I was fine as we began our walk; her right hand gently holding my left arm, the train of her elegant white dress lightly caressing the pavement. I focused on keeping our pace reasonable and the single turn along the pathway as smooth as possible. And then we were lined up for the final run, the wedding party straight ahead, family and friends on ( Read more... )

It's the ugly truth that's been said over and over: "Writer's write."  If I'm not spending quality time with butt-in-chair actually collecting strings of reasonably coherent words, then how can I call myself a writer?  I've finally decided that the problem keeping me from my goals is really very simple, I need to develop the habit of writing.  If I ( Read more... )

When my Dad turned 50 he started showing signs of mental aging. I’m not talking about dementia, I’m talking about that thing that happens when you’ve lived long enough to see your brain’s filing system get overloaded. For instance, one time when Dad went to the mall, he couldn’t find his car when it was time to leave.  He wanted to report it ( Read more... )

I had to lay off two of my staff today (budget cuts from on high).  On the one hand, it made for a sucky day, but on the other hand I know two people who had a much suckier day.  After the deed was done I sent out an email to the rest of the staff calling for a mandatory meeting in an hour. The point of that meeting was to ease the fears and ( Read more... )

My wife once told me how embarrassed she was when her mom handed out healthy fruits for trick-or-treat at Halloween.  I told her I could beat that story by a mile.  During the Halloween trick-or-treat of 1968, when I was only 10 years old, my dad handed out “George Wallace for President” bumper stickers.  The next day, there were Wallace bumper ( Read more... )

We live in a country where the law states that you can't discriminate against someone based on gender, but, the US military does so on a daily basis.  On the one hand we want to provide equal opportunity to women, but on the other hand we want to protect them from the harsh realities of war.  Our society is fractured on this issue.  Women are ( Read more... )

How smart will we look in a hundred years or so.  If I write a book about some subject near and dear to my heart, will it still hold up after a hundred years?  How much of my personal bias will be on display?  How much will seem odd and out of place?  I'm currently reading "History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present" by Peter ( Read more... )

As a child in the early 60’s I always wore my hair in a crew-cut. I wore it that way because A) I didn’t really care what I looked like, and B) It was how my Dad wore his hair. But, even so, by the third grade, I was wearing my hair a little longer. Not, “over the ears” longer, just long enough to actually comb. I’ll never forget the last crew-cut ( Read more... )

Last night, about three car lengths in front of me, a lady drove her SUV into an oncoming motorcycle.  I didn't see it (thankfully) because I was looking at something to my right, but I heard it.  There was a couple of medical guys, still in scrubs who were in the cars in front of me and they got out first and started helping the rider and called 9 ( Read more... )

For those unfamiliar with Steampunk, wikipedia has a good definition: "The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used - usually the 19th century, and often Victorian eraEngland - but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the ( Read more... )