Retired Navy after 23 years. I retired at the age of 40 years old. I've been out longer than I was in. All of the ships I served on have been made into razor blades. I had fun and I lived my life the best I could. Most of my shipmates are gone and I try to stay in touch with the remainder. It continues. Substance abuse counselor, builder of wooden boats, furniture maker, prison non-violence workshop facilitator, life observer, activist, reader, writer, geriatric subject of interest, generous tipper. I stay involved.
I have been doing a lot of primary research online and some of it includes looking up word meanings and pronunciation. I have become something of a word-smith. There are words that I never fully understood the derivation of. It has been fun as well as edifying. Here is a story that goes into one … More Temp Worker; a New Job Title for Me
POLITE COMPANY Francis regretted opening his mind to Gary. He regretted confessing a minor indiscretion. Gary was a new friend and Francis had needed to talk to someone. He needed to talk about a situation he was navigating with Ellen his wife of forty years. Francis and Ellen were still living in the same house … More Polite Company (encore from 2015)
FECUNDITY 2 How many like me are cautiously and silently alone,Cruising the garden to choose, sometimes wisely,Often without thought of consequences,A place to plant a seed in the earth.The warm, dark, waiting, ready earth. The act of clearing away the dressing of winter compostAnd touching with fingers the top soilBrings deeper feeling.A simple and soft … More Fecundity! 1st Draft
IT’S ALL RELATIVE, CLARICE Clarice sat in her car waiting for the bloated, urgent feeling to subside. Or rather she sat and hoped it would. She had been driving for hours, nibbling on nuts and chips and sipping water from a travel cup. The nuts and chips and water had no place but further to … More It’s All Relative, Clarice (Encore Post From 6-6-2016)
One of my dearest friends from the early days of my attempt to get sober in AA was a wise older woman named Mary. She was my best friend for a few years before I left for the East Coast and then we lost touch. She was sober for 15 years when I first met … More J & B. It whispers
WHISPERS It comes to me like breaking news. The ancient ‘aha’ moment visited upon people forever clarifies for just a brief moment while I’m watching a documentary on trees. I hear and see on the screen the chemicals, the chemicals that cure or prevent cancer, the chemistry that provides anti-bodies for life and survival. I … More Whispers
n What an angel, When did it start? Who are you? Really. Your androgynous nature, Your movement and gait, I, alone, see you in this way. A recipe for pain and pleasure, You are the whole book, I miss you. g Gentle George 10 August 2020
The sun is setting. I notice Padre Sol is a little to the left of where I’m used to watching it this time of day. A “little to the left” is about a foot and a half south of mid-summer according to the window that normally frames it at sundown. “Time Passages”, a song from … More Watching Our Solar System March Toward Winter
Once in a great while I will reflect on people from my past. Some I have written about. This is one of those stories that happened in a few hours and ended there. Unless you want to talk about life-long happy memories of one person. This brief encounter lasted me a lifetime. Here it is. … More Fond Memories of This Man
A HORSE IS A HORSE OF COURSE OF COURSE Mister Ed was a favorite character in a weekly T.V. show during the sixties. Reruns for decades put the opening credits theme song into everyone’s conscious forever. The plot contained a ‘talking’ horse Mister Ed. I briefly discussed the song with the bag-boy at Hannaford Supermarket … More Of Course, Of Course!
Playing Fair and Being Kind 