How broad is your vocabulary? When I ask that question I don't mean the "technobable" that only someone in your profession or who participates in a specific hobby might come to know and use fluently. I am referring to the "blue" verbiage that might have made your father red-faced and your mo…
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The Christmas season is here, and it pretty much just snuck into the room, tapped me on the shoulder and whispered in my ear, “Hey there sleepy-head. It’s time to GO! GO! GO!”
When it comes to taking pharmaceutical products that are intended to alleviate the Parkinson's symptoms that I have, I am a delicate flower. I was reminded of that fact during the past week wh…
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Thanksgiving morning, 1973. The year I cooked my first turkey. I stuck my arm into the still half-frozen bird and pulled out a waxed paper bag of something.
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If there’s anything that being 40-something has taught me, it’s that time really does go by fast. I never really took that saying seriously until it took me three times as long to scroll for m…
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When a nip is in the air and anticipation fills the hearts of men, it can only mean one thing: Deer season is near!
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Here is something I have learned in friendships, with the full disclosure that I haven't always been a good friend.
My father was an alcoholic.
We are required by law to wear seat belts in our cars. But there was a time when Mom was the only seat belt we needed.
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Let me tell you. There are days I need to stay away from Proverbs 31. Instead I move on over to verses like in Romans 3:23 where all of us fall short of God’s glory.
Do cats possess a personality? While I have never owned a cat, according to what I have seen, I would vote yes.
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Kids of the '60s looked forward to Halloween night with an excitement that made October seem magical. We whispered and giggled our costume ideas to our friends for weeks before the Big Night, …
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The cabinet door slammed as I glared and waited for him to explode.
"We can cure that."
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When I was growing up, smoking was as normal as breathing. We thought it meant we were mature and worldly, and it was a given that we would all smoke someday.
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I have always had an understanding with spiders that if they would just stay out of my house then I would cause them no harm.
How much sleep would you say you get on an average night? Six hours. Perhaps eight hours. Maybe 10 hours.
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After more than three years at the helm of The Herald-Whig and Courier-Post newsrooms, I’m writing today to let you, our readers, know that I have stepped down as executive editor.
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It is said we are the sum of our experiences. Our minds have the ability to take seemingly trivial activities and transform them into skills we use our whole lives through.
Let the record show that the first, and quite possibly the last, photo that I will take in 2021 has already occurred. In fact it happened several months ago.
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My granddaughter scraped her leg and her mother applied antiseptic cream guaranteed not to sting or stain. Bree hopped up afterwards and was off to play immediately.
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You know, I joke about eating all of the time. So does that model Gisele, but it is much funnier when she does it.
After recently prepping and painting the Henley hacienda's front porch railing, Nancy, my wife, announced that it was time for the porch swing to be repainted as well.
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I rarely print pictures these days, I just snap a photo and then upload to the social media site of my choice and assume that family generations to come will flip through random pictures of my…
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They arrive in late summer, lurking within paper bags and tattered cardboard boxes. It’s an old menace — one that finds its way to the surface of our hungry society each summer. We bring it on…
With a potential move to eastern Kansas a possibility in 2022, a portion of 2021 has been dedicated to preparing the Henley hacienda to be placed on the real estate market for sale.
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The '90s were a rough time for young girls who didn't know how to do hair, because that magical Aquanet nest on top of your head was a big deal. Another important skill to master as a '90s tee…
Last Thursday was a noteworthy day at the Henley hacienda. On that day our fleet of vehicles declined from three to two with the sale of our 2003 Buick Century which we had purchased used seve…
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He stood in the middle of the room with his cape flapping in the wind of the ceiling fan, and his keen senses surveying the scene.
This is not a self-pity piece. It may sound like it initially, but in reality it is simply an honest assessment of what Parkinson's has taken from me since the onset of its symptoms several ye…
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Sitting in the high school pick up line, I waited for my freshman to come out. With the crowds of kids that rush through those doors everyday at 2:35, I thought about what he was wearing so I …
On more than one occasion this summer I have whined about an ongoing effort that my wife, Nancy, and I (for the record it was far more of my spouse's effort than my own) have been waging to ri…
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Today I sat in a restaurant by myself waiting for my lunch. Sitting alone and eating is one of my favorite things, because I love watching people do what they do.
People of certain professions are easy to recognize because of the clothing they wear. For example, medical professionals have long been associated with white lab coats. Police officers and fi…
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Today, we went to the water park and are soon headed to the movies and dinner for Logan's birthday.
As crazy as it might sound there are times when I find myself missing umpiring.
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Humans. We walk among them. We also work among them, shop among them, conduct studies about them and regularly eat dinner with them.
Anyone who has taken their valuable time to read this weekly column over the past few years is undoubtedly well aware that not only do I have Parkinson's, but I am not afraid to whine about it…
As I contemplated writing this week's A Little Salt column I was prepared to report to you, dear reader, that back when I could hold a camera steady enough to take a decent photograph I did no…
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He buttered his bread, and I took a sip of my soda while my eyes scanned the room. Deep conversations and laughter buzzed all around us while Shawn and I sat, waiting for our food to come. He …
We do not have assigned seats in the living room of the Henley hacienda. However, there is for the most part an unspoken understanding between my wife, Nancy, and I regarding which chairs can …
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I rolled into a coffee house and chased some trash around the parking lot that blew out of my car when I opened the door.
I like to think of myself as a pretty nondiscriminatory fella when it comes to desserts.
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It’s about 4:30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon and I am sitting in my recliner at my laptop trying to write.
It is ant season at the Henley hacienda.
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Sunlight cracked through the curtains as my eyes opened to another summer day, and I couldn’t help but smile at the possibilities.
I could be wrong, a condition in which I frequently find myself, but it seems like the weather was particularly tame this spring.
It was one of those damned if you do and damned if you don't moments that I found myself confronted with a couple of Thursday nights ago.
As the Parkinson's disease with which I am afflicted has slowly but steadily worsened in recent years, it has been encouraging to watch how my family has rallied around me in their own unique ways.
