Affection delayed is not always affection denied.
He sounds old and his voice is tired. It’s been fifteen years since I’ve heard it, but it’s definitely him.
I am caught in that melodramatic made-for-television moment where I learn that my estranged father is dying of brain cancer and I have only - days? weeks? months? - to “set things right” between us.
I have to laugh. I’m a writer, and I never would have dreamed up such a trite, overdone scenario. But here I am, actually living it. It gets better: I get …

On any given weekend in a million backyards, parking lots, empty fields and sun-baked pastures they gather to worship at the altar of the remarkable, unusual and cheap. Antique hunters, both self-proclaimed and by profession; full-time mechanics and the shade-tree version of handy-with-a-wrench, roam the aisles for bargains, for treasure, for great deals and the “once-in-a-lifetime” sale.
Fleamarkets. Yardsales. Thrift sales. We’ve all been. And the thing I find fascinating is that with all the experts, all the collectors, all the people with the mind set that, “I might find a …

Rex Williams, a friend of mine, and his daughter and her troop sold Girl Scout Cookies last week. That’s Sydney, Rex’s daughter, in the photo. Prior to the “the big day” several of us in a social media group were talking about ways to make the experience a positive one for all the girls. As we talked what came out of the discussion was the fact that “It’s not about the cookies.” It’s about the girls.
As Rex told the Everett Herald in Washington state:
“It’s not about the cookies,” said …

Jay Schafer is ready to go to jail to defend America’s right to live in a small house. Seriously. For nearly 14 years this founder of Tumbleweed Tiny Houses has led what he calls “My aggressive pacifist’s campaign to make the built world a smaller place.”
He’s been on Oprah, led seminars all over the country and been active and serious about a very serious issue - housing - the third most common cause for homelessness in America next to addiction and mental illness.
To date, Jay’s approach has …