Has it really been 45 years since our middle daughter, Annie, was born? Impossible, I say, 'cuz I'm only around 61, ain't I Deb? What? I'm how old? Holy smokes, that almost puts me at the red tees in "Geezer Golf." Ok, to be honest, I've been at those tees for about four years now. Where ...

My birthday was last Friday, and to tell you this story, I have to rewind to Thursday afternoon. It all connects eventually, trust me. So, the day before, Thursday, June 26, my birthday eve, the last day of my 28th year, I wanted to take it relatively easy. One of the few things I needed to ...

The dictionary defines civic pride as a feeling of satisfaction and positive regard for one's city or community, often stemming from a sense of belonging and shared identity. Recently, I’ve been really thinking about how our two towns line up with that definition. Both what we do well to ...

Editor's Note: This column will publish in the Friday, June 11 print edition of the News Chronicle. I hope you are having a great summer! My family has been enjoying extra time together during summer break. The Tama County Board of Supervisors had been made aware that the Landfill and ...

Editor's Note: This column will publish in the Friday, June 11 print edition of the News Chronicle. I was gone for a couple weeks, but I’m back. The Tama County Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday was a good one and had a mixed group of people. There was a lot of talk about ...

Now, I’m not usually one to complain about the heat very much. Yeah sometimes it gets to me, but that’s just part of life. You roll up your sleeves or take off your shirt and you deal with it. I don’t complain about it often but I do know I’m not very good at suffering through the ...

Sometimes the fates align like an eclipse making a single perfect, beautiful, once in a lifetime moment. When these things happen you have to appreciate them for their rarity, and for the sheer mind-tickling wonder that it is. To cut to the chase, it is my birthday this Friday, and my sister ...

So often in my life, I find myself uncomfortable. That feeling of your chest closing in, the world staring at you, and your own self-loathing—all surrounding your inward emotions in so many adverse situations. Through my many years of experience, I have developed six methods to combat—and ...

Time is a construct. Time is a fallacy. Time is an idea created by man and put into practice so that you'd show up 20 minutes early to your doctor's appointment and wait in an uncomfortable chair next to an old lady with a death-rattle cough. Einstein said, "Time is relative," and there is no ...

First of all, Happy Father's Day to all the Dads. Being a Dad is tough. We're supposed to have all the answers, (we do), and we're supposed to be able to fix anything, (not me). And in the middle of the night, we're supposed to check that mysterious noise out. Haha, I let Deb know from day ...