“A wife of noble character, who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.” Proverbs 31:10
I hadn’t hugged her for years. Not because of a jealous mate, but because one of us had cooties. Lin had bad blood in her bones.
“Good thing I can’t kiss you,” I said. “You’d fall in love with me.” She laughed. (more…)
They are kids with wrinkled skin who wear plenty of attitude.
Shuttle vans park outside the main entrance to cart them to and fro, whether to doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping or to the movies. Panel doors slide open and wheel chair ramps pop out. After the cargos load, the vans are off and about.
Inside I walk by a greeter who sits across a gym. The gym is supervised by physical and occupational therapists, young 30-somethings coaching and pushing their clientele. Racks of two pound dumbbells line the walls. I observe old guys and gals stretching elastic bands, and the therapists stretching them. (more…)
“So God has a lava lamp. I’m cool with that.” Tom Bodett, pitchman for Motel 6
He made a career pitching hotel rooms.
In the mid 1980’s Tom Bodett lived in Homer, Alaska, the southernmost town in the state’s highway system. An outpost 200 miles south of Anchorage at the end of the road, Bodett was a writer, building contractor, and commentator on local National Public Radio (NPR). Bodett was discovered by a Dallas based advertising agency promoting a hotel chain in the midst of rebranding, Motel 6. Agency representatives heard one of Bodett’s stories and hired him to promote the chain, exclaiming “he sounded like the kind of person that stay’s there.” Bodett’s initial Motel 6 ads were test marketed in Texas and California. Needless to say, the Motel 6 brand was built around a guy who promised to “leave the light on for you.” (more…)
To all Vets and all who are still active military, thank you.
(Published in Hockey Player Magazine, April 2019)
Zero, ten, two isn’t a bike lock combination. It was last season’s hockey record. My Blazers suffered more takedowns last Fall than MMA wrestlers. The losses really sucked when we went 1-12 a few years back. But 0-10-2 really, really, sucks. (more…)
“We either laugh or we lie face down in the carpet weeping.” Leigh Anne Jasheway
I first reached out to her after Labor Day. My in-box chimed when I received her message, Leigh Anne Jasheway was game to be interviewed as part of my Humor Project. “It’s almost Thanksgiving,” she wrote, “You’re already behind…. in something.”
Three years ago I stumbled upon Jasheway while road-tripping to Eugene, Oregon. I helped my kid, an Oregon Duck, move into her coop. Between grocery runs I read an article in the Eugene-Register Guard about mutts. The writer, owner of a dachshund pack, lamented how her four-inched legged beasts were reputed neighborhood park beggars. (more…)
No costume. No props. No excuses.
When I re-booted my writing career six years ago my goal was to get regular gigs and earn a passive self-sustaining income from writing. My writing income isn’t even passive-aggressive. (more…)
“On vacations we hit the sunny beaches where we occupy ourselves keeping the sun off our skin, the saltwater off our bodies, and the sand out of our belongings.” Erma Bombeck
Suntan lotion sales melt at forty degrees north. Especially in January when jackets cover skin. But compared to my buddy, O’Malley Nanook of Fairbanks, I have it easy. Located two-hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle, O’Malley covers up with flannel, mittens and parkas woven from caribou hide. This week’s forecast for O’Malley features balmy nights at 25 below, cold enough to freeze antifreeze. (more…)
“Once again we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice.” Dave Barry
I’m more into saying Merry Christmas than Happy Holidays. For me the latter is too politically correct and saccharin. But for many in fire ravaged Northern California its understandable why folks may neither be merry nor happy. Those that have lost homes, and loved ones, grind through the days. Many of us wish a magic wand would make things better. Friends, press onward. A community supports you. (more…)
I enjoy camp fires but have NOT enjoyed the recent Camp Fire which hit the community of Paradise, California. For readers unfamiliar with Northern California, Paradise sits in the Sierra Nevada foothills about fifteen miles east of Chico and about 90 miles north of Sacramento.
The Camp Fire started November 8th, thus far creating havoc over 150,000 acres. Fortunately this wildfire appears to head south and away from our city but prior to doing so tens of thousands of folks were displaced, thousands have lost homes, nearly a thousand are missing, and many have died. The Town of Paradise, population nearly 30,000, reels from shock as do neighboring communities. Rain is forecasted soon—a mixed blessing. We’re tired of the flames and smoke but leery of mud slides. (more…)