I’m pretty sure I’ve packed more travel into my life in the last two months than in the last several years. BK (before kids), I was a traveling fool, and my passport got a workout. Once the first boy arrived and the second one followed, I was fully tethered to them and our local environs. [...]
My niece and I made another pilgrimage to the homeland, Peoria, IL, to visit my dad this week. Not unexpectedly, but still, very sadly, nothing has really changed since he went into the nursing home last October. Our stay allowed me to look around my dad and stepmom’s house with fresh eyes, thinking about the [...]
Welcome back to my column, dear reader! You know that I’ve been covering end of life if you've read my latest submissions. It’s been a tough time. I have good news – this column is happier! This will be a complete send-up of my thought processes and subsequent actions (or lack thereof). If you’ve ever [...]
I was just in Peoria, IL, right after my niece’s extraordinary wedding because my dad had another major stroke in mid-September. He’s currently in a fantastic rehab/skilled nursing facility and doing a lot of physical, occupational, and speech therapy. I don’t know if he will ever leave, but at least they’re doing everything they can [...]
Over a drink with some friends the other night, I asked for ideas for this week’s column. One suggested the subject of regret as it pertains to skills your parents attempted to teach you, but you disdainfully waved off at the time. She was particularly disgusted with herself, nigh on these 30 years later, that [...]
If you missed the ads in between the political spots, it's back-to-school time. I have no idea why January, February, and March can’t go by as fast as June, July, and August, but they don’t. It’s a cruel cosmic mystery. My 17-year-old son, Nick, is a senior this year. This is impossible to fathom. I [...]
I’ve recently returned from our youth leadership camp, CampFIRE. Thirty-six incoming high school freshmen from Sheridan and Johnson counties kept Julie, I, and the YMCA camp counselors active and on our toes. It’s a 5-day, 4-night camp up at Camp Roberts above Buffalo, and I am not exaggerating when I estimate that 65-90% of the [...]
March 31 was a big day for my friend, Sandra. When you read this, she will be one of the few, the proud, the voluntarily retired. I know this because she's been making her friends look at the retirement countdown on her phone daily. Sometimes more than that. And once in a while, we'll even [...]
How many of you are still having dreams, decades later, about classes you didn’t attend until the day of finals when you realize you don’t know where the classroom is or what textbook you should have been reading? Surely not just me. I have some variation on this nightmare at least once a month, and [...]
I just counted them up, and I’ve written around 100 columns since 2011. They started as updates about the CVC’s work and the community. Then they evolved (devolved?) into random stories about my life, heavy on introspection and almost always highlighting my many foibles. Subjects have included everything from my Whole 30 diet success to [...]
