Here we go again, with 2016 in the rearview mirror and 2017 standing right in the middle of the road in front of us. Prepare for impact. I don’t have any words of wisdom, and if I were to honestly share my hopes and dreams for the new year, without going into detail or naming […]
A Different Drummer: Giving gifts that keep on giving
If you could only buy one gift for someone, would it be practical or fun? Would it be a work of art or a down payment on a car? What would you rather receive, a wildly creative sculpture for your living room that elicits appreciative remarks from guests, or a set of power tools for […]
A Different Drummer: TMI
Fake news, unnecessary news, and essential news are horribly stirred together in today’s world of information. The problem was that not enough people read the news and preferred to be uninformed beyond the evening network half-hour summaries, the front page of the local paper, or whatever the radio said on the ride to work. Now […]
A Different Drummer: I’ve got ‘Transport Fever’ fever
Our household is in the midst of Christmas shopping. Susan and I have a few gifts stuffed in the closet, but we have quite a few more to figure out. So far we haven’t left the comfort of our home. Amazon Prime has been dropping boxes off as quickly as we think of things to […]
A Different Drummer: Top Ten Cultural Flaws
There are a few significant flaws in our culture that keep us from enlightened understanding of what’s really going on in the good old USA and the world at large: 1. Lack of understanding history and being able to spot trends and connect dots. Many of us only have the limited scope of history taught […]
A Different Drummer: Building a family roof
I’ve been two weeks at a barn raising, of sorts. A few months ago, my Sacramento son-in-law Chad commented around the camp fire of a pending expense he had to replace his family’s roof. He wasn’t sure where to get the money, and wasn’t hinting. Sue and I had just paid $14,000 for our smaller […]
A Different Drummer: In defense of small-town Trump supporters
Now that the elections are over and nothing can be done about that, I’ll make my political statement. The first thing I want to say is Ahhhhh! Pundits ask what happened and try to answer their own question. As a small-town boy, here’s what I see. First, the middle class didn’t disappear. They were repositioned […]
A Different Drummer: Coping with election angst
I really don’t want to face reality this week. I confess I want to hide away and pretend it’s not happening. I cast my vote; now I’d prefer to crawl into a cave, or drive off somewhere with no signal and no bars. Voting this year feels like the free-floating angst that comes after a […]
A Different Drummer: The house with the blue light
Here’s a spooky story my Uncle Ed told me one night around the campfire. He totally got me. My skin horripilated causing me to jump out of it. It’s a silly story, but I liked it so much I told it separately to each of my four nieces as soon as they were old enough […]
A Different Drummer: A Halloween Christmas thanks giving
I had a grand unexpected experience last week, something wonderful and unforeseen. It began when wifey and I accepted an invitation to join our kids, their kids, and a dozen friends and relatives in an RV Halloween Weekend at the 49er Village RV Resort in Plymouth, Calif. We’ve been there before so we knew what […]