Stirrings from the empty nest

This is a picture of an ornament on the Christmas tree at Casa Collins, which is still up as 2007 comes to a close. Back when I was deliveri...

The empty nest was not empty on Christmas. Patrick didn't put his Navy papers in. He says it was because he had to clear up a wart befor...

"It's OK, there'll be other Christmases." I'm not sure why I said that a few months ago when my youngest son, his mot...

(This is a piece I wrote today for my new gig at work, News Cut , at Minnesota Public Radio. I post it here because it's a subject that...

I haven't written anything... yet... about son, Patrick, joining the Navy. But I will. In the meantime, he's entered the blogger wor...

From time to time, I come to the conclusion that I'm mostly part of a problem, than part of a solution. Here's a Flash piece I put t...

To those who know me, it comes as no surprise that I've never read a book by Norman Mailer. First, I don't read many books. I have t...

We had a very nice anniversary dinner this evening at McCormick and Kuleto's Restaurant. Our menus said "Happy 25th Anniversary...

Today completed the tourist portion of our trip, on this the 25th anniversary. So we celebrated "the ball and chain" (as Carolie s...

It was hard getting "in" to the vacation today as there was a family crisis back in Minnesota and we were pretty powerless to do ...

There should probably be some sort of law against things being this pretty. I mean, geez, isn't a bit of a crime that, say, North Dakot...

I love to walk. I love to find out where roads and other things lead. This is not always a shared passion, although Carolie gave it a good ...

A few years ago, I visited San Francisco for the first time, while making a presentation or two at the Integrated Media Association conferen...

My kids left the nest early, far earlier than I thought possible, but they left behind plenty of evidence they were once here. Many years a...

Occasionally, here at work, we've kicked around the idea of making the daily "news" rundown on The Current a podcast. I'm ...

When I was a very young man, The Mercury and Gemini space programs occupied much of my attention. I would someday go into space, I was told ...

I took the day off from work yesterday and went golfing with my youngest son. I am not a good golfer at all (my streak of never breaking 100...

The news media, sometimes justifiably so, gets the occasional incoming fire for the way general aviation is portrayed. But sometimes -- more...