Raymond Mallette's Blog
RSS
Jan.09.2012
Nicholas,
This coming Monday you will, once again be put to sleep for a Renal scan to check on your kidney. You are only 6 and your medical file already dwarfs my own. This is the second time you will have gone through this, but this time it may show the need for the...
Continue Reading »
Jan.08.2012
Dear Pain,
For seven years now, you and I have fought. I grit my teeth at you and I do my best to beat you on a daily basis. Finally, you have won the battle. In my running career I covered 14,300 miles. I raced everything from the mile to the Marathon, posting a mile best...
Continue Reading »
Dec.30.2011
Because the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012, it has been assumed that the end of the world as we know it is near. Well, we know what they say about assumptions.
So, let's just play with this for a minute. Assume the world "as we know it" is...
Continue Reading »
Dec.23.2011
I witnessed something in a mall one day that I found most troubling. I saw a father scolding his son for crying.
"You're a boy. Someday you will be a man. Real men don't cry! You learn to suck it up and move on." The father glared at his son, almost...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
Dec.16.2011
The temperature was 25 degrees and as I looked out of my house and into the darkness, I was reluctant to head to my favorite deer runway for another nine hours of sitting, waiting, and watching. Further thought may have had me back in bed, snuggled into the warmth of the...
Continue Reading »
Oct.21.2011
The voices are there, but they are only a sound that echoes into the sounds of other things going on. The message is lost because there is nobody to hear the content.
How many young people have cried out for help, and not a single person heard them...
Continue Reading »
Sep.06.2011
To harvest his first buck was Jarod's dream for as long as he could remember. The 16 year old followed behind his father as they made their way up the old over-grown logging road back into the rugged terrain of Ripton, Vermont. Jarod matched his father's foot steps and when...
Continue Reading »
Jul.12.2011
It was 4:30 A.M. when my alarm went off this morning. I lay there thinking about my woodworking life. I realized that I miss it more than I ever thought I would. Why did I sell all of my large power tools? Why did I make such drastic changes in my life? What force is there that is so strong it...
Continue Reading »
May.30.2011
As I sat there in the foodcourt of the local mall I noticed a person texting on their cell phone. As I sipped on my Pepsi, I let my eyes wander and then saw someone else doing the same. In each case, that person was with someone else. Still, I took it all in. There were 37 people texting...
Continue Reading »
May.16.2011
The year was 1963. Ray, Alice, and their three month old baby, (Raymond Jr.) left Connecticut to spend Thanksgiving weekend in Vermont at Ray's Aunt Mary's house. Ray's grandmother was there and came to him telling him that this was the day he would never forget. She didn't know why, only...
Continue Reading »
Apr.02.2011
Wheeling the bicycle out the door, I lock the door behind me. I fasten my helmet into place and make sure my sunglasses and cell phone are in the pouch under my seat. The sun has not risen yet and the hills ahead, all ascending about another thousand feet from my current 6500 foot location,...
Continue Reading »
Jan.22.2011
I find myself thinking about my sister Renee today. What made me think about her? Heck, I don't know what makes me think about half the things going through my head. But today, for some reason I find myself reflecting and thinking back to High School years, years beyond that, and how my sister...
Continue Reading »
Dec.18.2010
It was the Christmas of 1984. I'd been away from Orwell, Vermont for a year. The town I called home was over 12,000 miles away and Christmas day was growing nearer. As a young soldier, not having gained enough rank to be making much money at the time, I was limited in what I could do...
Continue Reading »
2 comments
Nov.26.2010
The training day was over back at the fort and true to her nature, Josephine went for her run. It had been an intense day of lecturing, physical training, training in explosives and what to look for, the disarming of explosives that were most commonly used by people trained in Pakistan, and an hour...
Continue Reading »
Nov.09.2010
Sarah stared straight ahead for a bit as Albert drove to the diner. She glanced over at him and thought she caught the glisten of a tear in the corner of his eye. It dawned on her right there that he had been trying to let her know that he could relate to her feelings and it was his way...
Continue Reading »
In Life we may Amass Ten Thousand Pieces of Silver, Yet in Death we cannot take with us even a single copper penny.”
—Kung Fu Proverbs
About Raymond
My love for writing began in the 3rd grade of Orwell Village School in Orwell, Vermont. I had won my first writing contest. My life has been very diverse and I have experienced many things in many places. I detested school in my younger days but at the age of...
Connections
Raymond’s Favorite Books
My Side of the Mountain,
Split Second,
Hour game,
Reilly's Luck,
The Black Stallion,
The Third Deadly Sin,
The Iron Mistress,
Flint,
Night of the Grizzlies,...
Raymond is a fan of
