Category: Life Lessons

My sister, Jackie, gave me a book, which I still haven’t read, written by John Gottman and his wife, Julie Schwartz Gottman.  It was sitting on the counter a couple of weeks ago when my daughter, Elizabeth, came to visit.  She picked it up and said, “Oh, John Gottman. Nice.” I didn’t know anything about …

Last Thursday was a rough one. I went to my first funeral since Ruth’s Celebration of Life. One of our teaching friends, Irv, lost his wife, Elaine, the prior week. Irv was on Plainwell Junior High’s staff when Ruth and I started teaching in the fall of 1969. Elaine and Ruth had been students in …

  I know one poem by heart.  It was written by A. E. Housman and first published in 1896. It tells the story of a young man who failed to follow advice. When I Was One-and-Twenty When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, “Give crowns and pounds and guineas but not your …

Most schools are back in session, and if they’re not, they will be soon. It’s an exciting time of the year. I think most kids like school, not because of their love of knowledge, but because they want to be with their friends. It’s all about socialization. Ruth wasn’t a fan of going back. She …

If you read my blog, you can go back to the very beginning and read my first post from November of 2017.  I’ve written about all sorts of things.  The common theme is twofold.  The stories are about me, and everything is the truth as I remember it. If you’ve signed up on the website, …

I shared dinner a couple days ago with David (son), Lindsay (daughter-in-law), Elizabeth (daughter), Eva (granddaughter) and Donnie (Eva’s beau).  We were discussing the tip process that Eva follows at the restaurant where she works, and the commissions Donnie makes at a fragrance store.  I knew a little bit about tipping because all three of …

I wrote the bulk of this story last fall as Brady was preparing to begin his college career.  I saved the draft but never published it.  Several things got in the way, so it just sat there. When I first considered writing I thought I’d have to have about twenty stories written before I started …

I started this blog on November 19, 2017, when my friend, Ed, turned 100. My first story was about him. Our lives are a bit different now, but we’re both still moving forward.  This is my 700th tale and he’ll be 107 years old in November. A lot of things have changed since that first …

The Italian Chapel is a highly ornate Catholic chapel in the Orkney Islands. It was built during World War II by Italian prisoners of war who were housed there.  The chapel was constructed from limited materials. The bulk was taken from previously sunken ships. The ships were deliberately sunk by the Scots, and their Italian …

The biggest surprise from the cruise was our stop in the Orkney Islands in Scotland. That was our northern most visit. The countryside looks very different there. There aren’t a lot of trees compared to the other ports we visited, but there are several different types of grasses. That’s what I noticed first. We had …