“The sooner you become more health conscious, the more likely you’ll live a long and healthy life.” Ready to become more health conscious now? This series of blogs is written by Mark Neese, LCSW, BCBA. To see more entries in this series, click here.
I walked 3.5 million steps during the past 12 months. The most steps in one day: 31,240. The most in one week: 113,443. The most in one month: 426,784. The longest streak of 10,000+ days: 16. The last three records were from September 2025. I walk a lot. I’m writing this episode at the Muhammad…
I was a Smartass in High School. My dearest friends today would probably say that I’m still a Smartass. I could cite several incidents in high school that prove my point, but the first one that comes to my mind involves Mr. Augsburger, my Senior Physics teacher. Boonville High School was a small, rural High…
My grandfather died when I was 13 years old. He was the first person that I knew to died. He was born in 1898 and died at the age of 69. The death certificate stated that cause of death was my grandmother (JK). In fairness, Grandpa wasn’t an easy person to live with. In a…
Religion can bring out the best in people and the worst in people. My two grandmothers spent most of their lives proving this point to me. Ida Louise and Lulu. One was a Catholic and the other was a Pentecostal. My father, like his father, had little interest in Pentecostalism and because he wanted to…
In the 1970s, if you were in the military and stationed in Korea, it was called a Remote Tour. That meant you were separated from your family for up to 13 months. Of course, in the 70s the only thing that existed was the Postal Service. There was no Internet. There was no e-mail. No…
The line wasn’t long. The secret is: Get to the DMV as early as possible. Another secret is: Move to a smaller county with a smaller DMV. After less than a 10-minute wait, Amy, the DMV worker, called me up and asked how she could help. “I need to renew my plates,” and handed her…
A Blue Dude Living in a Red Neighborhood I live in a Red State. And in a Red County. My neighborhood is mostly Red. It’s a small neighborhood. Not very diverse unless you count the 2 white-passing women with Middle Eastern descent. I’m very fond of one of them. Thus far, I have very little…
You need a map and a compass. And, you need to know where you are right now on the map. Use a compass to orient your map to the north. Line up the edge of the compass along the imaginary line to where you’re going. This gives you a bearing. If you’re in the woods,…
January 16, 1991, 4 PM EST I was sitting in my living room, watching on TV the beginning of the Gulf War. As a young teenager in the late 60s, I remember watching news clips of the Vietnam War, the death count for the day during Walter Cronkite’s Evening newscasts. But the Gulf War was…
I was asked to do several eulogies, as a young Baptist Minister, in the one-church town of Coahoma, Texas. I was asked to say some nice things for the recently deceased that were unchurched. This was during the bust of the 1980s and the joke was, “What do you call a Geologist in Midland?” Answer:…
