Author: Steve Ainslie

Two houses on my street are being renovated. Exteriors have been power washed, landscaped, repaired and painted. Interiors have been cleaned out. New carpets and floors have been installed. Entire living areas have been repainted. Kitchens and baths have been refreshed. Repairmen and contractors have been working on these houses for weeks. One house was…

A friend who recently went on a river cruise through Europe was telling me about her trip. She talked about how clean Amsterdam was – with no air pollution, many bicycle riders and walkers, and groups of ordinary people who picked up litter from the streets and canals to keep them clean. She talked about…

I had an ear infection a few weeks ago. I suspect my spring allergies were the cause. Every spring my middle ears feel full of water from a blocked Eustachian tube. This year either the blockage caused an infection my poking around inside my ear caused one. Either way, after several days of worsening pain…

When I was 20, I bought a suit, shirt and tie at a small men’s specialty shop. I need the outfit for my friend’s wedding. The shop included free tailoring so they hemmed the pants, and custom fitted the jacket and shirt for me. I wore that outfit many times over the next few years…

When I was a little kid growing up in Tamaqua, I knew one family that was rich. They had a giant brick house on a landscaped lot that was surrounded by a brick wall. They had a two car garage, an above ground swimming pool and a finished basement with a bar. The parents were…

I drive 15 miles every day going to the pool and running errands. Generally I stick to surface streets while avoiding the highway. About half of my commute is on 4-lane major roads that have significant traffic from other commuters, school drop-offs and shoppers. The other half of my commute is on small neighborhood streets…

I have a friend who, after getting an MS in Fine Arts/ Writing, wrote a book of short stories that was published by an obscure academic publisher. He spent a decade working on the stories, getting a book deal and promoting the book through lectures and speaking engagements. Then spent the next 5 years working…

This week, five months after having my molar extracted, my jaw had healed enough that I could have an implant abutment installed. Without getting too deep into the technical details, basically, a titanium screw was screwed into my jawbone. This “screw” is hollow with threads to accept another screw inside of it. Then a small…

Most of my recurring nightmares have ceased since I tried this thought exercise 5 months ago. Instead of having bizarre, hallucinatory bad dreams, I now have mostly mundane dreams where I’m having perfectly normal conversations with acquaintances who are in my life today. We talk about things I see when walking the dogs. We talk…

My wife died 8 months after being diagnosed with lung cancer. She was a smoker her entire life. There is no doubt in my mind that cigarettes contributed to her death. But we all know this, right? After all, there have been warnings printed in tiny print on cigarette packs in the US since 1965…