Everyone loves a great storyteller.....They can transport us to unimaginable places and all we have to do is listen. Storytelling has been called an oral history, an art form, a powerful force for learning and an ancient craft but it is powerful whatever you call it. A great storyteller has the ability to alter our …
Category: General Posts
The Plum Island Pluviophile
Rainy-day bike rides are not for everyone. Those of us who love to ride tend to opt in-side during winter to get our saddle time fix but I prefer to be outside even in bad weather. I'm riding outside today in the rain after taking a serious shaming by my buddy Steve from Virginia. He …
I give you permission to discipline my son!
The Blessed Sacrament Elementary School Cambridge Ma. With the start of every new school season came the teacher / student and parent mandatory meeting. Each year as my mom and I awaited our turn to meet my newest nun, I'd sit clutching the edges of those heavy oak library style chairs with sweaty hands as …
Continue reading I give you permission to discipline my son!
A neighbor’s dad passed away last night.
Mr. Lavalle was my next door neighbor while growing up in Cambridge. But for a few hours one summer day, he was my Dad... at least while having the left side of my forehead stitched up at the Cambridge City Hospital Emergency Room. More on that later.... James and Voula Lavalle had eight kids ...all …
“Big Tom” Ferguson – Old School Lawman
Listed below is the obituary for my great grandfather Chief Constable Thomas Ferguson as posted in the Stirling Observer, Stirling Scotland on Saturday October 19th 1918. What's interesting about this account of his life are the descriptions and references to a time and place when Scottish law and order were still largely entrusted to a …
Just write something..
I've been here before.... writers block ... I keep writing but nothing seems to get published... The draft bucket if full of half baked blather. I need to get out of the house, get on the bike and get a cup of coffee. Ok, I am now sheltered away with all the other coffeehouse vagrants …
Bikes, Buds, Boys and Sue
I am one of a core group of Old Marine MP's who have done a lot of amazing events together over the past 30 years ranging from team relay races (run to bike to boat) to triathlons (Ironman, Sprint and Olympic) and countless road races (Marathons to 5K's) but few have been more personally rewarding …
Puppy Love
Dad are you sure LooLoo (our sick yellow lab) will get better? In that instance I felt weakness surge through my body.. I know what she was looking for ...she was waiting for that unwavering assurance that things will always be OK... Fathers are suppose be superheroes in difficult situations like this ... but I …
What day is it?….. It’s today!
I search for the newspaper every morning in my pajamas like that old guy in every neighborhood who wanders about like he's lost his mind. I'm starting to think that the paperboy is playing a game of hide and seek with me and my paper .... After a few minutes I retreat back into the …
Bedtime Stories….Once upon a time
When my daughters were small I'd make up stories to tell them at bedtime. I tried to read books early on, but often fell asleep well before they did. So to keep myself awake, I'd freeform elaborate stories to keep myself awake, lull them to sleep and take us away... I say us ... because …
I was bumped off …. and survive.
Not the kind of bump off Clemenza above from the Godfather (“Leave the gun, Take the Cannoli”) would refer to as going to the mattresses. …. more like…. I’ll take your job and you take somebody else’s….. For those of us who were impacted by “bumping” we know it was a process used to reduce our employee workforce …
A present for my friends to open….
https://youtu.be/Ozd2ja7mAgM If you haven't heard Sara Bareilles' version of Elton John's Yellow Brick Road, do yourself a favor and take a listen. This song is guaranteed to spin in your head for day's and could drive you mad....it's that awesome. After stumbling on it a few weeks ago I have tried my best to …
Holiday Inn vs the Ritz two Cambridge Cemeteries
Until recently I have never been a fan of cemeteries... and as a kid I believed them to be scary places to be avoided. However, if one has family in residence it becomes more difficult to avoid visitation on special occasions such as Mothers,Veterans, Birthday days etc... I can avoid it but it haunts me …
Continue reading Holiday Inn vs the Ritz two Cambridge Cemeteries
Street Signs….
The strangest thing has been happening to me lately, which has me wondering if it is coincidence or some sort of personal message. I have been finding random amounts of change everywhere I go…. but mostly while running. At first it was a dime one day and a nickel then next but then I started …
It’s Time For A Change
https://youtu.be/LxLECbf0nOA Times They Are A Changin' My daughter Izzy left for school this morning but before she left she cheek to cheek bump me and said, "have a great day, beautiful man". I stood at the kitchen sink and was both glad to be blessed with such wonderfully loving daughters but sadden that a …
Packy’s
Its Sunday night and the Patriots (Pats) are playing the Kansas City Chiefs at home on a cold October, New England night. There is no better place to be on a night like this than to be sitting in a recline-ah (recliner) sipping on an ice cold “bottle” of beer while watching the Pats. In …
The Value of A Coin
Silver Dollar Salute - Coins play a unique part in Military tradition. My first introduction to their history was after saluting a friend who had just received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, aboard the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides). By tradition, the silver dollar is a coin given in …
He Be Boozie!
Have you ever been in conversation when a magnificent word is used and it fits so tightly into the point of the message that it brings a smile to your face? Well if you have then I believe you to enjoy uncommon words. Words can be like dessert; they can sweeten a sentence making …
Family Camping Trips: Fun for kids but what’s in it for parents?
Let’s face it there are a lot of chores to do before, during and after a camping trip. The kids get conscripted to do some but the main load of the work (packing, setting up, cooking, driving, overall logistics, etc.…) is left to the parents. So what’s in it for us? Why do we …
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A Grammy Award
This week I received two short notes in the mail from my daughter Colleen. She wrote to say she was thinking about her grandmother (Grammy) and thought to share her thoughts with me. In the broader scope of things today where everyone is a star, a winner and a hero we loose sight of an …
Mobile Meditation
Today I passed by this old barn and had to turn back around to capture an image. The boards were bleached by the sun and stained by the splash backs of rain and slush. Each knot and grain of the barn boards marked the passage of time and an endurance of seasons. Like me .... …
Talk To Strangers More
My Happiness Project blueprint suggests that I talk to strangers more. You never know where it might go.....but to do it well, one has to engage the stranger in a way that starts a dialogue and then enables you to sit tight, observe and enjoy. This morning Abby and I made a trip to the …
Kindred Spirits: “Some souls just understand each other upon meeting.” –n.r.hart
I recently met a friend who shared some of the same odd experiences that I do. The other night Abby and I dined with both new and old friends until late in the evening. During the conversation I happened to mention that I love to drink white Zinfandel wine, which for some reason is …
Continue reading Kindred Spirits: “Some souls just understand each other upon meeting.” –n.r.hart
Getting Focused on Happiness
I've been playing with the idea of starting a personal Happiness Project. I learned a little about the process from Ted Talks and articles written by Gretchen Rubin https://gretchenrubin.com/ . In a nutshell the project aims to help develop a habit for focusing on things that promote personal happiness. Over coffee my wife and I …
A Twenty and Two Tuna Sandwiches ….
My mother always loved New England churches and not just because she’d played Beano (Bingo) in almost every one of them. Her favorite church though, was on Arch Street in Boston. It was special to her because it’s the Shrine of her patron saint, St. Anthony the patron of lost things. Whenever my mother misplaced …
The Bow Legged Blogger 