I was in the front yard of the Salvation Army in Lewisville talking to Steve Thomas when my phone buzzed. We were excitedly making preparations to construct a Prayer Garden on Main Street and I had no intention of interrupting our discussion. I glanced at the screen...
On my trip to Tennessee a couple of months ago, Dad gave me Mom's journalings. They aren't a proper journal. She was wildly inconsistent in capturing her thoughts and only began the attempt at the age of fifty-seven. They are a jumbled assortment of stapled pieces of...
It has been almost twenty years since September 11, 2001. Everybody refers to that day simply as 9/11, but it wasn't always like that. That fated day started like any other, normal, autumn day. I was leaving my plant's daily production meeting when our HR Manager...
It only could have happened in 2020. On the off chance that someone picks up this post thirty years from now and reads it, they will never be able to fully appreciate that introduction. It will be like a funny story that you tell a friend who just stares back at you...
"Jimmy, when we meet my sister for dinner tonight, she wants to see if you can fix her clock." That seemed like an unusual request since I know absolutely nothing about clocks. "It is an heirloom she inherited. It was a source of special pride for Mom and Pam...
The video of George Floyd's death by Minneapolis policemen is horrific. It documented the law officers we have entrusted with our justice as they kill a black man with the casual regard of an everyday arrest. All other news stories have stopped while our country's...
My last post, My Champion of Freedom, was a proclamation of the heroism my grandfather, James McAfee, displayed and my gratitude for his sacrifice. Although his story ended on a battlefield 75 years ago, his legacy was only beginning, and that is today's story. James...
Kim and I drove to Tennessee over Memorial Day weekend to walk through Mom and Dad's house. As I mentioned in my last post, Dad is planning to move into a smaller place and needs to let go of some of the memories that my Mom spent a lifetime acquiring and organizing...
Every morning at 5:50am, Mr Coffee beeps three times to alert me that it has finished its scheduled task. Although the coffee maker is downstairs and across the house, it is loud enough to wake me up. I don't usually get out of bed though. I like to lay drowsily for...
It is becoming clear that the COVID-19 pandemic is going to be with us a lot longer than anyone originally anticipated. In some way, it has touched every life. In the United States, the latest reports indicate 1,350,000 infections and 80,000 deaths, with the totals...
This past Friday was May 1st, 2020. It will be remembered as the day our country began to reopen. State-by-state there are differences in definition of the reopening, but light has begun to crack through the grip COVID-19 has held over our planet. The threat is not...
In my last post (The Lockdown Continues, part 1), I shared how frustrating lockdown can be and meant every word of it. I am so tired of Facebook that I don't ever want to see it again for 6 hours a day. There is nothing worth watching on Netflix now that I have seen...