Everyone Is Driving Now: A Humor Trilogy

Stop Exclaiming and Watch the Road I have always had an ear for the unusual ways people express themselves. Yesterday, out of the clear blue, the clouds rolled back and I heard a phrase that delighted me.   I was driving Liessa and our daughter Rachel to the hospital to see our son, who was having …

Read more

East Coast Ron, West Coast Ron

The Curious Case of My Disappearing Name My full name is Ronald Lee Randle.  Only two people have consistently called me Ronald.  My mother and my sister.  Everyone else started with Ronnie when I was young, and somewhere after college that gradually became Ron.  Clean.  Efficient.  One syllable.  Hard to get wrong, or so I …

Read more

When Rachel Thinks She Can Still Change Me

Liessa and I have come to terms with something Rachel is not entirely ready to concede. She is more like both of us than she would prefer to admit. Like Liessa, she does not casually explore ideas.  She enters them fully.  If a subject carries weight or tension, she studies it until the room shifts.  …

Read more

The Absurdities of Aging and Identity

Pat’s Dating Profile Pat asked if I would help her write a bio for a dating website.  I paused, not from lack of ideas, but from an appreciation for the optimism required to pursue romance at eighty-two. At this stage of life, one no longer operates under illusions about time.  Knees negotiate.  Memory wanders.  Reading …

Read more