Stay Awake!
Author’s Note: So I have added the audio file for ‘Stay Awake’ and I feel as though I should apologize to Frank’s wife, who you will hear from shortly. Somehow I have made her sound as though she smokes non-stop, drinks whisky and has whiskers on her throat. That was not my intention, I’m sure her voice is perfectly pleasant. I think I’m projecting.
‘Oh My Word. Then what happened?’
Now I have no idea how Perfectly Sensible Tony lost this debate to Typically Ridiculous Tony, but he did. “And out of the house I went car keys in one hand, the forefinger on my right hand tucked into a belt loop at the waist of my pants. I assured myself that would be sufficient.”
My Favourite Story of the Year
As I put the car in ‘park’ and opened my door Bad Tony was gleeful.
“That’s right Tony. I am so proud of you. Go on give it to the old bugger. Who does he think he’s playing with.!”
I walked behind my car and locked eyes with the driver of the Lincoln. He was old. Which is one of the more ironic things I have ever written because I am old as well. So old. Good Tony was aghast.
One Lucky Puppy
Goldie leaned down as Bailey gently brushed her mane, “I’ve taught her how to love. How to love with all her heart. Taught her to understand that it love can be painful sometimes. I know she’ll be very sad when I die but I hope she’ll understand that it is the best way to live, it’s the only way to live. To be in love is okay, tears and all, it’s okay.”
Absent Friends and Other Sorts
I remember during the Christmas holidays how my parents would raise a toast to ‘Absent Friends’. It was not a passing moment either, they would both privately linger obviously thinking back and remembering. I joined them of course but I didn’t get it, not really. How could I? I was a callow teenager. I had no absent friends.
Stories From Afar
These Stories from Afar are not important stories, they are just my stories, little nuggets from a lifetime of living. I hope that in the listening they offer some pleasure, some amusement and some insight to my place in time, the path I trod and who I am to you be that as a parent, grandparent, a friend or a stranger.
Well This is Getting Old
So it’s December again, which at my age is a good thing, and I’ve decided to lighten up for the entire month. Enough with my bloviating ‘this – es and thats!’ It’s time we smiled and laughed (if we can) and simply count our blessings. Mine are too many to mention. Although that has never stopped me before. So why start now?
A Toast to My Family
I wrote this some years ago and read it each year at our family Christmas table. I have learned how to love. I have strived and failed and succeeded in no particular order and I have been humbled. Through it all my family has always been there, teaching me, unwavering.
God, Save America!
America is a country bitterly divided by racial hatred. History shows us that great powers, great empires aren’t defeated in battle by foreign enemies, they are defeated from within. As with any cancer. From within the battle rages.
HEJ
As I am writing this my house is very quiet. Well, other than the rythmic snoring of our French Bulldog Edith that is. My wife is away for the week on a course and our house is empty. Empty and so quiet and after just a few days that emptiness has washed over me. I feel uneasy in my loneliness.