Happy Birthday Old Friend

“Buster” turned fourteen years old yesterday, officially surpassing his breed’s normal lifespan. Happy Birthday old friend. I owe you a great deal.

It’s My Turn

It was a crisp fall morning and I was walking towards my truck when a young boy ran up to me. “There’s trouble, sir! Come quick!” I stared down at the boy. “What kind of trouble?” “Mr. Johnson’s being robbed.” I looked at the general

Motivation

It was 2:00 AM on a hot and humid night and I was driving home after spending an evening with friends. The heavy and dank air kept fogging up my windshield and no amount of fiddling with the A/C or rolling down the windows would

The Other Side of Light

I was relaxing at my parent’s house in Pennsylvania when my dog, Felix, began whinnying and pawing at the door. “You have to go out?” I said. Felix’s reply was a short bark. Hauling myself off the couch, I slipped on my shoes and opened

Spinning The Trivial and Unique Away

My wife was sick as a dog on Tuesday so I had to take my daughter to day care. As we drove towards her school I noticed my daughter was very quiet. Turning down the jazz playing on the radio I looked at her in

Letter of Last Resort

My friend Mike was a sailor on a “boomer” – a ballistic nuclear submarine. After spending most of his youth underwater on a reactor powered vessel crammed with nuclear warheads he likes to joke that he still glows in the dark. “So what was the

Torches & Pitchforks

A few months after we moved into our new house I got a tax assessment letter from Town Hall declaring that my home had doubled in value. That was good news and bad news. The good news was the new assessment roughly equated to the

Police Car

I work for a town government and we have rules. One of those rules is that you cannot use a personal vehicle when conducting town business. If you need to go somewhere you have to sign out a municipal vehicle. The first time I ever

Man of Faith

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I decided to give Peach Dish, one of those online “dinner in a box” companies, a try. I selected two dishes from their slick website, paid with my Amazon account and within a few days a large

Shogun of Suds

I’m forty-seven years old and I’ve never owned a washing machine. Once I moved out of my parents’ house life was one Laundromat after another. When I think of all the quarters I dropped into washing machines of dubious sanitary quality I probably could’ve bought