Yearly Archives: 2008

A Dozen Birthday Parties

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Some people have asked me what it’s like to have such a large family. With seven sisters and seven brothers, there are a lot of us … not to mention their children and now their children’s children. I love being an uncle and great uncle, but enjoy even more being a brother.

Dad was a diplomat, working in Europe many months every year. He would come home in mid-December. It took me a long time to figure out why 12 of us kids (including me) have birthdays from mid-August to mid-September. We call ourselves “Christmas Presents.” LOL!

I have a twin brother, and there are two other sets of twins in the family, one set of girls and one set with a girl and a boy. We also have two sets of triplets in the family, as well. But Mom and Dad were very careful to ensure that we each had our own birthday, our own special day to celebrate. If some of us happened to have a birthday on the same day, we would have our party on a different day, so we could have our own day.

To this very day, we still have our separate birthday parties. Since mid-August, I have been going to a birthday party or two every weekend. Not all of my sibs live near me, and for those whose birthdays happen about this time of year who do not live nearby, we celebrate on-line. I have a separate website dedicated to our family where we post funny messages, pictures, and memories for everyone to share.

I am very lucky to have a large family with whom we share so much. There is quite a bit of difference in our ages. My twin is four minutes younger than I am, and my oldest brother is 18 years senior. But that doesn’t interfere with our love and appreciation for each other’s gifts. So yesterday, despite Hanna’s rain, off I went to yet another birthday party, with funny hats, streamers, noisemakers, and the sunshine of our love. Today, off I go to another. What a blessing it is to have such a great family, who loves me unconditionally, respects my relationship with my life partner, and is just fun to be with. Especially when this bad booted biker uncle gets the kiddos all riled up with roughhousing, sugar, and motorcycle rides.

Life is short: tell those you love that you love ’em, and show your love in your actions. A large circle of love envelopes my life, to include my siblings, their spouses and their children & grandchildren, my partner, my eighth brother “AZ”, close friends, great neighbors, and a tolerant and accepting community.

His Heart

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I have had a bit of a rough time with business travel over the last few days. But things were made much more tolerable and better by my partner. His heart shows in all he does.

… from allowing me to sleep as late as possible on Friday morning before I had to get to a meeting in the city;

… for saying, “since it will rain and you don’t want to drive your Harley to the Metro, don’t worry about trying find a parking space for your car — I’ll take you.” what a relief!;

… while I was away, for doing things around the house that I ordinarily do, from taking out the trash to sorting and putting away the laundry;

… for having taken in all things from outside that could get damaged by wind and rain, taking down our hanging plants, and otherwise preparing our home for the anticipated high winds and rain from Tropical Storm Hanna;

… for calling me on my cell when my aunt called and was very confused. (You don’t know what a big deal it is for him to call me on my cell phone) and for looking up her doctor’s phone number for me to save me the trouble of having to search for it;

… for picking me up from the Metro after my meeting in the city was over, but giving me a “by” on having to go with him to do the weekly grocery shopping as we usually do on Friday afternoon. I was just way too exhausted;

… for suggesting that I take a nap when we got home, saying, “let’s wait a while on dinner”;

… for seeking out television programs that he thinks I will like to record for later viewing (I generally despise TV, but he enjoys it, and wants us to enjoy it together. So he records shows that I will like over his own preferences.)

… for listening to me describe some challenges with a local development project I am reviewing, and using him as a “sounding board” for responses to anticipated questions during a public hearing. He is a superb listener and adviser, and has helped me avoid putting my foot in my mouth hundreds of times.

… for being so snuggly last night;

… for being so snuggly this morning;

My partner has a very warm and caring heart. It shows in all he does. From caring for the birds and squirrels in the forest, to relaying the story about how he found “Hanna” (a small stuffed bear which is very cute). He felt sorry for her in the store and brought her home to join us. He just does little things that mean a lot, and that show what a warm and wonderful person he is. Most of all, he reveals his heart to me. Without fanfare, without announcing intentions, without seeking acknowledgment. I am so very blessed.

These are the reasons why I can overlook some of his shortcomings and short temper, as he overlooks my faults and weaknesses. I truly am so very blessed to have a man in my life whose actions demonstrate his love, concern, and caring.

Life is short! Show those you love that you love them!

United Airlines Sucks!

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Greetings from Dead-In-the-Air (DIA, Denver) Airport. One good thing about this facility is that it is among very few airports in the United States that offers free wifi at the boarding gates. So that’s where I am writing from at the moment.

I am waiting for yet another delayed Untied Airlines (sic) flight. Yesterday’s flight from Baltimore to Denver was hell. Seems like tonight will be just as bad.

What I detest about Untied Airlines is that they charge for even the first piece of checked luggage… so everyone is financially motivated to bring everything with them as carry-on luggage. I was only staying one night, so I only had one small carry-on bag (men’s clothes pack lightly LOL!).

The second thing that I detest about Untied Airlines is that as you are getting your boarding pass (either on-line or at the ticket kiosk), you are induced to pay a ransom for a seat with more leg room. You see, at Untied Airlines, seats from the exit row forward are spaced with 5″ of additional leg room (compared with seats in the back). Seats behind the exit row to the back of the plane are more closely squished together, and are where those who won’t pay this ransom (or who don’t have status on the airline) are forced to sit. So if you are among the unfortunate business travelers whose company only pays for economy class, you either are forced to pay the “upgrade” ransom out of your own pocket, or eat your knees when the passenger in front of you reclines his/her seat.

But that’s not all… yesterday at BWI, my plane loads, and we’re all squished to the gills because the flight is jam packed. The plane sits and sits and sits… and we only get “we’re finding out what’s going on… seems like a maintenance issue” message from the flight attendant. This goes on for two-and-a-half hours.

They finally decide to let us off the plane to get lunch… “but hurry back… we will be leaving soon!” So I grab a burger, rush back, and then we’re told “well, it looks like another hour.”

Finally we are allowed back on the plane. We wait and wait. Then we’re told that we have to deplane because the pilot has to “power down.” So we all get off… wait an hour, then all get back on.

FIVE HOURS after first getting on this old 757 the pilot says we can go… the plane gets pushed back, then sits and sits and sits and sits. The pilot then announces that the right engine won’t start, followed by, “we’re talking to maintenance about it.” Meanwhile, the flight attendants prance down the aisle selling (SELLING!) snacks!

The plane finally took off, about five and a half hours after it was supposed to. The only bright spot was that the huge guy stuck in the middle seat next to me never came back, so I had a little bit more room for the flight to Denver.

Now it’s time to return… the flight was supposed to leave at 7pm and arrive about midnight at home. Yuck. I don’t like late fights, but that’s all that was available for when I needed to travel. And when I arrived at the Denver airport, cleared security (which really wasn’t a problem), I see that my departure is delayed at least an hour for some unspecified reason.

Update 09/05: We were boarded onto the plane an hour late, but once we all were seated, the pilot said that due to foul weather, the ground crew was called indoors for their own safety. We were delayed another hour before the ground crew returned to load the luggage for our aircraft. What really bugs me is that this additional delay would not have happened had the plane been ready to depart on time. The flight was bumpy, so I couldn’t sleep much. I crawled in the door at home at 3:15am. And I have to be at a meeting in DC at 8:00am. I’ll be there, but don’t know in what condition.

I HATE UNITED AIRLINES! Anybody want some miles??? Seriously, I am not going to fly this crappy airline again if I can avoid it. Unfortunately, most domestic U.S. airlines have serious problems, as well as various ways of nickel-and-diming passengers to extort more money from them, from paying to choose a seat or paying for a can of soda.

I once flew well over 100,000 miles each year in a previous job. While all that travel was exhausting, in the days before Sept. 11, 2001 for the most part, you could get where you needed to be on a non-stop flight with few delays (other than weather). Nowadays, you can’t get anywhere quickly, or on time. What a shame. What a real shame.

Frye Harness Boots and Bellbottom Jeans

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I am having a “retro” moment. Yesterday I received a pair of vintage brown Frye Harness boots that I recently bought on eBay. Why another pair of Fryes when I already have quite a few? Well, I got a great deal on these classic boots. I anticipate they will be much harder to find as more people find out that the new Frye boots made today are cheap imitations (more on that later). I wore Fryes throughout high school and college, and on-and-off for years following. The classic style, design, and “clunk” of a vintage Frye boot can’t be found elsewhere.

Back in the day, guys would wear Fryes with bellbottom jeans, as shown here. Bellbottoms? Man, I haven’t even though of that style of jeans in ages, yet I have a pair that I may still wear on occasion for “retro nostalgia” moods like this. I can’t say how often I’d look over at another guy’s feet to look at his square-toed Frye harness boots peeking out from under his bellbottoms, or look for the crease where the jeans and the top of the boot shaft met. (Hard to see with baggy bellbottoms!)

I ordinarily don’t buy boots on eBay, but when the write-up said that these were classic “biker boots” and had a rubber sole, I went for it, and won the auction. I followed my own advice and set a max price that I would pay. Fortunately, the auction bid up to just under that upper limit. Unfortunately, I found that the description was slightly inaccurate when it said that the boots had been resoled with a rubber sole and heel. The soles turned out to be classic leather. The heel pads were replaced and are rubber, but vintage Fryes also had rubber heel pads. I may just have a rubber sole added to these boots so I can wear them when riding my Harley. (There is a guy I know who wears classic Frye campus boots with a rubber sole that I have enjoyed viewing.)

I can not quite describe just what it is about Fryes that drives so many visitors to my website and this blog when I mention Frye Boots. The vintage Frye, with its double-leather lining, solid construction, tall 14″ height, just has a style all its own. New Fryes are made in China, are unlined, usually short (12″), and just don’t have the same quality. The company sold out in 2003 and a holding company bought the name and shipped manufacturing off shore. They charge the same prices as what we paid for vintage, but must be making a mint because the quality is so poor and it is obvious that the materials are cheap.

Update 01/22/09: This blog has been found by Jimlar Corporation of Great Neck, New York, which is the name of the company that owns the Frye name and has boots made by that name made in China. What I said about current Frye boots remains my opinion: they are cheap knock-offs compared with the boots made by the “real” Frye Shoe Company of Marlborough, Massachusetts when it was in business. Don’t be fooled by imitations! For details on the history of these boots, read the information at this link on my website.

No Holiday from Life

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Just checking in with my loyal blog readers: I’m okay — just incredibly busy now that Labor Day has passed and everything has returned to its usual craziness. Here in the U.S., we had a three-day weekend.

The boss gave all of us an early release from work on Friday. I got home and found three huge boxes of papers, charts, and graphs to review which had been delivered by courier earlier in the day. These materials are related to my community leadership position. Oh great… just what I wanted… (but expected). Lots of reading to slog through sometime this weekend!

The usual dinner with my humongous family wasn’t held on Friday night, so my partner and I ate at home. We found a great and unexpected sale on Maryland blue crabs at the grocery store. Since they had already been steamed, all I had to do was re-heat them. Man, what a feast! (So I had a “double-crab” weekend! See my previous blog post.)

After dinner, while my partner was watching some blather on television, I began to organize all the stuff I need to review. Charts here, graphs there, reports on this project over there… that project over here… and to think, this is what is not available electronically! What I received in printed form was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg! Sheesh!

On Saturday, I began the day at dawn with a warm snuggle that I always enjoy with my partner. I prepared a full breakfast using farm-fresh eggs that a friend gave to me. Scrumptious!

I then took some of my elderly friends grocery shopping, as usual. While I was gone, my partner mowed most of the lawn, and when I got home, I finished mowing the hill and doing some trimming. After that, my partner and I spent most of the day building storage for some of the boots in my collection. We then settled into having a quiet evening at home and an early bedtime.

Sunday, I gave myself a break to enjoy the incredibly beautiful weather as I rode my motorcycle with friends to a crab feast near Annapolis. I had this event planned for months, and I’m glad the weather was so cooperative. That ride was nice. Especially the return ride on back roads. But instead of stopping off at the end of the ride for ice cream with the guys, I just wanted to get home. I missed my man!

When I got home, I found that my partner had not only washed, but waxed my truck. What a guy! I don’t like to do that, and seldom have time. I tell ‘ya, my man is a keeper!

I recounted the stories about the ride during a relaxing soak in the hot tub with my hunk. After, we enjoyed a nice dinner that I grilled out on the deck and then we settled in our basement to … (well, we enjoyed each other with no TV, no computer… a little leather and…).

Throughout the weekend, I was keeping a close eye on the storm affecting the U.S. Gulf Coast, and handling several telephone calls. I was put “on call” in case I had to go respond to help out. But by Monday, it looked like my services would not be needed this time. Whew… I wasn’t really prepared to be gone for weeks and weeks, but would do what I needed to do if called upon.

Monday dawned bright and beautiful. Clear skies, abundant sunshine, and unusual in a lack of humidity. I was itching to go for a ride on my Harley, or just anywhere… but life has a funny way of interfering. Someone or some thing knocked over our mailbox on Sunday night, and it had to be fixed.

After looking at what I already had on hand in my workshop, I only had to get a few corner brackets at the local building supplies retailer for less than US$3. There were so many yuppies there in shorts, sandals, and sipping coffee from non-biodegradable styrofoam cups, yapping at each other on their cell phones within the store. Cripes, that drives me kooky. Oh well, I just got what I needed, paid for it, and made a hasty exit.

With the brackets in hand, as well as materials and tools that I have in my shop, the mailbox was replaced on its stand. Beats laying out more money to hire someone to replace the thing, which most others in my neighborhood would probably do because they don’t have a clue how to fix anything themselves. My partner applied a little paint and it looks as good as new.

I also had to run over to a house that I own to replace a malfunctioning circuit breaker, but again, that didn’t take very long (and beats hiring an electrician! I am so glad I got my electrician’s license years ago!)

One of my biker buddies dropped by for a short visit. Meanwhile, those papers won’t go away. The public hearing on Tuesday night won’t be delayed.

I could not avoid it any longer, but made the best of it. I took all the stuff that I “had” to read and piled it on a little table outside. I put up my hammock, and spent the rest of the afternoon reading… and reading… and reading… and reading. I found my laptop works wirelessly out in the yard, so I was able to review the on-line content related to the paper trail. I now call my computer a “chest-top!” LOL!

Oh well, I’m better prepared and should be in a position to deal with tonight’s event, answer questions, and have developed a list of questions of my own for anticipated speakers. I missed going for a ride on my Harley, but that’s the price I pay for being involved in my community as a civic leader.

Life as a community activist has returned more quickly than I had wanted it to, but that’s how it goes. Life is short: wear your boots! (I had to throw that in!)

Maryland Crab Feast

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There is nothing, I mean nothing, like a steamed Maryland Blue Crab. Sweet and delicate, meaty and tasty, these morsels of the Chesapeake Bay have been a delight of many over the years. And, unfortunately, due to overfishing, pollution, and other problems, there are far fewer crabs available today than there were just last year.

Today I rode with friends to one of my very favorite places to get crabs (or other Bay seafood.) This restaurant is just about 35 miles east and south of us. The restaurant has a pleasant outside deck and is located on the Severn River, near Annapolis, our state capitol.

I was shocked when the server told us that one dozen large #1 male crabs cost US$70 per dozen. OMG! That’s almost $6 each! Yikes! Just a few years ago, my partner and I enjoyed an “all you can eat” crab feast for $30 each at this same restaurant. Now for that same amount of money, you get five crabs. Sheesh. Probably the last time we go out for crabs any time again… as much as I love steamed crabs, this is too much. But today, I splurged. I split a dozen crabs with a buddy. The crabs were great — meaty, firm, fresh, and quite tasty.

It takes a long time to eat one crab, from cracking the claws to squeezing the feelers (small swimming legs) to “opening the hatch” and removing the shell, discarding the gills and intestines, and get the lump meat inside. Dip it in a little butter and Old Bay seasoning, and pop it in your mouth. Yum! Part of the tradition of enjoying a crab feast is to take your time and talk with your friends. And there is a lot of time for that!

Usually one washes down the crabs with beer, but since we were on our motorcycles, we just bought pitchers of soft drinks.

It was another incredibly beautiful day in Maryland. Warm but not hot, sunny, and unusually low humidity. What a great day!

Storing Boots

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With over 130 pairs of boots in my collection (and I regularly wear most of them), places to put them has been running out. My partner is a very patient man, but he insisted that we do something about “all those boots” this weekend.

I had to find a place for 14 pairs of boots, and get them up off the floor (so my partner would not trip on them). I got this idea from someone who described this process on “boots on line” a few years ago. You simply install brackets on a wall, ensure the brackets are level, and then place a shower rod across them.

If you are like we are, you end up with a lot of cheap wire clothes hangars when you bring home shirts from the dry cleaner. I simply cut apart the hangars and crafted hooks out of them. I hang one end of the hook on the rod, and put the other end of the hook on a boot’s pull strap. Then just hang the boot.

This whole set-up did not cost much — just about US$40 for the brackets and rods. I was going to use shower curtain hooks for the boots, but my local HomoDepot was remodeling and didn’t have any. Not wanting to chase all over the place, I thought that I could cut apart wire hangars, which worked very well. It took a little bit more time to make the hooks, but it did not take very long and I like to save money when I can.

By the way, the new storage is in our garage. My partner doesn’t really want to see more boots in our living space. I already have a rather large set of shelves in our basement on which I keep 50 pairs of boots, and then the rest fit on shelves on one wall of my walk-in-closet. (We have “his-and-his” walk-in closets. Since I built our house, I made sure we had lots of closet space).

For now, all the boots have a home when I’m not wearing them. And best yet, my partner is happy.

Summer’s End

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That is not me in the photo above, but it expresses how I am feeling. A bit of melancholy as my Harley and I face the sunset of a pleasant summer of 2008. August hasn’t ended yet, but by the looks of the volume of materials to review for upcoming meetings and public hearings and on and on, my summer recess is over!

I remember as a kid that I thought it was cruel and unusual punishment for school to continue through the third week of June in Maryland. It already had been warm since April and the days were longer. Last place I wanted to be was in an school with no air conditioning in the middle of June!

Almost as soon as school ended, Mom and Dad would pack all of us into (two) cars (there were a lot of us kids) and take us to see our country — north, south, east, west, and everywhere in between. We would be on the road for about six to seven weeks, staying in each destination for a few days, see the sights, the State Capitol, caves, mountains, rivers, oceans, and much more. I really loved those summers. Especially the trip where each parent thought the other had my sister (the one who drove me craziest) in the other’s car. They inadvertently left her in the bathroom at a gas station in the middle of Nebraska. Rats! They figured it out and Dad went back to get her.

As an adult, my summer really doesn’t begin until after Independence Day (July 4), as my volunteer life consumes me even longer than school days did. Then I get through my company’s mid-July week-long conference. After that, I’m home free. While I still go to work, things aren’t rushed or crazy. Washington typically “evacuates” during this period. There is much less traffic on the road, fewer passengers riding the subway, and it’s just easier to get around. If I ate out at lunch (which I don’t), I’ve been told it’s much easier to get a table at a restaurant.

I took my ideal vacation last week — a “staycation” where I took a week off work and stayed HOME! While I did a number of things for my family and worked a bit on the house, I also allowed myself some “playtime” and you saw some of the results in blog posts from last week.

Well, it’s all about to come crashing to a halt. E-mail related to my volunteer activities has been flowing in very fast. Papers, reports, maps, charts, graphics… lots of “stuff”… have been flowing to me for review. Most of it is on-line now (saving millions of trees). Nonetheless, if I learned anything from my political mentor, it was to read everything and then read it again. That’s how I get on top of my game. But man oh man oh man, that takes a lot of time.

And on top of that, my partner has been complaining about my boot collection becoming too cumbersome for him to deal with. Drat, he tripped over one pair of boots and now the world will end. So instead of playing, riding my Harley, and relaxing this weekend, he has an agenda for construction of some utility storage for my boots. And he won’t rest and stop harping on it until it’s done.

Well, the “Labor Day” weekend will involve more “labor” than “weekend”. I have carved out a small period of time to go on a motorcycle ride to a crab feast on Sunday. But that’s it. And come next week, watch out! The routine will have returned with a vengeance. Wish me peace!

A Special Privilege

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I work in Washington, DC, the capital of the United States of America. I have to pinch myself sometimes as I look around when I take a lunchtime walk. Is this real? Do I really work here? I should not take my good fortune that my office is in such an amazing location for granted.

I don’t work for the government, nor am I a lobbyist. There are some who believe that everyone who works in the city must be one or the other. I’m just a guy who works in a non-profit organization that is based on Capitol Hill, in the heart of what some claim to be the most powerful location in the free world.

Yesterday I was invited to attend a presentation that was held in one of the office buildings that is used by the House of Representatives. As I walked to the meeting from my office, I crossed the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. Despite all the rhetoric — especially these days leading up to an historic election on November 4 — I remained awed by being on the grounds of such an important, historic place. I actually was humming the National Anthem as I was walking along, watching tourists from all over the world stop and take photos, asking cops for directions, and staring at the glory. I tell ‘ya, this place is stunning.

To my right was the national mall and the Washington Monument. What a commanding view. It brought many memories of a happy childhood climbing the 897 steps inside the Monument to the top (can’t do that any more), walking into the Capitol Building itself without an appointment (can’t do that any more), and flying a kite on the mall (you can still do that.) Unfortunately, with all the security in the area, it’s not as picturesque as it once was, with all the fences, signs, cops, road blocks, and barriers.

Another memory I had was that my parents told me that they met by literally bumping into each other on the west steps of the Capitol Building. I owe my very existence to that chance encounter.

The rambling and echoing hallways of the Rayburn building, with the bronze signs indicating the locations of committee hearing rooms, continued to inspire me, a “participating” U.S. citizen. Not that I forgive them, but I can understand why legislators get drunk with power when they walk those hallways, and sit at tables on risers above the rest of the floor.

As I returned to my office, I took a different route, past the Library of Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. What crossed my mind is why this upcoming election is so important — to try to change the wrong-wing decisions of the Court by having a President who will appoint justices who interpret the U.S. Constitution with more of an open mind, with fairness to everyone (including me, a gay guy who loves another man and wants our relationship to be able to be recognized in civil law as our civil right.) So yep, this election will be important for that, and for much more. But that’s the extent of where I’ll go in expressing my political opinions on this blog. There are many other blogs that blather about all that.

I truly am privileged to work in such a special city. I shouldn’t take it for granted. Few have the ability to walk out the door every day and see such important places where history continues to be made.

The Lonliness of Dying Alone

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My blog posts of late have indicated the fullness and vitality of loving life. And I really do believe I am most blessed by God by having a wonderful and supportive life-mate in my partner, a caring and humongous family, and terrific friends — some of whom I have known since I was three years old. I’m even more blessed by my additional “brothers” in my cherished “AZ”, Clay, and UTBR. Blessings continue with my relationship with a huge band of seniors whom I have come to adore and spend a lot of time with. However, that’s what I’m blogging about today — my senior pals, most of whom live lonely lives ’cause their kids forget about them.

Mabel called at 4am the other day. She’s one of my senior friends who like many others, lives alone. She has two daughters who live in distant states. From time to time, I do some household repairs for her, have her join my aunt and me when we do our weekly grocery shopping, and sometimes just sit and listen. She’s among a close group who serve, in a way, as another adopted “family.”

Whenever the phone rings at 4am, it is never good news. Mabel sounded very concerned — she said that she heard a loud “ka-thump” in the apartment above her. She thought that her upstairs neighbor fell. She tried calling him and then knocked on his door, but there was no answer. She was afraid that she was overreacting, and didn’t want to call the security station at her retirement community because she had been admonished once for “bothering them.” (I don’t know the full story; nonetheless, she is reluctant to call them.)

Mabel has a key to her neighbor’s condo, but didn’t want to go in alone. She was afraid. She called me. I got up, got dressed, told my partner what was going on. He sighed and asked me to send him an email at work later to let him know what happened.

A few minutes later, I had arrived at Mabel’s apartment. She and I knocked, then opened her neighbor’s door. We found him in his bedroom. He had collapsed. He wasn’t breathing and there was no heartbeat. I called 9-1-1 and the community’s security station. While in the kitchen by the phone, I saw a “DNR” (do not resuscitate) order posted on the refrigerator. Responders were there in a flash, and I pointed out the DNR order. They understood, and just turned it over to the cops. Mabel’s neighbor died. Alone.

The cops who came were outstanding in their calmness, professionalism, and compassion. They explained what happens when someone dies alone. They conducted an investigation, but knew that nothing sinister happened. Mabel’s 90-year-old neighbor who had been living alone for over a decade had a cardiac arrest. Mabel cried, held my hand, and just wanted to talk. She was frightened. I just sat with her for several hours until the coroner arrived and the cops said we could go.

The man’s daughter who lives about 50 miles away arrived, breathless. “I talked to him last week on the phone,” she said tearfully. That wasn’t the time to criticize anyone. A week is a long, long time when you’re alone.

My partner wonders why I call about 15 people every day when I get home from work. They have no one else to check on them. No one else to call. They’re alone. It’s so sad. Nobody should be alone in the world, nobody.

If you have family or friends who live alone, give ’em a call, if nothing other than to say that you’re thinking of them. Give them an ear to share a story, a thought, a memory, an idea. Send them a card on their birthday and at other times too — I go “card crazy” sometimes by sending cards for no reason at all, other than to say, “you’re important; you’re thought of today.” (I really ought to by stock in Hallmark.)

Being alone doesn’t mean that one has to be lonely. Who knows, when you call someone living alone, you might learn something! I sure do. I learn a lot about life, about love, and about things that enrichen my spirit, my knowledge, and myself. I am a much better man for the richness of the souls whose lives are intertwined with mine.

Life is short: show those you love that you love them.