Two Gents' Worth
April 29, 2025
We have returned, one more time, to this great Heart of the American Heartland — Ames, Iowa. This time, our trek took five days, during which we traveled 2032 miles in mostly good spirits through eight states, had lunch with a former boss who happens to be the best one I ever worked for, ate…
Read More about The Midwest, AgainChevrolet summers, Dairy Queen nights. I can’t think of a better way to describe those glorious days and nights when I was growing up in the Valley – days and nights I’d give anything to be able to re-live. My guess is that you’re like me – that we look back on those “salad days”…
Read More about Summertime MemoriesI don’t know about you, but as I get older and older, I find that more and more things are making me grumpy. My long-suffering wife tells me that I am, in fact, officially becoming a Grumpy Old Man – an assertion I am resisting mightily because, as everyone around these parts surely knows, I…
Read More about Grumpy — Who, Me?Even 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