Category: Life Lessons

We held a Celebration of Life for Ruth yesterday in Florida.  We’ll hold a second in Michigan in June.  Each member of our family had something to say, but we knew the words would catch in our throats, so we produced a video to share with the attendees.  We recorded our words and added several …

My first blog was about “Ed”.  I published it on November 19, 2017.  It was my first attempt at writing for an audience. It was about my friend who turned 100 years old that day.  He turned again yesterday.  He’s 105.  No matter how long I live, I’ll never meet another man like him.  He …

Everyone who knows me well, knows I hate to buy cars.  Buying cars and going to the dentist are my two least favorite things to do.  I bought a car on Monday, and I’m going to the dentist on Thursday.  I thought I should get it all done in one big $#!)(& week.  I’ve had …

My parents took a trip to Hawaii while I was working in Addison.  I’m not sure of the year, but they left in the fall.  I was at a conference in Dearborn just prior to the trip, so I stopped in one evening to see them.  They were excited, shared some minimal trip details, and …

Ruth is a Tegestologist.  She hasn’t always been one. Her compulsion began like most.  She had one and then another. She could have walked away, but she chose not to.  Addiction is difficult to handle on your own and there are no support groups for Tegestologists. She came down with the affliction twenty-five years ago …

A little black book is a notebook containing an individual’s contacts and their personal information.  Like many phrases containing the word black, this one refers to something mysterious.  People sometimes refer to a journal, or part of a journal, as their black book or little black book. Some have been known to be full of personal secrets that might be …

The following summer, Ruth, the three kids, and I planted a garden in a community plot a few miles from our house.  We thought it would be a good learning experience for David, Elizabeth and Michael.  The gardening project was sponsored by Jackson Community College.  The college prepped the land, provided access to water, and …

Our first summer as a married couple, Ruth and I lived on Kalamazoo’s Stockbridge Avenue, and I decided to plant a garden.  I’d never planted one before but thought it couldn’t be that difficult, so I dug up a ten-by-ten patch of earth behind our garage.  I just turned over the soil, did my best …

I had my first interaction with a transexual during the early 80’s.  I was the middle school principal in Addison and a mom made an appointment with me to discuss transferring her son to our school.  She came into my office and took a seat. She explained she wanted to transfer her son to Addison …

I’ve been thinking about my dad a lot. He lived to be seventy-nine and a half. I’m four and a half years short of his mark. Although I made a deal with my mom to live at least as long as she did, there’s no guarantee I’ll make another eighteen years. That’s the goal, but …