“How are you?”

This innocent, well-intentioned question often trips me up.

I have lived in a small Colorado town for the last 40 years. Until recently, I was a nursing professor in the same valley for 15 of those 40 years. In addition, I have been a very active participant in this mountain valley community. I was a vol­un­teer with the local fire department for years, I belong to the same small church, and I volunteer in schools and the local art organization. For fun, I par­tic­i­pate in a local tri­athlon team. …

Have you ever thought about the many television situation comedies, or sitcoms, that we watch? In almost every episode, there is conflict of some kind. The mom and dad argue about junior’s latest problem at school, parents struggle to keep their romance alive, and single people brave ill-fated dates in hopes of finding true love. With all these troubles, have you ever wondered why we tune in?

On shows like "The Big Bang Theory," we can’t wait to see Sheldon spurn Amy’s advances or watch him wreak havoc in poor Leonard’s life with recitations from …

I am about as far as anyone can be from being an expert on trees, which may make the title of this column a bit perplexing. I can tell big trees from small ones, ever­greens from deciduous, and can even identify mag­no­lias, dogwoods, and (on a good day) maples and oaks. But that’s about as far as my expertise goes.

Rockets are a different matter: I am always baffled when a film uses video of the wrong type of rocket. I cannot imagine how some­one could pos­si­bly mix up a Saturn …

It is easy to become self-centered when diagnosed with a serious illness like cancer. That self-centeredness becomes even more intense when the cancer is considered incurable, as is the case with multiple myeloma.

It's easy to give someone a pass in such a situation because it is com­pletely understandable how, when confronted with their own mortality, they would tend to look at things differently.

As I reflect on the four years that I have lived with multiple myeloma, I realize that my concentration on learning about the disease, dealing with the …

Call me Tik-Tok.

Tik-Tok was the mechanical man created by L. Frank Baum and intro­duced in Ozma of Oz. While he appears in other Oz books, it is in his debut that the reader gains an appreciation for Tik-Tok’s mechanical works, including his apparently tireless activities.

There was one catch with Tik-Tok. As a mechanical man, he had to be wound: under his left arm for thinking, under his right arm for speech, and in the center of his back for “walking and action.”

And if he wasn’t wound? Tik-Tok would come …

This month’s column has nothing to do with multiple myeloma the disease. There will be no discussion of M-spikes or light chains. I will not talk about treatments or side effects. I won’t offer details of my stem cell transplant and how I responded to it.

But this column has everything to do with what having myeloma has done to and for me as a person – a father, a grandfather, and a partner.

For the first 13 years of my life, I lived with my parents in the same house with …

I just returned from a long trip to Europe, and boy do I feel refreshed! The reason I think I feel so good is that I took a holiday not just from work and the mundane problems of home, but I also took a holiday from my multiple myeloma.

I once again find myself feeling guilty for being one of the healthiest guys in the myeloma ward, so let me explain.

My wife and I spent about three weeks in Switzerland and Italy without the kids. It was a great trip. I …