Archives from 2011

Reflections on holidays passed

Tags: News Feature

I arrived a little too early for the meeting. Having a vodka and tonic at the Backstage Café in Covington, I was waiting for my editor to show up. It’s never a good thing when your editor wants to talk about your column and “the future.” I kind of knew t

Tags: Opinion

The young guy sitting on the bench to my left was high on something. He kept mentioning how he got caught “getting it on” by the girl’s boyfriend. “He went out to his truck to get a gun,” the guy said. “I got out of there quick, man, hightailed it.” I no

Tags: Opinion

It took three buses for me to reach her apartment in Colerain Township, but I was on a mission. I was determined to get a piece of my property back. Walking up to her apartment door, I had purpose. I would be polite but I’d be direct. I wanted the damn b

Tags: Opinion

I felt tired walking up to Walgreens on a Tuesday morning in Covington. The night before, a barking dog kept me up until 2 in the morning. It was a vicious bark with practically no letup. I couldn’t figure it out. All around me are apartment buildings. W

Tags: Opinion

This time of year, I tend to look out my window at the changing season. I notice that the leaves are starting to fall from the trees and there’s coolness in the air most mornings. Summer is almost gone and it’s time to prepare myself for the chilly winte

Tags: Opinion

Anna called me one night around 9 o’clock. I knew she was calling me from a bar, could hear the jukebox in the background, could hear a Country song playing, which was almost louder than Anna. She was slurring her words when she asked me to join her. I c

Tags: Opinion

I’ve been living in Covington for a few weeks now. I’m still feeling my way around the area. As a writer, I keep a notebook of interesting things I see or memorable conversations I have. I’ve compiled some little Covington stories to share with you.

Tags: Opinion

Gun people: I don’t pretend to understand them. I don’t relate to people who carry guns, collect them or shoot them. To me, guns encourage violent behavior and are a danger to society. I shot a gun once back when I was 11 or 12 years old. Living in the c

Tags: Opinion

Would it shock the hell out of you that a 57-year-old man would love Amy Winehouse’s music? I do. When I found out she died late last month I played her Back to Black CD over and over again. Winehouse had a unique, soulful voice and was one of the best s

I was playing my mandolin just like I do on most early evenings. Playing this musical instrument, which I’ve been playing since I was a child, relaxes me. On this particular evening, it was making me sad. As I played, thoughts went through my mind that t

About 20 minutes into the phone conversation, I started to feel annoyed. I was tempted to light up another cigarette. But, trying to cut back, I didn’t. My mind raced to excuses I could make to wrap up her nonstop talking. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Last week, I had a little time to kill before an afternoon appointment, so I went to Fountain Square to hang out for a while. Sitting at a table, I listened in on a conversation two young girls were having at another table to my left. “I haven’t seen Pau

Jazzy is what I called him as did others who knew him. He considered us friends, but the reality is I don’t think any of us really knew him at all or even wanted to. Why he kept popping up in my life I don’t know. Some people keep resurfacing like a bad

If you were to ask me when I was 16 years old if I would never again want an automobile, I would have told you that you were crazy. Every teenage boy wants his own set of wheels. I was no exception. My first automobile was a 1959 Chevy Biscayne. It’s a b

I liked this young woman cutting my hair. Focused at the task at hand, she wasn’t saying a word to me. She kept her eyes squarely on the top of my head and used those scissors like she knew what she was doing. A friend had driven me around Western Hills

The guy has been eyeballing me for weeks at the bus stop in the mornings and has been chatting with me. Small talk at first — you know, the weather, why are the buses always late, that type of thing — but lately, the conversation has been more personal,

Getting ready for work, I thought back to that morning when my son was born over 25 years ago. I started to feel sentimental, something I try hard in my life to avoid. Not on that morning. I looked at photos when he was first born and when he was little.

I’m looking at an apartment at 10th and Madison in Covington. It’s on the first floor and there’s lots of sunlight. Also, in a roundabout way, I know the landlord. He’s holding the place for me. My son and I looked at it again last week and I’m going to

Finally reaching downtown, I got off the bus on Fifth Street and as quickly as I could went to a hotel and used their restroom. This took a few minutes as I was fully paying the price for eating that oatmeal. Before leaving the restroom, I grabbed a hunk

Tags: Opinion, Coffee