crates | May 31, 2010
I’ve written before about my father’s best friend when he was growing up. They both lived in the little dusty west Texas town of Truscott, but since their school burned down, they were bused to the nearby town of Crowell. It was there at the Crowell high school that my father met my mother. The [...]
crates | January 24, 2010
Last Thursday (Jan 21) my father had some chest pain after returning from the store. It wouldn’t go away, and soon my father realized that this wasn’t the normal discomfort that he sometimes felt from the acid reflux which he sometimes has. Then he did something out of character–he asked his next door neighbor to [...]
crates | September 6, 2009
It has been a dry summer here in the Pacific Northwest. On my walks the voice of the small brook has gradually gotten quieter and quieter as the summer progressed. I love to listen to it as I have written before, but it has recently become a dim ghost of itself. First it became a trickle, [...]
crates | July 10, 2009
Unkind words once uttered can never be retrieved. I’m sure that everybody has heard this before. Everybody knows that words can leave lasting impressions. I can remember unkind words stretching back to my childhood. Likewise, I can remember words of kindness, but it seems that harsh words somehow have more of an effect, although everybody has [...]
crates | May 13, 2009
I have just begun reading a book called The Last Theorem (2009) by Arthur C. Clark and Poul Anderson, the famous science fiction writers. It begins in Sri Lanka, where Clarke spent so many years of his life, and spends some time talking about the tensions between the various ethnic groups. It got me to [...]
crates | April 30, 2009
The first time that I remember listening to National Public Radio was in September, 1974 in Eugene, Oregon. I was using my old 8 transistor FM radio that I had gotten for Christmas when I was in the eighth grade (I know, I didn’t think NPR was ever on AM, but it was!). I remember [...]
crates | April 20, 2009
Spring is marching on here. A couple of days ago my feet were slipping on the front steps, and for a brief flash I thought there was frost. Further examination revealed that there was a thin, slippery layer of what appeared to be yellow flour. As I walked to my car I could see a [...]
crates | April 2, 2009
In some ways this has been a very frustrating day. I had to hang around the house today waiting for the delivery of some kitchen appliances (stove, overhead microwave, dishwasher). I had told the company, Home Depot, that they may have some problems negotiating the very steep, twisting driveway. I was right, the truck had [...]
crates | February 17, 2009
I just saw a very instructive two hour program by NOVA. It had to do with the recent events (2004) in a town in Dover, PA where a couple of individuals on the school board pushed through a requirement that Intelligent Design be taught in biology classrooms as a viable alternative to the modern theory of evolution. They also required that [...]
crates | November 13, 2008
I was watching two small children with their father at the coffee shop this morning. The tiny little girl reminded me of my daughter when she was small. When the father left he had the little girl on his arm and led the little boy by the hand. I began remembering when my daughter was [...]