I haven’t heard from him in a few weeks, and for some reason I was worried about him, but then why should I worry?  It seems from what I can gather from the tidbits of information he tosses at me, he is either at the bar, the beach, or church, and that he’s been through a lot in his life, but still comes through relatively unscathed, but then, it’s difficult to know exactly what’s in his 106-year-old Read More

Back when I was much younger, I attended a certain famous U.S. Military Academy which of course, shall remain nameless. This was quite a challenging experience, and one that I cherish now, with memories of this experience that most certainly changed me at the young age, for the better. It was actually pretty much hell on earth the first year—and I learned a lot about myself in that I could probably survi Read More

I missed him, and I wasn’t sure I would see him again.  But I knew if he was still alive, he would find me somehow, or at least I hoped he would, because I didn’t know enough about him yet to write his book.  He chose me to write it, but how was I supposed to do it if I knew next to nothing about him?  His words seemed to cycle back to my consciousness every few days: “Your T-shirt that sa Read More

Dear readers: For reasons beyond my control, the shadow men have apparently decided to take Ollie to an undisclosed location, and unfortunately, I am unable to communicate with him now. It seems that they believe that I am becoming too close to the old man, and that perhaps I may take him up on his offer to write a book about him.  That is not in their best interest it seems, so they have taken him away Read More

She has a busy schedule, but always tries to find time for exercise.  That was ingrained in her years ago when she trained as a ballerina. But now, she goes hiking in the mountains when she has time, or she goes swimming or lifts some weights in her home gym, because when she previously went to the public gym, all the male grunters would stop what they were doing to stare, and even “instruct” her on t Read More

The piano ain’t got no wrong notes:  Thelonious Monk Recently, I took care of a patient in his late 50s, who was clearly in a difficult struggle in his life. He was homeless, and was found by emergency personnel behind a trash dumpster —dehydrated, malnourished, in shock, kidney failure and had suffered a remote myocardial infarction. (Heart attack) He ended up on my service as an attending in Read More

The truth is, I don’t go to bars much at all, actually rarely, but now it seems that I’m becoming a frequent visitor at that beach bar where Ollie taught me to “respect the beer.”  Although the cold beer is tasty, there’s nothing special about the bar, except that of course, I learned a lot about Ollie during that short visit earlier.  I suppose I go there hoping from a surprise visit from Read More

Independence Day My flag is flying today, off my back porch, making that flapping sound in the wind, which, for some reason takes my memory back to relive some fond memories.  I think that’s good for my mind to do sometimes—to relive the memories and bathe the neurons once again with past glories, perhaps for the simple reason that it reminds me of where I was then, where I am now, and realizing that t Read More

To my readers: Ollie, otherwise known as The Old Man, who I have recently introduced on two recent blog pieces, has some news that I need to share with you.  Originally, I took on the “Navy Seal” writers challenge by tackling the last writing prompt—You are walking down the beach, and coming towards you in another direction is an old man, wearing a t-shirt that says, “Been there, done that, don Read More

A continuation from The Old Man and the Beach Respect.  That’s a word you don’t hear much anymore, or more specifically, you don’t see practiced or put in action very much. That’s why I couldn’t get old Ollie’s words off my mind: Respect, Carson. They know how to find me now, and when they see me, they show respect–the same respect I show them. Of course, the words that my thirsty hypothalamu Read More