Father’s Day, 29th Wedding Anniversary, A Full House…

This weekend was a good one. It’s not often that all of our kids are back home and under one roof, so when those weekends happen they’re ones to remember. Most of last week I was dealing with some serious sinus issues. I think it was a combination of my daughter’s pooch Celeste being over […]

Me And Mom Go On A Beer(And Ice Cream) Run

We’re getting to the end of 2024, and that means I start eyeing my remaining vacation days like a hawk. Doing the math and figuring out how many days I need to cover my Thanksgiving vacation week, maybe a birthday vacation day, and then the time I need to cover our year-end shutdown. Well, since […]

Joe, Steve, Mom and Me

It was almost 34 years ago exactly that on a school night my older brother drove me and one of my best friends to the Embassy Theater in Fort Wayne to see Joe Satriani live. He was touring in support of the Flying In A Blue Dream album, and this was my first concert. My […]

Painting, Music, Books, And Concerts: A Few Quick Notes

Hello. How is it going in your neck of the woods? Did the weekend treat you right? Spins some tunes? Watch a movie or two? What book are you currently reading? I’m trying to get through Chuck Klosterman’s Fargo Rock City. I’ve actually been trying to get through it for a couple months now. I’m […]

Hip Pop Hooray

My parents have been married for almost 56 years. My mom was 18 and my dad was 21. Was it what you’d call a shotgun wedding? Well, my older brother was born three months later, so you can do the math. But regardless of the circumstances they’ve remained married, and mostly happily, ever since. Little […]

Things Found In A Midwestern Safe

A couple weekends ago my dad came over at his usual time of 9am for our Saturday coffee and conversation. As he came into the door our miniature schnauzer greeted him with the usual shrieks, barks, and bellows… excited for what grandpa had in the Ziploc baggie for him. As I was walking to the […]

New Year’s Day

I always remember New Year’s Day as a quiet day. It was the calm after the New Year’s Eve drinking and laughs. As a kid New Year’s Day was spent with the curtains closed in the living room while my mom watched TV on the couch lying down, while my dad stayed in the bedroom […]

Cleveland Rock City

My grandpa Hubner died in November of 1986, just a month before my 13th birthday. He was 75. E.A. Hubner was a pretty great grandpa, despite not really seeing him a whole lot. Elwood and Dorothy Jean(grandma Hubner) would come over occasionally on sunny Sundays to visit and drop off dime store fireworks or those […]

19th Nervous Breakdown(Going On 20)

It was a weird week. Hell, it’s been a weird last few months if I’m being honest with myself. The pandemic uncovered a lot of latent anxiety in me that I didn’t know how close to the surface it actually was. Surprising moments of panic and worry that would hang out for a couple days. […]

Sitting here waiting for the Lord to come…

When I was 19 I started working at an orthopedic company, in the orthopedic capital of the world. I was fresh off a stint driving a truck for a local paper delivering bundles of weekly issues to route drivers. The driving job felt like the first real “adult” job I’d had. Prior to that I […]