Dinner in the Field and other stories
I find you can discover your strengths at any age. For example, I find I’m a better writer than I am an editor. I have a full-length draft of a memoir that I’ve devoted countless hours to, and it’s finally finished. I’m anxious to move on to new material. But finishing the book is not the same as completing the project. Doing it right, I’m told, entails a less than...
Filling Up These Days
My lawn needed mowing last Monday, but I was out of gas. In early April, I emptied what was left in my five-gallon fuel container into the mower, and it was almost empty. So, I headed to Thorntons, a gas station in Ottawa. I don’t go to gas stations much these days because my car is a plug-in hybrid. I go for long periods of time just recharging its battery. ...
A Garbage Day Tale
Although I’m 74, I am still not yet ready to admit that old people do eccentric things. I also did things like this when I was young. This happened last week. I missed garbage pickup two weeks in a row. It’s just my wife and me, and we don’t generate a lot of trash. But we had a big Easter get-together. The container was full. I knew what was in...
Serving Las Placitas
I Care International may have served patients on the slope of a volcano before, but this was the first time I was aware of it. Known as “Chaparrastique” by the locals, but formally Volcan de San Miguel on maps, the volcano upon which we worked in El Salvador is one of the most active volcanoes in Central America. I learned that after I got home. I’m glad they don’t tell...
Find your own Magic
There is a sign over the highway entrance into Walt Disney World (WDW) that proclaims it is “The Most Magical Place on Earth.” I’d never been there, but I know there’s a certain amount of guilt put on American parents who deprive their kids of the Disney magic. I acknowledged that early on. When our kids (now 42 and 40) were young I told them I could take them each...
Santa Comes to the Shack
I was editing stories last week. Stories that have become chapters in a book. I like writing from scratch much better than editing, but you can’t have everything. I was startled by a loud knock on the shack door. I write with my back to that door. Before I could turn around, someone barged in. The shack is pretty small. As the door closed, I spun around and there he...
Brussels Sprouts (Thanksgiving 2025)
June was with me in the spring when we planted the garden. She had just turned four. I explained what each plant was. “These two are Brussels sprouts.” “What’s that?” “Your Mom and Dad buy them in the store. Like little cabbages. We roast them in the oven.” “Papa, they’re little.” They did look a little puny. A one-inch stem and two pale green leaves. “They’ll look a lot better...
Breakfast at the Shelter 2025
Open Table Church got a late start on its once-a-month Sunday dinner and Monday breakfast project at the Ottawa PADS shelter. Illinois Valley PADS started tearing down its worn-out shelter on Ottawa’s West Side this summer, but structural changes to the former Ottawa YMCA Building on the Fox River, its new temporary shelter, took longer than anticipated. PADS in Ottawa couldn’t open till October. Stuff like that happens. Even good...
June’s First Year of School
I visited June’s school before she finished her first year at the end of May. June is my four-year-old granddaughter. Although June would correct me and say four and a half! June attended Humboldt Park Montessori School in Chicago. On Generations Day, they invited one person from an older generation to spend the morning with each student. My wife visited earlier in the year, so it was my turn. The...
A Day in Court
For Antonio, long a friend of our son and our family, April 23, 2025, was not a normal day. He was scheduled to appear in federal court at the Dirksen building, 77 W. Jackson, downtown Chicago. Antonio is 49. He was born in Barquisimeto, one of Venezuela’s oldest cities, but spent most of his life in Maracaibo, center of the country’s oil industry. Hugo Chavez, who became president of Venezuela...