

Midnight Train to Georgia
Remember the song by Gladys Knight and the Pips called “Midnight Train to Georgia?” When I was about twelve years old I had a dream relating to that song which set the direction for my future at least a decade before it ever happened. Imagine the early 1970s. No mobile phones, no video games, no social media. The highlight of my life was collecting and listening to the latest rock albums. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a new Elton John, Led Zeppelin or Aerosmith album and


Rachel the Raccoon
Growing up on our makeshift farm in rural Wisconsin, my siblings and I had many pets. We had rabbits, ducks, geese, goats, chickens, horses, two dogs and one cat. But, being that we were out in the country, there were also many predators. Raccoons were the most prevalent and they used their human-like hands to open levers, hatches and locks which we thought we had securely fastened the evening before. Many of our farm animals, the geese, ducks, chickens and rabbits were fair