People, Places, & Things

The waiting area at the bus stop was empty when I got there, and I had about 15 minutes to wait before the number 10 outbound would arrive. Like always, I tucked my cane and backpack under the shelter and settled in to watch the shitshow that was taking place about 30 ft straight in front of me. I had a flashback to my childhood and all of those Sunday nights that I spent watching "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom." I laughed out loud a little at how much this feeding frenzy reminded me of all those images I saw of buzzards fighting for a spot on a carcass. Watching those seagulls made me feel bad, all over again, for that poor water buffalo that had had the great misfortune of being at the back of the line when the stampede of fear kicked off.

If you are an atheist or non-believer, as you set out to read this entry, I won't hold it against you if you decide to move on to something else. Before you leave, however,...

Storytellers quite often tell stories that they remembered while they were in a moment of deep reflection, trying to recall the details of an altogether completely unrelated topic. This is certainly my curse, and...

I had to go to the drugstore last night to pick up a new prescription for Daisy. It's only about a half mile each way, so it wasn't that big a deal, and after...

I did a piece recently, reminiscing about my long-passed Aunt Carrie ("A Cane, A Hatchet, And A Corncob Pipe") and some of the wisdom she imparted to me, especially as it pertains to the...

I gave the driver a "please give me a second to wrestle my bag away from this drunk alligator" look and politely told this guy that it was no big deal... I could fix it when I got home... and that I hoped he'd have a nice day. It took him a second, but he came to understand that I was politely telling him to let the fuck go and back off.

Remember Godfather Part 3, when Eli Wallach (Don Altobello) hires a father-son team of assassins to kill Michael? He starts off his pitch by saying he had a "stone in his shoe" that he...

The Coronavirus pandemic is certainly a terrible thing. Not only is it killing people and bringing the world to its economic knees, but it is also universally forcing the human race to take pause...

My appetite was beginning to wane... and it occurred to me that perhaps some of this cultural erosion of common decency and fundamental self - respect could somehow be blamed on the invention of the cell phone. I mean.. think about it.. back in the old days of rotary and push button phones these sorts of conversations more commonly took place in the privacy of your own home and were rarely overheard by random strangers on the streets.

I was on a bus not too long ago that was being driven by a fat City Bus driver during which there was a hostile confrontation between him and one of the passengers that...