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Rounding third: Big surprises in all those boxes

My mother always had her secrets. I found a few recently as I emptied boxes from her final rented storage space. Yes, as I wrote a few weeks ago, I’m still slogging away. I tackled the biggest job first: digging through photo album after photo album filled with strangers – to me. The mega-dozens of her white-haired playmates were group-posed in front of Lake Louise, or Waikiki Beach, or the passion play at Oberammergau, Germany. My mother got around. And because wanderlust was her middle name, many dozens, maybe even hundreds, of her senior citizen friends traveled the country and ...

Is there ever a best choice for U.S. president?

I do not vote in presidential elections. Why? Because my single vote is not going to count. Maybe it might in some precinct but that is very rare. This upcoming election is all the more reason I am not voting. The reason is that we have two bad candidates to choose from. What sense does it make to choose the lesser of two evils. I cannot in good conscience vote for one of these two. Why? Do you want Donald Trump to be president? He is a felon. He lies all of the time. He plays too much golf. He exaggerates many things, brags too much about himself and ran up a huge deb. He ...

A mini reunion

Yesterday I journeyed over to Dunkirk to attend a mini class reunion. I say it was a mini reunion because this group meets for lunch once a month. I had never been invited to attend before I guess because I live more than a few miles away. It was well worth my effort. There were four people who I attended elementary school with there. One girl I went clear through college with. It was nice to meet informally and just chat about what we were doing, what our families were doing, and how we were feeling. I guess in years past many others attended this reunion. I was always envious of ...

Rounding Third: Give us this day our daily bread

\Dear Richard and I have always been content with that fourth petition in the Lord’s Prayer. Until Oct. 1. On the last day of September, we made a difficult decision. We would not eat bread for a month and see if it helped reduce our ever-expanding waistlines. The conversation began as we were chatting about meal planning. Richard is easy about food. He will eat whatever I put in front of him. When I make something he hasn’t eaten before, he responds mostly with gusto. Mostly. He just likes to eat. I told him about my friend, John, who lost 20 pounds in one month by giving up ...

Vote comes down to ‘ideals’

“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.” These are the words of George Washington, our nation’s first president. This is in stark contrast to our 45th president, who mocked a cancer-stricken POW who spent 5 1/2 years in captivity. He humiliated the Gold Star parents mourning the loss of their son who was killed in combat, and then referred to those who died in the service and the uniform of their nation as suckers and ...

People, not politics, are the real election issue

As Election Day draws near, it’s time for all of us in this community to consider what kind of leadership we want in Harrisburg. If you haven’t met me yet, I’m running to represent the values, needs, and priorities of this district. I’m not a career politician — I’m a small business owner who understands the struggles of working families in our rural district. I know how hard it is to keep a business afloat, balance the budget, and still find time to focus on family. That’s why I’ve built my campaign around the principle of common-sense solutions for real-world ...