Category Archives: Uncategorized

  Someone once described retirement as becoming a teenager again – you have all the time in the world with few responsibilities … except this time you have money.    So as I planned my summer of playing golf, running the sunrise basketball game at the local gym, taking out the trash and mowing theContinue reading “My field of dreams became a nightmare of a comeback”

   Everytime a headline references Social Security, I wince. As a retiree, I’m wary of any plans to privatize the pension benefits of 56 million Americans who paid into the system all their working lives.   As the father of a developmentally challenged adult daughter, I cringe when I read about cutting staff, limiting consumerContinue reading “Making aging parent nervous with Social Security changes”

     Golf season began at 7:42 a.m. Tuesday, but I missed the call.    The fellow I play with most mornings at sunrise, Larry Kaiser, deemed that beautiful spring morning the start of the season, without advance notice. When I found his message two hours later, he never wavered. “Meet in an hour for theContinue reading “One of the rites of spring golf remains a trip to driving range”

   North Country winters are long enough, but retired OFA basketball coach Bill Merna might be a poster child for cabin fever.    He can’t go to Kiwanis meetings, he skipped the reenactment of the Battle of Ogdensburg, and stepped back from his duties as Section X basketball coordinator.    Such is life one monthContinue reading “Merna remains thankful for life-altering stress test”

   Traveling with my spouse was supposed to be a perk of retirement, not an airport obstacle course followed by a torture chamber at 35,000 feet.    Alas, air travel has emerged as a necessary evil to visit relatives, go on vacation, or visit an exotic destination.    If this sounds like whining about myContinue reading “Love reaching destinations, but airline comfort is a myth”

   The most famous rodent in the Northeast, Punxsatawney Phil, has never traveled to Ogdensburg, but he sure nailed the winter forecast three weeks ago.      If you thought the furry rodent had gotten sloppy after co-starring In Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, or that he couldn’t understand winters along the Southern Ontario-Northern New YorkContinue reading “The weather outside is frightful with spring sports 3 weeks away”

    My high school basketball season ended last Friday. Not as a player – that stopped at Morristown Central School in 1975. But 17 years ago, I donned a different jersey with black and white stripes.     For the past three months, I have been running up and down basketball courts, making instantaneous judgments, relyingContinue reading “After 36 games, ref has fill of unruly fans, snow, icy roads”

     Enough already. Cut the whining.     Bills fans — the North Country is loaded with them — need to stop embarrassing themselves. There is no vast conspiracy within the National Football League to rig games, to boost the fortunes of the Kansas City Chiefs, or to persecute the Buffalo Bills.   Just to beContinue reading “Chicken Little: The sky is falling and NFL refs are rigging games”

   Every once in a while, the universe, the fates, the heavens, perhaps even the highs and lows of your personal history have a way of sending you a wake-up call. Perhaps you stop to appreciate the twinkling lights reaching across from the Canadian shore. Maybe you drive past your childhood home and recall aContinue reading “A lesson in life’s priorities arrives in a packet of letters”

   Bob O’Shea has parked The Billievers bus for the season outside his Ogdensburg home. His beloved Buffalo Bills will travel to play the Chiefs on Sunday for a berth in the Super Bowl, but even that 1,239-mile trip to Kansas City, MO, might be too long for this member of Bills Mafia.   O’SheaContinue reading “North County fans go the distance to support their teams”