Letter of Last Resort

My friend Mike was a sailor on a “boomer” – a ballistic nuclear submarine. After spending most of his youth underwater on a reactor powered vessel crammed with nuclear warheads he likes to joke that he still glows in the dark. “So what was the launch depth...

Torches & Pitchforks

A few months after we moved into our new house I got a tax assessment letter from Town Hall declaring that my home had doubled in value. That was good news and bad news. The good news was the new assessment roughly equated to the price I paid for the house. The bad...

Police Car

I work for a town government and we have rules. One of those rules is that you cannot use a personal vehicle when conducting town business. If you need to go somewhere you have to sign out a municipal vehicle. The first time I ever had to do this was when Hunters for...

Man of Faith

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I decided to give Peach Dish, one of those online “dinner in a box” companies, a try. I selected two dishes from their slick website, paid with my Amazon account and within a few days a large box appeared on my doorstep with...

Killer Angel

I used to work on a psychiatric ward with psychotic and dangerous people. I was good at it. My boss wrote in my annual evaluation that I excelled dealing with “difficult patients in crisis situations.” Though I was trained in techniques to physically handle violent...