Becky and I were off visiting family this past weekend, specifically our daughter, son-in-law, and five-year-old grandson in Memphis. In addition to the celebration of Mother’s Day (the five-year-old gave Becky a really nice LEGO set), the highlight of the trip was Saturday’s t-ball game. Yes, it was shortened by a passing Memphis thunderstorm, but an altogether wonderful event, nevertheless.

In this particular t-ball league, all the players on the defensive team are on the field and all the players on the opposing team take their turn at bat. The ball is placed atop and hit from a tee (from the old Scottish teaz, a verb having to do with placing a golf ball on a small mound of sand prior to a drive). The inning is over when all batters have been to the plate once.  No score is kept.  In practice, all the fielders and infielders run after any hit ball and most batters seem to forget that they are to run to first base after getting a hit.  Also forgotten is the practice of dropping their bat at some point along the way to first base.

T-ball players do not have long attention spans. Continue reading →

Becky and I are on a very good trip this week. The highlight will be tomorrow’s T-ball game.  We have a particular interest in one of the players.  Full report to follow.

I have mentioned before our volunteer work with an Afghan family who arrived in the U.S. shortly after the fall of Kabul. We have known them since late 2021 and our relationship has evolved to include not only what help we might provide as they rebuild their lives in our strange land, but a wonderful friendship we value deeply. We share our lives and family times, laughing together and occasionally crying together. Sometimes we just share a moment of humor, irony, or success.

Earlier this week our friend Aziz texted about a moment of humor and irony – maybe with a little twist to it.

Aziz drives for Uber Eats to support his family. He much prefers the independence and the out-and-about-ness of delivering meals and snacks to the monotony of the manufacturing work he had done earlier in their time in the U.S. Continue reading →

It has been unseasonably cold this past week. We have had frost warnings in the morning and a few brief and unproductive snow flurries in the afternoon. Spring made a brief appearance last week, the trees are budding and flowers blooming, but her coming has slowed this week.

Spring’s late arrival has been a gift.

Everywhere you go – the coffee hour at church, the checkout line at the grocery store, the walk through the neighborhood – people have something to talk about, more than that, something to agree about.

“It’s a little chilly out,” we say.

“Where is spring?” a friend or stranger replies.

How human. How nice. Continue reading →

Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson sit down for a chat.  What could go wrong?

Not being a Tucker or an Elon fan, I missed the interview, but have read about it since.  The news stories have focused on an exchange between the two having to do with artificial intelligence (AI) and its dangers. At one point Musk said among the dangers of AI is that it might become a “digital god.”  Here’s the excerpt from the show’s transcript where the Tesla billionaire makes the comment: Continue reading →