We recently spent several glorious days in Boston, with day trips up to Portsmouth, N.H. and Gloucester (pronounced Glostah by the natives), the fishing village made famous by Erik Larsen’s book, “The Perfect Storm.” It was a lovely respite, precious time with my Beautiful Mystery Companion and daughter Abbie in a place we all love. Maybe not in January. We have not tried that yet. My idyllic memories of growing up in New Hampshire are childlike and not to be relied upon.
All vacations must end. The evening before we headed to Logan Airport, I received an email from the airline on which...
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I took a break from working on a magazine story a few afternoons ago to peruse a packet just received from the American Association of Retired Persons. Yup, I relented and joined AARP. For $16 a year, I figure the discounts will more than pay the price.
The cost to my ego is something else, however. I am not actually retired. I must stay busy writing, taking photographs and poking a few other irons in the fire. The rocking chair remains unoccupied. There are bills to pay.
I have steadily resisted the slow slide into geezerhood. The first time the ticket taker at the movie theater automatically...
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BOSTON — I woke even earlier than usual each morning during this sojourn to our favorite city in the summer. The time difference likely was the culprit. My body thought it was 6 a.m., my usual time to rise. So I was usually out the door of the Beacon Hill apartment we rented by 5:30. My Beautiful Mystery Companion and daughter Abbie never stirred. They slept under portable fans to drown out the street noise. It felt like sleeping in a wind tunnel but worked. Our heads were at curb-level in this basement abode in a five-story brownstone, secured on AirBnb. It was strange to look out the windows...
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FENWAY PARK — There are magical times when one gets to witness a small piece of history being made. They are rare but stick with you. At this shrine, built in 1912 and one of my favorite places in the world, I watched the Red Sox clinch a tie for the pennant in 1967, beating the Minnesota Twins. They won the next game as well to make it to the World Series for the first time since 1946, which they lost to the Cardinals in seven games. In 1967, they again lost in seven games to the Cardinals. It was another heartbreaker to Red Sox fans, which was reprised in the 1975 and 1986 World Series. Losers...
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For the past 13 months I have commuted from Longview to Mount Pleasant to publish the Daily Tribune. This small newspaper was on the verge of shutting down before the company I went to work for purchased it. I enjoyed the challenge, which was considerable: turning around the paper financially and editorially, hiring a entire staff, moving the office downtown. I get weary just thinking about all we accomplished in a short period of time.
Now the time has come to find a new challenge, probably here in Longview so that I can enjoy our daughter’s senior year in high school. I enjoyed my time in Mount...
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It started as a vague notion of my Beautiful Mystery Companion’s. “I want an old beat-up farm truck,” she said wistfully on more than one occasion. So I began keeping an eye out for something that would fit the bill.
She had very specific requirements. Nothing completely restored and shiny. A four-on-the-floor stick shift. I commenced to looking last summer. Once I did a u-turn on Hwy. 31 to snap a cell phone photo of a 1968 Ford partially restored and nearly flawless, but it was deemed too expensive. And shiny.
Then I found a 1961 International Harvester on a side street in Longview....
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Let us pause to ponder the supersize mentality that has led to the proliferation of monster convenience stores, where gas pumps stretch far as the eye can see. The merchandise includes deer feeders, barbecue smokers, an extensive clothing line, an overwhelming array of road snacks, 80 soda dispensers — and America’s cleanest bathrooms.
That would be Buc-ees, a 60,000-square-foot emporium that just opened its 23rd Texas store in Terrell. We stopped there last Sunday on the way back from Frisco — along with what appeared to be several thousand other curious customers — to get gas and use those...
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Our family of three finally decided to cut the cable, or in our case the satellite dish. The vote was unanimous. Since signing up for Netflix and Amazon Prime, we stream 95 percent of all the television we watch. I had whittled down the offerings and monthly payment for the dish to its lowest level — $34.58, including tax. But we rarely watch the dish, and I hate spending money for services not being used.
So I bit the bullet and called to cancel the other day, knowing it would be an ordeal. Companies of all types structure their customer service systems to make it well-nigh impossible to cancel...
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The opening scene of the first episode of “Newsroom” has stuck with me since I first saw it a couple of years ago. Jeff Daniels portrays news anchor Will McAvoy, the star of the Atlantis television network. McAvoy is seated at a panel discussion in a university auditorium. A student asks the panel, “What makes America the greatest country in the world?”
Others on the panel respond with the usual patter about freedom and the American way, while McAvoy tries to avoid answering the question. But the moderator keeps pressuring him to respond, and he finally does. It is a tough scene to watch....
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I walked alone on the morning of Father’s Day, down a street in South Austin on which I lived more than three decades ago. My Beautiful Mystery Companion was still stoking up on caffeine and our teenage daughter, of course, was asleep. We were staying in a spotless condo I had rented using Airbnb, the website used by folks to rent lodging. I have become quite a fan of Airbnb, using it to find places to stay for less cost than a hotel — and with a lot more space.
The neighborhood was filled with rental units — mainly fourplexes and duplexes, with a few full-bore complexes. In 1981, I lived...
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