Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
FEBRUARY 21, 2025 – (Cont.) “I saw a stupid accident in Champlin on my return from the airport,” Dad wrote. A teenager on a bike tried to dart between the cars waiting for the stop light and got hit by cars in the third lane, which he didn’t notice were moving. He hit (or got …
FEBRUARY 20, 2025 – (Cont.) After the time machine had rocketed back to the present, I looked up from Dad’s letter and squinted at the view framed by the window panes—sun and snow blinding me to the extreme cold outside. After my eyes adjusted, I noticed the royal blue sky, which reminded me of the …
FEBRUARY 19, 2025 – (Cont.) “Monica” was a Swedish woman, about the same age as I (25 at the time), whom I’d met on my first trip to Europe. She and two of her friends, all from Lund, were on a Greek holiday, and our initial encounter was aboard an overnight ferry from Brindisi to …
FEBRUARY 18, 2025 – (Cont.) If Dad had shared any of Mother’s misgivings about my decision to gallivant around the world until the money ran out, he hadn’t let on. I think his acquiescence in my plans stemmed from a combination of his knowing I was determined to follow through on my ambitions and his …
FEBRUARY 17, 2025 – (Cont.) The first letter was from my dad, who died 15 years ago this coming May. As I unfolded the single sheet of lined paper and exposed his familiar handwriting to the present light, the slight disturbance of air sent the time machine “datometer” into a dizzying blur. Dad’s distinctive cursive, …
FEBRUARY 16, 2025 – Anyone who has looked at a photograph or read a text or a letter has experienced to a lesser or greater degree, the effect of a time machine. On occasion, however, a picture or missive from your ancient past bursts forth upon the present, grabs you by the collar and yanks …
JANUARY 12, 2025 – After blowin’ smoke, as I’m doing most of the time, today I broke from the mold and blew some snow. Overnight in these parts we received our third measurable snowfall of another wimpy winter. “Measurable” is a relative term; maybe an inch and a half, if you use you an elastic …
DECEMBER 17, 2024 – Back in the day, the exchange of Christmas cards was one of my favorite aspects of the season. Even as a self-absorbed kid for whom Christmas presents were the biggest deal of all, I loved to be the one who got to check the mailbox and find it stuffed with newly …
DECEMBER 14, 2024 – For most of my growing-up years, our family lived without a television. I’m not sure if this was a conscious decision on the part of my parents or simply a “result by default” after the television that we did own had gone on the fritz. The default scenario alone is unlikely. …
DECEMBER 13, 2024 – Throughout her life, my oldest sister has been the consummate over-achiever. One manifestation of this attribute—and closely associated with Christmas—is that from the late 1970s to circa 2020, she performed in close to two thousand performances of The Nutcracker Ballet produced by the Boston Ballet Company. My second oldest sister, took …
DECEMBER 11, 2024 – Anyone who belongs to a mainstream church or even one of the confounding number of offstream churches is familiar with the “pageantry” of the annual Christmas pageant. Back in my churchy days, I thought of these de rigueur features of Sunday school as three-set Venn diagrams. One circle, of course, represented …
DECEMBER 10, 2024 – The power of rationalization is often underestimated. Over my lifetime, I’ve observed people undergo the most extraordinary mental gymnastics to justify taking an easier but inferior path over the more difficult but superior one. Or simply to hide the truth, either from others or, more often, from themselves. Some rationalizations have …
DECEMBER 9, 2024 – When I was a kid, outdoor Christmas lighting was a crude precursor of its infinite modern refinements and variations. The standard issue lighting back in the day consisted of strings of large slightly oblong bulbs (featuring the primary colors plus green) that ran usually along the gutters, occasionally along the gabled …
DECEMBER 7, 2024 – My Nilsson grandparents, who lived within easy walking distance of “Dinkytown” on the edge of the main campus of the University of Minnesota, never showed interest in decorating for Christmas. By the time I was in their lives, anyway, they’d dispensed with the whole business of buying a tree, decorating it with …
DECEMBER 5, 2024 – How can it be December 5 already? I remember when December lasted forever. No, a thousand years ago the earth wasn’t rotating any more slowly than it does today, but in my perception of each diurnal turn, our planet was definitely spinning at a more leisurely rate. As a kid I …
NOVEMBER 13, 2024 – (Cont.) Almost nine years ago I inherited a matter from a law partner who was leaving the firm. The case involved a swanky medical office building owned by two groups of doctors. The two groups were also members of two parallel practice groups that occupied portions of the building. The rest …
NOVEMER 12, 2024 – Life for me has been a huge connect-the-dots project. I’m not sure what the final figure will be once all the dots are connected, but if I were to guess—which I’m about to do—I’d say the final figure will be full of flashbacks, intersections, coincidences, circular side-trips and the inevitable open-ended …
NOVEMBER 2, 2024 – I’m no foodie; never was and probably never will be. In cooking up this restaurant review, I have to acknowledge my lack of culinary credentials. During my law school career, which coincided with the most intense phase of my competitive running career—I lived alone and cooked for myself. My daily diet …
OCTOBER 22, 2024 – Yesterday evening I experienced local government at ground level. My overall reaction to the encounter was, “Where was Norman Rockwell?” The place was the Bass Lake Township Town Hall between Grindstone Lake and Lac Courte Oreilles in western Sawyer County, Wisconsin. As far as anyone knows, there is no “Bass Lake” …
OCTOBER 19, 2024 – Yesterday I celebrated the complete take-out of lake cabin Dock No. 1. Today I failed in my attempt to de-install Dock No. 2. But it was not a total loss. First, I didn’t break any limbs—or worse—nor did I lose or damage any tools, accessories or the dock itself. Second, I …
OCTOBER 18, 2024 – Last spring in a three-part series—Zen and the Art of Dock Installation (See 5/12 through 5/14)—I described my engineering project up at the lake. Today I reverse-engineered it. That is, I took out the dock and staircase that I had so carefully installed last May. I’m 70, mind you, which means …
OCTOBER 17, 2024 – “Garden of Eden” is how I think of the 20-acre (or so) tree garden within the larger woods of Björnholm along the northwest shore of Grindstone Lake in northwestern Wisconsin. Perhaps I get carried away by the peak foliage and gorgeous weather that has prevailed since I arrived here Tuesday afternoon. …
OCTOBER 16, 2024 – This morning I completed the second of two remote, hours-long sessions with a researcher at the University of Minnesota. Our family had been recruited some 25 years ago to participate in the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study (“SIBS”) of adoptive and non-adoptive families undertaken by the Minnesota Center for Twin and …
SEPTEMBER 26, 2024 – Blogger’s Note: I skipped posting yesterday because I was preoccupied or more precisely, anesthetized, while medical personnel jabbed a foot-long (I might be exaggerating that by a couple of inches) needle into the left side of my pelvis to draw bone marrow samples in a “routine” annual exercise to monitor the presence …
SEPTEMBER 22, 2024 – I remember well the record jacket: it featured the head, shoulders and left hand of a smiling gentleman performing the violin. A row of stage lights burned brightly above him. In big gold capital letters above the image on the jacket was the man’s last name, “FRANCESCATTI.” In much smaller letters …