JULY 24, 2022 – I’ve noticed that many people can’t bear silence for very long. Whether they’re driving, walking through the park, or sweeping out the garage, they’ve got to have sound or music filling their inner ears. It’s as if music, a phone conversation, a favorite podcast, or some other aural stimulus is the …
CLOUDED THINKING
JULY 18, 2022 – Over the weekend, while sitting on our dock, I watched cumulus clouds billowing upward over the lake. Earlier, when our six-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter was doing likewise and seeing dragons and unicorns, she’d asked, “How are clouds made?” I explained that when the earth warms by day, the moist, heated air near the …
THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT
JULY 17, 2022 – Here in the Northwoods, life used to be far more primitive at our family’s summer cabin. There was no phone, and our grandmother cooked up a storm on a wood-burning stove. A hand-pump outside the cabin provided water for drinking, cooking, and washing. With a bar of soap, you bathed in …
SMILING AT THE FUTURE
MAY 16, 2022 – Blogger’s note: I must take another break from The Grand Odyssey to recount the delight that my wife and I enjoyed last weekend. Recently, our six-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter asked, “Can I go to the cabin?” On Friday, we seized the initiative, and after getting the green light from Illiana’s parents, my wife …
SPACE SHOW FROM THE DECK OF THE MOSKEN
APRIL 4, 2020 – My first exposure to the aurora borealis was on a Saturday night during college when my drinking buddies and I stumbled out of the Stowe House near campus. Our exit coincided with a spectacular light show filling the sky. To achieve a better view, we crossed campus to the soccer fields—only …
CARPATHIAN MAJESTY (PART I OF II)
MARCH 26, 2022 – After my wonderfully intense days in Prague, I took a train to Brno in eastern Bohemia, then to Bratislava on the western edge of Slovakia, another train east-northeast to Poprad, and a bus to Novy Smokovec—a spa village nestled among the formidable High Tatras of the Carpathian Mountains. I’d been guided …
ON THE FAR EDGE
FEBRUARY 7, 2022 – During my two-month sojourn in NZ and Australia, I’d encountered many Europeans who’d ventured there via India. Time—and illness—on the Subcontinent seemed to be a rite of passage. No traveler had not experienced gastrointestinal problems, and everyone emphasized that no matter how much you heard or read about India, nothing could …
WHERE THE WORLD IS FLAT
FEBRUARY 6, 2022 – As hours rolled by, I stared in wonder out the picture window of my compartment. Often, I imagined peering out the window of a spacecraft circling Mars just above the surface: the arid infinity outside was mesmerizing in its “other worldliness.” At a refueling stop in Cook (now a ghost town; …
SYDNEY, THE “BLUES,” AND “MR. NALSSON”
FEBRUARY 4, 2022 – Even back then Sydney, capital of New South Wales, was the big, splashy city of “Down Under.” I spent several days there, impressed by its busy harbor, cosmopolitan feel, world-class modern architecture—including the harbor-front Opera House (and a recital inside)—and expansive botanical garden. But naturally, I was drawn to . . …
PATHS DIVERGENT
FEBRUARY 3, 2022 – From the sea, I turned to Kuranda in the rainforest along Queensland’s northeastern “fringe.” Other travelers had recommended Kuranda as a “Bohemian outpost in Eden,” and the pathway was well established. Joined by Karen and now my romantic interest, Debbie, we hiked to the heights of towering waterfalls and admired the …
FINDING PARADISE IN PARADISE
FEBRUARY 2, 2022 – Having lived much of life at 45-degrees latitude, I noticed that at 17-degrees our sun is a different star. Its zenith is nearly overhead and motivates an early start before one’s energy becomes non-renewable. By 8:00 I was in queue with other “pilgrims” where tour boats lined up to catch and …
DESTINATION: “CAN-CAIRNS”
FEBRUARY 1, 2022 – Like most visitors in those days, I traveled “the eastern fringe”—the coastline between Sydney in the southeast and Port Douglas in the northeast, well above the Tropic of Capricorn. The big attraction was the Great Barrier Reef, yet much else influenced my itinerary—from Kuranda, a Garden of Eden deep in the …
“THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WALK IN THE WORLD”
JANUARY 29, 2022 – In those days, to venture down “The Most Beautiful Walk in the World,” a reservation was required—along with rain gear and sturdy hiking boots. Average annual rainfall in that region pushes 300 inches. Since most of the Milford Track follows a canyon floor, the trek can be a muddy slog from …
SWISS CHEESE
JANUARY 25, 2022 – Yesterday my good doctor announced that treatments of my disease are having the desired effect. This was good news against the other reality he revealed: last week’s CT scan showed that many of my of bones are like “Swiss Cheese” but will repair themselves over the next few months. The “Swiss …
WOE TO THE WOODS
JANUARY 24, 2022 – Woods are fraught. Little Red Riding Hood nearly met her doom there, as did other “Grimm” characters. Belleau Wood is where U.S. Marines were baptized by fire in WW I and in the Ardennes Forest a later generation of U.S. soldiers battled the last German offensive of WW II. We still refer …
WAITING AT THE GATE . . . SURROUNDED BY A FOREST
JANUARY 5, 2022 – I stand at the gate, boarding pass in hand, waiting for my journey to begin—to “Lab,” “Bone Marrow Biopsy,” “Doctor,” and “City of Drugs.” It’s no vacation trip. My well-wishers are as numerous as they are supportive of my objective: survival. They’re angels, all. But I also see them as . …
“BECAUSE IT’S THERE”
DECEMBER 20, 2021 – “Because it’s there.” That was the reason George Leigh Mallory gave for his ill-fated attempt to conquer Mt. Everest in 1924. The phrase is often attributed to New Zealander Sir Edmund Hilary, who, in 1953, with Tibetan Tenzing Norgay, reached where no one had gone before: the summit of earth’s highest …
WHERE THE SCENERY NEVER FAILED ME
DECEMBER 16, 2021 – My first glimpse of the Vale of Kashmir surpassed what the guidebooks had promised—blossoming fruit trees on the shores of Dal Lake, the glistening Himalayas jutting into blue infinity above the world. I stayed for only three weeks, but the memories are as vivid today as my actual experiences were that …
WIND EFFECT
NOVEMBER 30, 2021 – In our front yard stand a clump of three birch trees that now tower over our house. When I planted them umpteen years ago, they were small enough to transport home by sticking them up through the open sunroof of our car. I noticed recently that blustery weather had peeled off …
PARADISE MINIATURES
NOVEMBER 29, 2021 – Yesterday our son and daughter-in-law took us on an excursion between their hometown of Chester and down river to Essex, Connecticut. We took side routes and backroads for a closer look at this old part of New England. Our trip included breakfast at The Whistle Stop café, a cozy, local establishment …
CALL ME SLOW, BUT . . .
NOVEMBER 14, 2021 – Snow fell overnight and stuck. It was a warm-up (“cool-down”?) for what lies ahead. I used to feel excited and frustrated with the first snow—excited by the approaching ski season; frustrated that the first dusting of snow wouldn’t be skiable. In my (halcyon) dinosaur days, winter couldn’t last long enough. With …
THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
NOVEMBER 11, 2021 – Over the past week our neighborhood has been out in force raking leaves before moderate weather goes . . . south. All the rakers have transformed our local world into a live-action Norman Rockwell gallery. In addition to the rakes, however, are godforsaken leaf blowers, prompting me to mutter on several …
“ONLY IN AMERICA!”
NOVEMBER 9, 2021 – As squirrels prepare for winter, fall is when they act most . . . squirrelly. Late the other day, however, while strolling down our alley, I caught a squirrel napping conspicuously on a tree limb barely 10 feet off the ground. Perhaps, I thought, the squirrel was resting after a hard …
“OPERATION SAVE THE PLANET” OR “LESSON IN HYPOCRISY”?
NOVEMBER 8, 2021 – Over the weekend, I stapled bud caps onto another 400 white pine seedlings and saplings in the “tree garden” up at the lake. It’s been an annual project since I manually planted a few hundred seedlings in woodland acreage that’d been harvested seven years ago. The work is necessary to protect …
DE RERUM NATURA
OCTOBER 10, 2021 – Thirty miles from the Red Cabin, I stopped to buy a Subway sandwich. After grabbing the goods, I realized that I’d been subjected to . . . unnecessarily loud music. I wondered, For what purpose was it so loud? To keep the minimum-wage workers sufficiently alert not to confuse sliced cheese …