Playing solitaire 'til dawn, with a deck of fifty-one... it's difficult to finish a game that requires a full deck. This is not an easy conversation to have. Last Monday was a normal day until suddenly it wasn't; as I left the gym that morning, I noticed a tingling in my hands as well as a peculiar light-headedness. Not a problem, I thought, just a touch of heat exhaustion, just needed to get something solid…

Part II of the story: People often think that loneliness is one of the hardest things about traveling solo; they couldn't be farther from the truth. The real difficulty occurs when you cross paths with a "random" someone at just the right time and place on the journey; then you must go your seperate ways. The pain of that seperation is in some ways to the loss of a favorite dog. You know that it's…

Can I tell you a story? This is one of many stories that, for many reasons, I had decided to keep under wraps for years. They are many of my absolute favorites, but due to my particular location on life's road at the time they occurred, work wise/church wise, etc, I thought it wise to let the statute of limitations expire before "telling off" on myself. I have been known to do some pretty ridiculous…

Wow. Here we are again. And I do mean "we", as I think that we all occasionally experience the occasional 3 AM hour jolt when we awake with our selfish, circular, self-focused thoughts. You know the feeling; the house is quiet; the dogs are (usually) peacefully sleeping. Angst leads to resentment as your significant other seems to be having no problems dealing with whatever anxious issues that are amping up in your head. Even the…

“Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope.” – Sunday morning at the Casa, and all the kids are piled up on the bed with their Dad. Due to the knee situation, I've been keeping Chloe at bay, as her her antics are unpredictable and the slightest touch from even the most well-intentioned but rambunctious dog can be…

"God, I hope that they can fix this"; both a prayer and a quote of exasperation... Since it's inception, the Casa and Charlie's page have been always been intended as a place for good news, but the last few weeks have been quite the challenge. It started with a TIA, a "mini stroke", which is the type of stroke one who is 5'6" might have. The greatest shock was when that I realized that I…

The rest of the story... ...I crutched through the rain and into the Ortho clinic. After seven days, six hours and a thimble-full of minutes of confinement to my recliner, I was so ready for relief that I hadn't eaten anything for hours. You know, in the minuscule chance that that they might say "well, we would love to operate on that knee right now, but we can't because YOU STOPPED AT THE SONIC!! HAHAHAHA!!!…