All articles filed in Reflection

This happened about a week ago, and I’m still trying to figure it all out. It’s Monday night at Brown’s Brewing in Troy.  I’m waiting for my upstairs trivia table (#21) to vacate, so that I can get there and have my dinner and wait for my trivia teammates Jeremy and Alexis to arrive.  There…

It has never been easy.  Life never is.  The perfect life is only a fantasy.  Truly the perfect life is what you make of it.  What you assemble.  What you create.  It’s your choice.  It’s your decision. But sometimes the decisions work against you.  Sometimes your plans go astray, and they’re outside your control.  A…

Toronto policeman Sgt Ryan Russell was remembered yesterday for his bravery and his service.  Thousands of policemen and well-wishers showed up at his funeral, and along the procession route – the first Toronto police officer to die in the line of duty in nearly a decade.  He gave his life in the protection of others.…

Let’s be frank about this.  My blog may be many things, but it’s not a dating / relationships blog.  It’s neither a foodie blog nor a political blog, which means that I don’t draw three-fourths of the Times Union blog traffic, but I digress. That being said – this is an observational blog.  And I’ve…

Christmas morning, and the Kiev-19 and I are traveling around the Capital District, getting some last-minute Kodachrome shots.  My travels took me out to Delmar, where for some reason or another I decided to stop at the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle. St. Thomas the Apostle is a very significant church for my family. …

The following blog post you are about to read is true.  I only wish the ending could have changed. It’s a few days before Christmas in 2006.  The Wal-Mart parking lot at Crossgates Commons was packed with shoppers, and I patiently drove around the parking lot, hoping to find a parking spot that would only…

We all have a Grandma Betty.  That one grandmother who loved us unconditionally, who we always tried to please, whom we always knew would smile when we did something right, and not punish us too much if we did something wrong. My Grandma Betty was really a Betty.  Betty Miller.  Born on December 12, 1911…

While listening to one of my favorite international Internet oldies radio stations the other day – CKOC in Hamilton, Ontario – I heard the classic Burton Cummings track “Dream of a Child.” Cummings, for those of you not familiar with his name, was one of the main vocalists and songwriters for the Guess Who –…

It was a strange and unexpected request.  I was on Facebook, playing another round of QRANK trivia (9,000 points, beat that), when I got a message for a friend request. I try to keep an eye on my friend requests – I need to make sure it’s actually someone I know, whether it’s involving my…