Category Archives: Uncategorized

When, after a full meal, a taste of dessert whets an insatiable appetite for a month of meals, one regrets dessert. Well, not always. We spent half the day and the evening yesterday with friends in Franklin, Tennessee. The “full … Continue reading →

The time fast approaches for our tamalada, the tamale party we offered to our church auction. The offering garnered three winning bids, so we’ll have three couples joining us on Cinco de Mayo (cheesy cultural appropriation, I know, but it’s … Continue reading →

We spent much of the day wandering toward Tupelo, Mississippi, mostly on back roads in Arkansas and Mississippi. Except for the occasional spawn of satan (let me go on record that I do not believe in satan, but I do … Continue reading →

I spent the majority of the day yesterday undertaking what I expected to be a one or two hour job to repair to the wood floor in the master bath. The job is not complete, nor will it be complete … Continue reading →

Our Meatless Tuesday is here again, earlier this month because it changed from the fourth to the third Tuesday. This was our first time hosting the group and this Tuesday also represents the last day of my wife’s volunteer tax preparation … Continue reading →

Have you ever wondered, after learning of reactions to something you said or wrote, whether you came across as unlikable? Or that, maybe, what you said or wrote didn’t come across as you intended? Or that your attempts to be … Continue reading →

I’ve never been a big sports fan. I can’t explain why. My folks watched football and baseball on television (after we finally got television), and some of my siblings were big fans of team sports. But I’ve never been a … Continue reading →

We had grand plans. Dinner at Bones Chophouse, a new place said to be an old-fashioned steak house that sears prime-and-better beef on steel heated to sixteen hundred degrees. I’ve seen photos of their rib-eye steaks that made my mouth … Continue reading →

I wasn’t finished. Apparently I hit “post” too early. So, I’m finishing my thoughts and posting for the second time this morning. Yesterday afternoon, I attended an artists’ reception at which the winning entries for an art show were announced. … Continue reading →

Today is our thirty-eighth anniversary. We lived together before we got married, but neither of us remembers for just how long. So, we’re celebrating thirty-eight years, but it could be forty or more. I’m grateful that we’ve “clicked” for so … Continue reading →

Mundane days appeal to me sometimes. Those days that just rock along at a comfortable pace without dragging or spinning into chaos—they are the ones responsible for helping smooth my numerous rough edges. Yesterday was one such day, though I … Continue reading →

My wife is, by far, the more rational of the two of us. She’s compassionate, but rational about compassion. I’m rational, but compassion swallows my rationality and digests it in less than the time it takes my heart to complete … Continue reading →

If I weren’t involved in a thirty-eight-year-long marital relationship, when I awoke this morning just after 4 a.m. I might have thrown a few clothes in a bag, tossed the bag in the car, and headed west. That’s what I … Continue reading →

I hit post instead of save for this piece of fiction I began writing. Never mind.  😉   “No one can love a person who doesn’t love himself. That’s been drummed into me since I don’t know when. I guess … Continue reading →

Tonight—I suppose last night is the more appropriate term, given the time of day—is/was another odd one. I went to bed early, just after 10:00 p.m., and fell asleep quickly. But I awoke around 1:00 a.m. After tossing and turning … Continue reading →

We’re entering a tumultuous season, that time of year in which graphs of daily temperature  variations look like jagged evidence of the stock market reacting to chaotic economic news. It’s hard to dress appropriately when temperatures zig-zag between 38 and 78 … Continue reading →

I’ve admitted it openly, both to myself and to the Facebook universe: I want to start another business. I don’t have the details worked out, but I know I want to do it. My entrepreneurial blood has felt confined and … Continue reading →

While searching online for a recipe for carne guisada this morning, I came across one on a “mommy-loves-to-cook-and-write-about-the-challenges-of-motherhood” blog. I scrolled past paragraph after paragraph and photo after photo before I finally came to the recipe. It seemed a little … Continue reading →

My niece called me this afternoon while my wife and I were eating an early dinner. We had stopped at the Bubba’s Catfish-2-Go food truck for fried shrimp, fried okra, and fries (a fry-fest, I guess). Just as I was biting … Continue reading →

I just watched an episode on CNN of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown that brought tears to my eyes. Seriously, it presented a city (indeed, a region) in which I spent eight unhappy years in an entirely different light. The city … Continue reading →

I wonder whether, given the opportunity in my thirties or forties or fifties, I would have moved to Mumbai? When I was an undergraduate in Austin in the mid 1970s, a friend and I talked about going to India. Our … Continue reading →

I read a question posed on Quora recently, asking whether something might be “wrong” with a person who others generally don’t like. A respondent then described a young woman who’s intelligent, witty, socially aware, confident, and physically attractive but who … Continue reading →

I sit in my study (the term is more appealing than “the guest bedroom”) staring out the window at the rain and fog. We’ve had days and days of very heavy rains. All the lakes are full and streams overflowing … Continue reading →

Yesterday’s fierce rains, still continuing but to a much lesser extent, have filled lakes, reservoirs, and roadways. The police and sheriff’s departments have issued warning about inundated roadways and impassable streets. Some water crossing roads may conceal wash-outs. The bottom … Continue reading →

This will be repetitious if you’ve been around here for awhile. It’s even getting tiresome to me, and I’m the one thinking and writing it. I embarrass myself when I cannot conceal tears that reveal my inability to rein in … Continue reading →