Two Gents' Worth
November 23, 2024
We moved out of Fresno more than a year ago, but find occasion to return every now and then — mostly for doctors’ appointments. Yes, it’s difficult to grow older, and the need for doctors’ visits seemingly takes up more and more of “retirement” time. But we make that effort and take that time so…
Read More about Fresno, RevisitedEven though we moved away from Fresno a year ago, we still go back every month or so for a variety of reasons. And so it was that I found myself having Starbucks coffee at Fig Garden Village this past Thursday with my buddy Bud Elliott, who not only is the co-proprietor of this blogsite…
Read More about Skills? Yeah, Right
When our Year of Grace 2018 was born at midnight last Dec. 31, people all across this great globe of ours stayed up late to mark the grand occasion. They cheered a lot, and maybe they sang a lot, and perhaps they drank a lot, and they did this in Tokyo and Beijing and Moscow…
Read More about Ring In the New…
“‘Twas Christmas broached the mightiest ale; ‘Twas Christmas told the merriest tale; A Christmas gambol oft could cheer The poor man’s heart for half the year.” ** Frosty nights around our Central Coast retirement neighborhood now. If we had a fireplace, three logs would be burning until bedtime. Shiny Christmas bulbs on shrubs and trees…
Read More about Christmas, Again“Over the river and through the woods To Grandmother’s house we go…” I’ve heard the words to that delightful song almost all my life, and they express a wonderful sentiment, indeed. In fact, I’m pretty sure that every time I’ve listened to them, I’ve visualized being in a horse-drawn sleigh at Thanksgiving. My dad’s piloting…
Read More about Thanksgiving ThoughtsIn recent days, friends in Ames, Iowa, have asked us what it’s like, living in California right now – given, among other things, our recent destructive wildfires that wiped out an entire town, burned thousands of homes and resulted in dozens of deaths. And let’s not forget – as if we could – that mass…
Read More about Two States of LivingIt’s not supposed to happen around these parts. But it has happened, and it has shocked folks in this great Heart of the American Heartland, Ames, Iowa. The talk of this town today — and in many nearby towns — is the killing of 22-year-old Iowa State University student and star golfer Celia Barquin-Arozamena, whose…
Read More about Murder in Iowa
A funny — no, not “ha, ha” funny, but highly unusual — thing took place this past Saturday night here in the great Heart of the American Heartland, Ames, Iowa. We had a whole lot of rain. And a whole lot of lightning. And a whole lot of thunder. Now, none of that is atypical…
Read More about Canceled in the Heartland
I met Iowa’s newest — and one of its only — neighborhood ice cream truck drivers this past Friday night. I was out walking on that lovely evening through the Roosevelt neighborhood in Ames — where we had lived decades ago — when I heard what sounded like music from an ice cream truck. Surely,…
Read More about The Ice Cream Man Cometh
We went back to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines this past Friday to see if things had changed much since we had last been there. Considering the last time we were there was back in 1979 or ’80, you might think things would look a whole lot different. And they likely did —…
Read More about State Fair, Iowa Style