Thoughts on writing, living, and believing…
Enjoy the day off, the cookouts, and fireworks, but take a moment to remember that you live in the greatest country on earth. And please, give a thought to the men and women who made it possible, and still do. Happy 4th everybody!
Here are a few more videos to help you celebrate our country’s birthday…
Continue reading “Happy Independence Day!”
One of the sad things about getting older is watching the things you used to know disappear. I don’t know anyone who didn’t enjoy watching Andy, Barney and Opie and their adventures in Mayberry. It was a funny, uplifting show made by people who genuinely cared for each other. Did you know that Mr. Griffith personally helped develop all the scripts?
Oh, and Andy was a pretty fair dramatic actor too.
No need to recount his many accomplishments, like winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Andy Griffith is one of those rare people that you can’t help but like. And while you may not have agreed with his politics, you have to be glad that he was with us for so long.
Yeah, I know what you’re waiting for…
Continue reading “Andy Griffith, R.I.P.”
Sunshine, warm weather, green grass, late sunsets, the sound of the ice cream truck playing Turkey in the Straw as is wends its way through the neighborhood…ah, July.
The sounds, the smells, they all remind me that this is the best time of the year…because there’s less than a month till the Bears report to camp!
Continue reading “It’s the Best Time of the Year”
The picture above is Illarion Pryanishnikov’s famous painting of Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. Miserable story, miserable war. But that’s not why I posted it. When you say “retreat,” this is what most people think of. Well, I’m on retreat this week. No, I’m not fleeing the Russians, but in a way, I am fleeing something, or more accurately, I am fleeing to something.
Here’s a little bit of wisdom from my Dad. The names have been changed to protect the innocent:
“We may, or may not have advised that Mom and I worked pretty hard a couple of weeks ago putting in some plastic edging behind the house where we could not get the grass to grow. Anyway, we did. Then on this past Thursday a friendly Acme Rock & Stone driver dumped 1/2 yard of river rock in our driveway. A half yard makes a pretty good pile of rock. So Thursday evening I decided to just test how many scoops I could conveniently handle in my wheelbarrow.”
[editor’s note: Remember, this is my 88 year old father with a bad arm and a bad leg. I’ll speak to him about this later!]
“It looked like maybe 4 or 5 scoops would be my limit and on that basis the pile would take at least two days to put away. On Friday morning then soon after breakfast Mom and I were out there starting our big project. However, after just a short while, Mr. McFeely came over with his wheelbarrow to give me a hand. He did not think too much of my 4 or 5 scoop progress. Lo and behold, the pile evaporated in just a few hours and our 2 foot by 63 foot border is now covered nicely.
The moral of this story is to nice to your neighbors, particularly those with bigger wheelbarrows.”
Thanks for the advice Dad!
These guys have mad skillz!
[Did I say that right? Mad skillz? Do the kids still say that?]
Another sunny day here in Chicagoland. Say what you want about San Diego, this place is sunny all the damn time! At least it seems that way to me. Moving from the lee coast of Lake Michigan to the windward side some years ago came as a bit of a shock.
Less cloud cover, less precipitation, that “sickly orange barf-glow” (thank you Lisa Simpson) in the night sky obscuring the stars. Well my nice green lawn is going brown. The wild riot of color from the flowerbeds has turned to a drab, drooping, bleh!
Continue reading “All Sunshine Makes a Desert”
My apologies to Walt Disney. I’m shamelessly stealing the idea for this post from 
Lisa at Keeping Pace, but I have a different take on it, so bear with me.
The Compact O.E.D. Second Edition defines “happy” as, “feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.” Another definition I found states that “happy” connotes a feeling of satisfaction that something has been done well. In my association with St. Procopius Abbey over the last several years, I have had many occasions to feel happy, but never more so than when I attend a wake. This requires a little context.
Continue reading “The Happiest Place on Earth”