Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
JUNE 14, 2024 – Aboard the train hurtling across the American countryside for two full days, I’d been drawn to immediate and fleeting surroundings as if they were a full life compressed into fast-motion review. The oft-repeating train whistle seemed to signal my interaction with others along the landscape of our integrated existence. I’ll never …
JUNE 9, 2024 – Back in the day up at the lake, when we went to the grocery store we’d grab the free “Buyer’s Guide” of real estate listings published by the Hayward Area Board of Realtors. We read the listings mostly for their entertainment value. In a vintage edition, for example, I found a …
JUNE 8, 2024 – Here I sit, halfway in the sun, halfway in the shade, watching the big parade of cumulus clouds drift slowly but purposefully overhead. Like a vast armada with sails hoisted to the heavens, their crews look down on us earthbound admirers and occasionally wave. You can tell the ships of the …
JUNE 4, 2024 – In search of a topic for today’s post, I first scanned the early morning news headlines, but all that came through was, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Then, while comfortably seated on our back porch, I happened to glance up from my cup of java just as a bird …
MAY 31, 2024 – What light was filtering through the thick overcast was now fading, and as I walked along the woodland path, I mistook the sound of rain—which I did not feel, being well-attired against mosquitoes—for wind until the shining leaves moved not in concert but individually, like a sea of uncoordinated bobble-heads plunked …
MAY 30, 2024 – In his recent commencement address at Brandeis University, Ken Burns imparted exceptional wisdom in prose that bordered on poetic. One pearl among the many reflected the famous documentarian’s relationship with nature. He encouraged the graduates to . . . Be in nature, which is always perfect and where nothing is binary. …
MAY 29, 2024 – My wife recently returned from a three-week sojourn in The Last Frontier—Alaska, a name derived from Aleut-language meaning, the “mainland” or more expanded idiomatic form, the “object toward which the action of the sea is directed.” She was not on a cruise, which is vantage point of most Lower 48 American …
MAY 14, 2024 – (Cont.) Saturday’s nearly six hours of heavy labor left me feeling as I had every time after skiing the 52km American Birkebeiner Ski Marathon. I was so utterly exhausted, my walk was down to a shuffle. I was afraid to lie down for fear I wouldn’t be able to get back …
MAY 5, 2024 – Recently I tried to imagine the experience of a 10- to 15-minute stroll on the surface of Mercury, our solar system’s inner-most planet. My “what if” thought was inspired by what Dava Sobel has so to say about it in her acclaimed book, The Planets. The key features of the speedy …
APRIL 30, 2024 – I looked forward to writing today’s post. Having junked out on news reports about current events—everything from the war on Gaza to the college campus protests to the Hush Money Trial to what planet Bill Barr is on—I knew exactly what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say …
JANUARY 23, 2024 – By sheer will I came to terms with the undeniable fact that what I’d wanted to believe was the bat was nothing more than a black sock. Meanwhile, Beth called me from back home, safe from nature. Nonetheless, she is our veteran cabin mouse killer and bat battler. Some eight years …
JANUARY 22, 2024 – In our part of the country, a family tradition is owning a lake cabin (Minnesota) or cottage (Wisconsin) “up north.” It’s where we urban folk can fish, swim, marvel at sunsets, watch the stars come out, and roast marshmallows for s’mores. It’s where we commune with nature and, ironically, where we …
MAY 26, 2023 – After paying my dues all morning and into the afternoon, I took a break to take our seven-year-old granddaughter to nearby Como Park, St. Paul’s version of Central Park. She had the day off from school—something about a teachers’ workshop—so her mom had taken her to work at a shop near …
MAY 20, 2023 – Today a sister called me to catch up. At some juncture she said, “I’m sure you remembered, but today is Dad’s birthday.” “Yeah,” I said, adding that he would’ve been 101. “Maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t live that long,” she said, light-heartedly. I agreed. Rarely are sight, taste, hearing, …
MAY 14, 2023 – (Cont.) Many princely pines in the Trädgård are in worse shape than how we found our back-garden princess, but the latter is more accessible and not surrounded by tick-land. With all the necessary operating equipment relatively close at hand, I decided to administer emergency care to the stricken princess. I summoned …
MAY 13, 2023 – Nature. We view it romantically, spiritually, philosophically, scientifically, even religiously. But we also have a long history of approaching it contemptuously, as a nuisance, an obstacle, an enemy, and of course, a giant reservoir of riches to be exploited, pretty much at any cost, so long as a handsome profit can …
MAY 12, 2023 – Today we made our first trip to the Red Cabin since the snow melt and ice-out. Vegetation here is 10 days to two weeks behind the foliage at home, which itself is well behind its usual schedule. In mid-March the snow was still two feet deep, and that was before the …
APRIL 26, 2023 – I’ve always been jarred by our cultural norm of breaking the conversational ice with a person in a non-business setting. “What do you do?” we ask, or if the person’s retired, “What did you do before retirement?” If the question elicits useful information, in most settings the answer provides only a …
APRIL 13, 2023 – Yesterday afternoon after I brought Illiana home from school, she grabbed her scooter, donned her helmet and celebrated freedom by zooming full-tilt down the sidewalk. Inspired by her carefree spirit, I followed, luxuriating in the hot zephyr as it overwhelmed the last vestiges of winter. She was headed for the playground …
APRIL 8, 2023 – The snow was already soft by the time I got underway with one load of gear for the slog to the car parked a mile away. From there, the paved roads were mostly clear, but already, the twisting, undulating back roads were so checkered with potholes, I drove as if I …
APRIL 7, 2023 – I threw the plastic sled in at the last minute, thinking it might come in handy. Good thinking. On impulse I’d decided to take a quick overnight trip up here to ski sections of the Birkebeiner Trail tomorrow morning for Day No. 124 of a record season. The forecast calls for …
MARCH 20, 2023 – Today I was ant on a hill. Nothing revelatory about that. Gazing up at the stars on a clear night or looking down at the earth on a clear day from 36,000 feet reminds me that each of us is . . . an ant, or more precisely, something far less …
FEBRUARY 7, 2023 – In a hurry, I lugged things that partly define me: in a small backpack, The Overstory, a gift from my oldest sister, and a fresh set of clothes I hadn’t had time to change into; in my right hand, a plastic bag of trash and best set of x-c skis; in …
FEBRUARY 6, 2023 – This afternoon I switched from skis to snowshoes and headed into the woods. I wanted to harvest some poplar shoots for use in my next gnome home, and I knew a place where I’d find an ample supply. The challenge was reaching it through the heavy snow. My route took me …
FEBRUARY 5, 2023 – After imitating a prone coal-miner for an hour yesterday, hacking, chopping, picking away at the compacted snow under my car, I repaired to the cabin to fire up oak in the wood-burning stove and crank up Simon and Garfunkel on the CD (“Cabin Disc”) player. I then whipped up supper. While …