Author: Tim Cotton

Magnetic north pulled me up the black macadam toward a tiny Cotton family reunion. It would be one of us heading up, two of us heading back.   While the distance is a curse, the drive is not. I-95 beyond Bangor, Maine,  sauntering toward Canada, is a lonely stretch of road. Most of the cursing…

I know my age bracket puts me in the camp with men who speak about particular difficulties. I’m lucky, I guess. At least compared to the horror stories shared by men I’ve been forced to listen to when it comes to the frequent urination vs. difficulty urinating conversations. These conversations typically occur on the way…

As I continued my early morning supine supervision of the spinning bedroom ceiling fan while slightly slumbering, I listened intently for the sound of a state department of transportation truck slinging snow into driveways as it drove south to north. Nothing. I paid scant attention to the details of the forecast last night. I knew…

Contrived pleasantries regarding the new year are not in the cards. I don’t feel compelled to promise you that I’m changing. I’m not even planning on doing anything differently. I’ll just stay the course, correct my foibles when I screw up, and I’ll try to avoid ingesting bacon outside of breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I’d…

Sitting in darkness while letting the morning intrude slowly into the living room, I can watch dawn’s smiling face rise through the naked branches of that oak tree; it doesn’t belong to me. It’s on a neighboring property, but I’ve never seen anyone near it. I think of it as mine. Mine and some squirrels…

I was sick a couple of weeks ago. It felt like a common cold, but you can’t be too careful right now. I cannot think of the last time I booked out of work for a cold, but I had to due to the concerns surrounding the virus. I’ve learned not to let people know…

I clipped coupons for the first time in my existence. While I normally toss aside the warehouse club coupon book, I thumbed through it for a couple of minutes before heading out for milk, bread, eggs, “and some kind of meat.” That was the direction from the Significant One. She stopped by the house for…

Rarely talked about, the residuum of melting snowbanks can reveal to you what is going on just down the road from your chosen spot on the jagged edge. Frequent snowfalls in my neck of the woods cause the rumbling transitory snowplows to drop off a myriad of items in front of my house. Most of…

With autumn fading in my rearview mirror, I repacked my travel bags for whatever came next. While my travels are typically confined within the borders of Maine, there are a few nuances between summer dunnage and autumn gear bags. I’ve made the switch. To the kid’s house, I drive about one hundred and thirty miles….