Here’s my story from 9/11/01, the day of the terrorist attacks: I was at Ada Junior High early, taking a picture of a student and the teacher who saved his life, which we were trying to get into the paper that morning. I overheard some chatter about a plane crash in New York City, and…
Continue reading →Background information: Dorothy Milligan was Abby’s mother-in-law for 23 years while Abby was married to Paul Milligan, the youngest of three brothers. He died in 1992. In spite of the fact that Dorothy is not technically related to us biologically (except that Abby’s daughter Chele is Dorothy’s granddaughter), we still regard her as our mother-in-law,…
Continue reading →So I was sorting and organizing some 2003 negatives at the office today. The layout of my office makes it fastest for me to flip through notebooks of film and hold them to the light without removing them from the notebooks, so that they appear upside down and backwards. If I see something I need,…
Continue reading →Once is a while, I take off my titanium wedding ring and let it cool to air-conditioned-room temperature. When I put it back on, it feels like it’s brand new! My marriage always feels like it’s brand new.
Continue reading →Tomorrow is the one day of the year during which I am the only person working at our newspaper. I work literally from dawn to dusk. It is one of my busiest days of the year. It starts with covering the Fireball Classic 5k and 10k runs, goes all day in Wintersmith Park with the…
Continue reading →I am not one of those people who blithely stumble through life taking it all for granted and simultaneously thinking my dumb little life is the center of it all. I know you know these people; their stories crop up after some crisis shatters their dystopia. They had been “happy” in their lives until a…
Continue reading →If you don’t love dogs and the cute things they do, please disregard this post.
Continue reading →Both Chihuahuas, Max and Sierra, have tenderness at their injection sites from yesterday’s rabies and DHLP-P vaccinations, and Max has been running a bit of a fever. As a result, he is very lethargic, and hurts all over. It does not, however, make him less cute, as this image of him cowering under one of…
Continue reading →This item replaces several entries made during my wife Abby’s life-threatening battle with pneumonia. May 11, 2008: Abby is Seriously Ill Update, Sunday night: Abby is still seriously ill, but she is better. They are bombarding her with a phalanx of medications and treatments. There is no timetable as of yet, but I am okay letting…
Continue reading →I know this sounds strange to everyone around me who has been married, but I still find it amazing that I have a wife. Even writing it right now sounds strange. I spent so many years waiting and wishing, trying and failing, wanting to find someone to love. That she is an amazing woman is…
Continue reading →When I was growing up, my mom worked for oral surgeon C. W. Littlefield. In the summer, he hired me to mop the floor, sterilize the instruments, take out the trash, develop x-rays, etc. At the same time, he kept an eye on what was going on inside my mouth, and even did some extractions…
Continue reading →In the process of cleaning the old house in Ryan, then hauling home some of the relics, Abby and I are now suffering from congestion in our throats and sinuses. Initially I was attributing it to mowing after we got home yesterday, since I drove the riding mower through some areas of last year’s poison…
Continue reading →Abby and I went to Abby’s hometown of Ryan, Oklahoma this weekend, to help clean and prepare her father’s house for sale in three weeks. Abby literally grew up in this house, in a town where everyone knows everyone else. She didn’t even have to cross a street to walk to school in the morning…
Continue reading →It was a stressful day for all of us, but for me it went easier because I spent much of the afternoon working outdoors. By the end of the day, with Abby and me home from work, I spent a few minutes unwinding by prowling around the patch, finding kibble to throw to the goats,…
Continue reading →As my readers know, I got Abby a lava lamp as one of her “smaller” birthday gifts (the larger being a heated, massaging recliner that is back-ordered, pun intended.) There were several bonus items associated with this gift… Unlike the lava lamps in the time of Pink Floyd (when I was a kid), this one…
Continue reading →Abby and Dorothy (our defacto Mother-in-law) are in Baltimore this week with Abby’s daughter Chele, who in Baltimore is known by her actual first name of Dawna. (Pay attention now – this will be on the test.) While they are gone, I am increasing my chore slate by about five fold, since I can tear…
Continue reading →Abby worked late, and has been asleep since I got home from working basketball. She looks really pretty asleep in her recliner, covered by a lap full of Chihuahuas. I read on Wil Fry’s blog the phrase “just another random blog,” and I felt that I wanted to reiterate that “blog” isn’t a word at…
Continue reading →I got all frisky with the chores today. My first task was taking the power strips that were on the floor behind my computer desk and mounting them on the back of the desk itself. It sounded like a pretty straightforward chore, but it can-of-wormed on me pretty quickly. I decided, for example, that while…
Continue reading →For those of you who thought my burritos looked like someone had just thrown up on them, here is a lunch that does not mimic the appearance of yak, blown chow, puke, bark, hack, chuck, ralph, hurl, gut squirt, bleck, pavement pizza, spew, sack flak, chum, meal plop, blevis, gack, gurf, shaq-fu, or other types…
Continue reading →Here are a couple of photos from my days as an aviator. The reason I don’t fly any more, and many of my pilot buddies don’t fly any more, is that it has gotten much too expensive. Part of that is the panicky idiot mentality of Americans after 9/11, which was incorrectly laid at the…
Continue reading →Forget round pizza! It’s squizza, the square pizza! I make this with soy cheese and either soy sausage or soy crumbles. Both taste a little like meat. Also in the topping is green peppers and onions over a marinara (I think it tastes better than plain tomato sauce), topped with soy mozzarella. Also this: A…
Continue reading →Yesterday my doctor told me what I already knew: my blood pressure is too high. Technically, I have stage 1 hypertension, which is high, but not scary high. He started me on Diovan, a popular and effective medication that has few side effects. He also took blood and did a finger stick to check my…
Continue reading →Tonight while I was power washing the front of the house, I saw this little guy poking his head out of a small hole in the siding. I think the hole was from one time when I was trimming the photinia and almost fell off my ladder into the bush. Anyway, I called my family…
Continue reading →08-27-06: Aunt Carol Peterson (Dad’s sister) is dying. We drove to the Blue Springs, Missouri area to join the family. The drive up was smooth. The dogs traveled well and Abby had a long nap. 08-30-06: Carol died at 12:45 pm at age 66. 09-02-06: This evening in Blue Springs feels like late October in…
Continue reading →There was a short call from my sister Nicole, who lives in New Orleans, saying she is alive and fine, waiting for Hurricane Katrina to pass so she can to get out of Hattiesburg, Mississippi and push on to Mom’s in Palm Coast, Florida. Abby went to Wal Mart and bought summer closeout items for…
Continue reading →My sister Nicole has fled New Orleans to Hattiesburg, Mississippi in advance of Hurricane Katrina. (Hear the Katrina and the Waves hit “Walking on Sunshine” in the background.) She has her dog Griffin, her laptop, and high hopes. Worst case: New Orleans is f*cked. National Weather Service Notice: URGENT – WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE…
Continue reading →Caution: graphic descriptions Friday, February 18, 2005 My sister Nicole called this morning to say that Dad is near death. He had been vomiting when the emesis turned bloody. EMS took him to the hospital in Ormond Beach (where he had a bypass in 1996), where he coded at least once and his kidneys shut…
Continue reading →Abby and I got married at the amazingly beautiful and iconic Delicate Arch in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, October 12, 2004. I had hiked to Delicate Arch on two previous occasions, but until the day we actually got married, Abby had only seen my photographs of it. Abby’s daughter Dawna Michele “Chele” Milligan…
Continue reading →Abby and I met at our office and had dinner at Papa Gjorgjo next door to our office in downtown Ada. I invited her to see the house I am considering buying from Ann Kelley. When trying to get into my car, the door wouldn’t open – probably since it was very cold and I…
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