I am currently spinning my way closer to another complete lap around the sun, closing in on the only birthday that is divisible by the first six numbers– a landmark event that should prompt reflection on the chaotic jumble of nature, nurture and accumulated experience that is me. A 60th birthday is a time for…
Read MorePrior chapters of the Murder Mystery can be found be clicking on the Murder Mystery category on the right. I checked my watch – it was 4 PM. I would’ve loved to call it quits and settle in with Ralph and Fanny for a rehash of my day that started so long ago with Sam Todd. …
Read MoreA couple of weeks ago, Nick and I found the TV offerings particularly desolate and we struggled to stitch together a reasonable combination of a primary TV show and a toggling alternative. After much flailing about, we hit upon the unusual combination of the Westminster Dog Show and a documentary about snipers. The sniper show…
Read MoreFor prior chapters, click on the “Murder Mystery” category to the right. I got back into the car and headed north again. I thought that it’d be helpful to find out a bit more about the Murphy finances. Actually, if the truth be told I was mostly curious, perhaps a little morbidly so as an eye…
Read MoreThis January we met our children and their significant others in Hawaii for a delayed Christmas vacation, primarily because Hawaii emerged as the midpoint of our scattered lives. Ned and Emily joined us from China, while Frances and Dan traveled from Seattle, and we arrived from Chicago. Nick and I looked forward to leaving mainland…
Read MoreI pulled my car over and parked on the shoulder, took a deep breath, sighed, closed my eyes and rested my head on the steering wheel. I could generally divide cases into three categories, those where I was in control of all the information and had total leverage, those where I was in control of some…
Read MoreFor the past 10 days around the Christmas holiday, I have been on a serious jigsaw puzzle jag, assembling 6 puzzles totaling several thousand pieces. I have put together two Amish farm scenes, fall in Vermont, a scene of colorful Greek houses clinging to a side of a cliff, a serene mountain lake at sunset,…
Read MoreBetween Christmas and New Year’s our family traditionally gathers at our cabin in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP) along the shores of Lake Superior. Several other families have the same tradition, and therefore New Year’s has been celebrated with the same group of family friends over many decades and generations. This little community is extraordinarily tight.…
Read MorePrior chapters of the murder mystery are filed in the “murder mystery”category in the menu on the right. We pulled into the expansive circular driveway in tandem. This time the driveway was vacant, and Sam had wisely decided to park the Cadillac Escalade elsewhere. I went over and gave Grimes our usual vertical handshake in…
Read MorePrior chapters can be found in the category “Murder Mystery.” Chapter 18 I started to make a pile of the green puzzle pieces that looked like the grass and trees, and I noticed that Goddard was doing the same with the sky and cloud pieces. The puzzle was turning out to be a God send…
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