Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Mixed Pheelings

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Ahoy there from seven miles above California. I am winging my way back to my cherished Palo Alto, having enjoyed another weekend of fencing tournaments in which my beloved children did very well, thank you very much.

As you know, I am terrifically excited about the first debate on Monday night. My dear son and I have been practically counting the hours. Some people puzzle over why I would “waste my time” on such a thing. I assure you, I have the exact same feelings about every spectator sport known to man.

The countless millions of hours and billions of dollars that get sunk into baseball, football, soccer, basketball, and all the rest of it has never made sense to me. As for fencing, which is also a sport, I would say two things: (a) my family members are active participants (b) God knows it isn’t a spectator sport. I still don’t know what’s going on.

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Hairspray

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My reflection stared back at me faintly this morning in the large plate glass at the front of the Vonn’s supermarket. My family-oriented lifestyle, shall we say, keeps me on the road constantly these days, and this time I found myself with my long bangs flying all over the place. I wasted little time in procuring a new Ace comb and some hairspray to whip my hair into submission.

As I made sure that no hair was out of place, I was mentally transported to a memory that surprised me: when I was a boy of about ten, one of my prized possessions was a bottle of hairspray. I can remember the simple black and white bottle. Growing up in Louisiana, I wasn’t exactly living the life of luxury, and I rarely asked my parents for anything out of the ordinary. At the barber one day, however, I asked for that bottle.

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