I recently spent an afternoon with my granddaughters, ages 5 and 7. We first went to the playground where they played and made friends. I watched them, read a book, talked to parents, and consoled the girls after they hurt themselves. We then went to an ice cream...

December 17 was a stressful day. The hernia surgery that I had that day was rescheduled to an earlier check-in time at 5 AM. The surgeon was concerned that the powerful storm that would move in later that day would cause a power failure, and she wanted her team to be...

On a morning run I encountered a heron standing on a log with its wing spread. This behavior is uncommon for a heron, this posture is akin to the behavior of cormorants who spend much time with their wings spread after they have been diving for fish. This heron was...

We were visiting friends in Australia. I enjoyed the landscape with Eucalyptus trees and groups of kangaroos and took the photo below from the backseat during a drive where you can see a vegetation that is very different than it is in the United States. Before you...

Close to my home in Eugene is a scene that stopped me in my tracks. On Columbia street there are railroad tracks of the tram that used to run there. In the middle of the tracks is a huge utility pole. The scene is funny because of its absurdity. The presence of the...

It was a bitter cold Colorado day, one of those days where you want to bundle up inside and watch the winter weather from behind thick glass. There was only one problem: I had committed myself to a run with my running buddy. Reluctantly I put on several layers of warm...

Who are your heroes? The word hero may conjure up an image of a superhuman wearing a cape who comes to the rescue of innocents under threat. I have a personal hero list with people that I admire and look up to. None of them wears a cape, but they don’t need a cape to...

In my class on research skills students practice oral presentations. One student gave a presentation that was hurried and unclear, the student spoke much too quickly, and the main message of the presentation was lost in the amount of detail shown. I was judgmental and...

My recent move from Colorado to Oregon involved getting a new driver license and new license plates. The photo shows my car with the old Colorado license plates and the new Oregon plates. On the one hand it was exciting to mount the new license plates, but taking off...

This is what my friend David said on our last run together before I left Colorado to move to Oregon. This move has been a time of goodbyes. There were tears and there was laughter. Saying goodbye to friends in Colorado was hard on the one hand, but it also warmed my...