Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
NOVEMBER 9, 2024 – At the personal, conscious level, our mere existence is a really big deal. In fact, it’s bigger than that. It’s everything. From an individual’s point of view, what could matter more than the individual’s existence? Okay, fine. I overstate things a bit or rather, a lot. What matters more than one’s …
OCTOBER 31, 2024 – Last Tuesday I completed the third and final phase of SIBS at the University of Minnesota (see 10/16/24 post). It was an in-person session consisting of an interview and compilation of IQ tests portrayed euphemistically as “brain teasers.” The tests or “teasers” were administered in a quiet and spacious room at …
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 …
SEPTEMBER 21, 2024 – After breakfast on the porch I ventured out to the dock to survey the unsettled weather. The wind was picking up from the southeast, and dark clouds lined the horizon. It wouldn’t take long for a clearer picture to form. By 10 o’clock the wind was roaring at 20 miles an …
SEPTEMBER 18, 2024 – If you follow the same daily walking route over the years, you inevitably become acquainted with people along the way. On Monday I wrote about one such acquaintance, a retired engineer. Today I met another amiable guy—Phillip—with whom I’ve chatted at length on multiple occasions over the past decade. We hadn’t …
SEPTEMBER 16, 2024 – Today on my walk I ran into . . . er, encountered . . . an acquaintance of mine, a retired engineer, whom I hadn’t seen since early this summer. He and his wife own a nice home with a grand view of the park, and he was out tending a …
JULY 13, 2024 – Yesterday evening, my wife and I along with other family members were among the sardines who packed ourselves into the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul for the first of three 50th Anniversary shows of A Prairie Home Companion. If the marathon performance encroached on the bedtime of many a fan …
JUNE 30, 2024 – Old age. It’s on the table, and we need to talk about it. Efforts to convince Joe Biden that he should retire from the ticket remind me of a family’s decision to take the car keys away from “dad,” when he thinks he’s still perfectly fit to drive. “I might not …
DECEMBER 2, 2022 – It was inevitable: becoming my parents. Though we boomers like to deny it, “becoming our parents” isn’t an isolated phenomenon. If you think otherwise, search YouTube for “Progressive commercials on becoming your parents.” Before you know it, you’ll watch and laugh so hard at half a dozen of the ads, you’ll …