Author Archives: rike52

A few of what’s left of the 169 who graduated from Vicksburg High June 1970 will gather 3 weeks from tomorrow at Indian Run Golf Club in Scotts for the 50th reunion that COVID robbed us of last year.  I’ve asked my class president and reunion committee chairman Forrest to include this song in theContinue reading “there are things to realize”

I had the best mother-in-law.  Ruth Olsen was an Ann Arbor girl, raised by an old Norwegian guy who talked funny and bound books for all the UofM eggheads needing to publish their theses.  She attended Ann Arbor High and graduated with no one famous, although my dear colleague George Thompson may have been close,Continue reading “my mother-in-law”

“The pretender” was a standby in the old Shoreland Days at U of C. Mary Ann and I debated if we wanted to struggle for the legal tender, which we eventually both did. I don’t know if we even had dark glasses. But each day we got up to do it again, and continue toContinue reading “more Jackson Browne”

I wrote this end of March, 2020, just as COVID was descending. Kathy and I were impressed at the working guys keeping things going. When’s their parade? It was mainly a beer run, off to Castle on the West Side with its fully stocked shelves and impressive collection of IPAs.  No outgoing today, with collectionContinue reading “mainly a beer run”

One from the vault. I wrote this 3/20/21 but never posted it. The thoughts are timeless, so why not share them now? I began to dabble in cooking in high school.  My mom, a great cook, had died when I was 10.  Dad took his stabs at putting food on the table, but let’s sayContinue reading “in my kitchen”

When you punch “health greed” into Google translate with the output set to German, that’s what you get.  Kathy and I were talking about activities that make you feel so much more healthy that sometimes you approach them with greed for more.  At the time, we were out for a long walk in the woods,Continue reading “Gesundheitsgier (“health greed”)”

While working on my book this morning, I’ve been diving deep into my “Writing and Philosophy” folder.  Here’s an item I found there that I thought worth sharing.  I know it’s baseball season, but college basketball schedules are being announced and it’s barely 2 months to kickoff at Michigan Stadium.  Off season is time toContinue reading “college mascots”

One of the many joys of living in Ann Arbor is the Amtrak service. So much more relaxing to take a train anywhere than to drive. Chicago is a favorite long weekend destination. But you don’t have to ride the Wolverine all the way to Union Station to have a good good time. About halfwayContinue reading “ARB-KAL”

I don’t mean to be a tease, but I’m so excited about an entry I’ll be posting later this week or early next, that I had to tender a preliminary. Below is an e-mail I sent to my friend Ana, an attorney in Santa Fe, friend of my brother-in-law Bob. After a very successful careerContinue reading “heart warming”

As the masks come off and normalcy begins to pervade, the issue of vaccination persists.  With the common trope at stores that masks are optional for the vaccinated, Kathy and I leave ours off as we’ve been vaccinated plenty over the years: polio, smallpox, measles, mumps, etc.  We continue to avoid these COVID science fairContinue reading “vaccines again”