1. “What’s that?” Trudy asked. It was dark. It was 4:30 in the morning. Someone outside was yelling — yelling at the top of his lungs. There’d been some shenanigans at the rental house across the street last week, so I figured it was one of the evicted discontents come back to harass. As I […]
Monthly Archives: October 2016
Golden Afternoon
Sat, 29 Oct 2016, 08:20 PM (-06:00)
This is going to be corny, but I need to write it down. So forgive me in advance. It was a remarkable afternoon. It was Wednesday, and the faithful five of us met our coach after work for our weekly quality workout. We met near downtown with the sun shining in a blue sky. It […]
Stealing Away?
Tue, 25 Oct 2016, 09:23 PM (-06:00)
Dude! Oh, man. It’s you? Dude, what did you mean that you managed to steal away with Jenny…? What!? What did you mean by that? By what? We went kayaking. We had peanut butter sandwiches. What on earth are you talking about? That’s not what you wrote. I read what you wrote, and I see […]
The Fruits of Our Labor
Tue, 25 Oct 2016, 08:46 PM (-06:00)
It didn’t take much thought to realize that my appearance on the scene in Michigan was not, in the end, all that helpful. I did do a good job sitting next to the wood burning stove in the rocking chair in the evenings. And I did enjoy those Honeycrisp apples. And I did manage to […]
Mr. Guinness
Mon, 24 Oct 2016, 06:46 PM (-06:00)
1. When he was a puppy, Guinness went to Puppy School. Let’s just say… that he was not a high achiever. As Trudy tells the story, he had trouble with the very first lessons in which the dogs were taught to sit. Still, he and she kept at it, day after day. And in the […]
West of Lake Odessa
Mon, 17 Oct 2016, 06:13 PM (-06:00)
“We just pulled up to the gate,” I texted Burt and Jenny. “I need to get my checked bag, and I have a book to read.” They had left their home in Kentucky well before the crack of dawn and were approaching Grand Rapids from the southeast. They were planning to pick me up at […]
A Walk in the Woods
Sun, 16 Oct 2016, 09:12 PM (-06:00)
B-57, the computer said. That wasn’t so bad. Even though I had forgotten to get my (Southwest) boarding pass at the appointed hour, a B-57 is fine if you’re flying alone. Satisfied, I shut the computer and walked out the back door of the cottage to catch up with Burt and Jenny and the dogs […]
Salamander
Sun, 16 Oct 2016, 08:12 PM (-06:00)
“Where’s that other cinder block?” cousin Burt asked. He and Jenny and I were pulling the raft and dock out of the lake in preparation for the coming Michigan winter. I looked to my left and saw one sitting on the hill beside the dry milkweeds with their swollen seed pods hanging from dry stalks. […]
The Theory that Jack Build
Sun, 9 Oct 2016, 08:13 PM (-06:00)
1. Drawings I Drew Years ago, following a tradition that had been only a few years in the making, with the family gathered for the holidays, I prepared to recite some poetry. A new poem every year was the deal, and after that, folks could requests repeats from previous years. That year, however, it came […]