As I write this, I am hearing on the radio the bells ringing for the victims of 9-11. In some ways, we’ve had our “vision” of heroes displaced by movies and the media. What we forget are the heroes who exist because they are “super caring”. A few years ago, we were approached by Southwest… Read more »

There they are. The students lined up and waiting for the bus as the new school year began. One child caught my eye on my drive this morning. A beautiful young girl who was so tiny that she could not come up to my knee. In a little dress which made her look like an… Read more »

As a parent or grandparent, one of the most fun things we do is revisit our childhood with the young members of our family. Often this includes reading and sharing your favorite storybooks or nursery rhymes. One particular rhyme struck me one week as I drove to work. It was the one about Baa Baa… Read more »

Watermelons are a favorite of mine, and each bite brings back so many memories, especially of my youth. As a kid I was told by my older cousins if you swallowed a watermelon seed it would start growing in your stomach. I can remember the panic after swallowing a seed and imagining it growing inside… Read more »

At the 1876 Exhibition Baseball Game as a part of the Best Friends Festival, I caught up with my cousin Jo Ann – better known as Sissy. Sissy has long been an animal lover and very active in various groups training and adopting out dogs – throughout the region and beyond. We talked about the… Read more »

Sunset Boulevard is not only a famous place but a famous movie. Gloria Swanson starred in the movie version playing a former silent screen star, Norma Desmond. In the movie, a younger man states to the former star “You use to be in silent pictures”.  “You use to be big” (see Norma’s response at the… Read more »

If your weekends are like mine, the little things that happen during the week accumulate and are addressed on the weekend. The spring and summer seem to bring more of these projects on as the accumulation period has not just been a week but an entire season (winter). Often the project will involve the need… Read more »

It was a late Friday night and my mom had allowed me to stay up to watch an NBA Playoff game from out west – a rare gift in the days before ESPN. My dad worked the evening shift in the mines and was due home at any moment. Then 15 minutes passed – no… Read more »

All my life I have been fascinated by Compasses. The magnetic needle pointing true north. As a young lad traversing the mountains with my cousins, we would venture far. Yet we were not frightened or concerned as we used the sun as our compass to make it home safely. Per usual, a venture always turned into… Read more »

Undoubtedly somewhere along the line a family member, young person, or friend has done something that made you proud of them. A question I have for you is did you take a moment to tell them that you were proud of them? It seems like we live in a world of criticism – a world… Read more »