Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
AUGUST 20, 2021 – In these days of debacle, I imagine a conversation with my long-gone elders. We’re sitting on the porch, sipping lemonade while discussing current events. Aging folks view the world differently from how they found it in their younger years. I thus apply a range of settings to my imaginary time machine. …
AUGUST 19, 2021 – I never, ever thought I’d say, “Make America Great Again!” Whether I’ll don a red “MAGA” cap remains to be seen, but having learned never to say, “never” . . . “Really?!” you say. Really. With great nostalgia I recall when every kid at school was given a Mantoux test for …
AUGUST 18, 2021 – Yesterday I witnessed two family members exchange barbs over our exit from Afghanistan. As argument ensued (via texting), I was reminded how difficult it is to accept loss, mistakes, and failure. On an emotional/psychological level, denial of defeat is understandable: it’s a survival trait. If we surrendered whenever we “got things …
AUGUST 17, 2021 – During a recent trip to Home Depot, we loaded a cart with several items manufactured in Vietnam. These prompted me to think about the intractable Vietnam War and our ignoble exit from the country in 1975. Those of us who were old enough to have noticed remember the Fall of Saigon, …
AUGUST 16, 2021 – Now that we’ve arrived home safely from a 2,900-mile road trip, I can write about silent road rage: hyper-speed. I’ve driven and ridden on enough byways the world over to know that America has no monopoly on crazy driving. No one who survives a bus or taxi ride in Egypt or …
AUGUST 15, 2021 – (Cont.) The surrounding beauty was created by millions of years of geologic forces and biological evolution. We spent much of the day hiking through this dynamic painting, absorbing at every step, the dramatic scenery. As nimble as she is intrepid, the harpist who wins wild applause when she tames the most …
AUGUST 14, 2021 – As a biting fly in the car kept me alert, we hurtled west on I80 across Pennsylvania and Ohio to Friday’s destination just beyond Toledo. The day had begun in Cragsmoor, NY, 90 minutes from Manhattan. Our proximity to Gotham reminded me of things that people back home in Minnesota have …
AUGUST 12, 2021 – I used to worry our country would descend into civil war—Dems vs. Reps; haves vs. have nots; people who relied solely on Fox for news vs. those who didn’t. Now, I’m not so sure. Perhaps the outcome is simply . . . a wholesale breakdown of norms; a chaotic unraveling of …
AUGUST 11, 2021 – We arrived in Falmouth Monday afternoon to visit Jeff—my wedding best man, Bowdoin friend and roommate—and Val, his lovely wife. None of us could remember how long it’d been since our previous time on Cape Cod, but in the tradition of old friends, we picked right up where we’d left off. …
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 …
AUGUST 9, 2021 – My three sisters gathered in Lyme, CT over the weekend. What drew them here was the 75th annual meeting of the Huntley National Association. I attended vicariously thanks to my sisters’ vivid descriptions. Back in time, our grandfather, whose mother was a Huntley, was very active in the association. He paid …
AUGUST 8, 2021 – Now I’m a full day of being a year older. It’ll take getting used to, just as it did (back in the day) entering the correct year on checks written in January. Of my many August 7ths so far, yesterday’s rated high. In the morning, I basked in the generous affection …
AUGUST 7, 2021 – For me and a family member of far greater stature than I, today starts yet another year around the sun. Yesterday, I closed out my 66th year with an excursion up the Connecticut shore from Old Saybrook to Watch Hill, RI, then back to our base in Chester. Highlights included a …
AUGUST 6, 2021 – Yesterday we roamed the local scene just up river from Old Saybrook. Of all the scenes, shops, and people we encountered, none beat the junk store along a sleepy stretch of a lazy route. Stacked, strewn, and leaning outside were things large and small, rusted and peeling, collected from who-knows-where-or-when. After …
AUGUST 5, 2021 – Yesterday our friend Steve and neighbor in Lyme gave me a lift to “Lyme Light”—our family’s place on Hamburg Cove, where I spent the day alone. I relished the time and space to write with a view, and when writer’s cramp set in, to trim trees and wrestle vines. First, I …
AUGUST 4, 2021 – Yesterday evening we were joined by friends in a full-scale repast, a piece of living art framed in a tastefully appointed setting. In one corner of the painting we partook from a charcuterie board bearing cheeses, fruits, pâté, and specialty sausage, all perfectly arranged in resplendent abundance. To the side, wine …
AUGUST 3, 2021 – Connecticut is a cornucopia of parks, nature preserves, bubbling brooks, secluded ponds, and old growth trees. It’s a nature-lover’s paradise. Yesterday, as our son Byron and his wife, Mylène headed out for work, I Googled, “How many state parks in Connecticut?” Answer: 139. I had to narrow it down to “State …
AUGUST 2, 2021 – On Sunday we—my wife, son Byron, daughter-in-law Mylène, and I—made a Home Depot run in Middletown, CT, followed by a near total buy-out of current inventory at an adjacent Price Chopper grocery store. I was familiar with “Home Depot”; I’d never heard of “Price Chopper” As we grabbed “price-chopped” stuff off …
AUGUST 1, 2021 – Yesterday, our son Byron and daughter-in-law, Mylène, gave us a walking tour of their new home-town, Chester, CT (pop. 3,994), then drove us to Rocky Neck State Park on Long Island Sound. On the rural route back, we stopped for locally-made ice-cream. As we enjoyed the scenery of these parts, where …
JULY 31, 2021 – Yesterday we arrived at the home of our younger son, Byron, and his wife, Mylène in Chester, Connecticut. They moved here recently from New York. As Byron worked the grill on the back deck of their new home on a wild, wooded lot, I said, “I know you don’t have to …
JULY 29, 2021 – Late yesterday afternoon, we arrived at the door of my wife’s cousin Kathy, a short walk from Lake Michigan off Milwaukee’s South Shore. Kathy had moved into the Bayview neighborhood a few months ago and was eager to show us around. Kathy’s sister Sandy, who lives nearby, joined us. Together we …
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 27, 2021 – Yesterday, I visited our good friends Jack and Linda in their Japanese garden—a national treasure. They themselves are a national treasure. (See 7/27/2019 post, “It is Zen.”) Two years later, the world has changed, but Jack and Linda’s Japanese garden still provides respite from that wild world. As we sat in …
JULY 26, 2021 – With this post I reach a milestone: my 800th entry since I started this blog in April 2019. At 500 words per post, that works out to four books of fiction—or perhaps I meant, “friction.” In the grand scheme of things, however, I wonder sometimes whether my efforts add to the …
JULY 25, 2021 – Yesterday I walked along a wide logging road on our back acreage and noticed how well the many red and white pine seedlings had done this year, despite the paucity of rain. Most of the three- and four-year old seedlings have doubled their height. Because of this growth, the pine are …