My Portfolio

  On The Topic of Death…             It is natural for the living to seriously contemplate death from time to time.  Very few will challenge the fact that in this life, youth is the natural beginning and death is the natural end.  The only real "experts" on death… I suppose… are...

  SHOW AND TELL…             One day after I returned from work, Michael, my youngest, came up to me bashfully and asked me if I was going to be busy Friday.  I thought about it a moment.              I told him that I was doing something, but asked what was on...

  The Gift of Life… It Ain't What It Used To Be… I work with a great guy, and he is the first one to volunteer to help around the community.  He has his reasons for not supporting some organizations, as he will tell you.  But get him launched on a...

  ALBERT BIERSTADT: On A Grand Scale So, you say you never heard of Albert Bierstadt, eh?  That's what you think.  You probably know his work, though you may not think of him right away.  His story is unusual.  No starving pauper, this artist; no tragic life to season his talent,...

         When I was a boy growing up in Somerton, Arizona, I fancied myself to be vastly more skilled in the art of athletic competition than I was, and I suffered significantly for my foolishness.      For example, I played football as a boy, and couldn't make...

             Once upon a time, when I did what real men do, I was a Cobra (gunship) pilot.  And I was driving back from an airfield where I was the safety officer in charge of some REAL cosmic stuff, and I noticed a pilot walking along,...

  WANTED: Hero.  No Experience Necessary ...      Have you ever noticed how the only rotten kids always live down the street?  I mean, YOU're kid… MY kid… they are learning, having problems, working them out.  It is all part of growing up, gaining maturity.  But the kid down the street…...

                                             On Soaring with the Eagles…      Okay, the dang kid was… Well, he was sort of a jerk, actually.  For years.  And he was always very independent, until...

  PERSPECTIVE      We have reached an apex of history which will never be understood by future generations.  The disintegration of the Communist block of nations may continue until they are forgotten, a concept this generation finds unimaginable, but which is true, non-the-less.      Communism may become forgotten.  Incredible.      The...

  On Getting The Right Attitude...           No one can make you happy, or unhappy.  You may become that way, but trust me, 95% of the time, you will shape your happiness with your attitude.  And it is only a matter of convenience just how offended you can be about some...

  Oh @%+*&!  (Darn!!) Engine Failure in the Dark Once, in 1984… just north of a little place called Badger Gap… near Yakima, Washington, I had an engine failure.  At night.  I got real scared.  It is embarrassing to tell you just how scared a man can be and still maintain...

               In my spare time I do some volunteer work as a secretary for a fairly large church organization.  There is always someone to do for, as there was one day recently.             I arrived late, and I found a little girl quietly minding her...

  You Never Know Who He'll be Tomorrow…       I have a few talents I brag about… but there have been moments when I have seen, recognized and accurately understood the potential of people or events… even before the wise and savvy remainder of the community.      ...

Fur                           The Louisville Slugger Philosophy on Life…         One day in… I don’t remember when… my oldest daughter, then age 15 years, 11 months and 28 days, came to me with a legal size yellow pad, a pencil and...

  FUR           My wife and I had wanted a little piece of farm land for years, and we ended up buying a 14 acre piece which was crowned with the biggest mistake of our marriage: a small, used double-wide mobile home.           Now, don't take offense, ye salespersons of "manufactured...