I started playing poker with a new group of guys in The Villages about six weeks ago. There’s a guy from Virginia, one from Pennsylvania, another from Maryland and three from New York. Nobody drinks alcohol. They’re focused on the cards. They take fifty cents from each pot until they reach twenty-five dollars (fifty hands), …
Author: Robert
March 30th
March 30, 1975, changed my life forever. Our first child, David, was born. Back in the seventies when a baby was born, it was potluck. There were no procedures for determining if your child was a boy, or a girl, or if they would have all their parts. You got what you got. While it’s …
He Turns One Today
Our youngest grandchild, Jackson James, turns one today. Ruth and I have traveled to California to see him four times this year. Our latest trip was last weekend. He wasn’t aware his birthday was a week away, so we celebrated a bit early. When you’re only one- year-old you have no real sense of time. …
Cowboy Ethics
Ruth and I recently watched “Yellowstone”. We’re Johnny-come-lately to the series, but once we got started, we binged watched every episode. Now we’re plowing through the prequel, “1883”. We’re equally impressed. We also attended the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas last December. Ruth has always been a fan of cowboys. She likes the broad …
Young Republicans
When I was a freshman in college, I met the guy on the top left of this picture. He was a junior at the time and had worked with my dad at Faygo Beverages in Detroit. I’ve forgotten his last name, but John was from Grosse Pointe. He liked my dad and loved Faygo, the …
It’s Just a Thought
When I set out to learn more about the Coleman Prison, I discovered the following. The prison complex sits on 1,600 acres and as of 2010 was the largest correctional facility operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. It housed more than 7,100 prisoners and had 1,300 employees. The prison has housed a variety …
I Had a Thought
Ruth and I purchased our first home in The Villages in 2004. Since then, we’ve owned four. Each was larger than the previous and in a new Village. In the process we’ve determined a 2,000 square foot home serves us best. I control about a hundred square feet including a recliner in the living room, …
Pocketknives
When I was ten or eleven, I played my first game of Mumbley-peg with my cousin Gene. Being four years my senior, and a pocketknife toting teen, he showed me the ropes on several of life’s major issues. Mumbley-peg was just one. He was the closest thing I had to a big brother. We played …
Basketball Flashback
Brady’s junior year basketball team hasn’t been as successful as they anticipated. They thought they had a good team, and perhaps they did, they just struggled to win games. The Michigan High School Athletic Association’s tournament begins for them on Wednesday so perhaps tournament time will be kinder than the regular season. Time will tell. …
Car Trouble
“Brady’s fine.” Those are words you want to hear; however, you suspect there might be a “but” coming. There was. Brady rolled his SUV a couple weeks ago and the first words out of David’s mouth when he called to tell us were “Brady’s fine. He rolled his car but came out of it without …