Casey's Just Sayin'

I have a hard time knowing where to start this story.   My daughter's mom, my ex-wife, passed away three years ago this March. My daughter, who is now twenty-four, has been hit heartbreakingly hard by this loss.   When she died, we put all of her worldly possessions in a storage unit temporarily. As these things often do, temporarily turned in to just under three years and only now is the storage unit nearly empty of what was a household and lifetime of the profoundly sentimental and the utterly mundane.   Last Friday, my daughter was going through one of her mom's many boxes and found a letter she had written. It was addressed to my daughter and was written just shy of five months before her mom passed. The powerful words answered some of my daughter's questions about her mom's passing, affirmed the love they shared and supported the decisions my daughter has made since she lost her mom. It was devastating and cathartic at the same time. That Sunday w...

Resolutions aside, here's a brief summary of what went down in December and where I'm at now in writing and, well, everything.   I want to start by saying that this year, especially, we all have a very strong common reason to appreciate every glimmer of good in our lives. This post is not about that tragedy. But before I talk about my little tiny life, I want to say for the record I sincerely believe we all owe it to humanness itself to remember and appreciate.   Negatives:   1) We almost ran out of gas getting the Christmas Tree at George's in Paynes Creek. But we didn't. 2) My sister's home in the country is our traditional Christmas Eve location and this year she decided to drive her family to Idaho to spend it with my brother and his family. So we tried to bring that Christmas Eve magic to our house, but it didn't turn out. The picture above is my brother's house. Can you really blame her? 3) The place where we've purchased our ...

I think a sense of humor helps me get through the more difficult aspects of existence. Being generally optimistic is hard work, but mostly I believe I succeed and my life is better for it.   When it comes to money, there's very little funny.   It's like when, in Meet Me in St. Louis, Rose says, "I hate, loathe, despise and abominate money!" Mr. Smith quips, "You also spend it."   And that's most of our relationships with money, isn't it? We don't like it and yet we embrace it every day, justify spending it, run out of it, get some more of it, try to be frugal with it, justify spending and so on.   And this time of year, in the good ol' U S of A, I can see the strain in the face of most people. Money is running out and most folks are in the process of spending more of it than they should. In short, they are mostly miserable. I was in Walmart the other day (don't ask, we don't shop there, I didn't buy anything and I feel guilty ...

I am returning to the faceblogoforumtweetbook world this weekend. It's been just shy of two months and it's time to reconnect. Here's what I learned while on hiatus: 1) My job is not who I am. I decided to resign from my position and leave the organization where I have worked for ten years. I start my new job on Monday and couldn't be happier. 2) Best steak in town is not the best steak in town. It is an empirical fact and I can only surmise that the emotional attachment to said best-steak-in-town causes one's taste buds to lie to one's brain. Still, the company was fantastic. 3) The leaf will fall, and fall, and fall. No matter how diligent I think I am, no matter how many times I fill the green bins with leaves off the front yard, there are always more. Yes, I'm going out there again after this post. 4) Words can be written. No, I didn't finish my first draft of Mighty Quinn. Yes, I did write. In fact, I doubled my words. I'm at about 62,000 right ...

Close eyes and imagine the shot Tempo, tempo, guts in a knot Dodge the bunker, skip the water Catch the snitch like Harry Potter Dip it, Hook it, Skull it, Blade it Pure it, Draw it, Crush it, Fade it Tiny fairways hiding from view Third ball lost and haven't a clue What club would Lee Trevino use Can the six take this rough abuse Which wedge will get it to the green Does this game make nice people mean Birdies rare as molten gold Bogies come as a double fold Score as high as Jeff Spicoli Each cup seems to have a goalie And then, just when all hope is gone The perfect swing, ball sweet and long Lands soft just inches from the flag And it will be hard not to brag Volunteer for torturous rounds Swing the clubs and stalk the grounds You'll know you've gone around the bend When you can't wait to go out again Had a fantastic golf round today with my brother, my brother-in-law and my nephew. We didn't play that well, but we had an awesome time. Such is often the way with ...