I have no way of knowing how people really feel but the vast majority of those I meet couldn't be nicer. Every once in a while someone barks at me. My New Year's resolution is not to bark back.

While tributes to Americans who had lost their lives in battle had been held in a number of towns across the nation one of the more well-known stories about the beginnings of Memorial Day is the story about General John Logan.

While there are towns and cities still planning Memorial Day parades many have not held a parade in decades. Some think the day is for honoring anyone who has died not just those fallen in service to our country.

I'm well-travelled so I can see places coming up. I went to St. Croix in the West Indies at Christmas and it had been hit by a really bad tornado. Values there have gone down but I guarantee they will be up again in eight years. So I'll get in now while it's cheap as chips.

It is never too late to get into tennis! While I started playing at the age of 8 when my parents gave me a tennis racquet for Christmas tennis is a lifelong sport that can be enjoyed by people of almost any age. It's also something you never forget once you learn.

My mother died of metastatic colorectal cancer shortly before three P.M. on Christmas Day of 2008. I don't know the exact time of her death because none of us thought to look at a clock for a while after she stopped breathing.

Now I'm an old Christmas tree the roots of which have died. They just come along and while the little needles fall off me replace them with medallions.

Work while you work play while you play - this is a basic rule of repressive self-discipline.

The companies that make meaningful contributions while also listening to the voices of others are the ones that will genuinely engage their community who will then go to work for them.

I was looking for a husband but meanwhile to survive I had to work.