Charles Frenzel

For the first time in several months, the morning temperature dropped below 60F.  I struck the flint on our first fire in the cast iron chimineas at 6 o’clock in the morning so that we could enjoy our hot coffee while savoring a bit of campfire nostalgia. By the time everyone had arrived, the fire [...]

This morning, over coffee and last night’s jalapeno cornbread, three of us were discussing how well continuous improvement initiatives work in shipyards and football fields, so why wouldn’t they work well in our personal lives? Several reasons came to mind. The major reason that occurred to all of us is how often we identify our [...]

As Texas weather finally turns cooler and the warm showers from the Gulf become the occasional cold rains from the west, thoughts have turned from shrimp salads and iced tea back to smoked ribs and baked beans. After the last bit of wet weather, our morning coffee has been driven temporarily indoors as flights of [...]

When I was growing up, we had a TV room, not a family room. The TV room was relatively small because you couldn’t sit that far away from the tiny screen. I prefer to remember it as compact. The origin of the TV tray occurred about that time. One could sit in the overstuffed chair, [...]

We watched the last of the storm clouds recede rapidly to the north where they gathered again to pester Dallas with a couple of tornadoes and settled a bit of dust in Oklahoma and Kansas. It had been a wet few days, so we decided to take a break by heading south to the shores of the Gulf [...]

Today is September 9, 2010. Elvis Presley vaulted to fame and fortune on September 9, 1956. I watched it live on my black-and-white set in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and wondered what the big fuss was all about. It may not have been his first national television appearance, but it was the one for most of us [...]

If you are going to be a mentor and a life coach, you are required to do at least most of the following things or their equivalent (in no particular order): astronomy, psychology, sociology, physics, chemistry, math, English literature including Shakespeare and French literature including but not limited to Guy de Maupassant, modern and ancient [...]

Not long ago, I was watching a boy playing with his toy truck. He was down at eye level, face against the carpet, eyes slatted, moving the realistic-looking model vehicle back and forth while making growling engine noises. Tiny electric headlamps illuminated an imaginary roadway. The idea suddenly occurred to me that this could be [...]

A very good friend, I’ll refer to her as Jaqui, recently had her house damaged by a severe storm. This is the second time in five years that major damage to her property has been sustained. This morning, over coffee, she told me some of the details that I hadn’t been aware of.  I was [...]

Sometimes we need to put history in perspective. I was around for the early digital computer revolution, having grown up in an age that found analog computers quite satisfactory for a number of applications like fire control on gun turrets. Lest we think that many terms and expression we use today have been around for [...]