Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
JULY 4, 2025 – (Cont.) On Sunday, our last full day in Connecticut for this third annual June sojourn, we awoke to a short downpour. In the aftermath, the lingering mist over the cove teased our imaginations and distracted us quite effectively from the artificiality of the “real world” that dominates the news. Once we’d …
JULY 3, 2025 – (Cont.) On the next-to-last day of our annual June visit to Connecticut, we adopted a turtle’s pace, in large part because of the extreme heat, but also because the day was given over to our young grandchildren. They were perfectly content at the local small municipal swimming beach; no long drive …
JULY 2, 2025 – (Cont.) On Friday evening, as we entered the last weekend of our extended vacation, we hosted our good friends and next door neighbors, Steve and Lin and their daughter Syd. Byron’s family joined us as well, of course, given how closely they’re connected to these exceptional people. Our not-quite-two grandson is …
JULY 1, 2025 – Early Friday we bade farewell to the City and headed north . . . I mean east . . . I mean northeast . . . back to Yankeedom, to the “Constitution State.”[1] What I’ve realized quite recently is that the Connecticut shoreline along Long Island Sound doesn’t run on a …
JUNE 30, 2025 – (Cont.) The weather Thursday marked a radical departure from the wilting conditions that prevailed since our arrival Tuesday. All in our party agreed that predicted high of 75F and overcast skies would be perfect for walking the town. Jenny, our guide and consummate New Yorker, has many favorite places in the …
JUNE 27, 2025 – (Cont.) Our visit to the City revolved around the whims of our granddaughter, whose delightful imagination is always engaged. One of the great delights of our lives is having this unusual young person on hand. Any grandparent can readily appreciate this. When our big-hearted, ever-smiling, vivacious grandson was born—pretty much with all …
JUNE 26, 2025 – When you’re in Connecticut, people refer to Gotham not as “New York City” but simply as “the city.” I’ve never encountered this reference in writing, so I don’t know if it’s capitalized, but when I say it or hear it, I always think of it as capitalized, given the size and …
JUNE 25, 2025 – (Cont.) On Sunday morning we cleared out of old Lenox and headed for Stockbridge and the Norman Rockwell Museum. Our progress was deferred, however, by a sign at a junction just below Lenox. It read, “Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio.” I must here confess to extreme dereliction; my failure to have …
JUNE 24, 2025 – (Cont.) Late Saturday afternoon we drove out of Lenox to the sprawling grounds of nearby Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. After a sumptuous dinner among friends, staff and performers of A Prairie Home Companion, enjoyed a nearly three-hour production of the famous show led by the ultimate …
JUNE 24, 2025 – (Cont.) Before Saturday I knew three things about the Shakers: 1. Aaron Copeland had given them tribute in Appalachian Spring, arranged from the ballet music he’d composed for the Martha Graham Dance Company. (One of the signature melodies of the suite is from the Shaker hymn, “Simple Gifts.”); 2. They made …
JUNE 22, 2025 – On Friday we drove from our base of operations in Connecticut to Lenox, Massachusetts in the heart of the Berkshires. Our ultimate destination was yesterday evening’s performance of A Prairie Home Companion at nearby Tanglewood. The scenery in this part of the country is exquisite, featuring, of course, “the Berkshires.” If …
JUNE 20, 2025 – (Cont.) Several days ago I wrote about my childhood experience of putting a note inside an empty ketchup bottle, tossing it into the Mississippi River by our home in Anoka, Minnesota and waiting to see if (a) the bottle would be retrieved anywhere along the flow of the river to the …
JUNE 19, 2025 – Today our crew—four adults, one kid, one toddler—headed for Connecticut’s best and biggest beach, the main but by no means only attraction at the sprawling Hamomasset State Park halfway between Old Saybrook and New Haven. In tow were four chairs, a beach mat, a beach umbrella (with stand), two hefty coolers …
JUNE 19, 2025 – My oldest sister once defined culture as “all the books you’ve read but can’t remember.” I might define civilization as “all the dinner and late-night conversations you have that you can remember the next morning.” By this definition, yesterday evening civilization was enriched and renewed as eight of us reveled in …
JUNE 16, 2025 – Today on I95 we crossed over the Connecticut River about two and a half miles north of where it empties into Long Island Sound, technically part of the Atlantic Ocean. As we hurtled along, I stole a glance at the broad river mouth and sealed the fleeting image in my memory …
JUNE 15, 2025 – (Cont.) I’m now in the small state of Connecticut, which is a big state for boats—many of them, big boats. The state next door, Rhode Island, is an even smaller state but with a moniker writ large: The Ocean State. The rest of New England is outwardly seafaring too, except . …
JUNE 14, 2025 – Blogger’s Note: Given events of the past 24 hours, today’s post interrupts the series Sailing the Ocean Blue. The series will continue in due course. With the rest of the nation I awoke this morning to the awful news that a gunman had murdered a prominent Minnesota state legislator and her …
JUNE 13, 2025 – (Cont.) On the occasion of Byron and Mylène’s wedding extravaganza at the Red Cabin in the year prior to Covid, I fixed up the Capri to entertain a host of guests from overseas who were staying with us before and after the Big Day. My favorite crew members were the Portuguese …
JUNE 12, 2025 – (Cont.) I never attended to the naming of the Bayliner—officially or unofficially. It was simply called the “power boat” to distinguish it from the Capri sailboat, as well as from the other watercraft in our growing fleet consisting of a paddleboat, two aluminum canoes and two kayaks[1]. The Bayliner served us …
JUNE 11, 2025 – (Cont.) With the family’s collective directive in hand (“rent a boat that we can use to water ski and tube behind and that’s comfortable to ride in”), I drove to M & M Rentals to make arrangements. They offered exactly what I figured would please the family—a 16-foot Bayliner runabout with …
JUNE 10, 2025 – (Cont.) On a weekend trip to the cabin the next spring, we spotted a boat for sale in front of a familiar battered country house on Highway 70 just east of Spooner 30 miles from Grindstone. It was a Ouchita (an alternate spelling of “Witchita”) rowboat with an eight-horse Mariner motor, …
JUNE 9, 2025 – (Cont.) Just after nightfall the hot, humid weather had transformed into the perfect storm. After putting the kids to bed, Beth and I sat down on the front porch to watch the meteorological sound and light show. A few minutes of crash–BANG was followed by gusts that stirred up the water …
JUNE 8, 2025 – (Cont.) A year after the Love Boat voyage, Beth and I were married—in the exact spot where we’d met . . . overlooking the great inland sea that is Grindstone Lake. In October 1989, our second son arrived, and soon thereafter, we bought the very cabin where I’d drifted toward after …
JUNE 7, 2025 – (Cont.) The next spring brought good fortune on the waterfront. Fred Moore, our friend and neighbor across the street, the inveterate entrepreneur who’d recently sold his successful business, had now become a distributor of “water bikes.” A couple of models were chained to an elm tree in the Moore’s front yard. …
JUNE 6, 2025 – (Cont.) For the next two summers, my time at the cabin was equally divided among four pursuits: practicing my violin, writing letters, reading articles in old Coronet magazines from the 1930s and 40s stored in various nooks and crannies around the cabin, and, of course . . . sailing the ocean …