Category: Uncategorized

“Bumper Karts at Costco” The emergence of the GIANT MEGA SUPER STORE shopping experience has lowered prices, created gross over buying, and raised the stress of “going shopping” to a level of low-grade combat. Last Saturday I made the mistake of thinking I could “stop by” Costco to pick up a few things. After circling the parking lot twice, MK suggested that we punt. Then a parking spot opened up—a blessing from the parking gods. The inside of the store was more chaotic than the outside. I loved the midway at the Colorado State Fair. I would head straight for…

Unpacking from a 45 day, 7,350 mile, 16 state and 13 bed road trip, requires more than doing laundry and hanging clothes back up. It’s the unpacking of the dozens of encounters, scenes, meals, Buc—Eees, and conversations I had along the way. There is one particular unexpected morning I can’t put away in a convenient memory box. We had driven nearly 800 miles from California to our half way point in Las Cruces, NM. We had two days to make it to Stephenville, Texas, where grandson Mattias was going to be part of his spring jazz concert honoring Duke Ellington.…

I have a date with my granddaughter Zoe tomorrow afternoon. This will involve no ice cream or chicken nuggets. We will not be watching a movie or going on a drive. We will be watching… The Masters fourth and final round on my ridiculous big screen in the basement. Zoe, to my surprise, went out for golf this year at Arvada West. Other than Mini Golf she had no prior golfing experiences. She told me her coach recruited her. Well, she loves it. I secretly laughed when she told me she thought it was great. “Wait until you have hit…

The exponential speed with which my world has moved, from my Rand McNally Atlas to an internal GPS in my 2020 BMW, sometimes boggles my mind. My car responds to my voice. I just say things like “BMW call my grandson Miko” or, “Find the nearest Starbucks” and presto—zingo I am on a phone call or I’m in dreaded drive through. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like I am living out a Star Trek episode. Today I want to talk about my “way too smart GPS”. I call it a her because speaks to me in…

My Warbling Grandmother Opal—Easter Giggles Easter was a time in The Pumphrey Clan when we all descended to Colorado Springs where my grandparents lived. We would meet at First Christian Church there and occupy at least two pews. The hymns of Easter were very predictable. Lined up in the pew were seven kids as my baby brother Don was be cared for in the church nursery. A standard Easter hymn in Disciples world is “Up from the Grave He Arose”. My grandmother Opal, a preachers kid then in her 60s loved to sing. She warbled… a lot. We went from…

“But one day when you are old others will tie you up and escort you where you would not choose to go”—Jesus speaking to Peter in the 21st chapter of John. I have yet to be tied up, but once again, life is teaching me another lesson in humility. The root word for humility is “humus” (not the dip) but “of the earth”. In other words, to be brought down to the very essence of truth/reality. I remember when the American Disability Act was passed in 1990, I was 41 and I thought “Good for them”. Soon I began to…

You might notice that I did not write last week. I was not suffering from “writers block”, but rather just the opposite. I had too many things to chose from, so I chose none. We took off two weeks ago from California. In one day we went from Los Angels to Las Cruces, New Mexico. We managed to put a big crack in my almost new windshield out in the middle of Arizona. The next morning in the breakfast lobby of the Super 8 we were met with a bus load of migrants who were being moved from El Paso…

Leg #2 of our epic road trip has been10 days at our daughter Stephanie’s— the 50 year old mom of two kids under five. On Thursday we signed up for a snow day on Mt. Baldy. Mt Baldy is located about 1.5 hours outside of LA. All I knew about this outing is that Sofia was planning on making her own snowman with real snow. We loaded up two cars with enough “winter gear” for a Colorado blizzard and headed east out of LA. I had no idea what to expect. I had never driven to a “ski area” by…