Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reviews the keeper’s allegiance to the verity that descendants are there for the use and convenience of senior tribal members, as Phyllis’s son Todd and two granddaughters—Alexis and Taylor, show up to assist with moving several bulky items over to future living quarters. The …
Read
Category:Family
Kickass and Phyllis the Artist
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, as one of the greatest time wasters of all time, managed to redeem himself briefly as he assisted Phyllis in installing a display of her photo-art in the gallery at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Middleton where it will be …
Read
Kickass and Phyllis Back on the Trail
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s report that, as everyone knew she would, Phyllis sailed through her Monday hip replacement surgery as if it were nothing more than a pedicure. As a woman who has hiked in every National Park in the US and has the …
Read
Kickass and Cowbird Junk Plan
Photo by Andrew Haimerl on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper is adapting the “cow bird” technique for dealing with a lifetime collection of “stuff:” What he—the keeper does, is sneak an item of his saved junk into the living area of one of his kids, not unlike the cowbird laying its …
Read
Kickass and Dinner with Daughter Pat
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis ventured down to Madison’s Willy Street for a most enjoyable Sunday dinner at Buraka restaurant in the company of Ernest Hemingway and Pat Stokes, the keeper’s beloved daughter who left behind a devastated family when she went on …
Read
Kickass and Little Brother
Yellowstone National Park from Yellowstone NP, USA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is trying to help the keeper as he—the keeper, works through the role of older brother as his younger brother Orv and his wife Shirley make the transition from the home farm up in the northwestern …
Read
Kickass and Ancestry Truth
Popular Graphic Arts, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that as the keeper’s granddaughter Sarah digs into the family ancestry, she finds characters who obviously did it all—the good and the bad, with details yet to come. In keeping with the current resistance to accepting honest historical accounts, …
Read
Happy Father’s Day
From The Pen in Hand Blog To all you fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, grandchildren, and more… Enjoy this treat…. “A Little Tooth” a poem by Thomas Lux, from poets.org Have a great Father’s Day!!
Kickass Remembers Mama
By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in saluting all mothers, and listening to him—the keeper, as he repeats the universal refrain that his was the best mother who—as he once wrote, would stand on two broken legs to make you a lunch so you could go fishing—on Mother’s Day. As with …
Read
Kickass at the Water’s Edge
By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, supports the keeper in his rant about water safety as the season approaches when his—the keeper’s clan, and others act on the evolutionary verity that we all came from the sea and it is fun to try to go back there. Little ones cavorting in the sand and splashing …
Read