On Friday, August 4th, I was able to take off from work for my birthday, and I used the day to casually drive north to visit my friend Steve up in Westcliffe. The trip would be a lot of driving, but I was up for it. Turning 55 this year, it was a suitable...
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My friend Chris and I took an opportunity to visit our old friend Steve up at his family’s cabin in Westcliffe, Colorado, this last weekend. The opportunity bubbled up quickly, albeit a month ago, when an idea became three yes’s, and a near future date was set. Chris and Steve and I have all...
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Today, it was a Monday. And on top of being a Monday, about 4 this afternoon while we were at work downtown, it started to rain on our locale heavily, and that little rain event hung around for a good long while. Thankfully, it cleared up before 7 PM so that the Isotopes baseball...
Read more →It’s a weird thing. In a week I turn 49, and via social media, I find I am still looking for approval from people in my past. From old high school classmates who don’t really know me, to a grand extent. From old church acquaintances that I was around, but never very close to,...
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I am trying to to remember how it started, but it’s a little fuzzy to me. I know it did in part because in the period of years I went out and danced a lot on the weekends, I one time met Brian at Graham Central Station. Brian wears his black cowboy hat when...
Read more →When Mortimer arrived at the coffee house, he looked a the tinted panes spanning the front of it, and noticed the wind had lifted all the hair on the right side of his head into a sort-of hands-up position. His hair was like that, surrendering to the elements at the drop of a raindrop...
Read more →I was thinking tonight about Chaim Potok’s “The Chosen”, and “My Name is Asher Lev”, and about a few others of his books really. I was thinking about them because it is no secret that I’ve loved his books, and return to them every decade, it seems, in waves. They contain something deeply inward,...
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We went because my mom was offered some tickets from her dentist. The Albuquerque Isotopes played the Tacoma Rainiers tonight in Isotope Park. The weather was cool and lightly breezy and early springlike and perfect. It was enjoyable because my friend Brian joined us, and my Mom likes to call him Markypoo because he...
Read more →It was a month or so ago when Brett, my sister’s eldest son, nonchalantly made the announcement to his mother. “Mom, I have a girlfriend.” And, like that, Brett had entered the universe of love and dating. The high schooler, without fanfare, was in a relationship. Wow. Easy peasy. It happens. Who knows why,...
Read more →“You’ve made agreements”, Clarisa said. “You’ve made agreements, and you just keep them without thinking about it.” “What do you mean?”, Jennie asked her. “You made some agreements a long time ago, and they drive you around- like rules for certain truths in your head- and you don’t question them and they keep you...
Read more →When I was between my sophomore and junior years of college, I was happy to be able to participate in a summer missions project. Growing up as a Baptist kid in Southern Baptist churches, it was natural that I continued my denominational association in college. Right across the street from the University of New...
Read more →This last August, I enjoyed going to my 30th high school reunion, if nothing more than to see a bunch of faces that I, 30 years ago and some, used to see day in and day out at school- although, in much younger versions. That’s the thing about reunions- for those that go, everyone...
Read more →It was a little after one, after our daily stair climb at work, when Nathan sent the note. At first I thought it was peculiar because he and I are friends but we don’t really chat (I’m not a big chatter”), so I just thought may be he was writing to ask a question....
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“And as a few strokes on the nose will make a puppy head shy, so a few rebuffs will make a boy shy all over. But whereas a puppy will cringe away or roll on its back, groveling, a little boy may cover his shyness with nonchalance, with bravado, or with secrecy. And once...
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A busy work day after a long Memorial Day weekend, I was grateful it was interrupted midday by a lunch appointment with Steve. I was lost in space driving over to the downtown Monroe’s on Lomas when I realized I had drove past it on Central, and then made a long detour north up...
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Tonight, a “friend” of mine on Facebook provided a thoughtful post that I appreciated for its candidness. In preparation of the pruning of her friends list, she at least warned people that she was pulling in and trying to regain some focus in her life, and that some connections would be lopped this evening....
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