Remember that Office To-Do List?


Given all the aches and pains that intensify with age, it can be especially delightful to celebrate some things that were (or should be) left behind at the career place. Conquering the To-Do List in yesterday’s The Wall Street Journal may well deserve such a celebration. Many retirees gleefully toss out the old career-ladened to-do list, and despite Ms. Sue Shellenbarger’s excellent column, many of us can simply skip it. Now, back to that pain in my left shoulder …

Country Friends


There’s still a little magic in every motorcycle ride to the country. When I was young, our family took automobile rides on many Sunday afternoons, and I always loved to watch the farms and forests roll by, imagining what it would be like to live where we passed. Sometimes my father stopped and talked with people we saw near the road.

On a recent motorcycle ride I stopped to watch a small herd of Holsteins in a roadside pasture. They were grazing slowly toward me, but once I dismounted and walked toward the fence, they turned and headed away. Their owner came out from the farmhouse across the street to say hello and ask about my interest in cows. He looked about my age, but he was smaller, more wiry.

“Pretty, aren’t they,” he offered.

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