The grandkids are 4 and 7 months old now. I'm still getting used to being called Grandpa Ben. This weekend my partner and I traveled to Texas to watch my bonus son graduate from his emergency medicine residency. He and his partner have the seven-month-old. She's a year ahead of him, working locum...

When I’m visit my hometown, I like to go for walks with my parents They live on the eastern edge of South Dakota, where the Big Sioux runs down to meet the Missouri. There’s a wooded peninsula between the two rivers. A quiet area full of cottonwoods. We see deer, Baltimore orioles, and the occas...