Mark My Words

I’ve never been much of a bird watcher, but since the current pandemic, and the “Stay at Home” order, we have become quite interested in observing some of the birds that frequent the area. Some friends turned us on to Orioles. I’m not referring to baseball’s Baltimore Orioles, but rather the birds who are noted for their bright orange coloring. …

As a child growing up, two things I fondly remember about the Detroit Tigers were the broadcasting teams:  Ernie Harwell and Paul Carey on the radio and George Kell and Al Kaline on TV. I spent many summer nights listening to Harwell and Carey on the clock radio in my bedroom.  I may be biased, but there wasn’t a better …

One night I was attending a Kalamazoo Wings hockey game. I checked my phone during the game, as I always do, and learned that the NBA had suddenly suspended their season.   The next day, the K-Wings announced that their season was suspended.  Later that night, it was announced that our schools were closing down for three weeks. The dominos were …

When I was younger, I had dreams of becoming an actor.  To be honest, I had dreams of becoming a mailman, a teacher, a weatherman, sports broadcaster, a writer AND an actor.  I guess you could say I had plenty of career choices to choose from. With all those possibilities, the thought of entertaining a crowd, whether on the big …

I’m baaaaaack. Honestly, I am not sure if anyone really missed my columns, but I admit, I sure missed writing them.  Where have I been? Good question. To use a tired excuse, I was just busy. As my children grow, so does their participation in activities.   Between driving them here, there and everywhere, attending their many events, work, and all …

The earth is huge. There are over 7.5 billion people living on the earth. The earth is about 24,874 miles tall and 24,860 miles around, so when we were told as a child, teen or young adult, that “it’s a big world out there”, they weren’t kidding. On the flip side, you also hear people say “what a small world” …

Be Kind! Please rewind! I am sure those of us of a certain age remember this sticker that was plastered on VHS tapes rented from video stores back in the day. The theory behind that mantra was that if you rented a VHS movie, make sure you hit that rewind button before returning the video, so the person after you …

As I scoured my email the other day, sorting out the spam from the emails that I actually needed to read, one in particular caught my eye. The subject line made me nervous, so I hesitated opening it. I was worried for what this email contained. Anytime I see or hear the word “changes”, it causes me to pause. After …

Shortly after my wife and I were married back in 2003, we started thinking about leaving apartment life behind and buying our first house. The decision to take the plunge to purchase a house was very easy. Everything else that goes along with house hunting however, was not as simple. We never had any “knock down, drag out” fights while …

  Funk and Wagnalls, the dictionary people, for those of you who have no idea what those words mean, say that that word regret means “to look back to with distress; grieve over; remember with longing.” Regret is such a horrible sounding word. It isn’t a fun word to say, even if you are telling someone that they may regret …