More than thirty years ago, my best buddy was a guy named Vic. In fact, Vic and I still get together for dinner about once a year, when he and his wife, Nancy, drive down from Elkhart, Indiana, to my neck of the woods, for some vacation time.

Back then, Vic’s sister-in-law (Nancy’s sister), Paula, had multiple sclerosis.

From what I understand, Paula had been a perfectly healthy young woman until she became stricken with MS (as a [more...]

I used to keep a light-up pen on my bedside table, so that if I woke up from a dream that gave me an idea for a story or a song — or just a cool idea about life — I could immediately write it down.

I’ve had a lot of those types of dreams.

But I think I only had the presence of mind to write something down once.

Last night, I had a dream in which I was hanging out with former [more...]

One night, a couple of months ago, I noticed that Petey, our cat, was crying in his litterbox.

So, the next morning, I took him to the vet, thinking that maybe he had a bladder infection.

The vet examined him and said that everything looked and felt normal, so it probably wasn’t an infection.

But I asked for him to [more...]

I was still awake at the stroke of midnight, when my birthday started.

Laying in bed, I was cuddling Max in the crook of my left arm; with my right hand, I was petting Bud as he lay in his doggie bed, on the floor next to my side of the bed. Petey was laying on my wife’s hip as she slept.

We all slept-in late this morning.

Then, I fed all of the pets their breakfast, let the dogs [more...]

Most dogs immediately start running and jumping around, and turning in excited circles when you ask them if they want to go for a ride in the car.

A couple of years ago, my wife and I started a new tradition with Max. I work every Saturday morning, but nearly every Sunday morning, we take him for a ride in the car.

Sometimes we drive down the scenic coastal road for awhile. Other times, we take the bridge into the city and then turn around and head home. Still other times, we drive to our local [more...]

When I was a kid, that’s what all of my friends would ask after Christmas every year.

Then we’d all describe the coolest new toys we had received.

And ridicule the relatives who had cluelessly given us clothing or pajamas.

When I became an adult, important Christmas activities quickly evolved from “What’dya get?” to “What’dya give?”

That’s when I learned [more...]

They’ve been on the market for years, but my wife and I still don’t own a digital LCD TV.

All of our TVs are the old, analog, CRT models, and they all still work just fine.

Two of our TVs have only a coaxial (cable TV) jack.

While the one in our living room has both a coaxial jack and composite video and audio jacks.

No DVI. No HDMI. Not even [more...]

I’ve never gotten such a sweet deal before in my life.

And I’ll probably never get another one like it.

A few days ago, one of the students at work told me that she had landed a job at a brand new Dunkin’ Donuts shop that’s less than a mile away.

The store’s grand opening is scheduled for today.

But, she explained, last night, they were going to [more...]