Tag Archives: Family

The Door From Hell

We recently had to install a new door on the back of our house. We didn’t choose to do this without duress. It was a necessity. The old Pella fell off. It literally dislodged itself from the wall as if … Continue reading

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Death, Guaranteed

If you have ever had the unpleasant duty to bury a loved one, you know the gig. The somber funeral home representative has a respectful talk with the family about the deceased, who will do their hair and what will … Continue reading

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The End of Mystery

We want to know everything. We want all the answers. We skip to the end of the book, we FF through the movie, we dip our fingers in the cake batter and taste the salmonella. We suck the whip cream … Continue reading

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Redneck Environmentalist

He didn’t know it, but my grandfather was an ‘environmentalist’ long before the terminology was popular. He was also a ‘redneck’ before the term was hijacked to the dark side. Forgive me, Mr. Foxworthy, but everyone was technically a redneck … Continue reading

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Sometimes You Just Have To Lie

I had stopped by, as I often do, to check on her since she was ninety-six years old and had started drinking again after fifty-eight years of sobriety. The small figurine that had stood erect for seventy-eight of those ninety-six … Continue reading

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The Deck

I am sitting on the deck surrounded by people I don’t know. We are heading for Cozumel. The sun is aching to escape a bank of pumpkin colored clouds that brush across the western sky and turn the Gulf of … Continue reading

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Shakira! Shakira!

Friday, Cozumel, Mexico, a long day in port. Most people go to Senor Frog’s down in town or the ½ Senor Frog’s next to the new docking pier. Hurricane Wilma crushed the place in 2005, including folding the docks into … Continue reading

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Haiti

To the left, there is a scribble of sand so thin a hurricane could scrape it like a waiter wiping crumbs off the white linens of a cruise ship dinner table. It is one of the Turks and Caicos Islands. … Continue reading

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The Light is Different

My wife and I once drove from Fort Worth to Colorado Springs starting at 9 pm, a dumb idea, even for people more stupid than I am. But we did it. We’d driven from college at the University of Alabama … Continue reading

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Pickled Irony

Maybe contradiction is the religion of the South but irony is its daily bread. Yesterday, several of us sat outside, enjoying the cool sunshine of a sidewalk café beside Richmond’s Main Street in the lowest part of the geographic bowl … Continue reading

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