Category: story time
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so long
I may have just driven to Waupaca County for the last time. Mom sold the ancestral manse and bought a condo in Arkansas where she hopes to live the rest of her days all cozy and snug and never again hear the words “snow-covered and slippery” used to describe roads during the winter. While she… Read.
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swingin’
I got this snapshot from one of the Great Big Photo Albums of People Related to Me but, unlike most of the other photo albums, this one was chock full of familiar faces. In this photo, weighing all of 98 pounds and swinging a solid-steel iron like nobody’s business, Cleo Mary Melchoir, who had this… Read.
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mine
Like the rest of the photos in the Great Big Photo Album of People Who Might Be Related To Me But I Don’t Know How, this one isn’t dated and there are no names or notes scribbled on the back. Still, I might actually know what’s going on here. My mother had an aunt everybody… Read.
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inevitable
Neil DeGrasse Tyson, considering the inevitability of life: If you had asked your chemistry teacher fifty years ago, once you looked at that mysterious chart of boxes that sat in front of your class, the periodic table of elements, Where did those elements come from? The chemistry teacher would not have had an answer for… Read.
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heading home #3
On my emergency trip across the Atlantic during the Thanksgiving weekend I’d had to suffer two broken ATMs to make sure I had no money in my pocket, a lack of places to eat in O’Hare airport except for a tavern serving cold sandwiches, a seat with no floor space next to a guy who… Read.
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heading home #2
A transatlantic flight in coach class has to be one of the most miserable ways to travel even under the best of circumstances. I count myself as damn lucky when I can wangle a seat on the aisle so I can hang over the edge a little bit to get some breathing room, and the… Read.
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heading home #1
The longest journey ever made in the history of humankind was a trip I took from the small town in Wisconsin where my mother lived to the small town in England where I lived with my family. It wasn’t the longest trip if it were measured in ordinary miles or hours, as most normal trips… Read.
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Certified
Speaking of birth certificates, did I ever tell you that our youngest, T-Dawg, was very nearly born in a forest on the outskirts of Berlin? It’s true. He very nearly was. We lived in an apartment in Zehlendorf on the southern edge of the city, right next to the Berlin wall, and when I say… Read.
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My Little Datsun
I drove a little Datsun coupe while I was stationed in the United Kingdom. I didn’t intend to get a car but, when I got the chance to move out of the dorms after living there a year I took it, and I would have to buy a car to commute. Riding the bus wasn’t… Read.
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Celestial Steam Locomotive
And now it’s time for another installment of: Ask A Stupid Question! Long-time readers of this blog – and they are legion, I assure you – know I have a great big thang for steam locomotives. The way I gush over them makes people feel as though they shouldn’t be watching, really. I’ve learned over… Read.
This Is Drivel 