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Blog postHere are some things I’ve learned since being adopted by my human parents.
It is important to find a good hiding spot, like the one in the picture. This is important for several reasons. It helps you win games in the back yard, but it is also important when you forget and do something that makes your humans angry, like digging up the flower bed. It’s important to use an inside voice in the house when you are trying to tell or explain something to your humans. This one is really, really ha -
Blog postWe arrived home from the Western Writer’s convention in one piece, but totally exhausted. Our exhaustion, however, had little to do with the convention, which was well organized and well-run. The authors in attendance were gracious and willing to help folks who were looking for the room they were supposed to be in, or simply had a question on their mind. Our confusion and exhaustion came from simply trying to get to Loveland, Colorado. Let me explain.
Judy had made our reservations wi -
Blog postHave you ever made plans and knew for certain that things were going to take place according to the way you had planned? Your plans were so perfect that it couldn’t take place any other way. The book you’d written, or photographs you had taken, were so remarkable that everyone would love them and in turn love you for thinking of them. Then you would be called upon stage to receive the Pulitzer Prize. Well … Maybe not quite that far. In fact, few people would admit to going that far, but all o
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Blog postHave you ever run across what should have been an easy fix, but no matter what you did, it seemed to refuse to be fixed. I had one of those experiences over the weekend. For some unforeseen reason, our kitchen sink stopped draining. Normally, a clogged sink is something relatively easy to fix, especially for someone like me, who spent over thirty years in the construction field. While I was a painter, I had for a short period of time, worked as a plumber’s helper, and had seen enough clogged
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Blog postHave you ever noticed how things seem to get better the harder you struggle? Take something as mundane as a glass of cold water. If you happen to be really hot and thirsty, that single glass of water might make you think it is the best glass of water bar none. Or a really good sandwich. If you are really hungry, that’s the best sandwich ever. I’m sure it has always been that way.
Thirty-four years ago Judy and I spent a week in Maui on our honeymoon. We both enjoyed our time the -
Blog postYesterday I was asked by a fan on Good Reads where I got my idea for my next book. I truthfully said I didn’t know. It was just there. That’s the way it has always been, from the time I was a small child to now.
I was the youngest of eight children. My older sister and brother got married young and started having children, so the house became small when my mother started babysitting their children while they went back to work. If I wanted any peace I had to go somewhere and hide -
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Blog postBad Data
There’s a line out of Zane Grey’s novel “Riders Of the Purple Sage” that stuck with me when I first read the book some years ago. Lassiter is telling Jane Withersteen that the older he got, the stranger life seemed. I am finding that is certainly the case with me. Life, or people around us, can act real strange, especially when things get tough to deal with, such as buying all the toilet paper and paper towels inside the store. Now, I hear on the ra -
Blog postWhile I’m a fairly easy guy to deal with on most things, I am not so easy to get along with on a few issues. I don’t like being told that I can’t go to the post office or store, or be given a long list of things I have to do in order to take the dog for a walk. And it doesn’t make much difference knowing those telling me what and what not to do are doing it for my own good. I received a telephone call from one of my doctors saying they were postponing one of my tests due to the current virus.
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Blog postI’m sitting in my recliner inside my living room, staring out the window during my self-imposed quarantine. No, I don’t have the virus and don’t expect to contact it anywhere in my small circle of friends. First of all, it’s kinda hard to contact or spread germs or viruses over the internet, and I don’t expect to lick any handrails anywhere. The best place I go to contact a virus is the gym, which I attend three times a week, but being a guy, inside a guy’s world, we wouldn’t think of touchin
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Blog postThe good news from California is that it isn’t raining today. That’s an odd thing to be saying about the state I’ve lived in all my life. As a child, I can remember honestly praying that it would rain, and being disappointed when it didn’t. On the few instances when it did, the first thing my two sisters closest to my age and I would do was run to the street to play in the mud. We didn’t have a concrete curb and gutter or blacktop at that time, but we had plenty of mud. I’m sure our mot
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Blog postI’m sure that most of us have heard, and more than likely repeated, the old axiom I’m having one of those days. We instantly know what the speaker means when we hear someone repeat those words. We have all experienced a day where nothing seems to go the way we had planned it, and certainly not how we wanted things to turn out. We climb into the driver’s seat early in the morning, planning on going to work, only to discover the car won’t start. Okay, it sounds like the battery is low. We simpl
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Blog post
The apple tree Zachary planted in our back yard several years ago is telling us that spring is around the corner. And yes, I know they are forecasting another storm system moving into our area sometime this evening, dumping more rain in the valley and snow in the mountains. But still, the apple tree says be patient because spring is here.
What we see now are only the leaves starting to unfold. In a matter of weeks the tree will show its true beauty when it is covered wi -
Blog postThese plants are known as Datura Stramnonium, or more commonly called Jimsonweed or Angel's Trumpet. It is a summer annual broad leaf plant. All its parts, especially the seeds, contain alkaloids, and when ingested, are toxic to humans and livestock. The trouble is, they grow everywhere---along roadways, ditch banks,creeks, and they thrive next to wastewater. While being a nuisance, they take on a beauty when in full bloom, sort of like The Ugly Duckling.
Sometimes people are that way -
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Blog postOkay, I believe I've reached the point that all red-blooded men hate...that they are getting older...maybe even over the hill and sliding down the other side, without any brakes to stop you. In my case, it was always the other guy, but never me. I guess I was like the character Al Capp created named General Bullmoose, who at the age of 90 was still in the gym pumping iron and out-performing all the younger men. Not that I'm 90, or built like General Bullmoose, but I still walked 5 miles a day
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Blog postAbout ten years ago we decided to have an in-ground swimming pool installed in our back yard. After taking several estimates, we hired El Dorado Pools out of Modesto to do the job. The finished product was everything we expected --- a large kidney-shaped lagoon affair with a waterfall and lagoon bench and a six-foot deep diving area. We instantly began using it, and have had countless backyard barbecues with family and friends, adding an outdoor kitchen with a grill, a sink and refrigerator,
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Blog postAdams Creek winds a path from the hills to the east of Oakdale, across fields and pasture land, where it intersects Orsi Road at the edge of town. From Orsi Road, it cuts a gash in the earth for approximately a city block where it meets with an underground syphon, to be piped across town. On an early morning walk, you can hear the constant chirping of birds mingled with the occasional chatter of a squirrel. Most mornings you can hear the crowing of a neighbor's rooster and the neighing of hor
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Blog postI woke to a chilly, foggy morning here in Oakdale. The damp air made me zip my jacket snugly around my neck while walking Molly. Funny how some dogs don't seem to mind damp, cold air or even a light rain, but when you show them a tub of warm bath water and a bottle of sweet smelling dog shampoo, they run and try to hide. We humans are like that at times. Not so much with taking a hot shower and shampooing our hair, but show us a gym or some exercise equipment and that's a different story. Oh,
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Blog postOkay, the trick-or-treaters are gone and the candle inside the jack o’ lantern has been blown out. You’ve picked up the scattered candy wrappers and tucked the little ones in bed. Time to snuggle next to the wife or husband with a hot cup of chocolate or coffee and watch a good Halloween movie. Right? But you might not want to go to bed after watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or something equally as bloody. Let me offer some suggestions.
Movies Not To Watch
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Blog post
Each of us form habits early in life. We learn quickly that certain behaviors will bring either a loving touch and smile from our parents, or it will quickly bring their wrath and displeasure. I grew up the youngest of eight children, and neither parent had time for childish fits of temper or pestering and whining. Such actions would never bring the desired result. Instead, they brought the wrath of mama quickly, in the form of a paddling on my behind or being sent into the bed -
Blog postI thought I would take a break from all the writing and publishing stuff I normally talk about, and share some observations about the holiday. With all the shopping and running here and there, we sometimes lose the joy and warmth that is supposed to go with Christmas. Sadly, children and spouses often get to open packages under a tree, but do not receive the most important gift of love. We spend money we do not have with plastic cards, then dread to look at the statement when it arrives in th
Titles By Major Mitchell
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