I asked Carol if she was feeling the Christmas spirit this year, and she just shook her head. I really didn’t have to ask, though. She’s already had to miss all her grandchildren’s holiday shows, because there weren’t any. She’s not going to see her beautifully wrapped gifts torn apart by small, impatient hands. […]

Here’s an example of one of my earliest icebreaker/pickup lines. See if you can see what it might have foretold of my future as a “player.” I was working at my first job in a snowball shop. I had my back turned to the window. And when I turned I was startled to see two […]

With both our families either being isolated or atomized in different locations because of the pandemic, putting the thanks in Thanksgiving might have seemed a threadbare task this season. But Carol found a sweet little cabin near the recently renamed Yo Semite! National Park that promised a more positive spin on the phrase “cabin fever” at the start of this inaugural Covid-19 Holiday Season.

Monday was just going to be an easy prep day of shopping and perhaps a little pre-packing for our short Tuesday and Wednesday trip to Crystal Cove, a scenic state park of 1930’s era cottages along Laguna Beach’s oceanfront. Monday morning, however, my phone buzzed the calendar notice, “Crystal Cove.” “Hey, I thought you said […]

I initially saw Carol walking across the parking lot. It was my first live sight of her, but I recognized her immediately. Then her gaze met mine, and I was at that moment of truth only matadors and people taking that first sip of milk that has turned know.

I don’t care for people who talk about their diets. They go on and on how wonderful it is, how much they can eat and how great the food is

According to my Kindle reader, I’ve read from my Kindle library for 207 consecutive days. I checked. 208 days ago, Carol and I married; therefore, that was the last day I didn’t read my from ebooks. Funny, because that was the very day Carol started reading War and Peace.

The other day, Carol was picking up after me (I should say she was whistling a merry tune as she did so), when she said, “I can’t imagine what this place would look like if you were a bachelor.” I have photos should she be interested in knowing.

Somewhere along the line, I developed the habit of having the TV on with the sound off. All day long, most days. I’m not watching TV, mind you. I’m usually reading or writing. It’s mostly sports that are on in normal, non-pandemic times. Especially baseball, since that tends to be televised all hours of the day and night.

Board games have never mimicked real life, at least my real life. I have no history of wanting to be a tycoon that would have informed me of how to win at Monopoly. As far as Settlers  of Catan, had I ever been a real life settler, I’m quite sure I would have perished with the first frost.