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State news

Puppy Tales, Part 36

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LAKE ARROWHEAD STATE PARK, Texas — Never let it be said that we don’t cater — even in a perverse sort of way — to Toby the Puppy.

We arrived at this state park about a dozen miles south of Wichita Falls. It’s hot as hell out there … about 100 degrees.

The state park ranger in the office greeted me while my wife took Toby for a walk in the heat.

“We have a reservation,” I told her. She looked it up, found it and asked, “Do you want a pull through?” for your fifth wheel RV. I said yes.

“OK, I have two options. I can give you one site that has no shade but it quite lengthy or I can put you in another one. There’s a problem: It’s got a lot of prairie dogs.”

I thought about that one. I consulted then with my wife. We agreed. We wanted the site with no shade. Why? Because the prairie dogs would drive Toby nuts. He’d want to play with all of them.

We went to the unshaded RV site.

Should we have encamped among the prairie dogs? Some might say “yes.” We chose to save Toby the headache of being refused permission to scamper off to chase the little critters.

Therefore, we had the puppy’s best interest at heart. Meanwhile, we are baking in the hot sun.

Oh, the things we do for our little baby.

local news

Happy Trails, Part 30

We had hoped it would be the Mother of All Garage Sales.

It turned out to be a first cousin once removed, or some such thing. Still, I rate it a success, but not the wing-dinging rousing success my wife and I had sought.

We had hoped to sell a big and beautiful entertainment center. We purchased it about 30 years ago in Beaumont, Texas. Then we hauled it way up yonder to the Texas Panhandle in January 1995. A neighbor came by this afternoon and said, “I wish I could find a place for that,” to which I replied, “I do, too” wish he could find a place for it.

Then he talked himself into snapping a picture of it and sending it to his wife. He left and said he’d call later after taking care of some errands. We chatted a couple of hours later and it turned out that his TV is too big to fit in the centerpiece of the entertainment center.

No deal. Damn!

But no sweat. The furniture piece is now ensconced in a charitable organization warehouse and it will be peddled to someone who can use it.

Our garage sale is over. It’s likely our final such event before we pull up our stakes and head southeast toward the greater Dallas/Fort Worth area.

First things first.

We’ve got to find a place to store the worldly goods we have left in our possession. We have to do a couple of things to the house we’ve called home for 21 years. We have to contact a Realtor. Then we put our crib on the market … and hit the road in our RV.

Our retired life is unfolding in increments. We take one step at a time. Still, our retired life today cleared a big hurdle.

Now, for the next one.

local news, media news

Happy Trails, Part 29

We have spent the past two days peddling some of our worldly possessions.

Retirement has given us time to do these things.

It’s also allowed us to catch up with friends and former colleagues who have stopped by to say “hey” while we’ve been sitting under the hot sun on our driveway.

Three of them came by today and my wife and I took time to visit and to learn about their lives and to tell them about ours.

One particular exchange is worth retelling here.

It went something like this …

We were talking about blogging. I told my friend that blogging occupies a good bit of my retirement time these days. “It’s what I do,” I told him, repeating a mantra I often give to friends who inquire about the things that occupy my time.

I told him the name of the blog likely will change once my wife and I pull up stakes and relocate down yonder, somewhere in the greater Metroplex region.

Then I mentioned how, since 9/11, I was able to live the editorialist’s dream. When I was working for a living at the Amarillo Globe-News, I faced the prospect of having to fill a large bit of empty space on the Opinion page. The editorialist’s dream that came true on 9/11 was that the pace of events became so frantic and so relevant that I never had to worry about how I was going to fill that space.

Indeed, the ideal situation for someone who writes editorials is to grapple with deciding which issues I could set aside for the next day — or beyond.

Since that terrible day on Sept. 11, 2001, I have had zero trouble finding issues to comment on.

That trend has continued every year since then. Now that I’m no longer employed, am retired and writing this blog, I find myself with an embarrassment of riches in topics to discuss. The cool part about it as well is that this blog has many wings to it: I call it a blog that comments on “politics, public policy and life experience.”

As I told my friend this morning, ever since the most recent presidential campaign, my list of discussion topics has grown seemingly exponentially.

It’s the “life experience” topics — such as this “Happy Trails” series of blog posts — that give me the most pleasure.

Retirement also has unshackled me. I’m now free to speak my own mind, lay my own bias on those who read this blog.

Much more to come. I promise.

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 35

As we have made the decision to make much more use of our fifth wheel RV during our retirement years, we have learned something else about the puppy you see pictured here.

This is Toby, our 3-year-old Chihuahua mix mutt.

I hereby declare him to be a maximum road warrior. He has enormous stamina. He seems able to “hold it” forever. There’s little need to stop along the highway for him to, um, do his “business.”

We’re getting ready for another adventure. We’ll hook up with our granddaughter, Emma, and her parents in East Texas. Then we’ll head straight north to the Twin Cities, Minn., to see my cousin and her husband.

Toby is of zero concern to my wife and me. None. He poses no issues whatsoever.

We have heard about pet parents’ troubles with their dog. I’ve heard about dogs getting motion sickness riding in motor vehicles for any extended length of time. My wife and I are blessed that Toby suffers from none of that. Indeed, I came down with a bit of motion sickness while traveling along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia this past month.

The highway is as winding as it gets. I got the sweats. Toby had a blast!

I really do not tire of boasting about how good this little guy is and how much of a home run we hit when he joined our family in September 2014.

He has his favorite spot in the cab of our truck when we hit the road. He’ll curl up and sleep most of the time we’re on the move. When we touch the brakes, he’s wide awake and ready to explore wherever we stop.

If only I had Toby the Puppy’s road stamina.

local news

Happy Trails, Part 28

Even in retirement, I’ve learned that life is full of challenges.

Whereas my career presented opportunities, roadblocks and open doors all along the way, I have discovered that retirement’s challenges are no less daunting.

The next big step is going to occur in just a few days. My wife and I are planning to have our Final Garage Sale before we start making serious plans to vacate the structure we’ve called home for more than 21 years.

Our move is not yet imminent, but I’ll declare right here that once we get past this next week, that moment will be much more clearly in our sights.

One of the challenges I’ve met head on is deciding what to toss, what to keep and what to sell. We said so long today to a piece of furniture we had intended to sell, but when we started to move it toward the garage, we discovered it had some, um, structural flaws that made it not worthy of anyone’s attention. Out it went! Gone.

We’ve collected a lot of things over the course of nearly 46 years together. Some of it has a bit of sentimental value. Some it, well, are just items we’ve been lugging around. We’ve decided we’re done lugging things around just because we can’t say goodbye to it.

This garage sale is going to include some fairly big-ticket items. We hope to sell all of it. Reality, though, tells me it’s entirely possible we’ll have to find other ways to dispose of it.

I will do so with glee.

I’m too old to pack up big items. Both of us have committed emotionally to tackling this next big — and likely final — major challenge in life. It involves relocating down yonder.

We both understand the daunting challenges that await us as we prepare for this major leap of faith. What the heck. We faced many such challenges when we were working.

We met them then. We damn sure can meet these new ones.

national news

Happy Trails, Part 27

My wife and I have discovered another of the many advantages of aging.

It involves — usually — an alert local resident in a place where one travels.

We have just returned from a two-plus-week journey Back East. Our most easterly destination was Washington, D.C., where we visited our niece and her husband.

We were holed up in an RV park in suburban Dumfries, Va., about 12 miles from a train station where we would board the Metro for a 20-minute ride into “the district.”

On our final full day in the D.C. area, we went to the Metro station realizing we had to put more money on our “Smart Cards” that enabled us to ride the train.

We approached the wall containing the automatic machines where we would replenish our cards. I guess we looked like two old folks who didn’t have a clue about what we were about to do — which was accurate.

Immediately upon arriving at the wall with the machines, a Metro employee swooped in. “Do you need help?” he asked in a heavily accented voice; he clearly was not an American. “Yes,” we both said in unison.

“OK, how much money do you want to put on the cards?” he asked. “Where are you going?” We told him our destination. He barked out rapid-fire orders. When we didn’t respond quickly enough, he started punching the keys himself.

“Does this amount cover a round trip fare?” I asked. “Oh, you want to come back?” he responded. “We have to add more money.” So he did.

Boom! Just like that. We were done.

“Have a great day ,” he said with a broad smile.

Then I asked: “Did we look like two old people who didn’t know what they were doing?”

“Um, yes,” he said without hesitation.

Hey, getting old ain’t so bad.

national news

Another scenic highway to cherish

U.S. HIGHWAY 64, Tenn. — We’ve seen a lot of scenic highways in our travels through these United States.

One of them courses through southern Tennessee. We took it from just north of Chattanooga and followed it to just south of Memphis.

I looked for run-down communities along the way. I didn’t spot one. Not anywhere for more than 200 miles. Every single community through which we passed had its charm. Every town was clean. They were well-groomed, manicured, neatly trimmed.

Is this the most scenic highway in America? Oh, probably not. We’ve cast our eyes on plenty of splendor over our years together. I still would rank Beartooth Pass along the Montana-Wyoming border as my gold standard for breathtaking roadside grandeur. Beartooth tops out at 10,900 feet above sea level. You look in one direction at year-round snowfields and ice-cold lakes; the other direction aims your eyes into the Yellowstone region.

We haven’t yet seen every single mile of highway in the United States and Canada. My wife and I have made a sort of unofficial pact to do that very thing.

We’ve enjoyed plenty of pleasant drives through some of wondrous landscape. The stretch along U.S. 64 — which looks much like the picture attached to this post — so far ranks right near the top of them.

The most relaxing part of this drive? The virtual absence of any heavy-vehicle traffic.

media news, national news

Happy Trails, Part 26

Retirement has changed many of my habits. I don’t roll out of the sack early every single morning; I am no longer obsessed with the time of the day; indeed, there are times when I forget what day it is.

I also have changed one of my major travel habits.

No longer do I look for newspapers to purchase when I travel around the country. My wife has kidded me at times over the years about how much more stuff we are carrying home than when we leave.

My journalism career seemed to compel me to look at local newspapers. We would stop somewhere, I’d ask for a local newspaper stand and then I would purchase the paper.

Why? Well, I was always looking for new ideas on how to present, say, opinion pages. Since I edited opinion pages in Beaumont and Amarillo, Texas, for nearly three decades, I thought it helpful to see how other newspapers presented their opinions — and the opinions of contributors — to their readers.

These days, my newspaper-purchasing habit has virtually vanished. I no longer work for a living. I no longer have a need to see how other editors do their job. I no longer feel virtually obligated to fill my vehicle with newspapers, to bring them home, cart them into the house and pore over them to search for better ideas.

On our latest adventure, I did purchase one newspaper: the Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial-Appeal. It’s still a pretty good read. So, I read it — and then tossed it.

Life continues to be so very good.

national news

Happy Trails, Part 25

The trail along this retirement journey isn’t entirely, um, happy.

I won’t throw up my hands, I won’t surrender, I won’t cease exploring new adventures across our vast continent. I’ll have to learn some patience as we continue to battle individual communities’ unique methods of controlling and directing traffic flow.

We recently found ourselves guided — mistakenly, I believe — onto an express lane of Interstate 95 between Washington, D.C., and our RV campsite in suburban Virginia. How in this world we got into that lane is a mystery to both of us.

Traffic was stalling terribly in the “regular lanes” of southbound traffic; meanwhile, we sailed along in the express lane with virtually no one else in our lanes.

We were able to exit at Woodbridge. I might get some form letter from the Virginia Department of Transportation. It might contain a traffic ticket for all I know.

I’m not sure how to handle a ticket. Do I pay the fine? Do I challenge it? I’m tempted to challenge a fine if it comes. I think it’s an easy case to win. I’ll await something to come in the mail.

We are learning that states have different methods of striping their highways. Some of them advise motorists in plenty of time about lane changes, or closure; others of them aren’t as careful.

My task now is to get ready for sudden changes in traffic flow.

It also is incumbent on me to stop whining about getting diverted by mistake along a route that takes us out of the way. Hey, we’re retired these days! Why worry if an unintended detour keeps us on the road a little longer?

entertainment news

Happy Trails, Part 24

Retirement has allowed us to become reacquainted with elements of our individual and collective upbringing.

That’s not as strange as it might sound.

We travel in a 28-foot fifth wheel. We hook up at RV campgrounds usually looking at least for water and electric hookups; if we get sewer connections, that’s all the better.

Television reception depends on a couple of variables: Do we have cable or do we rely on our antenna? Most of the time, it’s antenna use.

Here is where the past meets the present.

We extend our antenna, program our “auto channel tuner” setting. Bingo! We get a plethora of channels. Many of them feature old-time TV.

We get to watch some of the programs we grew up watching. These old-timer networks broadcast programs such as “The Lone Ranger,” “Lassie,” “My Three Sons,” “Have Gun Will Travel,” “Perry Mason,” well … you get the idea. Then we get the cheesy game shows with those whopping $500 payouts to the winners.

The most entertaining aspect of watching this television programming is its innocence. The Lone Ranger, for instance, knows how to solve every situation that he and Tonto encounter. I find myself feeling a bit sorry for Tonto, who is portrayed as a know-nothing who has to ask Kemo Sabe for advice on how to solve every single crisis they encounter.

There’s a certain irony, if you think about it, in watching this flashback television. The older we have become, more exposure we get to the experiences of our youth.