Life Lessons The real reason why you shouldn’t store water in gasoline containers Image by Iván Tamás from Pixabay My translator’s mother, who had a broken leg at the time, hops into the small Russian made car, which looks like a cheap ripoff of a 1970s Toyota Corolla. Her grown daughters also make their way in. We pull out of the parking lot and fifty yards down the narrow snow-packed road, the engine stops, and I know why. At this point, the oldest daughter informs me, in her direct I-will-kill-you Russian way, to make the car “go.” “Make it go American!” She motions with her arm to make the car go…

Growing Up Unexpected Lessons in Communication Photo by Samuel Ferrara on Unsplash My dad is on the top of a 40-foot pine tree next to our house, but it’s okay. No, really. He has emphysema, a bad heart, 40 year’s worth of very hard-living, an unfiltered cigarette addiction, and clearly a lack of trust in others. He believes he is the only person who can install a new CB/short wave antenna even if it is at the top of a 40-foot pine tree. CB (citizens’ band) radios were a big thing then in the 1970s. Once he installed it, he could talk to new friends as far away as New Zealand.…

Life Lessons Although MythBusters said it couldn’t happen, I still don’t recommend this activity Photo by Jay Skyler on Unsplash I’m probably 15 or 16 years old riding around the metropolis of Saraland, Alabama with two guys I knew from our neighborhood. While I don’t remember the exact car we were in, I do remember that both Jerry and Derek were hotrod aficionados. And they were really into fast cars. Probably a 1970 Chevy Nova or something like that. But it really didn’t matter because in a matter of seconds neither we nor half of the county would be around to tell our children the difference between a 350 short block, a…

Life lessons How using crutches had unintended but beneficial consequences Photo by Sergio Rodriguez – Portugues del Olmo on Unsplash The impact threw me from the motorcycle into the air in the opposite direction of the way we had been traveling. Physics is funny like that! I landed on my right leg, which snapped like an unlucky baseball bat in the hands of an angry Bo Jackson who just struck out. Things were worse for my friend Tim, who lay screaming on the ground because the car’s chrome trim had peeled off and sliced into his right leg making just a big mess. Let me back up a bit: We’re in…

Living with Russians Or, how I taught my Russian mother-in-law to appreciate paper book matches A long time ago, I went to Russia. I met, fell in love with, and married my translator. Not long after we got married my Russian bride and I were at home just getting to know each other. For some reason, she really wanted to know the location of military outposts nearby. Crazy, right? One day, she was trying to light a candle with a little book of American-made matches, which she didn’t know how to operate. Really. To be fair, she had never seen a book of paper matches in her life. She grew up in…

Flash Fiction Sometimes things go bad even after you return home from war Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay The winds picked up outside of the barracks at Camp Shelby. Captain Roger Greenwood, a Tennessee Army Guardsman, reclined on a worn leather sofa in the dayroom of a dilapidated Vietnam Era barrack. His soldiers sat around; some on the phone with their girlfriends or mothers. Most of the soldiers played games on their smartphones. They’d returned from a deployment assignment in Afghanistan and were happy to be close to home. Roger looked up for a moment as the wind whistled through the eaves of the barracks. For a few…