Welcome to The View From My Back Porch
Natural
I have a meeting tomorrow that will literally, and I do not use the word lightly, define which direction my life will take. Am I nervous? Hell yes. Am I prepared? Oh, hell to the yes. I am prepared to go to battle. In preparation for this meeting, I have been listening to the Imagine…
Reboot
Back in early February, I vowed to begin writing everyday. I did no such thing. My excuse at the time was that the day after I committed to a daily writing routine, I had to travel out of town for ten days. My travel was to attend a training class ( 9 days) for a…
Clutter Shuffling
When my daughter was home for Christmas last year, she called me out for “Clutter Shuffling” By this, she pointed out, she meant my tendency to hold on to things that clearly did not need to be kept. My habit of cleaning out glass jars and storing them in the garage, removing the wax from…
Time to get after it
Every published author will tell you that if you want to pursue writing, you need to write every day. Every day. It is an intimidating prospect, not only for the sheer task of it, but just about anyone who writes has fears that what they write will not be good, that others will judge or…
A Tale of Two Forts
My son was about eight years old when he asked his father if he would build him a tree house. Our house sits on an acre and a half, the back part of which is dense woods leading down to a creek. My problem with the plan was that any tree that could support a…
Chasing the Band
For as long as I can recall, my brother wanted to be in a band. He didn’t have any particular musical talent and his singing voice was harsh & scratchy. Any nearby surface became his drum set where he would slap his hands on the countertop, the television or the dash of your car. His…
Have a Day !
Before we moved to Melissa, Texas we lived in North Dallas. There was a shop we frequented, I can’t remember if it was the dry cleaners or a donut shop, but we stopped there quite often. The woman who checked us out was Asian, and she would complete our sale with a big smile and…
Seven Stages of Sleep
I am an excellent sleeper. By excellent, I mean I can sleep anywhere, anytime. Given a crowded space on vacation, I will happily take the couch or the floor. It doesn’t matter. The joke in our family is that if our house is hit by a tornado ( A likely event here in North Texas)…
Looking Back
It is an unusually warm day for February. I am outside, on my back porch, pulling the dead plants out of pots and generally tidying up. I look out to the yard, where our dog Buddy is standing. Buddy is a 13 year old black lab mix who is definitely showing his age lately. As…
Cowboy Pete
He goes by the name Cowboy Pete. He tells me this as I ask if I might sit down. “Free country” he replies without looking up. It is 2020 and so I sit down about 8 feet away on the concrete. I have seen him for a few weeks now, leaning up against the brick…
Covid Confusion
It began with a vague sense of confusion. You heard something on the news, then someone mentioned what they had heard. You pushed it aside, a virus out of China, perhaps the avian flu returning once again. You heard stories about people hoarding toilet paper. What ??? Toilet paper? Then you stopped by Sam’s Club…
Consequences
Growing up in a large Irish Catholic family, you knew certain things to be true. # 1 You would be going to Mass on Sunday. This was not up for debate, or a vote or subject to your current position on the Catholic church. You were going. # 2 If you were a female, you…
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The View from my Back Porch 