Mark Myers's Blog, page 14

A Friend’s Betrayal

A friend of mine tried to sabotage my marriage. Can you believe that? I recall some flirting by a waiter about fifteen years ago and a college boyfriend declared his undying love for her shortly after our engagement, but I don’t think such an overt attempt to break us up has ever happened – at least not […]

A Mother’s Heart and the Loss of Debbie Reynolds

My wife is a huge fan of old movies. She has opened a whole world of black and white classics to me over the years and I do admit there is something very special about Casablanca, Singin’ in the Rain, and My Fair Lady that you don’t get in modern cinema. I even have an […]

Herve & Me: A Christmas Bromance

We met in a stuffy ER, me and Herve. I, like a moron, had fallen off a ladder and he – well, Herve had been manufactured and shipped from a distant land never knowing what his fate would be. What are the odds that the two of us would wind up together? (I suppose one in […]

Leave the Light On

When my wife and I were newly married, we took a stroll around our neighborhood to see the Christmas lights. After the expense of furnishing our first home, we had nothing left for outdoor decorations, so we had to admire the other houses on our street that year. On our walk, we stumbled upon a bright […]

Breaking Christmas

(**Warning – I challenged myself to write a little Christmas flash fiction – it wound up darker than intended. Sometimes when you chase words down a hole, you don’t know what you’ll catch.)   Breaking Christmas “Sching!” The high-pitched smash of the thin glass against the brick was much less than he anticipated; yet he […]

The Rock of Permanence

I had someone tell me that the second year of loss is harder than the first. Naturally, I was dubious. After all, our first year without Kylie was devastating from every conceivable angle. What could possibly be more difficult than living in the recent aftermath of the loss of a child? Wouldn’t you assume that […]

Christmas in the Key of Moron

There are so many worthy causes out there. Sometimes people gravitate towards them because of a heartfelt compassion and sometimes causes are forced upon us due to condition or incident. And some people are just morons. I’m sorry, I don’t use derogatory words like that to describe people very often and I’ve tried to use […]

The Subtle Art of Changing the Subject

There are few things about which I could teach a lecture that would possess any academic merit. I am the classic jack-of-all-trades, master of none. I do basic home repair, car maintenance, and rudimentary technological patchwork. But I am first level support – the kind you typically get on the phone after twenty minutes of […]

A Reluctant Adult

I remember TV reports of Tickle-Me-Elmo madness – people pushing and screaming to get their hands on the last available toy that their child must have and I promised myself I would NEVER go out there on Black Friday. I hate shopping, so the thought of fighting for a doorbuster deal makes me want to pound […]

A Dozen Years through a Haze

A forest fire rages fifty miles north of where I sit typing. I know they are common out west, but I don’t recall one of such significance since I have lived here. The biggest problem for firefighters is the lack of rain. North Georgia hasn’t had significant rainfall since September and forecasters don’t see any […]