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Living in the land of the Wolverine
The University of Notre Dame plays a football game against the University of Michigan on Saturday night, under the lights in Notre Dame Stadium.The ND campus is a wonderful place to visit, especially...
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Thank goodness it's Thursday
I have been semi-retired for over three years, and occasionally when I'm out doing this or that, driving surface streets for the most part, I glimpse backed-up traffic on the Haggerty Road viaduct...
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Braying a bit
As a college football fan who has experienced brief moments of exhilaration, but often frustration over the last 18 years, I'm afraid I'm gonna be snakebit in less than a week by what I'm about to say....
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My shadow, my friend
When I awake in the morning, he's usually at the foot of the bed. But not for long. He comes up toward me, each of us half-awake, gradually becoming alert to the possibilities of a new day, and he asks...
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Reunion
Trick-or-treating on All Hallow's Eve 2012 with the family. Noah's at far right, directly above the center of the spider.When we pulled in, I saw Gretta's face in the window. I smiled - I knew what was...
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Article 5
I spent some quality time last night with Noah. I've noticed the first thing he does when I arrive at his home, after I see him get visibly excited through the window as I walk toward him from the car,...
View Article12/9/82
12/9/82. It's one of those numbers that's burned into my head. 6/28/75, 6/30/79, 1/10/1954, 1/20/09 are other dates in my life that I've memorized, after years of completing forms and applications, and...
View ArticleI hope you dance
The boat was rocking in the wind and the waves, although the sun was shining. Most passengers had elected to don snorkeling gear and enter the ocean, to look at the colorful fish below the surface.I...
View ArticleThings We Shared
Today, my mother would have been - ah, well - she never confessed her age to me in the many years we shared - so why start now?When I hear about someone's parent dying, I feel a twinge and my heart...
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The magic of Notre Dame
The first day for high school players to commit to colleges and universities is over. And it appears that the Irish did very well.As a college football fan, you can get geeked about the potential...
View ArticleWhere you go, I will follow
The first reading in Mass last night was about God's covenant with Abram. I read it to the congregation at Mass, having prepared it in the normal fashion.Later during Mass, we sang something called...
View ArticleA moment of rapture
Except for a few penlights about 100 feet away, my world was dark. I could see in the shadows in the sanctuary a few people I recognized, barely: a cantor, another reader, the three celebrants, perhaps...
View ArticleValve replacement? I'm supposed to write a story about valve replacement?
Late yesterday afternoon, I looked at the Belleville City Council's meeting agenda for 7:30 p.m. that evening, and I saw a single item for general business: valve replacement.Valve replacement? How am...
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The invitation
Last Saturday, my son Matthew and my grandson Noah and I traveled to South Bend, Indiana for the 84th annual Notre Dame Blue-Gold game, the final football scrimmage game during spring training.Yes,...
View ArticleIn Memoriam: Ernest Edward LaVaute, Jr.
To this day, if I tell a corny joke, my wife Jan will say one word that says so much: "Ernie."My father, who died in 1991, enjoyed what most would describe as cornball jokes or sayings."You've got a...
View ArticleComfort Zones and Learning Curves
When you’re introduced to something new, you can welcome it, resist, turn away, manage some sort of response, worry over it; but you will respond in some manner. The...
View ArticleUnder the gun
On Monday, I covered the Van Buren Township Work Study meeting. The agenda was packed with interesting stuff, and it ran for almost three hours. The exchanges among township officials and over 20...
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Four-day lifestyle change shock
As I watch, Owen is standing at the glass door to the backyard of his home, looking out. He’s watching his dog Gretta, but he’s taking everything in – fallen leaves, a black squirrel, an...
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Who is that guy?
Who is that guy?When you first see him, he’s a forehead and a pair of eyes peeking above a tall yellow rectangular sign. Often, he wears a red cap on his head.But as you pass the LivoniaLubeCenter at...
View ArticleHappy birthday, Jan
This column dates back a few years. But the woman who inspired it is unchanged, and still surprises me with her kindness and thoughtfulness. Here's to the nicest person in the room - any room.The...
View ArticleThings we shared
Toward the end, my visits with her were timed to coincide with major golf tournaments. I would arrive Thursday evening at the airport, greet her with a big hug around the tiny, increasingly fragile...
View ArticleIn praise of a job
I returned to work for Ford in a capacity similar to what I did before I retired, and really, it's been the best:I work four days each week, about six hours each day. I get paid for what I work - no...
View ArticleMy Sunday Feeling
This is not my first newspaper job. Many years ago, late during high school, I had a job as a copy boy at the Post-Standard newspaper in Syracuse, N.Y. A copy boy is the lowest rung on the career...
View ArticleThe Nicest Person in the Room
Today, Jan and I celebrate the forty-second anniversary of our meeting in Auburn, NY. And when I think about her and my resulting good fortune, I’m reminded of something that I often do think about,...
View ArticleThey Were, and Are CC
I moved my office at Ford recently, from Livonia to Dearborn. I packed and carried to the new office two or three boxes of personal memorabilia, items toward which I’ve grown increasingly fond of and,...
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