Alex Carrick’s Blog

I don’t understand how women think. It’s been a mystery to me all my life and I expect it will continue to confound me ‘til the day I die. I had a perfectly reasonable idea for how our family should spend the holidays this year. It was practical, do-able and would have saved us a […]

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“Ogden almost committed a crime today.” The angel Ecanus was talking with the angel Gavreel in heaven’s lounge area. They’d had a hard day monitoring their charges.  There were still hours to go, but they were stealing a few quiet moments. “Almost? Is that good news?” asked Gavreel. “In Ogden’s case, yes. I know we’re […]

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Beginnings oft times are brutal. Unfortunately, so are endings. In between is mostly a race. A mad dash to grow up, acquire knowledge and earn a living, whether honestly or not. Events spin out of control. The passing show’s a blur. On the final leg, if we’re lucky and fate hasn’t already intervened, we race […]

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What he liked about her was her laughter. What she liked about him was his silence. Her laughter was quiet, rich and reflective. It was doled out sparingly. When forthcoming, you knew it had been earned. It carried neither price tag, nor was gained at another’s expense. Sometimes she giggled. Those were special occasions, when they […]

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One can easily turn reflective with the passage of the years. Birthdays serve to stimulate strolls down meandering and wayward paths. As I approach “the golden years”, I know I’m supposed to be thinking of travel, playing golf, putting my feet up, reaping my rewards. But I’m not sure any of that is for me.  So here’s […]

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There were several reasons why Giles’ mood was tanking. First, there was the change in seasons. Summer was only a degree or two away from turning into fall. Giles loved the summer. He lived in a northern clime and the winters were long and harsh. The cold weather, when he’d been a child, had encompassed […]

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Charley Van Dearon was an outdoorsy type who liked fishing, hunting and even scrapping when the occasion warranted. He was rugged of demeanor, with an excess of vigor to go along with a fun-loving nature. Still, he was no one-dimensional cartoon. He had a sensitive and romantic side with deeper thoughts than many of his […]

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Now that he was dead, Norman Watts was in possession of certain information that someone in the living world would have given an arm and a leg to discover. Forget Halloween or Dia de los Muertos or any of those other days of the year when the departed are supposed to be revered. They might have been […]

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Little Jimmy Flotsam, aged 10 and living in Tampa, had never known Christmas. The current year was 2025 and in 2015 Santa Claus and his wife had wrapped things up at the North Pole and skipped town, so to speak. In a sadly mimicking blow, Jimmy’s father abandoned his family when his only child was […]

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“When one scoop of ice cream is too much, two scoops can sometimes be just right.” That was something my wife, Donna, said one summer evening – perhaps unwittingly, we’ve never been quite sure – when the family walked to the local ice cream parlour for a cool treat. Then she demonstrated her belief in this […]

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