I'm taking a couple weeks off ... see you back here on June 15.

I originally wrote this piece on Memorial Day 2016, and I've shared it every year since. My dad died when I was 36, yet I never knew much about him or his early life. Not because I didn’t want to or because he didn't want me to. He just didn’t share much about himself. And when it came to his military service, I, along with the rest of my family, was completely in the dark. Through the years, I got out of him that he served in the South Pacific during the waning months of Wor

I’m not sure if this is an example of how my brain works or how it malfunctions. I’ll let you be the judge. “What’s your problem, buddy?” I thought as he walked away in a huff. I mean, the two bubblers (where I come from, that’s what we call them; you might know them as “water fountains”) sat side by side along one wall of the gym. He was getting a drink at one when I sidled up next to him to fill my water bottle at the other. No problem, right? I’ll admit, having two b