What words would you use to describe Christmas? For some reason, one of the first words to come to mind is – chaos. I was in a family of eight so Christmas was crazy! Five boys and a girl – even good little boys and girls – carry chaos along with them no matter what day of the week it is. And holidays especially. Can you imagine getting everyone to the Christmas Eve candlelighting church service on time? How did…
Last week I was driving down East Broad Street in my hometown. I’ve been this way countless times. But as I was driving down East Broad this time, I was suddenly hit with something. No, it wasn’t a car, or deer or a dive-bombing bird on a mission to dirty my windshield. I was hit with a strange wave of memories. It wasn’t really nostalgia. Just memories. As I passed through the 400 block and then the 500 block, pictures…
I just got back from a 360-mile, 5.5-day bicycle trip from Pittsburgh to Washington DC. I know there are easier ways to get there – like cars, airplanes, horses, jetpacks. But I set a goal and wanted to accomplish something beyond the normal – at least for me. I learned a bunch of things on this trip. Like at 59, I can’t ride and talk at the same time as my much younger riding pals could. At times, I needed…
I grew up in the era when cartoons ran back to back for four hours on Saturday mornings. No DVR or on-demand or Cartoon Network. Saturday morning was the Cartoon Network of my childhood. We slurped our cereal in front of the TV consuming one 13-minute cartoon after another until mom or dad insisted in very loud terms that we get outside and “do something”. We all thought watching cartoons WAS doing something. Every cartoon, in fact every movie has…
In my last post, we talked about two things that shape us – Mountains and Mentors. Today I wanted to talk about Valleys and Villains but they’re both fascinating topics. So I’m going to give them each their own post. Let’s talk about Valleys today and how they shape us. Villains we’ll save for our next week. Last year on a bike ride from Boston, MA to Providence, RI, I painfully felt that all I did all day long on…
Today I want to talk about things we make and what makes us. My brothers and I started young in our education of making things. We were just little numbskull kids when we built our first tree fort in a dead cherry tree on the edge of our property. It consisted of a couple of two-by-fours randomly nailed into the trunk at very awkward angles. Over the years, numerous platforms were attached. None of them really lasted or were very…
I was standing in the doorway of my kitchen and water started to drip from the doorframe above my head. I bolted up to the second floor and found a water fall in the second-floor doorway. It was raining inside my house! Water was pouring down the doorways, first and second floor. I bounded into the attic, looked up and stood there wondering, “Why can I see speckles of grey sky from inside my attic?” My slate roof was at…
Some of the best stories grow out of road trips. I remember driving from Indiana back to PA with my parents. Mom and Dad were arguing about directions. My dad decided to take a shortcut. Mom was certain we took a wrong turn. You know where that shortcut took us? To a big old billboard announcing, “Welcome to the state of Michigan!” It was a quiet ride back to PA from that point on. I remember my first trip to…
Most embarrassing moments. Is it possible to have ten most embarrassing moments? Because I have a lot. Like the time in high school when I managed to escape the face-painting hazing of the senior players on my football team. They grabbed the underclassmen on their way in to school and painted their faces in preparation for the game that night. I slipped their grasp when I got off the bus only to be cornered in the main lobby which was…
The last time I saw empty shelves in a grocery store was in 2000 when I was in Belarus. The Soviet Union collapsed a few years earlier and capitalism was having a rough time in the former communist country. I saw empty shelves and egg shortages. I ate in dark restaurants because of electricity shortages. I never thought I’d see any of that again. Then came March 2020 and Covid-19. And the essentials were wiped out at the grocery store….