We all know that we live in an era of astounding technological change.

Many of the technologies that we take for granted every day might have been considered miracles when our parents were young; completely unimaginable when our grandparents were young — and witchcraft when their grandparents were young.

For example, if it weren’t for [more...]

Alzheimer’s disease steals the future from millions of Americans. It robs spouses of their companions and children of their parents and grandparents; it erodes the health and financial resources of caregivers.

During the past few years, Alzheimer’s disease has taken away two of my close relatives. [more...]

Regular readers of this Journal know that I’m a domestic violence survivor.

They also know that, after enduring decades of abuse from my biological family, my wife and I finally cut off all contact with them more than four years ago, and moved on with our lives. Afterward, as part of our healing, we legally changed our last name. Yesterday was the [more...]

This morning, a good friend of mine died.

I met James in January of 2004. He was the maintenance man at the trailer park where my wife and our pets and I lived for 6 months when we first moved to the Sunshine State.

Everyone in the park knew him and he was [more...]

I think the cheapest car my wife and I ever bought was back in the late 1970s, when we spent $200 on a 1966 Volkwagen Beetle — the last of the 6-volt Beetles — that wouldn’t even start.

That was all we could afford at the time, so that was what we bought.

I learned a lot about fixing cars — and more specifically, [more...]