I know some of you were expecting a story yesterday and I was expecting to write one, but truth is, I was living one. Today is the twenty-fourth birthday of my second batch of kids. Normally we (Elaine and I) make it a priority to celebrate birthdays with the batches. As time has went on it has been increasingly more difficult to celebrate birthdays on actual birthdays. Knowing the twins (Girl and Boy) birthday was coming, I started planning for the possiblity of some type

First thing first. I need to thank everyone for the concern and well wishes. If by some chance you didn’t have any concern or well wishes, I’m OK with that. Maybe next time. Having said all that I am feeling pretty good. I can walk at least twice as much/far as I could before the doctors removed Two liters (+) of non-cancerous fluid off my right lung. I have decided to take today off from writing a story so I can enjoy the warm weather today and play outside, unless Elain

Hello, Mumblers. I’m a little late with today’s story. Truth is I was not where I could write a story. Reluctantly, I’m going to tell the story now. Let me first say that I turned seventy last month. Things didn’t go bad becauseI turned seventy, but I noticed things were bad. At a recent doctor visit, it was determined by my doctor(s) that breathing is not what I was good at. This breathing revelation caused me to spend seven days in the local hospital. I could have wr

As I have mentioned before, Elaine loves fall/autumn. For the first forty-plus years of our marriage, Elaine has made the fall colors of the trees her high point of her year. She loves the yellows, tans, browns and beiges of the leaves. A few short years ago, Elaine discovered another reason to love fall. Football! Elaine spent the first decades of her life being indifferent to fall sports, especially football. She has a degree from a university (actually two degrees) wi

There are many reasons have “pet” dogs. None bigger than Elaine wants/needs something to cuddle with on the couch. No, I won’t cuddle, I like my space. We have dogs to “walk”, forcing Elaine and I to get some exercise. We can’t talk about how that worked out. Dogs are almost a nessesity in a rural setting. They become the first line of interaction with the local wildlife. No matter how small the dog and how big the bear/lion/other, the dog will alert the world something

Labor Day is not my favorite day. Labor Day 2026 is bittersweet but mostly bitter. Labor Day signals the end of summer, usually with some celebration. We (Elaine, both batches of kids, and myself) aren’t celebrating together. One kid is spending their Labor Day on an oil driIling rig in central Wyoming. One kid is spending the day laboring in a restaurant in Northern Colorado. One kid is spending the day with friends at something called PIlates and then spending the day

Now that it is over, I am determined to laugh about it. I just suffered through the worst year of my life, I spent the last seven days in the hosiptal. Last Friday I came home froom running errands in town. Oncce I got in the house I felt dizzy. Elaine noticed. Not sure who suggested it but it was determined I needed to go to the hospital. Previous to this day I had been given permission to “play with my old man meds.” I might have “played” a little hard. At the hospit

Sunday mornings I like to get up and sit down to tell a story on my tablet about what I did or what was done to me the previous week. This Sunday was no exception, except I have nothing to talk about this week. Before breakfast on two separate days, I’ve chased girl twin’s dog, Bratwurst through two neighbors pastures. The neighbor’s ———— (insert construction language) donkeys tried to stomp, kick and chase him out of their pasture. Gordon (Bback and white) accompanied Girl

Depending on you read this, one could say that Elaine and I celebrated our forty-ninth wedding anniversary this past week. Not our fiftieth, just our forty-ninth. People will say the forty-ninth is a big deal but I'm here to tell you there wasn't much to celebrate. We ended up going to dinner by ourselves, not on our anniversary date, but close. That said, after forty-nine years, I feel I should tell a story about how it all got started. I was working as a home builder/ca

I’m going to say something I don’t think I’ve ever said before. “I’m ready for summer to be over”. This has not been a great summer for me. I can’t believe it was almost TOO hot, I like hot weather, but this has been ridiculous. The skies have been hazy from the nation’s wildfires. I guess I am looking forward to winter because I despise fall/autumn. Elaine loves Fall. She likes the middle of the road temperatures, the gray, brown, tan vegetation. I like greens, blues,