Morning dawned to an empty mousetrap. I was still rubbing the sleep from my eyes when Dad again expressed his doubts about my sanity:

“If there was a mouse in this house, I’d have already caught him. You didn’t see any mouse. It was all in your imagination.”

“You think?” I asked, figuring that if I played along he’d abandon any attempt to catch the little guy.

“There’s not even any signs of a mouse,” Dad said. “If we had a mouse there’d be droppings all over.”

“You’re probably right.”

After breakfast, I settled down in the recliner with my laptop and Dad plunked on the couch to watch his favorite talking heads. A little while later I heard a strange noise and looked around to find the source. Read the rest of this entry »

Dad set the mousetrap around 9 AM this morning. I was lazily lounging in the living room recliner with a book in my lap, half asleep and still in my PJ’s (at 3:50 PM), when I heard it. Craaack! The mousetrap had been sprung. I made Dad go and check it – I couldn’t bring myself to look. Sometime during the day Dad had moved the trap from the kitchen counter top to the floor under the kitchen credenza, where I first spotted the furry little guy. Read the rest of this entry »

At 2 AM this morning, unable to sleep, I was sitting in the recliner in my Dad’s living room. The darkened room was illuminated only by the flickering TV. Suddenly, I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. A mouse! He came around the corner from the kitchen and crawled along the baseboard into the living room. A foot into the living room, the mouse sensed it wasn’t alone. It stopped, looked up at me, reversed direction, and scurried back into the kitchen.

Dad lives out in the country and he gets at least one mouse in the house every year, usually when the milder autumn temperatures begin to transition to winter’s chill. He is convinced they get in through the door between the foyer and the attached garage and he’s always reminding me to close the door, but it’s not always that easy. For instance, yesterday we went shopping for a new microwave, and the door had to remain open as we carried the box from the garage to the kitchen. Most likely, that’s when the furry little critter got in. I can’t say I blame him. It’s 35 degrees out and snowing. I’d be trying to get warm, too. Read the rest of this entry »

For days I’ve been unsuccessfully searching for an appropriate message or video to post here on Christmas Day, but nothing seemed quite right. Then, this morning I stopped by the web site “WhereTheHellIsMatt.com.” According to Matt’s website, he is a “30-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play video games.” He embarked upon a successful career designing video games but soon realized there was more to life than making money. In 2003 he quit his job and used his savings to wander around the world until the money ran out. Along the way he came up with the idea of dancing everywhere he went and recording it on his video camera. He posted the video on his website and soon became known as “the guy who dances.” Matt dances very badly, but most people don’t seem to mind.

Now Matt and his buddies have made a video named the “Gratitude Dance,” which begins by stating that we spend so much time focusing on what’s missing in our lives that we lose sight of the many amazing things that are already in our lives. Read the rest of this entry »

In the dictionary, next to the word cold, there is a picture of Illinois. At the moment, it’s 14 degrees, with winds gusting to 60 mile per hour, making the wind chill temp well below zero. Brrrr. I actually went outside in this because Dad and I had to go shopping. We actually saw people walking from the parking lot to the mall, wearing lighweight jackets that were unzipped and flapping in the wind. People here are crazy. Hearty…….but crazy.

Ask anyone if they think Christmas has become too commercial and they will most likely answer with an unequivocal “YES!” Stores bring out the Christmas decorations earlier every year. Kids’ wish lists get longer and pricier. Parents go deeper into debt each year. Christmas morning dawns to frenzied ripping of gift wrapping, with the contents of each package barely examined before being discarded in favor of the next package. By noon the gifts have been abandoned, and the kids head for the hills as soon as Christmas dinner is finished. Not unexpectedly, the true spirit of Christmas is often lost in all this.

The message of Christmas – love – is one that everyone should be able to appreciate, regardless of his or her religion, but each year I find it more difficult to feel the spirit. Fortunately, I always travel home to Illinois to spend this holiday with my family and the impending visit gets me excited. This year is no different. Read the rest of this entry »

There is no direct route between the Outer Banks and northern Illinois. National Parks and the Smoky Mountains block the way, thus the major Interstates drift either either north or south, and I always struggle with which route to take. This time, since the forecast called for no ice or snow, I decided to go through the mountains of West Virginia. The foothills of the Smokies began in northwestern North Carolina as I approached the twin towns of Pilot Mountain, with its distinctive knob-topped mountain, and Mount Airy. The signs here are a dead giveaway: Route 52 is “Andy Griffith Parkway” and the most famous diner in town is “Aunt Bea’s.” If you haven’t figured it out by now, the town of Mayberry on the Andy Griffith Show was modeled after Mount Airy, and when Andy occasionally made reference to “going down to Mount Pilot,” he was referring to Pilot Mountain. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m following my dream, no matter what. Somehow, some way, I’m going to make it as a writer. That’s what I keep telling myself. And most days I have a lot of faith in my talent and my ability to make my dream come true. But some days….well, let’s just say that I lose my faith. When that happens, I obsess over whether I am on the right path. Several times over the past couple of months I have come very close to giving up my dream and just getting another job. But each time, something happens to prevent me from giving up. A couple of months ago I was feeling the pressure, when I received an email from my friend, Ron, telling me that he had just been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. His unhappy news made me realize, once again, that life is short and I need to spend the remainder of it doing what I love.

Lately, I’ve felt myself sinking into a quagmire of doubt once again. Again I was rescued. This time my friend, Joan, emailed the following video to me. It features Paul Potts, a contestant in the Got Talent reality TV show, which is the British version of American Idol. When Potts, an unassuming cell phone salesman, strolled awkwardly onto the stage for his first audition and announced that he was going to sing opera, you could almost see to Simon Cowell and his fellow judges cringe. Read the rest of this entry »

OK, here’s a guy who’s at least as wacky as me. This is my friend Matt, trying to be funny in study hall as his girlfriend videotapes him:

I met Matt some nine or ten years ago when his parents, Annette and Steve, decided to purchase a home on the Outer Banks and they selected me as their real estate agent. On that first occasion of showing them property, Steve and Annette had their big black lab with them, so they followed me around in their car rather than riding with me, but Matt asked if he could ride with me. This adorable seven or eight-year old child stepped into my car and announced, “I’m not like other kids; I like escargot.” Read the rest of this entry »