Dog Ear
October 8, 2020
ack when I worked as a summer hire for the Navy in Cubi Point, Philippines, Chief Mullens would always yell “Don’t just stand there with your pud in your hands!” The things you carry forward in life. So now, fifty years later, I’m in a world we could have scarcely imagined. We have/had space shuttles (I even worked on them), computers beyond imagination, an ability to travel the globe and a pandemic that came, in part, because of that. And now I’m an old guy, retired, and I’m out riding my thirty-mile ride. Everyone I pass on the trail, baby-pushers, […]
September 24, 2020
while ago I read a delightful short story from a collection from a going-out-of-business and lamented-over publisher. The story was Gelato Parlour, and was a very quirky story about a gentleman of adventure. You can read the review HERE. So that was a while ago. But the other day I received a very nice email from the author, Rose Biggin, telling me how much she appreciated my review (the one thing about reading quirky short stories from other people – you might be their only review and she implies I was). But I had been enthusiastically supportive of her story […]
September 17, 2020
ast night, a car came around a sharp corner behind our house, travelled 200 feet with perfect visibility, street lights, no rain, and managed to plow right into the back of a parked car. The debris field was scattered another 200 feet down the road and both cars needed to be towed. I’m willing to suspect, since external factors were nil, that the driver was either drunk, distracted, driving-too-fast, or drifting. You shouldn’t operate a motor vehicle in any of these states. Nor should you read a book in this condition. There are all sorts of books, brilliant books, world-changing […]
September 10, 2020
e used to love going to Juniors Diner, a little hole-in-the-wall place just around the corner from us. When I was working, we’d go in on Sunday and try to time it between the church rushes. Still, once it got discovered by the swells of Baldwin Park it really crowded up – there could be a forty-five minute wait for a table. Still worth it. We loved eating omelets slowly, drinking coffee and reading our books. Once I retired, we shifted to Thursday mornings. That made it a walk in for us, right over to our favorite booth. With lighter […]
August 27, 2020
uch of my last twenty years in business involved learning to write. Oh, not the whole thing about wine-dark seas and such; I already know how to wax descriptively. No, in this case, it was to write informatively. I was having to manage compliance issues across an organization situated across the globe. In this, email was the tool of choice; my requests and corrections involved too many people to one-on-one with a phone. However, to keep from having my email turn into a long thread of postings and counter-postings, I had to learn to make sure that information was conveyed […]
August 13, 2020
he heat was sheeting off the three eastbound lanes running towards Bithlo, Florida. I was in the right lane behind a massive pickup truck with all its proudly stickered vulgarities. Suddenly the trunk swerved its massive tires left, cutting into the center lane. In horror, I saw a guy on a hog (with no helmet) making an equally uncleared and unsignaled shift from the far left lane. Both spotted each other and locked up (I had to stop because the wide back end of the pickup was still in my lane). Then, like pitbulls, they screamed at each other, unmasked […]
August 6, 2020
know this is going to happen. Saturday after next is the deadline for the Journal Box, the model train newsletter I put out for the Southeast Region of the National Model Railroad Association. Just like all the ones I’ve done before, I’ll post out calls for articles and nobody will respond. I’ll get one or two, but not enough filler for 16 pages. And then, the day of the 15th, everything will come flooding in. Usually critical information will come in the day after deadline (with stern instructions to me to make room for this late piece). Always the same. […]