Together, Again


Yes, that picture topping this page is that of my friend Mr. Elliott and myself, enjoying this delightful late-winter Thursday afternoon at Fig Garden Village in Fresno.

It was the first time Bud and I have gotten together in a few months. It’s not that — in our retirement from the wild and wacky world of broadcast journalism — we’ve been terribly busy.

But we have been tied up. As Bud related — honestly and painfully — in his most recent writing on this site, he has spent the past couple of years, navigating a difficult series of health challenges.

If you haven’t read it — take the time.  The link is at the bottom of this page.  Then hope you never go through what Bud has.

The truth is — we’ve both been spending more time than we’d like, going to and from doctors’ offices. As we both said during this Thursday’s outing, we had never been to so many doctors until we retired. After that — oh, brother.

And the beat keeps going on. Going to doctors is, we have discovered, what you do when you get to what we hate to call “old age.” But there’s no denying we’re old now, and we keep doctors on speed-dial.

In addition to all those medical visits, there was, of course, the coronavirus. That kept both of us — and likely you, too — “out of circulation,” so to speak. No dining out. No going anywhere with crowds. Learning how to get food — and almost anything else — delivered to our homes — and learning to get most of our entertainment from our TV’s.

Yes, it was a whole new world for our wives and ourselves.  

What all this is meant to say is — this Thursday’s get-together was special for both Bud and me. We talked, as always, about “everything.” Broadcasting? Of course.  Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine? How could we avoid that?

And our respective health escapades, naturally.

It was a sunny, if somewhat chilly, afternoon. But the coffee was warm, the pastries were sweet — and our conversation was just what we needed to make us both feel better — perhaps even good.

And, yes, we’re going to continue this little blogsite, because it’s hearty medicine for much that might ail us. We like writing — after all, we made our careers doing that. So we’ll keep this going as long as we can.

We hope that’s a long time, indeed — and that you’ll see fit to come along for the ride.