Do Overs

His own siblings would describe him this way: “Spending time with Prime was like the last few miles of a marathon. Hurts like hell, but you push your way through it.” His friends, who would all eventually become acquaintances, would describe him as “not a bad guy” or “that’s just Prime.” Prime could enter a…

I just turned 67 with not much fanfare or balloons but a reminder of how I can become quietly smitten with inanimate objects. Like a child with a blanket or pacifier, I have a considerable diversion to discard these inanimate objects. Standing in the garage on a 40-degree sunny spring day, listening to the Sandhill…

C.O. was his nickname, and I don’t believe I have yet met a person with better posture. C.O. wore a black suit with a tie every day in school; I don’t ever remember it being wrinkled and I wondered if he ever sat down. His pure presence demanded respect. His smile was one that generally…

I woke with a dog breathing in my face, a sure sign I was still alive and that she needed to go outside. Our intelligent dog knows that barking will not work with my hearing aids in the charger. For some unknown reason, I had left my slippers in the kitchen—more than likely an evening…

The silence of the late January morning wasn’t strange to him. James left his house on top of the hill he and his older sister Ginny had sledded down every winter while they were growing up. The same hill they walked down on their way to the school bus and then climbed to get back…

“What can I make you for breakfast ?” If you know the answer to his question, it’s necessary to reply loudly, No matter because if he doesn’t hear your answer, he will ask again but closer to your face. Chuck’s ears have been less than average for a long time. Amazingly, he has adjusted emotionally…

At 3:45 a.m., the new dog, Yoshi, decided to communicate her need to go outside, just as she had been trained. “Good Girl!” I had been lying in bed awake, obsessed with the pending weather, just as I had been trained by the melodramatic meteorologist. “Good boy!” I wasn’t sure if I wanted to reach…

I walked into my father’s office and started complaining that I had another wedding to attend the upcoming weekend. In grand fashion, I was dramatic, along with my youthful self-importance. My father just let me go on and on until I was finished. His reply surfaces more now than when Iwas younger. With his blue…

At night, I could hear the train’s whistle and its rushing sound as it moved through town. It mingled with the sound of air brakes and diesel engines coming from the semis at Dushek Trucking as they took off ontheir nightly journeys. My father’s salvage yard security light was right above my window. I don’t…

Glancing down at the mirror on the table while trying not to seem anxious as my guy was deliberately chopping the rocks into a powder. The razor blade made a tapping and scraping sound as it ran back and forth over the mirror. As cool as I thought I was, I could hardly hold back…

A portal into another’s life and family is a sci-fi concept, but growing up in a salvage yard and having the Jorgenson family and J J Laundromat right next door was way ahead of its time and any concept I had of beaming up anywhere. The amazing 10-inch gap in the salvage yard’s ten-foot picket…

When I met my bride Kathy in 1977, she had brought her horse Nightshade from the Chicago suburbs to be boarded in Plover, Wisconsin. Our relationship continued to flourish and so did my understanding of her need to be around equines. I was renting a farm in Scandinavia, Wisconsin, and it was a great fit.…

First thing, let’s get out of the way; I’m guilty of all the things that I’m expressing my displeasure with. The whole passive aggressive thing is so ugly and how I wish I didn’t care if someone was upset with me but to shun someone then have them trying to play the game of figuring…

There was a time a few years back ( minimizing 15 years ) when the Pinch, Rick and I would not miss a hatch on the river with two names. Rick was our mentor and guide to the other side. He is more subdued and elegant with his passion than his two sidekicks. No doubt…

Flying down highway 22 in an old Chevy Greenbrier van with my window open, feeling the summer air’s warmth sliding in the vent window. You have to be as old as dirt to recall vent windows. Am radio blasting and singing along with every song is my neighbor Susan, tan, blonde, 17 or 18 years…

Ham hated his nickname, but it wouldn’t go away if he stayed in the small midwestern farm community. He had hoped that when he went to college “Ham” would be left behind, but it only took a day when someone from his hometown recognized him and greeted him; there it was again, As he had…

He shuffled out to the patio with his hospital pants barely on, sagging down on one hip while he repeatedly pulled on them. The loss of 60 lbs had taken its toll on his 6,3 ” frame. A UW Plativille sweatshirt, a stocking hat with a Ducks un Limited logo. He hated hats and never…

Its become a big pet peeve for me. I sink into a moment of total exhaustion when I don’t get a callback or hear of others that are being slighted. It has been implied by a few that it’s generational, but I believe it runs deeper. It is too easy to blame a block of…

The dynamics of my little hometown have changed in the last couple of years. People have chosen sides like the rest of the country and at times taken the divide to an extreme. I had become disillusioned with my little hometown with fear that it will never be what I believed it was. As tragic…

Would love to say that I slipped on my boots, but that’s a younger man’s term. The reality of doing anything smooth or with grace is not in the cards after reaching a certain numerical number. They make better products that give me the perception of being smooth. Little things like better shoelaces and eyelets.…

The first day that she arrived at our farm, I was skeptical, to say the least; she had been just a conversation with my wife and me. We had always been a one-dog family, and I didn’t really see the need for another, but Kathy had done her research and was excited about adding another.…

Drooling, for some, has a meaning of an abundance of desire. For me, it’s an overabundance of fluid leaking from the mouth. As a boy with monster adenoids, I could drench a pillow quickly during a night of deep sleep. That slightly improved during adolescence, but it remained. I can recall the old Norwegian farmers…