She could easily have been mistaken for Bea Arthur from the "Golden Girls" television series. She appeared to be in her early 70s. She was walking alone and leaving the event as fast as her cane would allow her.
Is it a tool of the devil, a meaningless family game or mental wormhole between the dead and the living? The Halloween season is the perfect time to ask anyone who has touched or been touched by, what some people claim to be, the mystical powers of the Ouija Board. Flicker the lights, cue th…
“Your life is your message.”
If Dirty Harry, Mary Poppins and Aquawoman could suspend the laws of biology and somehow have a child, that baby might look a lot like Roxanne Shuford.
As she has done nearly every weekday for the past several years, Lorraine Hernandez sat next to me on the stationary bike at 24 Hour Fitness last Monday to begin her workout. After some morning small talk, and almost as though she were asking me to pass the sugar, she said, “I’m jumping out …
The repair man walked into our living room this morning to fix our refrigerator. It was Thursday and our first day back from our annual Wavehog Central Coast beach camping trip. Ice chest, camping chairs and canopies littered our entryway and living room. I asked him to please be careful and…
Almost to a person, each of the 30 media people and community leaders who performed in the sold-out recent Media Music Jam, have explained to me how they have been personally affected by cancer. And although no survey was taken, my suspicion is many in the audience have also dealt with the e…
I walked into the center's small break room to stretch my legs. While I was trying to decide which soda to pick from the vending machine, a woman who looked to be in her early 40s walked in. She reminded me of Dorothea Lange's iconic 1936 black and white photo from the Great Depression— the …
There is no denying the resemblance.
My wife, who battled cancer for two years, was at the end of her journey in the hospital. I explained to my children that God would cure their mother. It would either be here with us or there in heaven, where she would be in perfect peace. The doctors came in to explain there was nothing mor…
What do Andre the Giant, Tito Santana, King Kong Bundy and the Junkyard Dog have in common? Well, I'll tell you.
The mother stands slumping in the corner. The moonlight gently casts the shadows of the bars in her cage which highlights her sadness. Through the bars of her window she sees the top of her child trying to reach in. The mother stands straight and her sadness is immediately replaced by a huge…
We had our family calendar meeting last night. It’s when we, my kids and I, sit around our kitchen bar area and catch up on all our family obligations, community projects and just-for-fun things we do together.
Now that the football season is officially over, I can say it. Some people will miss the excitement of the actual games. (Obviously, when I say "excitement," I am not including the Patriots' 13-3 victory over the Rams, the lowest scoring Super Bowl ever.) Me, not so much. I will miss the foo…
Before passing out Christmas presents to my children and grandchildren each year, I always ask which of them would like to start off the morning's traditional gift giving.
As with most of us, this time of year is one of reflection. Few regard the dawning of a New Year with indifference. Many count it as an opportunity to remember the good, bad and ugly of opportunities gained or missed.
Watching an Oakland Raider football game at home is not complete unless my 40-year-old daughter, Brenna, is there in her Silver and Black gear. It's not the real deal unless she is jumping up and down in our living room, screaming at every first down, penalty flag, pass completion or a rare …
It was one of those seminal moments that unknowingly shaped my young heart. I have carried my version of the memory with me for over 50 years.
My twin sons, Sean and Aaron, celebrated their 36th birthdays on Oct. 25.
My South High School 50th reunion website reads in part:
I was returning from a business trip and my short layover was in LAX. He was standing in front of me in a short line on the tarmac. We were waiting to board our flight to Bakersfield.
The teenage boys, including me, were all on one side of the living room. The teenage girls were all grouped on the other side of the room, giggling and pointing at the shy guys. Music was playing but no one was dancing.
She was sitting alone on a lounge chair in the hotel pool area.
Depending when you are reading this, we will have either just started to head out on a Wavehog chartered deep sea fishing boat from Dana Point in Southern California, or already stopped at our first fishing spot with our poles in the deep Pacific Ocean waters, or headed back to our San Cleme…
It may have been sold out, but table 23 deliberately sat empty last Saturday night at the Crystal Palace for this year’s Media Music Jam.
“Appreciate what you have before it becomes what you had,” said someone much wiser than me.
It was a proud moment for my niece Rachelle and her husband, David Yubeta. Their son, Josh, was drafted to play in this year’s U.S. Army All-Star Bowl at Rabobank Arena. According to the U.S. Army website, “the All-Star Bowl is the only high school arena-style football game held indoors.”
The call from my daughter-in-law Yvonne came early Thursday morning. I knew something was wrong right after she said, “Hello”. “They stole our car from the driveway,” she explained with a tone of total frustration, anger and sadness. I could hear my son Sean in the background talking to the …
The process begins early January.
Sunday night while viewing the Oscars, my adult children begrudgingly watched and waited for their favorite actor and actresses to make their appearance. The crowd favorite in our living room was Mary J. Blige. Many agree, including my children, that Blige’s performance of “Mighty River” put…
I got the call.
I am proud of all my brothers and sisters.
In one sentence, a young angel taught me the meaning of Christmas presence.
It is one of my most regrettable mistakes as a father. I never taught my children how to fish.
My youngest brother Bobbie played the song “Sabor a Mi” on his cell phone. As my other siblings and spouses watched from our tables, my baby sister Nancy danced with my older brother Willie to my mom’s favorite song. We were on the patio deck of the Asylum Restaurant in Jerome, Ariz.
“They made us all feel special,” said Amy Padilla, a breast cancer survivor. “It was very emotional … the fact that they recognized the fight we had been through."
I was approached last summer by Highland High School head football coach Mike Gutierrez with the idea of purchasing specially designed football jerseys to help raise awareness for breast cancer. The team wanted to wear the jerseys in a game during October, which is National Breast Cancer Awa…
When you walk up to my front door, you are surrounded by about one dozen individually potted purple flowers and one young Leyland Cypress tree. Please don’t ask me what kind of flowers. All I know is they are purple and very easy to maintain. Purple was my wife, Susie’s, favorite color.
It happened several summers ago.
The washing machine went out in our home one week ago. Not that there is ever a convenient time for this to happen, but the non-draining, leaking and rumbling washer decided to clock out the day after we returned from our week-long Wavehog camping trip.
Singing is like FaceTime: You think you look good until you see yourself — and it’s not pretty. You might as well be gazing into one of those distortion mirrors at the circus.
I just finished my 9-mile ride on the stationery bike at 24 Hour Fitness. My morning ritual is to end my workout routine by going into the jacuzzi to prepare for the day by saying my prayers.
I know our neighbors think we must be crazy.
Made famous by the galactically successful Star Wars film franchise, the Millennium Falcon was known as the fastest ship in the galaxy. Despite her unassuming beginnings and rough exterior, the Falcon has made its mark in the epic space opera film series — and in an unexpected place in Wasco.
They were two men and one woman.
When they were young children, it was a fun activity my daughters Nikki and Brenna thoroughly enjoyed. My wife, Susie, would let them play grown-up with extra make-up she no longer used.
“Love, love, love is all you need,” sang the Beatles
We are all fighting cancer all the time.
The idea came from my swimming pool mate, Sylvia. We see each other often in the pool at 24 Hour Fitness for our morning workouts. She is very thoughtful and frequently asks how I am doing with the loss of my wife, Susie. I lost my bride of 40 years to cancer three years ago.
In a wholesome twisted version of Clark Kent and Superman, Rick Kreiser draws an easy comparison.
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