The new year - January as a month - is a time for reflection. To assess our progress in life: where we were, where we are, and where we are going. I’ve learned, in the hard way, that where I was - the past - and where I’m going - the future - don’t hold much mettle. The place to be is ...
As we close out 2022 and usher in a new year, it's time to look back and see what I learned...if anything. After all, many of us have closed out and ushered in many a year, haven't we? And to those in my age bracket (somewhere between 40 and 80), we should have it all figured out by now. I ...
Have you wondered what 2023 will look like? If only we could look through a scope and see. Would we be disappointed? I got a refractory telescope years ago. Setting it up in our living room, I aimed for the sky through our front window, but everything was a blur. Adjusting, I tinkered ...
75 years ago - Roger Babson, a noted statistician, predicts the business and financial outlook for 1948. He says certainly there will be no “depression” as so many pessimists are talking about, but fundamental conditions will become increasingly less favorable. Certain industries will ...
They sat indiscriminately on the clearance rack marked down like a thousand percent from their initial price. Hand towels. Not your everyday, ordinary, run-of-the-mill hand towels. These happened to be emblazoned with the letter “P,” as in the first letter of my last name. I contemplated my ...
Making resolutions for myself is easy enough: Lose 50 lbs., drive the speed limit, get 8 hours of sleep nightly, drink 70 ounces of water daily, stop (I mean really “STOP!”) at all stop signs, brush and floss my teeth three times a day, get my hair cut monthly, make good on all my ...
When people see you hurting, they want to make it better - to make you better. It’s a kind and compassionate approach to life. I appreciate that. But to my friends and loved ones, I have a message: You don’t have to try to make me better. In fact, you can’t. But I appreciate you trying. ...
A week ago or so, my 15-year-old Grand-daughter asked me about the origin of Santa Claus. Well, not sure if she knew anything or not, I quickly explained that he is a nice old man with a long white beard that lives in some undisclosed location at the North Pole. After rolling her eyes, she ...
On Christmas Eve 1970, my mother gave my sister and me a fifty-dollar bill to pick out two centerpieces for our tables at home for decorations. So off we went shopping. Near closing time, the store marked everything 50% off! So, we decided to shock my mother by doubling her purchasing ...
Big confession, which might not be such big news to regular readers of this column: I don’t do Christmas trees. I haven’t had one for more than a decade, and even before then, I didn’t feel it. I did manage to fake it, however. For years I pulled that big bad boy of a dead tree into ...