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The day that follows sleep

I got up this morning and wondered what will the day bring. Each morning that I awake, I push myself from the bedclothes, I shake off the grogginess left by sleep. I move my legs towards preparing myself for the day – wash, shave, brush, comb, fresh clothes and so then it begins. What will […]

Learning can last a lifetime

One skill that has come in very handy for me since March is one that came into my life as a youth – cooking. While my normal routine in recent years has been a lot of meals out, the stationing at home the past few months required me to break out skills learned when I […]

Soap, a brush and a baseball bat

I held the Ivory soap close to my nose and breathed in deeply. There was nothing quite like the smell of a fresh bar of soap out of the package. The smell carried me back to my days of late summer evenings of avoiding my bath as a boy. Needless to say I would always […]

God’s favorite postman

I was needing a laugh, so I hope you will join me as I recall an early music experience. Throughout history, God has used many ways to send messages to us, angels, Moses, Jesus and others. I find one of his most interesting messengers is the weather. When I was a child, I once appeared […]

The good news will outweigh the bad

If you’ve watched a lot of news reports, especially since many stories air over and over again at noon, 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 and 11:00, and every hour in between, you may soon come to believe that the world is in terrible trouble. Violence, crime and tragedies permeate everywhere you look. How many of you have […]

Are you as tired of cleaning as I am?

Yesterday, I laid down on the floor to clean underneath a desk and I am almost sure the dust bunnies were conducting a performance of “Richard II.” You would have thought considering their namesakes at least they would have been doing something from the writings of Beatrice Potter or “Alice in Wonderland.” But the battles […]

We don’t do that here anymore

Have you ever taken your shoes to be worked on? Does anyone do that anymore? I remember when fixin’ shoes was cheaper than buyin’. Of course, back then they were quality made and lasted a long time if cared for properly. I’ve been looking for a brand-new pair of blacks and a brown for about […]

A new norm?

As our country moves forward from the plan of flattening the curve, we all find ourselves in a new normal. Perhaps new to us, but not to our ancestors. Just as we endured the Swine Flu as a nation a decade ago without any of the approaches, we have tried this time around, prior, we […]

A comb, a mirror and a brush

As young Pearl sat quietly on the edge of the bed, the red, white and green patchwork quilt wrapped around her feet to ward off the chill of the January frost laying heavily upon fields of brown grass around the homestead below the Gravelly Spur mountain, she stared endlessly over the shoulder of her mother […]

The trip to town with country kin

I drove through my town today and saw our shop owners with their doors open with some sitting outside anxiously awaiting customers to stop in. It is an unusual time in all our world. As many communities prepare to open in stages, I think back upon a funny story about some of my country kin. […]