The most difficult and painful part of being dog lovers is when your beloved pet’s all-too-short lifespan comes to an end. That awful time came (again) for my family last Friday afternoon when one of our two dogs – a beautiful golden retriever, Sierra, barely just 10 years-old – took her last breath and was […]
Writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau once observed that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Being self-employed for the past 14-plus years (not to mention raising four kids, two of whom are still in college), I know intimately about being in a state of quiet desperation. Trust me. And yet, I tend […]
Pop question: What was happening in the world 25 years ago this week? President Ronald Reagan was considering a military strike against Libya due to Moammar Gaddafi’s involvement in a Berlin disco bombing. (Will this dangerous madman ever go away?) The Lakers played against the Sacramento Kings without Kareem Adbul-Jabbar who was out with a […]
If you’re a fan of scary movies, you’ve likely hunkered down in your seat as a familiar scene plays out on the screen. You know the one – where unsuspecting merchant seamen or long-haul truckers are transporting a huge and not nearly secure-enough enclosure with some unknown “thing” inside. They only know that something live […]
Because Utah, Idaho and Montana have real winter weather, unlike the balmy, equatorial-like conditions we often have in Southern California during our “winter” months, I did not want my University of Montana student son to drive back to school from Christmas break (uh-oh, politically incorrect term alert!) by himself. Experienced driver that he may be, […]
I’ve been writing “My Thoughts, Exactly” once a week for several years now. Over the course of nearly 150 columns, I’ve extolled, criticized, expressed outright sarcasm, dished out a bit of humor (hopefully), and admitted to wonderment, optimism, hope, concern, frustration and despair about any number of things. I’ve griped about mail carriers and trash […]
Since any given new year inevitably brings about discussion of the passage of time, I want to bring up a frustration that’s been tick, tick, ticking for, well, some time now. Namely, I can’t seem to find someone to repair a clock. The clock in question is a somewhat large, “grandmother” clock that used to […]
With yet another Christmas now behind us (wait, wasn’t it just Labor Day a couple of weeks ago?), it’s time for that dreaded, though much-anticipated end-of-the-year tradition of making resolutions. Buckle up. Here we go: I resolve to not throw my plate of holiday leftovers through the flat screen TV when I see the 673rd […]
For whatever reason, this month I find myself running out of time, energy and festive fortitude much, much quicker than in previous years. I’m not alone. Perusing Facebook the past few weeks, it seems as though many of us are putting lights up later (mine still aren’t up as I write this), waiting until the […]
It’s that most wonderful time of the year – when conservatives lament the ever-escalating “war on Christmas” and liberals/progressives ridicule the very idea that any such movement exists. The most recent skirmish in this ongoing cultural battle was waged early this month in Southlake, Tex., a suburban community northwest of Fort Worth. The local branch […]