It was a Sunday and we had decided to take a road trip. My wife Kathie and I both love small towns so we decided to explore some towns we had never visited before. But as we began our journey I just wasn’t feeling it. Exploring small towns just didn’t seem to be the thing to do on this particular Sunday. Looking back I realize that feeling was a premonition of what was about to take place. We were traveling…..
It was fifty-seven years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. We were gathered around our family’s kitchen table visiting with Mr. Findlay. He was in the process of negotiating with my Dad for the purchase of our family home. Dad had been forced to sell the farm and it had become the property of the Federal Wetlands. That required that all the farm buildings had to be removed and the farm relinquished back to nature. I was…..
I have always admired one of nature’s amazing creatures the hummingbird. Nature’s ‘helicopter’ describes this delicate little bird that hovers, flies in reverse seemingly as easily as it flies forward and does it all with astonishing speed. Around our yard they are very rare and when one is spotted our whole family crowds to the windows, noses pressed against the glass watching the little bird’s acrobatics as it searches the flowers for nectar. I have been feeding birds for many…..
Seven years ago I received a blow to my ego but as the years have passed my bruised ego has fortunately begun to heal. The moment the injury occurred I realized it had been my ego that had taken the hit. But just to be sure I grabbed my iPad and asked it for a definition of the word ego. I have never been able to stump my iPad and it quickly responded, “a person’s sense of self-esteem or self…..
Spring is one of my four favorite seasons of the year. Yep, there’s something to love about all four seasons. But spring can be the most frustrating. As I’m sitting down to write this blog I am exhausted. I’m not sure if it’s because I just finished planting the garden this morning or because I’m still recovering from the eighteen holes of golf I played yesterday afternoon. Actually it might be a combination of the two. There is also the…..
One of the first investments I made when I retired from teaching was to buy a metal detector. I have not used it as much as I’ve wanted to however. It seems golfing, writing blogs, gardening, lawn work, Facebook, Hallmark movies and marketing books have tended to dominate my waking hours. This weekend I decided it was time to get the twenty year old metal detector out of the closet, replace the batteries and go exploring. Again I faced the…..
I had a sizeable amount of cash stored in an online bank. Well, okay to me it was sizeable, to many of my readers it might just be considered a pittance. Since it was part of my ‘rainy day’ savings I did not frequent the account. I just assumed it would be safe and available should the time arise when it would be needed. Then I got a call from my income tax lady who was in the process of…..
Perhaps I’m using the word ‘friendship’ a little loosely as I begin this blog. It was a very short friendship as I look back on the experience. It began in the early summer of 1961 and it lasted about two minutes and thirty seconds. Okay, okay I realize this needs a little clarification. I had just completed my junior year in Clinton High School. My two brothers and I had just begun our summer jobs working for a farmer throwing…..
As I mentioned in my last blog a six year writing stint for Minnesota Out Of Doors became my big break in getting my material published. That experience led to the production of the three volumes of Children In The Outdoors and an opportunity to travel the four state area putting on teacher workshops. But nothing lasts forever. In 1991 the magazine had financial problems and after a discussion with the editor I decided to retire the column. I did…..
I remember the day I decided to become an author. I was in the sixth grade and several classmates and I were gathered around a bulletin board viewing bird reports. Our teacher Mrs. Sager had placed several especially well written ones on display and mine was one of them. What happened next demonstrates the power each of us has with our words. One of my classmates, I don’t even remember which one of my female classmates it was but she…..
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