This is Your Brain on a Hobby Last spring, I planned a camping trip with my three brothers. Really it was a short backpacking trip. I told them I was channeling my mother, as in, being an anchor for my siblings holding us together. The Aging Neese Boys We are all in our 60s and […]
I recently read Betty White’s book, “If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won’t).” It’s not a memoir. It’s more like a series of Hallmark Cards, very short chapters with a photo of Betty, and a pet or a friend, each chapter with a pithy answer to a question that we were all dying […]
“The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly,” by Margareta Magnusson I’m sitting at Muhammad Ali international airport, drinking a fancy drink from Starbucks, as I head to Colorado to visit my son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughters. After a five-day visit with my family, I’ll meet my wife at the Denver Airport, and then we’ll fly to Phoenix […]
This is Your Brain on The MIND Diet If you think you’ve got it bad, try being your pet! I’m sitting in our sunroom on this beautiful May morning. Hansel, our male kitty, has joined me. He loves the sunroom light in the mornings. I can hear him purring from across the room. He follows […]
Reflecting on: “Before I Forget: Love, Hope, Help, and Acceptance in Our Fight Against Alzheimer’s,“ by B. Smith, and Don Gasby. I spent a week this past year helping my older son move. I am almost 68, but a rather fit 68. All of us have helped someone move. Four days of grueling, backbreaking work. […]
A Real Man? It was a cartoon. Really, it was an advertisement for Joe Weider Protein Powder that was circulating when I was a high school junior. It might’ve been on the back cover of the Boys Life Magazine. The advertisement picture was of a young man and woman at the beach under an umbrella. […]
Elberfeld When I was eight years old, my father moved us to a 20-acre horse farm. He started raising horses a few years earlier and had gotten the idea he could make money boarding horses and providing riding lessons. Years later, he confessed that it was a bad idea. When I was nine, I was […]
I attended college in Portland Oregon. I lived in the upstairs of a house owned by Mr. and Mrs. Peters. 2705 Brooklyn St. Rent was $75 a month. It was 1980. I remember Mr. Peters was in his late 80s. He was sharp as a tack, always reading the Bible, always listening to Christian radio […]
So, You Can’t Find Your Keys? Forget About it! It was 1978. I was a sergeant in the Air Force, stationed at Osan, Airbase Korea. I was a dog handler, which means I was assigned a patrol dog, a German Shepherd named Static. Periodically, we engage in joint training exercises with the Republic of Korea […]
It’s All About The Engine First, it was our sump pump, then a leaky showerhead. Then, we lost shingles on our roof due to a windstorm and had to have our whole roof replaced. And now we have some doors that won’t shut completely. OK, you can tell me to stop my whining. It’s still […]
