In January of 1944, my dad was headed to the bus station to enlist in the Marine Corps. His father was taking him. He wanted to see the world. He spent most of his time on the USS Atlanta in the South Pacific. Thirty years later, he would be taking me to the bus station…
We received a phone call around 5:00 a.m. that Mom and Dad were missing. A tornado had completely flattened their trailer park community in Warrick County, just outside Evansville. On our drive over through southern Indiana, we received updates. The first update was that they had found Mom under the rubble of her mobile home….
If I remember anything about the pandemic, it was the empty shelves at Kroger. There was plenty of beer available. There was lots of Dasani bottled water on the shelves. Airport rental lots were full. No shortage of rental cars. There was plenty of chocolate hummus, plant-based sausage, and, most importantly, cauliflower-crust pizza. But toilet…
I recently turned seventy. I’m still getting used to saying that. Seventy has always sounded old to me. My grandparents were seventy. I would see old people sitting in McDonald’s drinking coffee. They were seventy. People who complain about their knees and have five doctors, they’re seventy. And now, so am I. The thing is,…
August 16, 2026. Nine hikers get lost near Indian Staircase in Red River Gorge. This report by Wolfe County Search and Rescue Team indicated that students from Indiana and Kentucky had hoped to watch the sunset from Indian Staircase but became disoriented by the numerous user trails. They sent a text to the rescue team,…
Sometimes your real superpower is realizing that you’re no longer a young man or young woman and then realizing that there are things that are better left for younger people to do. I’m sitting on the backside of the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Range, Wyoming. Quite a view. I woke up…
I’m 70 for exactly 12 months, and I’ve planned some adventures during this period. Adventure #1 I’m writing this at Gate 15 at Chicago Midway Airport on a layover to Colorado Springs. I’ll be there a couple of days and then go on to the Wind River Range in Wyoming for a five-day backpacking trip…
Two sobering things happened to me this week. The first was my Garmin watch announcing that my fitness age is 60. It uses my average resting heart rate, which has been 53 BPM, my body fat percentage, and the number of vigorous minutes and vigorous days I spend exercising. Turning 60 on my 70th birthday…
Forty people plus one. That’s how many took care of me this past week. Let me rewind 10 days. Monday, June 8 My wife and I were doing our regular after-dinner walk. You know, to help regulate our blood glucose. We walk three loops in our neighborhood, which is about a mile and a half….
“I wouldn’t want to be any other age than I am right now!” That’s what my mother said when she turned Seventy. I echo that. It really doesn’t seem that old to me, now. My Garmin watch says that my fitness age is 59.5 years old, but regardless I’m 70 and I’m learning to embrace…
