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Don’t try this with a badger

In an online discussion regarding badgers, I found a post that seems meaningful at this moment in history: “Badgers are incredibly dangerous. I've been chased out of a cotton field by a pissed off one, and there isn't any way I'd want to mess with one intentionally. “One of my parent’s friends found a baby one (no mother in sight, not sure why it wasn't in a burrow) with its eyes still closed and took it home. They raised it and had it in their home with their dogs. “One day they were giving the two dogs and the badger a treat, all of them got one, but one dog ate his ...

Meet the Brills

One of my favorite activities, at almost any time of year, is to walk through Our Neighborhood. The trees have been especially eye-popping this year. I’ve heard the trees are particularly colorful when there has been a lack of rain. This year is certainly one of those. About two weeks ...

Imprisoned in a recliner and cold coffee

About a year ago, my wife, Julie, and I agreed that I would benefit from a power recliner. You know, the kind of recliner that makes it easier for an old guy to get out of the recliner. I’m a large guy and it took us a while to find a power recliner of sufficient size and power to lift this old boy up to a near standing position. We finally found such a chair, ordered it and waited for it to be delivered and set up. The delivery guys set it up, plugged it in and I was set. I have enjoyed the chair from the beginning. On a different (but related, trust me) subject, we are ...

I have struggled to find something funny to say

In these final fractious moments leading up to joy for some and bitterness for others, I have struggled to find something funny to say. Yeah, I know. I literally laid awake this morning trying to think of something that would make us all laugh. I came up empty. But then I remembered my best friend Cheryl, whose antics have been a huge portion of my life since I was 13. It was Cheryl who walked with me a half mile or so on a frozen gravel road when I told her never to hit the brakes when your car goes into a slide. Then showed her why. It was Cheryl, on her way to an important job ...

When Huisinga met Peterson

A few days past, I encountered two people I did not know as I went outside to retrieve that all-important mail (which, as usual, was hardly worth the effort). They introduced themselves and handed me a local candidate’s “door hanger” for the upcoming election. This began a normal (for ...

Tipping outhouses and other treats

Get a bunch of guys 70 years and older together at this time of year and the conversation just might turn to Halloweens of yore. One-upmanship sets in as each man brags about Halloween pranks in which he was involved. One Halloween in the early ‘60s some of the guys (I wasn’t in on this one) placed a farm trailer on top of an overhang at our high school gym entrance. The school superintendent walked into our study hall the next morning and with an obviously accurate sixth sense called out about a half dozen names. The guys left with sheepish grins and moved the trailer to the ...