I was always a decent athlete, who loved to compete. As a kid, each Summer my folks would send me to a sports camp, which exposed me to a wide array of team and individual sports. And I was fortunate to get instruction from college level coaches. This instruction, together with the extra work I […]
Relentless Cancer
In case you might ever wonder, I do read my fellow writers’ weekly contributions to this site. My own tale is quite sad for me, of course, but not particularly dramatic. Simply, once Lee developed pancreatic cancer, her outcome was never much in doubt. As happens to millions of others each year, I lost my […]
Shattered Daydreams
I was saddened to read an article in yesterday’s newspaper about the plight of Ecuador, which, it is being reported, has lately become an unwelcome haven for violent criminal drug gangs. I visited the country several years back, on a scouting mission for an over-winter destination for me and Lee after her retirement. At the […]
Three Years’ Ago This Week
Lee died three years’ ago this week — on July 2 to be precise. This year the date fell on a Sunday. This year, when I awoke, Robyn was with me. I felt no ambivalence about this circumstance. On the contrary, I was happy she was with me. *** According to the Holmes-Rahe Stress Scale, […]
Just Another Birthday
This week I had another birthday – my 72nd. This year, no cargo shorts and Hawaiian shirt combo in a box. This birthday gift tradition ended when my sister passed away a few months ago. My mother and I share the identical birth date. While she was alive, she made a point to present me […]
Selfish Thoughts
The New York Times recently published a fascinating and mainly hopeful guest essay by Kate Pickert dubbed “Is a Revolution in Cancer Treatment Within Reach?,” (See https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/16/opinion/cancer-treatment-disparities.html (June 16, 2023)). In it, Ms. Pickert describes nothing less than a paradigm shift in cancer treatment away from a long-held medical assumption “that many early-stage cancer patients […]
Dos Urban Cantinos
Paul texted me Tuesday morning. He said that he wanted to see me and would come by my place. He suggested that we should have dinner together. I strongly suspected Paul’s message had not arrived entirely out of the blue. After all, this past Monday marked what would have been another wedding anniversary for me […]
Lee to the Rescue
Ordinarily Tuesdays and Wednesdays are busy days. Not only are these the days when I craft my posts to this site, but on alternating Tuesdays, including this past one, it’s also when I clean my house for Julia, the biweekly housekeeper. (I would not want Julia to discover how I really keep my house most […]
June Arrives
The calendar confirms that today is June 1st. Anticipating June’s arrival, I feel like a veritable human rollercoaster about to take a stomach-churning plunge. *** Our Wedding Anniversary Lee and I were married in June. By then we were both middle aged, however, it was Lee’s first marriage. She happily planned every detail of our […]
Form 632
I am not one of those people who is tethered to a cell phone, so, while the call had come in around 1 pm., I didn’t notice the message until nearly five o’clock. As soon as I saw it was from the “310 “area code, I assumed it was the Los Angeles law firm that […]
Tackling Loneliness
As a widower, I make the effort to cultivate my friendships and acquaintances. By doing so I hope to avoid the loneliness and disconnection that seems to be pervasive. The unfavorable outcomes of loneliness are numerous. Loneliness is associated with depression and other forms of mental illness, of course. It also is a risk factor […]
Mother’s Day Reflections
My mother will have been gone nearly twenty years come this Mother’s Day. I can tell you that she loved her family unconditionally, and me most of all, I think. Come Mother’s Day I will think about my mother’s generous spirit. I will recall her stubbornness. I will remember that my mother was highly principled. […]