To be honest with you, Reader, earlier in my life I had judgments about people who played bingo night after night.
Sitting for hours at a time in close proximity to overly-perfumed ladies and farting old men who yelled out the news of their win like some country auctioneer selling farm equipment never appealed to me. That is until Trixie taught me the finer points of life.
Read MoreThere has been a lot of discussion over the past five years concerning the legalization of marijuana. I don't know who came up with the word “pot” to describe marijuana, but they should have considered that the saying “going to pot” is not a positive one.
Love it or hate the use of pot, it looks like it’s here to stay until people get tired of the associated problems it brings and once again decide we want a sober population. Someone once said, “too much of anything ain't good” and I think they were right about food, rain, drought, booze, pot and even church. Everything in moderation.
Read MoreThe past week marked a milestone in my life as I was fortunate to have passed another birthday. I say fortunate because like most people, there have been events in my life which could have cut my years here on earth short thereby depriving so many people of my loving and kind presence. Well, something like that anyway.
Birthdays always bring up the question of gifts and although no gift would be considered too large, I don’t really need anything at this point in life.
When I first met Trixie, she came with a great personality and some ideas that any man in his right mind could buy into. One of these is the idea of gifts.
Read MoreWith Father’s Day coming up, I’ve been thinking about what we men inherit from our fathers.
During my growing up years my father was simultaneously the pastor of a large church congregation, the founder of a Bible College plus worked full time as a civil engineer. Most weekday nights found him in outlying towns leading bible studies or at city council meetings.
With daylight hours filled to overflowing, it was no wonder that he started the famous “Kirkpatrick 9:00 Project” hour that’s that moment when no matter how tired you are, there’s one project, repair or urgent matter you must solve before you can go to bed.
This is a family tradition I continued when I started my own family. This is how it works.
Read MoreOur fast-paced, constantly changing world requires adaptation on a daily basis. This was not always the case as there was a time when life was a lot simpler. My folks only had one car and lived in a small frame house just like most of the neighbors.
To survive today, a person must be more flexible with both personal and social happenings. This causes a real problem for us men as we don't mind the change but keeping track of it becomes an issue.
Just when a man gets comfortable with things as they are, they change it.
Read MoreResearchers say that a person always returns to the place they were conceived. My father decided to share that little bit of information with me and let me tell you that’s just not something you need to hear from your dad. A definite example of TMI - too much information. We all know that our parents never had sex. That’s just way too painful to even think about.
Having said all that, South Fork, Colorado has always seemed like home to me so maybe he is right. Again, TMI. Having taken on a nomadic lifestyle, I have had the opportunity to live for months at a time in different locales and enjoy the sights, sounds and food offered by each. I never do feel quite at home however and always long for the familiarity of our mountains.
Read MoreEver since I was elected to be the one to go to the store when the TOILET PAPER emergencies occurred in our household, I have always bought plenty and had it on hand no matter what.
Living 12 miles from town in those days made it a tad harder than a run to the corner market too. So I learned to pick up a LOT of TP whenever I was at the store which caused no end to tension about storage space. Now that I am full time Rv-ing the lack of space does cause some difficulties in keeping very much on hand. When I switched RVs last year, Trixie was flabbergasted at the number of rolls I can stuffed away in nooks and crannies.
Read MoreWarm spring days, newly blossomed flowers and tornado outbreaks kept me company as I drove north back to the mountains.
Along the way, I decided to get an early start on my summer garden. It felt good to be outside with my hands in some dirt after a long winter but I soon learned that I was not alone in that feeling.
Tiny insects of every shape, size and description had also viewed the sunshine as a clue of warmer days ahead and were exiting their lairs from deep within the earth.
Not to be outdone, the most feared of all, the lowly mosquito, came out and began to seek any and all who would donate unwillingly to its cause. And, I was their prime target. Each evening more whelps appeared across my body.
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