How much compensation should there be for Amtrak riders – and those on I-5 below – who suffered “broken bones, brain injuries, spinal wounds and other trauma” when Amtrak 501 derailed on its inaugural run December 18, 2017 just minutes after passing through our community of Tillicum? That’s the question before jurors in the Tacoma […]
Lakewood
Across the Fence: From Industry to Leisure
Sometimes it takes you a real long time to explore things straight in your backyard. This happens to have been the case with a pretty park none too far from our Lakewood home – the other day, after having lived in the Pacific Northwest almost ten years, we decided to explore Tumwater Falls, close to […]
Westside Story – Under Pressure
During 40 of my 76 years on the planet, I was called Lord Boyle, not because I was related to royalty, but because I was a rental landlord. We read about a lot of nastiness between tenants and landlords. My relationships with most of my tenants were both positive and friendly. Years ago, an Army […]
Westside Story – Has Our Marriage Lasted Too Long?
It is a giant blessing in one’s life when a young man meets a young woman, and they fall in love, which is what happened with my wife and me. Often marriage follows sometime after that first date. My marriage to the beautiful young woman I met in high school occurred four years after I […]
Westside Story – Inaugural Famous Fun People Day
On Wednesday, August 28, 2019, I celebrated my first ever Annual Famous Fun People Day by inviting three famous people to join me for espresso and fun conversation. The invitees were: Clint Eastwood – Movie and Producer Magnet of worldwide fame. Clint sent his regrets. Clint Eastwood admitted he has never had one of Joe […]
Letter: The best thing about toasting marshmallows
Today, August 30, is National Marshmallow Toasting Day. Seriously. If you missed it there is a National Toasted Marshmallow Day Countdown Clock that shows the number of days, hours, minutes & seconds until the next gooey event. Relatedly, there is an opinion expressed by the editorial board in one media publication that recommends school not […]
Across the Fence: Tomatoes
Nothing spells mid-summer as boisterously as a berry coming in all kinds of shapes and sizes, but is mostly known for its red and its tangy-sweet flavor, the tomato. As a child, I wasn’t really keen on it; I belonged to the cucumber fraction rather. But today, I wish I had cherished those summer nights […]
Letter: Watering the flowers
Sometimes my granddaughter of now nearly eight months will help me water the flowers on our porch. It gives me yet another reason to hold her. Occasionally she’ll accompany me to get the mail but mostly it’s the flowers. Sometimes we’ll use the sprinkling can since that takes longer and gives us a chance to […]
Westside Story – Be a Good, Bad Neighbor
I recently analyzed a portion of my life-history only to discover that while living in my current home the past 42 years I have had neighbor relationships with 21 different neighbors with old neighbors moving out and new neighbors moving in. We have always enjoyed great relationships with our neighbors or at least appreciated a […]