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STARTING OVER ONE MORE TIME

Calling it a day and starting over after forty five years? Not me, my wife’s business. After five moves beginning in NW Portland and ending in Lake Oswego, delivering hundreds of babies, treating thousands of patients, the timing couldn’t be better. We met at the start, teamed up for her business, and now it will […]

WRITING TOOLS: THE SHORT LIST

Writing tools were easy in the beginning. Either write something worth reading. Or, do something worth writing about. Is there more? There’s always more.

MY BEATLES MARATHON

First off, it didn’t start as a planned Beatles marathon. I hadn’t even thought of it when my wife came home and said, “This is the same music I heard when I left this morning.” Me: Hey Siri, play The Beatles for two days. No, I didn’t say that. Nobody says that, but here we […]

BASHING CIVIL DISCOURSE TO NEW HEIGHTS

How often do you catch yourself in civil discourse and regret what you’ve said? It usually goes something like, ‘this would have been better if I had just stayed on topic.’ That’s the polite self-talk. The other? Not so polite.

MAY 1986, THE LAST WEDDING

It was a cloudy, wet, day, in May 1986 for the last wedding. Like so many raised on the Oregon coast, a cloudy, wet, day, is good luck no matter where you are. Everything was done, everything set in Sandy, from rented morning coats to a rented preacher. The preacher was a second choice.

LET THEM, LET YOU, OR LET ME?

The Let Them Theory book has a lot of lets in the letters. My favorites are the parts that address my problems, which come with a writing habit from what I can tell. Will I discover why I’m not a better writer? Learn what I should have done by now, or find a lingering message […]

NORTH BEND HEROES START HERE

 Calling North Bend a small town is a disservice to real small towns everywhere. Driving south on 101 and crossing the North Bend Bridge takes you under this sign. If you’re not paying close attention and keep going the same direction, the entire area of the largest metro complex on the Oregon coast feels like […]

RECLAIMING MY TIME ON SOUTHERN OREGON COLLEGE SIXTY-FIVE YEARS LATER

Southern Oregon College Graduating Class of 1960: My dad. He transferred after two years at Central Oregon Community College in Bend. It was a well used path to the first college degree in his family. He was thirty years old, an old 30. Back then thirty was older, fifty was a grandparent. Hit sixty and […]

EARLY TO WORK EVERY DAY

In my field if you’re not early to work, you’re late. If you’re late you can’t be a blogger? No, you can be late and blog, late and write, and it’s a good idea to be late. Being late builds demand. Can’t you feel it? But not too late.

WATCHING NEWS, KEEPING CURRENT

We’ve been watching news, keeping an eye on things, staying current. Nothing gets by us. With a pump in a water-tank, we find the flow. My school friends and I all believe a water pump in our tank is an essential service. It’s a big part of what keeps us alive and thriving, that and […]