What's in Dave's Head

Donna and I recently joined five of her siblings and their significant others for a trip to Ireland. The two of us went a couple days early to go to Galway with two of Donna’s siblings; we met up with the rest for a week in Dingle. I’ll be writing about this unforgettable vacation in a few installments; in the first I give you some of my random thoughts about Ireland and focus on two activities: a shepherding demonstration and our trip to Skellig Michael. Random information about Ireland  Conciseness is not a common attribute of the loquacious Irish . Nor is the direct conveyance of information. Two examples follow: One day we were searching for children’s clothing in Dingle. At one shop the proprietor said he did not carry what we were looking for, but gave us these directions to a shop that did: “Go to the shop around the corner with the dolphins painted on the side. Not that store, but the one next door. Across the street from that store is a store; the one next...

My parents gave me and my brother a pretty great childhood. They provided a loving, supportive home; taught us the value of work and determination; put us through college; and were extremely generous. We lived a short walk to the neighborhood pool; a massive park with fields for baseball and football, tennis and basketball courts, swing sets, walking paths and sledding trails; and woods with paths that led to a lake with an abandoned car, our elementary school, even downtown Rockville. I remember Saturday mornings in the winter my dad would sometimes take us duckpin bowling or to the pool hall on Rockville Pike to give my mom a brief break from us. A treat, believe it or not, was to go to the car wash afterward and watch through the windshield as the soapy water sprayed and the brushes spun while we sat inside dry but accosted by the noise. Sometimes dad would pull into the gas station and fill ‘er up, meticulously recording in a little green book with lined paper the mil...