Mike Hirsch was an editor at The Morning Call since 2001, the last few years as director of Content/Opinion and Community Engagement. He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig…
Mike Hirsch was an editor at The Morning Call since 2001, the last few years as director of Content/Opinion and Community Engagement. He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig…
I lie in my hospital bed and stare out the back window of our cabin. It’s 3:28 a.m. The outdoors are as black as Satan’s soul. I close my eyes. It’s 4:22 a.m. First light reveals …
Note: This first ran in the Adirondack Explorer magazine last fall. It was based on the author’s experience on July Fourth 2021. My day of independence unfolded at dawn. My eyes popped open a…
Note: This first ran in the Adirondack Explorer magazine last fall. It was based on the author’s experience on July Fourth 2021. My day of independence unfolded at dawn. My eyes popped open a…
At twilight, we drive up the steep dirt road leading to our Adirondack cabin, Birdsong. It rests peacefully at the foot of Marble Mountain. I lie back in my power wheelchair close to the fire pit. …
At twilight, we drive up the steep dirt road leading to our Adirondack cabin, Birdsong. It rests peacefully at the foot of Marble Mountain. I lie back in my power wheelchair close to the fire pit. …
A nightmare jolts me awake at 4:37 a.m. My thoughts grow darker than the room as I replay the dream: —— ALS has pummeled me, leaving me with a computer as my only way to communicate. I …
A nightmare jolts me awake at 4:37 a.m. My thoughts grow darker than the room as I replay the dream: —— ALS has pummeled me, leaving me with a computer as my only way to communicate. I …
The rumble of a snowplow shoots me with adrenaline at 7:07 a.m. on Jan. 7. I push off the blanket and switch on my power wheelchair, then roll to the den and position myself by the back glass doors…
The rumble of a snowplow shoots me with adrenaline at 7:07 a.m. on Jan. 7. I push off the blanket and switch on my power wheelchair, then roll to the den and position myself by the back glass doors…
Our German grandmother clung to food traditions as tightly as she clutched her rosary beads. On Father’s Day, she breaded pork chops and fried them in butter. We devoured them cold, like an u…
Our German grandmother clung to food traditions as tightly as she clutched her rosary beads. On Father’s Day, she breaded pork chops and fried them in butter. We devoured them cold, like an u…
Hosting Thanksgiving is like raising a litter of six Maine Coon kittens. There are lots of things to trip you up. Turkeys turn into charcoal. Dogs become pie thieves. Grandpas turn into cable news …
Hosting Thanksgiving is like raising a litter of six Maine Coon kittens. There are lots of things to trip you up. Turkeys turn into charcoal. Dogs become pie thieves. Grandpas turn into cable news …
Marcy springs to her feet the moment I wheel out the door of our cabin in the Adirondacks. The autumn woods shine like honey in the morning light. The Chesapeake Bay retriever mix races ahead along…
Marcy springs to her feet the moment I wheel out the door of our cabin in the Adirondacks. The autumn woods shine like honey in the morning light. The Chesapeake Bay retriever mix races ahead along…
I scrambled up the rocky summit of Mount Skylight — the fourth-highest mountain in New York state — and gawked at the 360-degree vista. Marcy, just a mile away, like a prima donna tried…
Something hijacked my imagination when I was planning our recent trip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon. Vortexes. Vortexes draw New Age practioners like moths seeking the light. These areas scattered…
Something hijacked my imagination when I was planning our recent trip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon. Vortexes. Vortexes draw New Age practioners like moths seeking the light. These areas scattered…
The Inuit have at least 53 words to describe snow. Buffalo, N.Y. natives have nearly that many to describe the types of sleet, slush, squalls, gales, hail, freezing rain, lake-effect storms and whi…