I hate it when people say that many middle-aged people “aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed.” It’s condescending, insulting, naive and just plain wrong. What I hate even more, though, is being one of those dull tools. Alas, there are times when I feel I’m struggling to stay in the shed, period.  This morning was a …more

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After a short lived affair as a cub scout, where I learned to leap out of trees badly, build shelters that collapsed and was never able to light fires by rubbing stones (or was it sticks?) together, as well an assortment of valuable life saving skills. I also learned to be kind and helpful to …more

Play ball! The season is underway again. Growing up, I was pretty good at baseball in our backyard if I could get by our dog, Lassie. When I was 9 or 10 years old, playing baseball on a borrowed high school diamond, I longed for our backyard. I was always sent to right field to …more

Let me ask you a dumb question. How many times have you heard someone say, “There’s no such thing as a dumb question.”? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. I’m pretty sure that remark was originated by some third grade teacher who wanted to encourage her kids to ask questions. Nothing is worse for …more

My 92 year old father still drives. I went on a website to get ideas on how to have the “talk” with him about giving up his car. I memorized my lines and started out. “Hey Dad, can you imagine that one day you won’t drive anymore?” According to the website, he would say “Yes” …more

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I like being old because I have the wisdom to be more forgiving of myself for all the mistakes I made in the past. I can also more easily forgive myself for the mistakes I continue to make on a daily basis. I am more aware now than ever before that as the imperfect human …more

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I just read an interesting statistic. The average US household uses 46 squares of toilet paper per person per day. Now based on the fact that the current US population is 313.9 million persons, that comes to about 14 billion squares per person per day – after adjusting downward for those persons who either use …more

Now that I’m retired and have plenty of time on my hands, there’s no excuse to turn down my eighty-nine year old mother when she wants or needs to be driven somewhere. It isn’t that I don’t enjoy spending time with her (a lie) but what really annoys me is having to hear all about …more