When I was born in Montreal in the mid-’50s, I was blessed with a privilege I wouldn’t learn to appreciate until my adult years — my Canadian citizenship birthr...
When I was 76, I still had six older sisters. I felt so lucky!
But in 2014, I started losing them one by one until I had only Betty left. She had moved from her...
It’s been ...
... more than 503 games of Scrabble against Zoe the computer, 171 days of Wordle — maybe it’s endemic.
Don’t ask me what I’ve accomplished in the...
My 95-year-old father recently passed from life to life after a falling accident that left our 91-year-old angel of a mother with six broken ribs and a list of ...
I received a gift certificate for Victoria’s Secret shop from a good friend on my 60th birthday and couldn’t imagine why she thought I might be interested in th...
The phrase “be normal” has been around for quite some time.
I heard it often in context with something I did or was doing. If I talked too loud, or when I did ...
Getting old really sucks.
I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in December 2014. As my situation evolves, I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones.
My Parkins...
Summer. More time outside means an increased risk of getting stung by a wasp or a bee.
But why do bees sting? And why are some stinging insects, specifically w...
Several years ago when we were still living in California, I took my wife and our two boys one day to a bookstore — not that the boys were interested in books.
...
Did you know slugs and snails can sleep for three years?
Man, they must have some marathon world-class dreams! And you know they probably drool.
But I wonder ...
I am forming a new Anti-Understand League to abolish the “I understand” response from caregivers and family members when seeing/hearing frustration from their e...
It was a sunny Saturday morning that spring day in April. At the center of the village, some activity was noted at the home of some people recently passed away....
A tree as great as a man's embrace springs from a small shoot;
A terrace nine stories high begins with a pile of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles starts und...
I recently read a Facebook post by my nephew, Terrance. Now here is a young man who has struggled with challenges every step of the way to where he is today — a...
There were no skiers in my family. Somehow I got it into my little 11- year-old brain that skiing was something I wanted to do. I can't remember why.
Perhaps it...
My friend, Claudia, and I have been going to the Klamath Basin for birding in the spring since 2007. We have witnessed over the years a gradual drying out of th...
I recently got up early, put myself on a morning plane and went to Old Mexico to visit some Mexican-American friends who were remodeling their winter home. What...
It now has been a number of years since I visited my home country.
On one such trip my wife and I stayed with family members. One day we decided to take bicycle...
When I was 13, my parents divorced, leaving my Mom a single parent of three children, ages 6 to 13.
She purchased a two-bedroom, one-bath house in a working-cl...
One thing my parents did in our upbringing was to give us memory-filled vacations.
Every summer, we went camping — on the Oregon and Washington coasts, a coupl...
