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...
The Wiener Roast
I don’t know how long the McClure family has been having a wiener roast in the fall, but it’s been a long time. I have used all the usual methods ways of putting these things on some kind of a timeline stretching from now into the past. When was the first one? Who was there? I can’t figure it out. We used to take the tractor and manure spreader down...
Ebola Fever
When I left work on September 11, 2001 there were long lines at the gas station in Ottawa. Cars clogged the drive of the Clark Station on Jefferson, and Conroy’s up by Route 80. I stopped by Kroger, not in reaction to the death and destruction in New York but because we were out of eggs. The aisles were jammed with shoppers buying canned goods, bread, and milk. I’d never...
The Last Round of the Year
We picked Thursday because it promised to be the warmest day of the week. A friend from Chicago, who had to be back in the city late afternoon, picked a park district course by Joliet neither of us had golfed before. It was easier for me to reach than him, though it was about halfway. He had to fight the morning traffic some. We were to meet at ten, tee...
Math at its Core
Future blog topics pile up: hot peppers, the Yamas, Efrain Rios Montt, a guy I knew who used to run an agency like mine. Also, as feared, other writing steals from time needed to devote to this weekly post. My nephew Sean, a senior in high school looking towards college, asked me to devote a blog post to common core math, which he says is driving him and all his...
A Report on Thursday
I loaded new music into my CD changer in the shack this morning. I put Pat Metheny (with a touch of Lyle Mays and others) back in their cases and away into the cardboard jazz box after a good two weeks of play and brought out my Bach CD’s. A friend gave me all six Brandenburg concertos and another miscellaneous Bach disc saying he thought I needed more Germans in...
You Are Where You Are
My Dad made obvious statements impossible to refute. He brought these universal truths out often, enjoying them immensely. They were simple and pure, defying follow up questions or responses of any kind really. One of his favorite lines was; “Everybody’s got to be somewhere.” It’s very hard to argue with that statement. Mom might be at the kitchen table reading the Bloomington Pantagraph about someone from Danvers who was picked...
Dogs in the Bible, truth from fiction, raising kids
Never let it be said that I am not wrong from time to time. My wife reminds me of my wrongness by pointing out and remembering, I truly believe, every error in thought or action I have committed (of which she is aware) from the moment I met her till just this morning actually. And now that I’m blogging to the public, you point out my errors as well. So...
Going North Part 2
I held the hood of my rain jacket out over my face, shielding my eyes from the hard rain. I couldn’t see the far shore. My biggest fear was rocks. If we hit a rock which damaged the motor or the boat, or worse yet threw one or both of us into the water, we’d be in real trouble. I looked at my old partner. He’d managed to get the...
Going North
There is a town in north Ontario,With dream comfort memory to spare. And in my mind I still need a place to go, All my changes were there. Blue, blue windows behind the stars, Yellow moon on the rise, Big birds flying across the sky, Throwing shadows on our eyes. from the song “Helpless” by Neil Young, 1969 After a quick trip across the lake, a 9.9 horsepower motor pushing...
Pain
I’m learning more about pain. Without going into detail I nursed a pain in my side that began in the fall, got worse in the winter, and became chronic this spring. I am just now coming out of it. Nursed may not be the right word. Avoided, denied, ignored, feared the worst about, suffered might apply equally well. I did it fairly privately, sharing details mainly with my wife. She...