Got aging parents at home?
AARP began sending me information when I turned fifty-five. My first reaction was to take it as an insult. As far as I knew, a senior citizen was sixty-five years old. Until a friend politely informed me that many...
My 65th birthday is on the second of December. There is so much more to this milestone in life than just another birthday. My sixteen years of crack addiction during my twenties and early thirties prevented me from seeing...
Remember your first love? You know, the guy made you swoon at the thought of him. The one who made your legs like jelly as his lips touched yours. That man you told anyone and everyone who would listen...
Anyone who enters a store in this country is usually surprised to see merchandise for sale that is applicable four months in the future.  The other day at Costco I couldn’t believe all the Christmas stuff and it was only...
So I got This Text From My Liver: Stop Sending Me all These Pills! In elementary school they offered a class in home economics which taught us the art of loading a dishwasher, how to stuff a date and how...
Age is just a number and it should never be a barrier to pursuing your passions, exploring new interests or setting new goals.  Whether you’re 20, 50 or 80, there’s always room for growth, learning and adventure in your...
My wife and I run a home-based b&b on the central California coast between San Francisco and Los Angeles.  In our 20 years of doing so we have met thousands of wonderful people from everywhere, but the other day one...
Almost every Thursday for the past six years, Anne Marie Barletta has played mahjong. This day is no different. She sits at a table with two other women, moving tiles between the shiny mahogany stand in front of her and the...
Fat War

World War Me

The other day I watched a movie entitled World War Z with Brad Pitt. The Zombies ran rampant across the earth biting into their victims with an excitement I’ve not seen since the annual shoe sale at Saks. So as I became...
We begin outside a neon streaked roadhouse, a couple of miles outside of Wichita, Kansas.   A large portable sign sits outside the roadhouse, just beside the highway, and announces “Turk’s Army – Thursday thru Sunday”. It was now Friday night.  A...