Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
JANUARY 28, 2022 – I’d latched onto four facts about “Down Under,” two appearing in old National Geographic magazines: 1. “The most beautiful walk in the world” was at the south end of NZ’s South Island; and 2. The longest straight railway in the world (297 mi/478 km) stretched across Australia’s Nullarbor Plain. Well known …
JANUARY 27, 2022 – Blogger’s note: our younger son, Byron, asked me to post about my trip around the world–starting 41 years ago. Through the prism of my current circumstances, his suggestion inspires re-examination in fresh light. I’ll endeavor to make installments compelling without lapsing into “travelogue” mode. Photo credit: my grandmother, whose family friend, “Hoxie” …
JANUARY 26, 2022 – Every child, it seems, is put on the earth to bring grief, sorrow, heartbreak and yes . . . love and sweet joy to the child’s parents. Lately, I’ve been thinking about this combination of feelings for which I’m responsible. My parents have resided outside the instant realm for a while …
JANUARY 25, 2022 – Yesterday my good doctor announced that treatments of my disease are having the desired effect. This was good news against the other reality he revealed: last week’s CT scan showed that many of my of bones are like “Swiss Cheese” but will repair themselves over the next few months. The “Swiss …
JANUARY 11, 2022 – Today I begin a marathon for which I haven’t trained because I hadn’t anticipated that I’d be forced to run it. Only vicariously do I know its route and perils, its challenges and topography. “Back in the day,” as it is said, I ran actual marathons. They were made for a …
DECEMBER 26, 2021 – Yesterday, my wife and I “celebrated” Christmas alone, with limited, indirect contact with the outside world. After a delectable mid-afternoon dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and rolls with butter and honey, I continued my “sift and sort” operation focused on lots of ancient paperwork; all part of the bigger …
DECEMBER 22, 2021 – It became a family Christmas legend—me eating ornaments and landing in the hospital. No one could later remember the year. I figure it was 1956. First, I was old enough to have sufficient reference points to remember salient details of the story. Second, I wasn’t old enough to have known better …
DECEMBER 21, 2021 – I wish that I’d been more attentive, more “in tune,” as it were, with the humanitarian genius with whom I was breaking bread and sharing stories. I’m not much sure of the details, except that Yo-Yo Ma was in town performing with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and given my sister/brother-in-law’s …
DECEMBER 17, 2021 – As I lie low with The Blasted Cough, and no holiday visitors are expected at our hearth this year, we’re not buying a cut-from-the earth Christmas tree. What’s ironic is that by my latest count, we have 17 “pretend” Christmas trees on display—not including the flat, felt tree (which our granddaughter …
NOVEMBER 10, 2021 – Yesterday I sent a mail-in ballot for three seats on a corporate board. In my pre-evolution years I threw such ballots in the trash (the times having pre-dated recycling as well as evolution). Now “evolved,” I voted against myself . . . Four candidates are running for three seats. The incumbents …
OCTOBER 31, 2021 – I grew up in the “Halloween Capital of the World” (Anoka, MN). My wife, who didn’t grow up with world domination (Byron, IL), is skeptical. “A place doesn’t become a world capital of anything,” she asserts, “simply by saying so.” But we Anokans backed words with action. In the 1920s local …
OCTOBER 27, 2021 – On paper, as it were, I should be a decent Scrabble player. I like words and etymology; I like to read and write. But in my family, when it comes to playing the game, I’ll never be more than an amateur—this despite my use of the word “qat,” my familiarity with …
OCTOBER 22, 2021 – Yesterday evening while walking in the moonlight, I heard the distant echo of an amplified announcer calling a game at the local high school. The words were muffled, so I couldn’t tell if the event was a soccer match or a football game. At one stage, however, I heard, “puts the …
OCTOBER 21, 2021 – Once upon a time I was in third grade—at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 16 – 28, 1962). On the day before Kennedy and Khrushchev stepped back from the ledge, I kept my fingers crossed from the 8:00 a.m. radio news until the sun went down. During that …
OCTOBER 18, 2021 – Our town’s hardware store of choice was Joe Chutich’s Western Auto on Main. That’s where Dad bought stuff and where he rented a TV for the Olympics, presidential nominating conventions, and the moon landing. Joe was nice but serious. His kids were nice and smart. One’s now a Minnesota Supreme Court …
OCTOBER 9, 2021 – Our granddaughter is several weeks into kindergarten, and as close-by grandparents, we share in pick-up and after-school “entertainment” duties. For us the kindergarten experience was in a galaxy far, far away, but not so many light years that lots of details can’t be remembered. Our hard drives had ample storage. One …
SEPTEMBER 28, 2021 – When you’re a kid, you view life through a narrow prism. When you’re a geezer, the perspective delivered only by age allows you to see through a wider lens. Take, for example . . . learning to ride a bike. That rite of passage brought extreme anxiety when I was a …
SEPTEMBER 16, 2021 – No one’s asked me recently, “If you could do life over, what vocation would you pursue?” If I were asked, I’m unsure what I’d say. I might surprise myself and answer, “Law.” With partial sarcasm, I’d say, “Construction crane insurance agent,” because an insurance executive once told me “that’s where all …
SEPTEMBER 8, 2021 – While hiking recently on our “back 40” I encountered a patch of wild strawberries. It reminded me of Wild Strawberries by famous Swedish filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman. I first “experienced” Bergman’s films while I was a student at Interlochen Arts Academy—by name and curricula, an “artsy-fartsy” establishment. It was attended by many students …
SEPTEMBER 5, 2021 – Whenever I hike to the old family cabin, I think about our grandparents, Ragnar and Hilda Nilsson. “Ga,” as we called our grandmother, and Grandpa followed long-established cabin rituals, which fascinated us impressionable kids. Ga came from Småland, a southern province of Sweden. She’d grown up on a farm and attended …
SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 – Late yesterday afternoon, after a day of business and busy-ness, I took to the woods to do some trail work. As the light faded behind an overcast sky, I repaired to the dock and peered at the windswept lake. Not a single boat—underway or stationary—appeared on the water. I scanned the …
AUGUST 10 2021 – Yesterday my sisters and I gathered for one more long visit together before dispersing to our respective “corners.” The last time we’d assembled like this was a full four years ago. With my wife and a brother-in-law as patient observers, my sisters and I sat on the veranda of the place …
JULY 28, 2021 – By appearances, my boyhood town, Anoka, Minnesota, was a provincial place at the confluence of the Rum and the Mississippi. Many of my grade school classmates were farm kids. Some came from homes without telephones. Many folks had been stuck in Anoka or its immediate environs for much too long. Their …
JULY 17, 2021 – Only when I was older and visiting the house in which I spent my first six years did I realize how steep the staircase was between the ground floor and the second story. I’m sure it wouldn’t comply with modern building codes. As I navigated up and down the stairs during …
JULY 16, 2021 – Grandpa had been a fisherman, as I knew from the rods and reels that hung on the back porch of the cabin. There was also the large fishing net that always got snagged on stuff in the green boat box down by the dock. Then there were his stories about canoe …