I consider my having been seen at Shands Hospital for evaluation regarding my request for a kidney transplantation as a rare privilege for me. I have been to one or two hospitals in my lifetime and I have never experienced such a dose of hope, encouragement and professionalism than I have… Read full post »

I love standards. In music, standards are musical pieces that have withstood the test of time. An example of a standard is Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust," or Charlie Barnett's "Cherookee". There are hundreds of standards being played and replayed daily on the air and people never seem to tire from lis… Read full post »

The tamarind tree is a tropical giant that loves the heat. It grows several feet high and its canopy can spread out and cover a radius of 20 to 30 feet. By the time the tree matures, it leaves a cavernous space underneath its lowest branches making a shady home for… Read full post »

Do I like president George W. Bush? Yes. I think he is an honest, courageous and God-fearing man. He may not be as eloquent, articulate and well spoken as some folks would like him to be but he can speak straight Texan and that is good enough for me.

Am… Read full post »

The topics posted about sex, in any form and no matter how slightly connected to the subject, seem to get most of the rave reviews here in OS. The readers, responders and other OS bloggers throng and mass around these posts, commenting and perhaps even experiencing a tinge of vicariously achieved… Read full post »

It must have been a little past midnight when I thought I heard the cry of a tiny baby... that thin, barely perceptible sound coming from a newborn. It was the dry season - the nights were crisp and deathly quiet except for the cicadas on the acacia trees. The moon… Read full post »

"Hey there boy. Want chewing gum?" Big soldier in fatigues pauses while walking the perimeter, rifle in hand, big grin on his face. 

I looked up to see a hulk of a man through coiled barbed wire, concertina wire, and other metal barricades that made up the fence around the… Read full post »

Was there ever a time in your life when you hated your parents? You expressed your feelings of hatred underneath your breath, or told some inanimate object about it, or even confided in your pet turtle about how you hated your parents because they wouldn't let you do the things you… Read full post »

Today is my younger sister's birthday. She still lives with her husband and family in California. They have lived and persevered there since the early 70s. I gave her a call early this morning to greet her Happy Birthday and many happy returns! "Say, how old are you now?" I… Read full post »

When you are feeling down and out try humming a tune and next thing you know you'll forget what you were fretting about. Keep humming and you will begin to feel like you are floating and that your head's slightly spinning. If your sadness persists sing the blues and soon you… Read full post »

We had the good fortune to live in a hilly, coastside, small bedroom community in the Bay Area for well over 25 years. To the west the Pacific Ocean was only a quarter of a mile away and to the east the rocky promontory that was part of the San Andreas… Read full post »

My late wife (God rest her soul) and I have four sons. Three are doing well; one not so well. In fact this one boy's entire life is being wasted - like water running off and into the culverts instead of being saved in a reservoir for some good use.… Read full post »

Life was simple. Life was hard but survivable. You were born, you earned your keep, you sowed your seeds and you died. There was only nature all around. There were no man made malls, no vending machines, no motorized transportation, no televised entertainment, no telephone, no ATM machines, no consum… Read full post »

These days, more so than any other time in my life, I find myself spending time recalling past events - both good and bad, exciting and boringly flat, big and small - but all significant. Like the time my eldest son was born.

I was away from home, on board ship… Read full post »