After having a relatively minor bout with COVID a few weeks ago, my bride finally felt up to getting out for a bit of a hike. We thought about heading south to Matthiessen State Park near LaSalle, Illinois—a little sister park to her more famous neighbor, Starved Rock. Both have…
It never entered my mind as a 7-year-old kid to be filled with anxiety over Valentine’s Day. You? I surely don’t remember a bunch of rules about it, imposed upon us by the school administration in my public elementary school. Not like in some schools these days. Granted, memory fades…
“Here we are as in olden days…” Are we? In many ways, we are. Christmas rolls around again as it has for centuries. Hasn’t always been so universally celebrated; nevertheless, no one alive in the western hemisphere remembers when it wasn’t celebrated. The other night, we went for a Christmas…
Our second granddaughter, the fourth grandchild, came into the world one week ago today, arriving on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. Apparently, she wasn’t too eager to get here—was supposed to show up a week earlier. But as we all know, babies tend to arrive when they’re ready. As every grandparent…
It was as if the angels were waging a snowball fight with a great swath of northwest Illinois. We were sitting in a restaurant at dinner when the fight began. On our drive to Rockford to meet up with my brothers, the temperature was warm enough that a light, intermittent…
Don’t you love it when a plan comes together and everything goes off without a hitch—no hiccups, snafus, or unexpected “surprises”? I mean, you work hard to put a plan together, coordinate all the pieces, making sure each one functions properly, and then launch time comes. Like a well-oiled machine,…
