Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
JULY 24, 2021 – We were running late as I strapped our granddaughter into the car. Then I noticed her ring was missing—again. Earlier she’d arrived sporting a new ring—with “magical powers.” But being over-sized, it kept coming off. The ring was always immediately recovered by my wife, me, or the little girl herself. Now …
JULY 23, 2021 – By last summer’s end, gnome homes had proliferated throughout our neighborhood. Captivated by these whimsically works, I joined the fad. I made two gnome homes and started a third. Winter halted construction, but while my building materials—natural “finds” from our woods—were in hibernation under the Red Cabin porch, I “built” gnome …
JULY 22, 2O21 – What’s worse: a. The violent, January 6 attack on the Capitol; or b. Republicans’ continued support of a disordered former president, who called the unruly mob, “a loving crowd”? I say “b.” A country in which people who wield substantial political power will say and do anything to stay in the …
JULY 21, 2021 – If I were a physician and America my patient, the metaphorical conversation would go something like this . . . AMERICA: Tell me straight up, Doc. Am I gonna make it? ME: You’ve got lots of potentially life-threatening issues going on. AMERICA: I know. I feel very crappy, and lately I’ve …
JULY 20, 2021 – Yesterday evening I watched our five-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter attend “soccer practice.” This was her fifth week of the community sponsored activity. The kids learn some basic skills led by a couple of very laid-back “coaches” who excel at herding cats and squirrels. Our older son, Illiana’s dad and former soccer player, assists. …
JULY 18, 2021 – Deer are a danger. They feast on gardens and new pine shoots, and they’re all too eager to ambush motorists traveling on country roads. Deer total cars, and we see plenty of deer totaled by cars when we drive to the Red Cabin in northwest Wisconsin. One-mile stretch of highway is …
JULY 18, 2021 – Amidst catastrophic flooding in northern Europe, grave endangerment of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem, still raging fires in the West, continuing drought and record heat across half of North America, I’m pessimistic that we—humanity—can do enough in time to mitigate climate change materially or to adapt quickly enough to avoid its …
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 …
JULY 15, 2021 – Daily, I visit www.fox[propaganda].com. (I eschew the TV version, which competes shamelessly with even more bizarre media outlets like Newsmax and OAN (“One America News”).) Fox and its competitors on the right are more than irritants. They’re irresponsible, anti-social, destructive forces leveraging an influence loop for the sole and soulless sake …
JULY 14, 2021 – I like to photograph nature. Or rather, I like to frame scenes and objects within nature’s infinite collection of light, lines, color, and compositions. I remember seeing my mother, a painter, often forming a frame in the air with her thumbs and index fingers to “capture” a potential painting. I find …
JULY 13, 2021 – For today’s post, I’d intended to write about an observation quite apart from today’s appalling news. After several failed attempts, I yielded to the news. Yet my struggle wasn’t over. There’s the turmoil in Cuba and its root causes—a half-century trade embargo by the U.S. playing a much larger role than …
JULY 12, 2021 – Yesterday, British billionaire Richard Branson made a suborbital space flight. Media outlets made a big deal of it, thanks to the fact that Branson himself—self-promotor extraordinaire—made a big deal of it. The hoopla left me unimpressed. First, Branson wasn’t at the controls. He was a passenger—one of six. Second, although the …
JULY 11, 2021 – One of the downsides of nature is that it can get under your skin. I experienced this recently when a thorn spiked my finger—through leather gloves—as I cleared wild raspberry bushes from pine seedlings in my “tree garden.” After an expletive the sharp pain subsided. Later, I made my way back …
JULY 10, 2021 – Thursday evening on our way to the cabin, we stopped at the Beechmoor, a classic, northwest Wisconsin bar and grill. It’s at the south end of Whitefish Lake, which, as the water flows, is two lakes down from our own Grindstone Lake. The bar was crowded (vaccination cards, people?), and besides, …
JULY 9, 2021 – If I were an adversary of the United States, I’d be salivating over our current internal demise. Our self-destruction requires of our enemies, no outlandish military expenditure, no high-risk/low-probability-of-success sabotage, no complex of computer hackers, no advanced planning and expenditure of any kind; simply enough Americans—not even a majority—to believe their …
JULY 8, 2021 – Today is my spouse’s birthday. It’s not a “big one,” meaning it doesn’t end in a “zero,” but once you reach a certain stage in life, every birthday is “big,” as in, “I’ve made it ’round the sun again!” Paradoxically, every birthday is also “small,” as in, “Let’s celebrate this one …
JULY 7, 2021 – Amidst the latest heatwave in Minnesota, I sought relief by watching movies with extreme-winter scenes. Over the years, I’ve seen many films that feature ice, snow, and cold. Much of the snow was artificial—crushed marble in Dr. Zhivago, for example, and cornflakes painted white in It’s a Wonderful Life. For snowy …
JULY 6, 2021 – As I write (evening of July 5), some neighborhood kid reminds me that the Fourth was only yesterday. His leftover “Whistling Poppers” (I’m making up the name) sound like they’re landing on our front doorstep. I trust that his parents will soon restore peace—assuming they aren’t the ones disturbing it. In …
JULY 5, 2021 – When I stand at the end of our dock on a clear night, I see a gazillion stars overhead—many, light years away. I also see dozens of lights on the opposite shore. From my perspective, the various magnitudes of shore lights are indistinguishable from the celestial ones. Yesterday evening we took …
JULY 4, 2021 – Every country needs one—an “Independence Day,” “Victory over Evil Day,” or “Big Thing to Commemorate Day,” when every citizen, clinically crazy or not, can light off every conceivable kind of sound-and-light device, from a Black Cat firecracker to a whole pyrotechnical display audible and visible miles away. Who cares about speeches, …
JULY 3, 2021 – My 05/15/21 post was entitled, “The Happiest Day in (This) Guy’s Life”—the day our new boat lift was relocated so that our new boat would float on and off the bunks. Now let me tell you about the saddest day in (this) guy’s life: the day before the biggest weekend of …
JULY 2, 2021 – I love Mother Nature—her beautiful sights and sounds in infinite varieties. But to my affections she’s indifferent. Even when I shower her with praise and adoration, she rains on my parade or, alternatively, refuses to rain when my tree garden needs it most. It was in the tree garden yesterday where …
JULY 1, 2021 – If ever there were a thoroughly Shakespearean character who occupied center stage of the grand drama of American politics, it was Lyndon Baines Johnson. I’d never liked the man. When I was a kid, my elders were staunch Republicans, which disqualified him right there, but as I acquired a brain of …
JUNE 30, 2021 – My wife and I possess the good fortune of having architects among our friends, even relatives. Members of other professions number among our friends and relatives too, but architects are in a special group. They’re “practical artists.” Back in the good ol’ days, architects actually had to draw—with hand-held instruments—and build …