost January. I would ask where the time went, but a…
The Greybeard Chronicles, Thanksgiving 2011: I Have Never Journeyed Alone
Dateline: Mobile, Alabama, Thanksgiving Day, 2011 And so it was in my fiftieth year, I spent my very first Thanksgiving Day alone. Some of my fondest memories, both from childhood and adulthood, center on this day. The sweetest people I have ever known, the finest food I have ever eaten, the best football I have…
The GreyBeard Chronicles: Choices and the Men Who Make Them
I do not choose this road I take; It chooses me by the choices I make. ~Yours Truly This morning, I woke up thinking about my life. Where I am. What I’m doing. Where I should be. I thought about the difficult correlation between the sovereignty of God and the free will of a…
Almost is the Bitterest Pill of All
Almost is the bitterest pill of all. Just ask the Texas Rangers. If the Rangers fail to win game seven of the 2011 World Series tonight, they will go down in the long and storied history of Major League Baseball as the team that came the closest to turning “almost” into “we did it.”…
The Greybeard Chronicles: Small Minds, Large Appetites
I am in a McDonald’s…in a mall…in Mobile, Alabama. A girl with vacant eyes waits rather impatiently behind the counter for me to decide. “I will have a Number Two, please.” For the uninformed, that is two small cheeseburgers, fries and a drink. “Medium or large?” “I’m sorry?” Might have been a slight eye…
“Gimme a ‘B’! Gimme an ‘S’!” This Blogger Takes on Corporate Greed and Customer Satisfaction
We interrupt regularly-scheduled programming to call BS on a few business items of local and international interest… First, the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and all the rancor over corporate greed is BS. Surely, by now, you have seen the doctored photo that pretty much says it all? If not, here it is: …
The Greybeard Chronicles: Will You Carry On, Sir?
“Will you carry on, sir?” I am standing at the American Airlines ticket counter in Mobile, Alabama, getting my boarding pass so I can fly home to Dallas/Fort Worth for just the second time in nearly five months. Ordinarily, I would use the electronic check-in device, swipe my debit card, grab my boarding pass…
The Greybeard Chronicles: 50 Years of Sowing and Reaping
Listen up, kids! A half century goes by faster than you think. One minute, you’re doing a cannonball in the Brazos River. The next, you’re praying your wife does not put fifty candles on that carrot cake: Not just because of the potential wildfire they may ignite or the fact that you could singe…
9/11: One Moment, Please
One silent moment A thing so small To offer those Whose loss was all. One wordless prayer One teary eye One more bowed knee One last goodbye One vow that we Whose hearts beat still Have not forgot And never will One still, small voice Says, Do not fear I feel your pain And silence,…