My sister Nicole called today to say that our uncle Bill Skinner passed away today. He was about 80. He died in hospice care at home from a long bout with cancer. Bill was married to our mother’s sister Margie for their entire adult lives. They lived in the same house in Thousand Oaks, California…

Last night Abby dreamed she was holding her new grandson Paul. In the dream, he was about two months old and had lots of super dark black hair. A few minutes ago we received a phone message from our son in law Tom showing Chele with her new baby Paul, who, as you can see,…

Abby’s daughter Chele is expecting her first baby, a boy she and her husband Tom are planning to name Paul, any day. Abby is planning to travel to Baltimore for this event as soon as it actually happens. Chele reports that she is ready to have this baby. Meanwhile, it’s been colder this week in…

Last Thursday I drove to Tulsa to hook up with Robert “R. E.” Stinson to have lunch. We met at my favorite Tulsa restaurant, and one where many benchmarks of relationships with my Tulsa peeps have been set. Everybody had a great time, and Robert and I chased down some of his kin on the…

Abby and I and our dogs have returned from an excellent Thanksgiving holiday in Platte City, Missouri, home of my cousin Lori Wade, her husband Bill, and their dogs Riley and Max. We were joined by my sister Nicole, who flew from her home in New Orleans, and Lori’s father, my uncle Wes, with a…

After some hesitation, pondering, figuring, worrying, and wrangling, Abby and I finally replaced her Jeep, which was something of a lemon, with a new Nissan Frontier Crew Cab 4×4 pickup. Abby seems incredibly happy with it. Nissan calls the color “Knight Armor,” which is their sales code for dark grey, the only color on their…

Abby is one to enjoy relaxation after a long day at the number mill, and she finds her way to her zero-g chair, where she is joined like royalty by her lap dogs. That chair uses hard plastic knobs to lock into place once reclined, and for Abby it has become increasingly difficult for her…

Today I turned 47, the same age at which Jack Kerouac, beat poet and author of, among many other things, “On the Road,” died in 1969. So it seems perfectly fitting that today Abby and I bought a piece of the road in the form of a used motor home. It is a 34-foot Fleetwood…

Abby and I are home tonight. We spent last night in the dark, and despite the propane wall heaters in our bathrooms, it was just too cold for Abby, so tonight we got a motel room. By 8:30 tonight, though, Dorothy called to say that the power was restored, so we came home. I checked…

Remember, Richard, Shakespeare said, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” So here we go. January: An ice storm gripped Oklahoma. March: Abby’s daughter Chele married Tom Reeves in a traditional Catholic ceremony in Reisterstown, Maryland. May: One of our closest friends, Ann Kelley, is diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. She would later learn that it…

We spent yesterday in Abby’s hometown of Ryan, Oklahoma, where we had fun with her family. Forecasts indicated the winter storm would stay north of us and our route home. But as we went to bed last night in Ryan, I got a blizzard alert text message on my phone. When we got up, snow…

For as much trouble as this holiday can be, this one wasn’t so bad. Originally, I had hoped we could just go out to eat, or even just ignore the fact that it was a holiday, but when Abby’s daughter Chele and her husband Tom (just to refresh the memories of our readers) decided to…

I don’t know whose idea it was originally, but for the past few years there have been bulbs on the Christmas tree in the reception area of our office with our names on them. That tree is up now, so I guess that means it’s the “holiday” season. I’m a little cynical about this holiday,…