Brian and I wandered around the old farm where he grew up. “That second-story on that section of the house wasn’t there when we were kids. We’d climb out a bedroom window on the other section and slide down the roof onto the gas tank below.” Presumably when his mom wasn’t watching. ...

Summertime is grilling time. Technically wintertime is too. I have fired up the grill in the dead of winter. Snowflake-flavored barbecued chicken breasts taste just as wonderful as mosquito flavor does in the summer. There just isn’t a bad season for grilling (other than when it’s 110 ...

“There are two ways to do things,” Terry would tell me. “Your way or the right way.” I contended that “my way” and the “right way,” were one and the same. Or ought to be. It drove me nuts that before we could go anywhere, any dishes in the sink had to be washed. It was the ...

EDITOR’S NOTE: This Burt’s Eye View column originally was published June 21, 2015. Cole lovingly read snippets of this particular column in his eulogy to his wife, Terry, during her funeral last week. Terry Cole died unexpectedly June 18. Help! I’m being held captive in a thrift store! ...

“Let us know if there’s anything we can do.” It’s a beautiful, caring offer I heard umpteen times a day after my sweet Terry passed away last Sunday morning. I have no clue. I always asked Terry the hard questions. The day she died, Terry was scheduled to leave for a weeklong ...

A buddy from high school just fixed the plumbing in his house. “I watched a bunch of YouTube videos. Then I did it,” he said. My brother-in-law makes his living as a handyman: “If I run into a problem I haven’t seen before, I tell them I have to go to my truck for my tools. That’s ...