Stirrings from the empty nest

(This is RV-airplane related. To see my new blog on RV subjects. Go to " Letters from Flyover Country ") I'm a big fan in the...

I was going to sit down this morning and write a hysterical piece about the stuff kids bring home for Mother's Day. But I ran out of tim...

(This originally was published on Gather.com last week) If you read enough of my essays, not just here but in other places where I ply my tr...

This weekend I started the gardening and lawn care work. Nothing serious. Just raking. I'm starting to reach the stage where I wonder wh...

Like just about every other major issue facing America, I am -- apparently -- the only resident of the U.S. turf that is conflicted on the i...

If I were ever to do the whole fatherhood thing again -- and for the record, I'm not -- I would learn to relax; possibly even exhale on ...

I was supposed to be on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" on Sunday morning. I didn't tell too many people because thes...

This was written for a column on the RV Builder's Hotline A week ago, I was cutting the aluminum stock that forms the rear spar double...

One of the things I like to do in my real job is to figure out how people consume information vs. how we -- the media -- give it to people....

As I continue to get use to life in an empty nest, I'm trying to figure out something. Does everything seem perfect with my kids becau...

I ordered my RV-7A slow-build kit in the spring of 2001. Like many airplane builders, I wasn't sure I had the skills to build an airplan...

I'm late getting to this but when MPR did its election-night party in November, a talented gentleman named Bo Hakala produced three segm...

My wife and I have a lot of stuff; we don't need any more stuff. So this year we're not buying a bunch of Christmas presents for eac...

There are times, I guess, when we're embarrassed by our children. I know when my oldest son was very young and learning how to talk, my ...

I've been working on a few Flash-related projects lately. I'm not particularly proficient at Flash, although I'm better than I w...

I made this for a piece that ran this morning on MPR. You'll need at least Flash 8 to see it. Click on the image. Baseball season is com...

OK, so it's Thanksgiving and the Collins family is getting a taste of its own medicine. We won't have the whole family for dinner t...

I've been to two funerals in the last week. I go to more funerals now than I do weddings or baptisms. Such is life... and death. Yesterd...

As I remember it, my mother came into my room on the day -- or pretty near the day -- I turned 16. Since I was a teen, I was sleeping late. ...

I've been working on covering the campaign of 2006 since January of 2005. I'm glad it's over. It's taken a lot of work, 7 da...