Summertime and the livin' is easy 

Summer comes in this Memorial Day Weekend.  There will be lots of outdoor activities now that the weather has warmed up a bit.  Hope you have a wonderful summer fill with all sorts of memories and fun.  It is hard to believe that another school year is about to come to an end.  Since I retired from teaching last June, the time seems to keep flying by.  A few months ago, I got Buddy my labrador puppy who is already adult size.  Sadly, we lost Zeus our male Papillon who I met at the Alice Cooper Christmas Pudding in Phoenix in December 2013.  He was my wife's companion whom she misses very much.  

This blog will feature my latest stories including some of selections from the memoir I am putting together.  In some of the writing training I have viewed, they say I need a platform as a writer.  In writing my memoir, I have decided to use "if it could happen to someone, it will most likely happen to me."  It is not meant as a plea for sympathy, but rather as a way to illustrate some of the odd things that have happened to me in my sixty plus years of being alive.  I have been hit by a truck in a crosswalk, stood on a corner of Winslow, Arizona, lived two years in the middle of the redwoods in California, almost got bit by a Mohave Green rattlesnake, drove down the Al-Can twice, have been hit by a very drunk driver as a passenger in a car, nearly drowned in the South Fork of the American River during a whitewater rafting trip, kayaked down the Colorado River as a Boy Scout Leader, and several other adventures. 

Now that I am officially retired, I have read over forty books so far in 2025 as I spend an hour on my stationary bicycle.  I keep submitting stories to Reedsy who keep putting my stories on their blog.  So, in turn, I publish them on my blog.  Some of the submissions are now part of my memoir such my recent "Cold Peas for Breakfast" when I was living with my dad when I was four.  One night I refused to eat my peas and since he lived through the Great Depression as a child, he did not want to waste any food.  I got them served to me in milk the next morning for breakfast.  
​

1. "Last Call at Finnegan's "   It's a sad day for Herb van Claussen as he visits an only neighborhood haunt where he dad took him for his first beer after coming home from Vietnam.  Now they are going to demolish the place because it has outlived its usefulness.  But Herb believes that there are some memories that will never fade.
2. "Swimming with a Shark" Karl was deathly afraid of sharks after his Uncle Roy showed him Jaws on his DVD player.  His best friend Nolan wants to be a world class surfer and is successful until he broke his leg in an accident.  While on the mend, Nolan talks Karl into sailing with him on his uncle's schooner.  During the voyage, the boys hit some rough weather, and their boat capsizes sending Nolan into the depths while Karl comes face to face with a great white shark.  Can he get away from his worst nightmare?  
3. "I Wound Up in a Ditch" True story about when I bought a new car with a standard transmission that I did not know how to drive.  My friend helped me learn how to drive it, but one day we drove up the Coastal Mountains in California where I had trouble getting the car into third gear.  I ended up stalling out and began rolling down the steep hill near the Pacific Ocean.  Instead of dying that way, I steered the car in a ditch and was rescued by a car filled with men dressed in Lederhosen.  I still wish to thank them, by the way.  
4. Some Recommended Reads:  I have picked ten books that I have read this year that I wish to recommend to you if you are looking for a good summertime read.  

Take a look at the pink roses that are in my garden this year.  I have some time to tend to them in between my writing.  Beauty is where we seek it to be.  My Welcome Gnome may appear to be behind bars, but I put him there where Buddy could not get to him.   I'd like to think of it as a witness protection program. but the purple flowers are now blooming and all is well.

I would also like to take time to honor those for whom we celebrate this holiday.  Those who gave their lives for their country and the freedom we have enjoyed thanks to their ultimate sacrifice.  Teaching at Willamette Leadership Academy, I had the honor of working with veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Some of the of the men and women who they served with did not return home.  I wish to honor them with a salute and a prayer.