Recently Released…

It was the summer of 1985 and I cashed in on a great idea. I learned that there was a popular canoe/camping destination that you could sign up for that only cost $95 a week per person if you were part of a youth organization at your church. My wife and I had some friends…

Last year was our first Thanksgiving in Ajijic, in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. I hoped to feel that holiday spirit of family-around-the-table like in a Norman Rockwell-ish way and to cherish this holiday and set it alongside my memories with parents and grandparents, carving turkey and drenching stuffing with gravy. I knew I was…

A crow is a bird of the genus “Corvus”. The American Crow lives from seven to eight years. Fun facts about crows include that they are super smart, mate for life, can remember faces, hold funerals for the deceased, have huge brains, can make tools & hide their food. A group of crows is called a Murder.…

Just in time for Halloween, I published this scary fictional story this week. I actually discovered it in my files in an archived box. I wrote it way back on October 30, 1994. Caution! It’s super-scary!

Warning: this story contains smoking, strong language and sophomoric potty humor. I snuffed my half-smoked cigarette out in the ashtray and released my seatbelt. I was at work. It was a Saturday so that meant my weekend job. You see I was going to college and working full time, so it only made sense to…

My wife, Carrie and I nuzzled into a cozy small one bedroom apartment on the third floor of a courtyard-building on the upper northside of Chicago, known as East Rogers Park. We lived there for a couple of years back in the early 1990’s. I worked in the city and my train stop was on…

If you are like me, you like a story with a happy ending. This isn’t one of those. It was the summer of 1989 (August 26 to be exact) and Elton John was touring the country. He made a stop in Hoffman Estates, Illinois at the Popular Creek venue which was a grand outdoor theater…

I am lucky. I’m lucky for many reasons. One, I met my wife, Carrie, at a young age and have been enjoying a lifetime of wonderful memories. Another reason I am lucky is because I won a Caribbean cruise on a Chicago radio station. On February 14 (St. Valentine’s Day), 1983 I picked up the…

If you have been following my posts, you know that I have written a few stories about our life on the river. Well, here’s another one. We lived on the Chain-O-Lakes on the Fox River just north of the McHenry dam in northern Illinois. Our street was separate from most of the river-front homes in…

One of the most contentious topics these days center on guns. I’m not here to discuss the good or bad of guns. But I will share a little story with you if you are willing to indulge me for a few minutes. For my fourteenth Christmas I received a 12 gauge shotgun. I didn’t ask…

I always look forward to writing stories about my dad. He led such an interesting life. He was one of the most hardworking men I’ve ever met in my life. I remember growing up, he always had two to three jobs, just to make money to put food on the table. One Saturday morning when…

I have often said that I am an accumulation of everything I’ve wanted to be. And on this blog article topic, I may be one of the few experts worldwide. Life inside a dumbwaiter? How does one gain the mature wisdom and experience of becoming an expert on life inside a dumbwaiter? I’ll tell you.…

So, enter the cult-classic movie, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. Written by Richard O’Brien produced and released in 1975. Nobody seen that coming. Nobody could really explain it. It was just a moment in time, when planets aligned, the moon was blue, and everybody had to go to the theater and see Rocky Horror, again…

If you are squeamish about bee stings then this one is for you. I was a young boy living in a corner of a small town in northern Indiana. I led a farmstead lifestyle. I grew up with horses, ducks, and chickens; everything that you expect on in a picturesque agrarian life. Life passed slowly…

One cold, grey January day in 1997, I planned to paint the master bedroom at our house on the Chain-O-Lakes in northern Illinois. Our home at that time was a two story river house that had itself grown over the decades by way of several large construction projects. By the time we bought it, it…

Most people know about the Bahamas, but fewer have heard of the Abaco Islands, a small archipelago just north of the main land. One December many years ago, my wife, Carrie and I visited these islands. Our dear friends were retired and living there on a sixty foot Sea Ray yacht. They invited us to…

It’s 2008 and once again I’m in hot pursuit of a new life-changing event. I remember as a child, I couldn’t understand why my grandmother Millie couldn’t just stay put. It seems she was moving to a new house every couple of years. But like I said, it was 2008 and I was a full-grown…

Do you have any idea how heavy a 75 foot telephone pole weighs?  I do. The year was 1979.  Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers were playing in town the night the telephone pole was struck down out in front of the my friend’s house.  Some guys from high school had started the musical celebration a little early…

Corsiva, Albertus, Estrangelo-Edessa, Garamond, Kartika, Marlett, Tahoma and Verdana… I want to meet the guy that gets to name fonts.  I wonder what his list of rejected font names might look like… There are two different categories of fonts: Serif and San Serif which are easily detectable by their type face.  Serif fonts have lots…

Root Beer and Bananas, bad combination?  You bet!  Unless you are already an unfortunate victim of this combination like myself, then take heed to this important message! Root beer and bananas should never be eaten at the same time without ice cream.  If you want to partake in this delicacy be forewarned.  This ice cream shop faire must be…

In 1976, I was just 14 years old when our proud country was celebrating its 200th birthday.  As a tribute to the upcoming event, Ray and Mildred Thilmont decided to host a family gathering.  In 1976, they lived in Griffith, Indiana.  Millie, as most called her, was my grandmother.  And her house in Griffith became…

Have you ever tasted bad chap stick?  Most brands of chap stick or lip balm come in a variety of flavors, and for the most part, have a non-offensive taste.  So how could it be that I found myself wondering this very question one day back in 1994?  Let me think now…  it was February, no…

Excerpt from my runner’s diary: August 25, 2010 – Good run. Felt strong at the end. A leaf hit me on the way home. I like to try and find the FIRST hint of a new season.  I have often said that autumn in Chicago is the most predictable of all seasons found here.  So,…

I grew up on a farm in the Midwestern United States.  That’s not all together true, I mean, it was definitely about as Midwest as you can get, but it wasn’t really a farm.  We lived a farm-like life in some respects I guess.  We had plenty of farm animals and we had land.  We…

Some people believe that when you die, you come back in another life.  When I was young, I would play this game with my close friends.  I would ask, “if you could come back in another life, what would you be?”  They might have said, “a bird, a fish or a frog”.  It was all…

When I was a boy there was a time when I could have the freshest of farm fresh eggs. Out back, deep in the south-east corner of our property stood an old wooden building.  It looked as if it had been there a long, long time.  One summer, we opened it up, dusted it off, aired…