Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
AUGUST 13, 2020 – Yesterday I left the Red Cabin late. I had a dental appointment back in Minneapolis, three hours away, and was cutting it close. A client’s early morning curveball had detained me. I’d need to follow up immediately after my teeth were cleaned. With ignition, the radio yanked me into the middle …
AUGUST 12, 2020 – Not so long ago we said of ourselves that we were a deeply polarized nation. We’re now a poisoned nation. Let’s start with Covid. There’s much we still don’t know about the disease, but there’s also much we do know about it. One thing is that wearing masks limits its transmission. …
AUGUST 11, 2020 – If you’ve had elevated eye pressure or family history of glaucoma, perhaps you’ve experienced a periodic “visual field test.” It’s conducted by a machine consisting of a white, two-foot high, vertical half-dome (which I call, “Yosemite”) equipped with a chinrest on the open side, allowing you to stare motionless at the …
AUGUST 10, 2020 – For several years our household has survived with one car. Yesterday though, I wanted to head to the Red Cabin two days before my wife could join me. My younger sister, long-marooned with her husband in New York, graciously allowed me to borrow her car, garaged in Minneapolis. After loading up, …
AUGUST 9, 2020 – Early on I was destined for Ayn Rand Land. One of my grandpas was “Ragnar,” the name of the hero-privateer in Rand’s best-seller, Atlas Shrugged. My other grandpa was a businessman. My dad was an arch-conservative, meaning my mom had to go along. Then the kicker: my oldest sister, an intellectual …
AUGUST 8, 2020 – On our recent trip to Connecticut, we passed through Middletown, home of prestigious Wesleyan University. My wife, who’s traveled far but never resided outside the Midwest, pronounced it “Middle-TOWN.” “I think it’s ‘Middle-TUN,’” I said. I knew this mainly because my oldest sister, an alumna of Connecticut College in New London, …
AUGUST 7, 2020 – That applies to me but also to my bro-in-law “GK.” In further coincidence, he was born in the same hospital as was his wife, my younger sister, years later—a converted Victorian house on Ferry Street in Anoka, Minnesota. You could tell it was a hospital: a modestly sized, bluish neon “HOSPITAL” …
AUGUST 6, 2020 – After a two-week break from breaking news, I read many anxiety-enhancing articles in today’s paper version of . . . the paper. Our delivery person never lands The Times close to our doorstep. Instead, the person randomly flings the paper at our front yard, where “All the News That’s Fit to …
AUGUST 5, 2020 – While the rest of the world battled its way through another two days, my wife and I drove from Hamburg, Connecticut to Falcon Heights, Minnesota—1,345 miles, minus the mile to and from the highway and our overnight hotel. Total drive time: 21.5 hours inside total elapsed time of 45 hours. Such …
AUGUST 3, 2020 – (Cont.) There stood the “insane man”—with crazed face, wielding Excalibur and wearing a green tunic and leotards, stretched to the max by excess, middle-age weight. Except he wasn’t exactly “wielding” the sword: his hand and arm merely shook in fear. And the tall-standing feather in his Robin Hood cap trembled in …
AUGUST 2, 2020 – Across the road from our Lyme Light—our family’s place on Hamburg Cove in Lyme, Connecticut, lies Camp Claire, which has been there forever. Well, maybe not forever, but you know what I mean. It had been around for ages before our mother was a Camp Claire camper in the 1930s. During …
AUGUST 1, 2020 – Yesterday morning brought to Hamburg Cove my oldest sister, from Boston, and my youngest sister, from New York—each exactly a two-hour drive away. For the rest of the day, we enjoyed together this Eden midway between two major metropolitan centers of the country and a short boat trip to the Sound, …
JULY 31, 2020 – While chaos filled yesterday’s headlines, my wife, our daughter-in-law, and I found refuge inside paradise within Eden—Old Lyme, Connecticut. (Our son was back at the cove, working remotely as if on-site in Midtown Manhattan, pre-Covid.) Our excursion was arranged by Mylène, our son’s lovely wife, a dual citizen of France and …
JULY 30, 2020 – Two years ago on a flight from Minneapolis/St. Paul to LaGuardia, I sat next to a guy from the extreme northwest corner of Minnesota. In the course of trip, I learned that he loved to hunt, hated wolves, loved dogs, hated the city, loved the country. The recent death of his …
JULY 29, 2020 – He died long before our time, but my sisters and I knew very well, people who knew him very well. He was “George B. Holman,” our maternal great-grandfather. His entrepreneurial sweat and equity were in Rutherford, New Jersey, but his rest and recreation were in Lyme, Connecticut. Among his hobbies: gardening …
JULY 27, 2020 – Yesterday, I had to take care of some business at the Lyme Town Hall. Mistaking “Public Hall” for “Town Hall,” I thought I’d walk from Lyme Light, then around the corner and down Cove Road to the hamlet of Hamburg—population 23, plus the modest yacht club, Reynold’s general store, the Congregational …
JULY 26, 2020 – I’ve always found refuge in beauty—redwoods; mountains; seashore; sunrises, sunsets; starry nights by Heaven; Starry Night by Van Gogh; birdsong in spring and Beethoven’s Spring Sonata. But I also mean “small” beauty—delectable nourishment arranged artistically upon my dinner platter; translucent tail feathers of a bluejay flying across the yard into the …
JULY 25, 2020 – My mother traced her roots to England—“Olde” and “New.” Landing in 1621, her forebears were among the earliest colonizers of this land. They grew deep roots in the place where I now sit—Lyme, Connecticut. My exact location is the front verandah of “The Escape Hatch,” later renamed “Lyme Light” by two …
JULY 23, 2020 – I’m allergic to cats, but that didn’t stop my family from taking in a feral, three-week-old (so said the vet) kitten in distress our young boys found under the porch at the Red Cabin in October 1999. They named it “Koosh,” because it looked like an all-gray “kooshball.” It developed the …
JULY 22, 2020 – Yesterday I watched a webinar on advising start-ups about cyber security. Like any cyber security consultant, the presenter scared the crap out of her audience. I’d sat through such sessions before and was generally aware of the perils associated with security breaches. But one needs a periodic reminder that one’s devices …
JULY 21, 2020 – On the porch recently, my wife and I were immersed in novels by Lisa See; stories about modern China. In each, the Cultural Revolution figured prominently. “When did Mao take over?” My wife asked, breaking the silence. “1949,” I said. Silence returned. Coincidentally, days later an acquaintance dropped off a book. …
JULY 20, 2020 – (Cont.) Two weeks later, Dad and my two older sisters picked us up at the train depot in Minneapolis. “How was your trip?” he asked. “Good,” I said. “Wonderful,” Mother said. “We went to the fair,” my younger sister said. I couldn’t wait to present Dad with his requested souvenir. Less …
JULY 19, 2020 – (Cont.) A couple of weeks—half the summer, it seemed—had passed since I’d first been made aware of The Pietà. As my uncle, mother, sister and I walked the fairgrounds, I saw many other attractions that eclipsed Michelangelo’s famous work—things such as the old-fashioned car track next to the Ford Pavilion; the …
JULY 18, 2020 – Fifty-six years ago my mother, younger sister and I took a train trip to the Far East—Rutherford, New Jersey—to visit my uncle and grandparents. Our stay would last a month, and a centerpiece attraction was to be a trip to the New York World’s Fair. I remember a family conversation around …
JULY 17, 2020 – Recently, on my evening walk I heard an outdoor concert by a dozen student . . .VIOLISTS! Led by their indomitable instructor, Elizabeth Cregan, these high school kids put out some great sound for an attentive, appreciative neighborhood audience. I’d met Ms. Cregan and her husband during the week following the …