Posted May 06, 2026in Joe's Neighborhood
The sky is definitely falling. How do I know this? Because when we should be heading to the bunker, we’re going to instead fly eight miles high over an ocean in several hundred tons of metal. Yup, my wife and I are flying out of Iowa to visit our daughter
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Posted April 01, 2026in Joe's Neighborhood
“Trouble (oh, we got trouble) Right here in River City (right here in River City)” — Meredith Wilson, “The Music Man.” Like most of you, I generally think I’m a decent person. I let people who are in a rush cut in front of me at the grocery store. I
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Posted March 04, 2026in Joe's Neighborhood
“The Zen view is something you glimpse in passing and that comes as a surprise — to wake you to the moment and a flash of hidden truth.” Rivvy Neshama, “Recipes for a Sacred Life.” I started running again. Yup, I stopped about 1990 because of knees and back and
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Posted February 04, 2026in Joe's Neighborhood
“BE KIND!” OK, OK, I heard you the first time. And I do want to be kind, but I’m in a rush and I don’t want to be taken advantage of and shouldn’t I first be kind to myself? All arguments I have made over the years to justify NOT
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Posted December 31, 2025in Joe's Neighborhood
Jay Holstein died the other day. Most of you don’t know him. He was 87 when he died, and his time in the public eye had long passed. Or maybe you didn’t know him, but you heard of him when you were a college student. And, maybe even then, you
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Posted December 03, 2025in Joe's Neighborhood
My mom was a hoarder. And I don’t say that harshly. Listen, I’ve got my own problems. And my mom was not the worst hoarder I’ve ever seen. But her home does make for quite the excavation as we prep her house to sell after her death. For example, over
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Posted November 05, 2025in Joe's Neighborhood
We are in that dreaded in-between time — that dead time caused by making it through airport security way too fast and having two hours before our plane departs. A harrowing situation for my wife who generally likes to hook a wool rug, send instructional messages to our middle-aged kids,
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Posted October 01, 2025in Joe's Neighborhood
“Let’s go to Vienna!” “Let’s go to Sarajevo!” “Let’s go to Belfast!”… says my wife. And my go-to response? The very first loving words out of my mouth? Are… “NOOOOOOOOO WAY!” You see, my wife wants to see the world. I get it. We spent all our working years and
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Posted September 03, 2025in Joe's Neighborhood
The Irish lilt is a thing of beauty. It moves up and down the vocal scale like a soaring and diving bird rather than the flat and plodding groundhog of American English. It wouldn’t surprise me if Irish was the dialect spoken in the Garden of Eden. Angelic and holy.
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Posted August 06, 2025in Joe's Neighborhood
With an anxious stomach, I stand behind the long black curtains and watch off stage as the teenage girls tap dance before the large audience in Boone. It’s the Betty Mae Harris dance recital. I want to throw up. But, still, I watch the teenagers who are clever and quick
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