With the Olympics occuring this year, I recall the time in the past when after an Olympic competitor was done and they would patiently await their scores. As so often happened at times, politics sometimes would affect how the athlete was judged. To compensate for these biases the high and low scores were thrown out. I won’t be traveling to Paris this summer and I have never been certified to judge any event by any sport’s governing body but there are times that I can identify with that poor judge from East Germany who was always having their score thrown out. This travesty of justice tends to ..read more

Each week I participate in the FiveMinuteFriday.com challenge to write on a prompt word for five minutes. This week’s word is someday. I must admit that I wasn’t sure if it should be someday or some day so I did what I usually do when faced with a question I’m unsure of, I googled it. I was mildly surprised to discover the difference. Someday refers to an unspecified day in the future as in someday my prince will come. I have to confess that was the first thing that popped into my head when learning this week’s word. Not sure why because I’m definitely not waiting on royalty to come knocking a ..read more

“Charlotte’s Web” is a book that I loved as a kid that I also read to my kids when they were little. It’s the story of Wilbur the pig who hopes to avoid the fate of the average pig. The animals in the barnyard talk and plot of way to save Wilber including a talented web spinning spider capable of writing words. Her first “post” is a silken Some Pig. True to form, people come from all over and believe it must be true if it’s in print. When the furor dies down and the promise of bacon becomes tempting, the next web message is Terrific, followed by Radiant, and finally Humble. Wilbur’s life is sp ..read more

No, I’m not talking about West Virginia. The almost I’m referring to is the answer I received to many of the questions I asked our kids when they were younger. Is your room clean? “Almost, Daddy”. Almost tends to be a rather relative term because in fact their room actually resembled a nuclear test missile site. My son, who firmly believed that homework and many other school assignments were merely suggestions, would frequently answer almost when questioned regarding the completion status of school work. Translation: He was going to start it as soon as he finished making the perfect song mix f ..read more

Having survived three teens journey to adulthood, I had very few instances of being lonely. As a matter of fact about the only alone time I could manage when all three were at home was in the bathroom. Now that they have their own homes, it is just my wife and I so the opportunity to be by myself happens much more frequently. During our recent move, I experienced a bout with loneliness. The day we had movers loading up the bulk of our furniture, I was by myself in our former home. We had left my car at our new home about an hour away. We loaded my wife’s SUV and our son’s truck, who had come t ..read more

The title of today’s post is the first part of Popeye the Sailor’s catch phrase if you are unfamiliar with it. The entire quote of “That’s all I can stan and I can’t stands no more” was usually spoken when Popeye was in a bad way where upon he would inhale a can of spinach to make everything right. One week removed from our big move, I am fast approaching the point of I can’t stands no more. Let’s just in other words say that I have pretty much reached my limit. I have muscles aching that I didn’t even know I had. Fortunately our new home has a large barn but it resembles more of a warehouse f ..read more

Each Friday I participate in the FiveMinuteFriday.com challenge to write for five minutes on a prompt word. This week’s word is complicate. I usually try to complete the challenge on Friday but this week has been more than little unusual. We completed our move to be closer to our daughter, to be completely honest closer to our 2 1/2 year old and one month old granddaughters. We had lived in that home for nearly 29 years. We had movers move the vast majority of our furniture on Thursday but spent Friday packing, loading on a U-haul, and cleaning up the old house. I honestly believe someone was ..read more

When my oldest daughter got married, one thing she requested at her reception was Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets. We ordered them and they were to be delivered in plenty of time for the celebration. Like most father of the brides, I was busy running around putting out fires so I was glad to delegate the job of meeting the delivery to my brother. I assured him that everything was already taken care of and all he had to do was sign for it. Unfortunately the delivery was quite late and the reception was nearly over. It didn’t ruin the day but it did put a damper on it. Knowing how much Chick-fil-A v ..read more

With my wife and I having raised three kids, we were very familiar with the blame game. When something got broken or a mess was made, it was some times difficult to deduce who was to blame. The not me or the I don’t know was a common occurrence when something went wrong. Even when it was obvious who was responsible, the kids would look at me with angelic faces making every attempt to shift the blame away from themselves. They really couldn’t help it because even their father has been guilty of shifting blame away from himself. Years ago I had returned home from work. I was in the restroom when ..read more

I have had the distinct privilege of jumping through multiple hoops in attempting to obtain insurance coverage since I have retired. I never had to worry about either mine or my family’s medical insurance since it was obtained through my work. About a month before retirement, I applied on line. The online instructions stated that it would only take 2 to 4 weeks. Needless to say, it did not operate as advertised. I was supposed to be contacted if any further paperwork was required. I began checking the status at the two week period ever the optimist. After four weeks had passed, news whatsoever ..read more