2013
The First Day of School
Blogger’s note: Like my last entry, most of this blog comes from a book I wrote 20 years ago entitled “Is This For a Grade?” I am in the process of republishing that book as an e‑book, but annotating it with my current observations and opinions. I hope to publish this update the day that […]
2013
Inservice Training
Bend over and we’ll teach you to teach (Blogger’s note: Twenty years ago I wrote a book called Is This For a Grade? — a collection of essays about teaching high school. My latest book project is re-issuing that book, only amending it; adding to the original text my current opinions on the same topic. You’d […]
2013
The Vagaries of Memory and the Spirit of Perverseness
When I taught sophomore English, we did the novel The Lord of the Flies. I thought it was a strange choice because there are no girls in the book, which tended to diminish the interest level of half my class. But I had no trouble accepting the main premise of the book, that when the […]
2013
God and the 5th Hole
God is intensely involved in my golf game. Does that sound as ridiculous to you as it does to me? And yet I believe it is true. You see, I have invited God to participate with me, and I believe He is there with me every hole I play. I freely admit I do most […]
2013
The Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees
The following is a chapter from my autobiography in progress: The Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees I never even thought about my parents having sex. In retrospect, I’m sure they did—there are six of us children and only occasional suspicions about parentage. I don’t suppose any child is […]
2013
Three Movies
…you gotta see! I’m not one of those guys. I never sit around and watch a movie over and over again, memorizing every line of dialogue, so I can spring it into my next beer/guy talk. Even movies that I love I very rarely watch more than once. I take the same attitude I have with […]
2013
Insert Foot in Mouth
In the Epistle of James, we read: “The tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.” Hoo boy. I’ll go along with that. My […]
2013
Los Spurs
It has been ten days now. I am almost over it, but not quite. On the Wednesday morning after game six, I woke up at 4:37. It all came surging back, like a punch in my gut. Manu’s free throw, Kawhi’s free throw. Kawhi’s almost rebound. The ball to Ray Allen in the corner. (I […]
2013
My Next Career
“There was high school and there was retirement; then there was that year in between.” –Dallin Malmgren Thirty-two down and one more to go. God willing, that is the plan. Some people worry that they won’t know what to do with themselves when they retire. Not a big concern here. I frequently joke that I’ve […]
2012
The Joy of Life…
I remember when I was a boy, I would wake up and go outside in the early morning. And I would stand in the air, and I’d breathe, and this feeling would pulse through me–the joy of life. Gurgling and bubbling, an effervescence of spirit. It would happen mostly in summer (at least I associate […]
2012
Home alone…
The beginning of June brings two blissful events into my life practically every year: the school year ends, and , less obviously, my wife leaves me. Wait, that is not as bad as it sounds. I love my wife. We will have been married for 35 years on August 27th, and I’m hoping for another […]
2012
Mowing the lawn.…
Just did it this morning. It’s a menial task, but someone’s got to do it. It takes around 45 minutes at my new house. It used to take about two hours for my acre in Cibolo, and that was with a riding mower. That was a god-awful job, with dust and rocks and weeds and […]
2012
Ascia … my dear mom
(The following is actually a chapter from my never-ending, self-perpetuating autobiography called My Forty Pages–way more than that and still growing. I hope to put it up on my website someday.) As distant and estranged as I felt from my father growing up, so I seemed attached and connected to my mother. Not in a […]
2012
TAKS me no questions…and I’ll tell you no lies
Four straight days of testing this week. I asked my seniors if they knew how lucky they were–come to school at 12:50 every day, two or three or four shortened class periods, and home again. To top it off, Monday was Senior Skip Day (hmm, why do I feel guilty capitalizing that?) For the rest of […]
2012
Have you found your calling? Or, I ain’t no Stephen King…
This is my first blog entry in a month. Dang. I was supposed to do one once a week, every Sunday. Another resolution bites the dust (see my first blog entry). What can I say? Life happened. Except that is a cop-out. It’s not like I have been so inundated with the cares of this […]
2012
Spring Break…
…is my third favorite holiday of the whole year. It is like a flotation device thrown to you just as you’re about to go under in the sea of the second semester. I don’t care anything about calendar dates—spring officially begins on the first day of Spring Break. The air smells different on that first […]
2012
The Out-of-Towner…
I missed a blog entry last weekend—I’m trying to do one every Sunday. I have enough self-awareness to know I’ll miss a few here and there (and to not beat myself up about it—guilt has never been a strong motivator for me). I’m blaming the out-of-towner for last weekend. Every year I take my tennis […]
2012
Death is not the end…
… and how a dog taught me that. I am not a pet person. Karen and I do not have a pet at this point, and that is by my preference with her reluctant assent. But I don’t expect it to last too long. I have observed and recognized and even come to respect an undeniable […]
2012
Losing things…
I lost my school keys last weekend. I know, an unremarkable event…is it worth writing about? Yes, because most of us lose stuff, and I’m curious to know if my experience of loss and recovery follows a common thread. Feedback is invited. First off, it was a big deal. Those keys unlock my job—the doors […]
2012
Spousal arguments…
Karen and I had a fight on Friday. I have the common sense and the decorum not to use this blog as a sounding board (or soapbox) for the intricacies of our relationship, but it did get me thinking about marital discord. I am pleased and relieved that as we get older, our fights are […]
2012
A good listener…
…is a joy to engage. There is a comfort to be found in the sympathetic ear and the attentive mind that transcends friendship or fellowship or even therapy. Good listeners are a hot commodity in the commerce of interpersonal relations. And they’re not that easy to find. Become a good listener and you are guaranteed […]
2012
Shock treatments…
I have witnessed at least 20 electric shock treatments in my life. In my younger days I worked as a psychiatric aide for six years at the Mid-Missouri Mental Health Center. (When I tell my students this, someone always comes up with the wiseguy question: “Are you sure you worked there?” My stock answer: “There’s […]
2012
A good book…
I just finished reading a book, Peace like a River by Leif Enger, for the second time. I hardly ever do that. Life is too short, and there are too many books I want to read. But I liked this book so well I selected it for my book group (we rotate choosing), and reading […]
2012
The Sixties Kid, Bonjour Boys & Out of My Hands at Lulu.com
Three previously unreleased books NOW available at Lulu.com!
2012
Whatever you are doing…
Is there a gene for creativity? I have no idea. I do have a collection of my father’s short stories, which he never published although I think they are quite good. And I see a creative flair in all three of my children, but especially in my middle child, Nathan (Silace Amaro). I’d like to […]
2012
I do hereby resolve…
Yep, I believe. I’ve been making New Year’s resolutions for years and keeping them for months. When my children were growing up, we’d all sit down at the kitchen table on New Year’s Eve and make up a list of ten resolutions. (Was that my idea?) Then we’d throw in two or three for each […]