There was a time in my life, around my college years, when I imagined that total isolation, on a mesa in a home built into the cliffs at the end of the Boys Ranch Road northwest of Amarillo, would be the way I wanted to live. *** As I wrote this, the phrase “no contact…
Continue reading →There is an effort underway to reopen the world after shutting everything down due to the pandemic. Is this going to work? I’ve been mute recently. I encourage my friend Mac to write more on her blog, but at the same time, I don’t. Maybe I’m discouraged. Abby had a couple of dangerous health scares…
Continue reading →We have all faced stress in our lives. My sister Nicole, for example, lost almost everything she owned when Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans. She seemed to handle it well, and bounced back to be the first to rebuild in her neighborhood, but I know it must have taken an emotional toll beneath the surface….
Continue reading →Friday, April 3, 2020. No, this is not a suicide note or an autobituary. In the current scenario of risk around us, it is entirely possible that we could be at risk of illness and death. I thought of this in February when I had the flu. What will become of my intellectual and creative…
Continue reading →I am presently coughing my fool head off, but don’t worry. I don’t have the covids or the amtrax. I do, however, have a face full of dust after completing a task I’ve been avoiding for a couple of years: moving Abby’s mom’s curio cabinet into my dressing room and making it into a camera…
Continue reading →In the midst of this pandemic , I heard from panic-stricken social medianites that potatoes were sold out everywhere. This did not encourage me to panic-buy potatoes, but it did remind me how much Abby and I love these nutritious tubers. So I went to the store to find them plentiful and cheap, and bought…
Continue reading →This is just a quick aside to let my friends know that I am on the road to recovery from influenza. I returned to work yesterday after missing six work days, unprecedented for me. I can still feel some weakness and malaise, but I am back in motion. The most legitimate sign that I am…
Continue reading →Someone recently asked me about my wife Abby. “What’s she like?” she asked. I don’t know the real motive for asking a question like this, but I do know what she’s like. She has bright, complex, intelligent eyes. She is confident. She is thoughtful about everything, and compassionate about everything. Abby and I have never…
Continue reading →In 2011, Abby spent a week in Baltimore right after our grandson was born. I picked her up at the Dallas airport. We found each other in the crowd and moved together, holding each other close. In my arms, she said, “Now I’m home.” In that crowded airport amidst thousands of people, we were home.
Continue reading →I don’ t know if any of you ponder New Year’s Day, but I don’t. The year 2020 is only significant because we sort of started counting 2020-ish years ago. The winter solstice was December 21, and the spring equinox isn’t until March, so those two clearly more significant celestial benchmarks have been largely ignored….
Continue reading →Hawken and I walked three miles over some fairly uneven terrain yesterday. He knows the way well now, and I follow him as much as he follows me. Later I got out a pistol and a rifle and put about a hundred rounds of .22lr downrange. It was fun and relaxing. I feel like I…
Continue reading →With a weekend during which I am not teaching last Monday and a period of warmish weather, I decided to prune my fruit trees for the first time in a couple of years. This task became more significant due to last summer’s nearly perfect growing season, which made my trees grow wildly. Fruit tree owners…
Continue reading →It might seem like I haven’t been writing or blogging lately, but that’s because I have been piling on to several angry rants in my drafts folder, none of which seem like they would be a good idea to publish. This, along with the fact that I am very proud of my recent travel blog…
Continue reading →Readers of my newspaper are probably aware that we moved to a new location this week. Our old building was no longer a good fit, especially since we no longer have a press (our paper is printed in Norman). We’ve been looking for some time at a better-sized location that would not only save us…
Continue reading →My wife Abby and I are home after a week on the road celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary. The full trip report, The Winding Road, is available now (link). Our journey took us to New Mexico and Colorado and back, and went without a hitch. We had a great time.
Continue reading →(Please, nurds, don’t sing that Monty Python song. Thanks.) Abby and I had a few items to tick off in town Monday, including getting her truck serviced. As we often do, we had lunch at what has become our favorite place to eat in Ada, Prairie Kitchen, also known around town as Prairie Chicken. I…
Continue reading →We had a freeze Friday morning. I tried to cover my tomato plants with two rain flies from two of my camping tents, and it was partially successful. The changes in the weather make Abby’s bones ache, but she remains in great spirits as we begin our 16th year of marriage together. [stextbox id=’grey’ caption=’Today’s…
Continue reading →Did you hear about the two antennas who got married? The ceremony was only so-so, but the reception was fantastic! Everybody talks about milestones in their lives, from school graduations to grandchildren’s births. Today is one of those milestones, our 15th wedding anniversary. Early in our relationship, Abby said, “I’m going to want to be…
Continue reading →The Shoffner Reunion 2019 is in the books. The reunion has changed in the last three years. In 2017, it was at Abby’s aunt Judy’s farm in Duncan, Oklahoma, where she hosted it for over a decade. But with Judy and her sons, who were instrumental in helping Judy organize the event, getting older, and…
Continue reading →Our 16-year-old water softener recently died. By the time the entire system was depleted of soft water, I remembered why I like soft water: showering in the City of Ada’s treated Byrd’s Mill Spring water is like showering in dirt. We got a new softener late last week, and it’s good to lather again. Some…
Continue reading →Today is Sunday, and I am bouncing around doing about a dozen things, not finishing any of them, starting another one, getting distracted, going down rabbit holes. This must have been what I was like when I was four. And like a four year old, I expect within an hour I will be sweetly napping….
Continue reading →Those who know my wife Abby and me personally might be aware that she and I have both lost some weight over the past couple of years. Neither of us was overweight, but as we get older, we are both cognizant of the benefits of staying at a healthy size and shape. One amusing consequence…
Continue reading →I see a lot of poll cards on social media like “Salt on Watermelon?” It got me thinking about memes, the idea of sharing fun stuff about ourselves, and, through my usual long, lengthy, long thought process, about what would be my dream job if I wasn’t a professional photographer. Forgive me if these seem…
Continue reading →There are a lot of holidays and observance days in the spring and summer. Memorial Day. Flag Day. Independence Day. I continue to cover events that include a lot of flags, a lot of patriotic feelings, and a lot of references to god. In the mainstream eye, god and country are inseparable. What does this…
Continue reading →The refrigerator guy is coming Tuesday to repair our 2009 model Whirlpool Gold series fridge. It is a beautiful, spacious machine with great features, and I was sad to find it was making less and less cold as the last couple of weeks progressed, so I expect it needs refrigerant or a part, but it’s…
Continue reading →There is an ale house in downtown Ada not far from my workplace, run by some musician friends of mine, called Sessions. I know they have some great sounds, and I would love to go, but their main gigs are always on Monday, when I am either teaching or attending Open Mic Nyte just down…
Continue reading →With Abby still recovering from an illness and wanting to rest, I turned to housekeeping chores to keep me occupied. Normally I am a “keep it clean” person rather than a “get it clean over and over” person, but I work full time, and we have two stubborn Chihuahuas in the house. Summer, the young…
Continue reading →After a routine doctor visit and breakfast, Abby suggested we go by the Pontotoc Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) to see if they had any female Chihuahuas to adopt. I liked the idea: Abby and I both felt a little empty nest syndrome after Sierra died in March. We found one, a beautiful, tiny 18-month-old who…
Continue reading →Abby and I spotted a pair of roadrunners in the pasture the other day. That’s pretty cool. We didn’t get a change to photograph them. They were not being chased by a coyote, and it should be noted that since we got Hawken the Irish Wolfhound, we haven’t seen or heard even one coyote. We…
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I am home again today, taking another sick day. I am doing this for two reasons. 1. So I don’t spread my illness those around me, particularly my coworkers. 2. In recent years, I have found that despite being able to work when I am sick, I get well faster when I stay home. Thought…
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