Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
MAY 17, 2026 – “Seventeenth of May.” Though I’m of Swedish heritage, I have no problem celebrating Syttende Mai—”Seventeenth of May”—in honor of the Norwegians’ Constitution Day (1814), which marked the country’s independence from Denmark. After all, though my wife’s paternal grandmother was Swedish, as was mine, her paternal grandfather was Norwegian, just as my …
MAY 15, 2026 – Departing the big city at 9:30 this morning, I enjoyed a beautiful spring drive to the Red Cabin. Once there, After unloading the car and wolfing down lunch, I spent a good chunk of the afternoon hosing off the screens, letting them dry in the zephyr off the lake, then hauling …
MAY 13, 2026 – Yesterday evening my wife and I joined a third of the population of the Twin Cities, it seemed, inside a middle school gymnasium for . . . an orchestra concert. The performers were fourth-through-sixth grade string players from each of the district’s half-dozen elementary schools. Included among the fourth-grade violinists was …
MAY 3, 2026 – This morning we—the two “work camp badge winners” from yesterday, and I as work camp director—wrestled with a first world problem while the rest of the world wrangled with real world problems. Our “first world problem” was the broken but still attached tree trunk dangling like the sword of Damocles or, …
APRIL 24, 2026 – Late this afternoon I visited our local compost site—after Beth had already hauled a load of leaves to the place earlier in the day. My assigned task was first to corral an unorganized collection of shrub clippings, birch branches, dead day lilies raked out of the garden, and last December’s Tannenbaum …
MARCH 26, 2026 – This morning Beth and I were up and at ’em[1] before broadening daylight revealed how drab the sky remained after last night’s rain. Beth was scheduled to catch a morning flight from MSP to BDL (Hartford, CT) to visit our New English grandchildren—and their parents. As usual, she was well organized …
MARCH 25, 2026 – This morning, I drove to Buerkle Hyundai on the east side of town to have my car serviced. After checking in my Sonata, the service rep ushered me into the well-appointed customer waiting area well-stocked with edibles and beverages. I resisted temptation driven by my addictions to sugar, sodium and caffeine …
MARCH 24, 2026 – Today at Beth’s suggestion, we took our fourth grader granddaughter to Central Park after picking her up from school; not the Central Park but its namesake in the adjoining town of Roseville. Saturday’s teaser temp—in the mid-70sF—had passed eastward, but with the mercury at 50F and the sun edging another three …
MARCH 3, 2026 – Yesterday my iPhone went on the fritz for the second time in four days. All outgoing calls were a “fail,” and all incoming calls went straight to voicemail. On the first “fail,” I searched for online solutions and found one that worked: “Turn on airplane mode [sic] for 30 seconds, then …
FEBRUARY 27, 2026 – (Cont.) At the Brushmill I’d been torn between the chicken pot pie and the red lentil soup to go with my half of the misticanza salad that Byron and I had ordered together. Ultimately, I’d gone with the soup, thinking it was the more healthful choice, but then again, as everyone …
FEBRUARY 26, 2026 – Yesterday was another day that saw the yo-yo crawl upandupandup and up and up and up and up and . . . then . . . back . . . down and down and down and downanddownagain. On the upswing—into the early afternoon—I felt as though my cold symptoms were officially …
FEBRUARY 25, 2026 – By the time I’d assembled myself for breakfast yesterday morning, I was feeling significantly better. Maybe not quite airworthy, but with two days to go before our postponed departure from southern New England, I was optimistic. In the afternoon, I actually got outside and did some light shoveling to help “widen …
FEBRUARY 22, 2026 – (Cont.) Naturally, Dio likes us to read I’m a Garbage Truck out loud to him. But here’s the rub and the DEI feature, which, if you’re a Republican and even if you’re a Democrat, you might well think I’m taking DEI way, way beyond any reasonable dimension. But note in advance …
FEBRUARY 21, 2026 – A hallmark of the Trump Era is the easy detection of truth in opposites. If Trump hates something such as wind power, for example, then I know I wind turbines are absolutely a good thing, no questions asked. If Trump’s Treasury Secretary Bessent tries to rationalize tariffs as a blunt instrument …
FEBRUARY 20, 2026 – Our son Byron and daughter-in-law Mylène have laid down some immutable rules in their household. One is that their kids—a toddler and a newborn—will have no unsupervised “screen time.” I think this is probably a good rule. Both kids have a hint of pink-eye and must have eyedrops administered twice daily. …
FEBRUARY 18, 2026 – As grandparents who are only semi-retired, what do they do while visiting their grandkids (and their parents) for 10 days on the young family’s home turf in Connecticut—especially when a heavy mist transforms the hills and vales into an interactive Chinese silk screen the grandparents would expect to find on display …
FEBRUARY 17, 2026 – On the main drag in Old Saybrook, 11 miles to the south, is an establishment called, Peek-A-Boo Play Café. The clever business concept is a large and varied play area designed for kids from 2 to 12, with adjacent tables, chairs, stools and counters for parents (and grandparents) to occupy while …
FEBRUARY 16, 2026 – Today the household—our hosts, their infant and toddler, and my wife and I—launched an expedition to Jordan’s and Ikea in New Haven in search of a “big boy bed” for the toddler. The floor models were killing me. For under fifty bucks at Home Depot, I could bring home real lumber, …
FEBRUARY 15, 2026 – My wife has a much more detailed memory of our sons’ childhood than I do, probably because she attended to far more of the details of parenting than I did. This is not to say I don’t have vivid memories of those years or that I didn’t enjoy parenting, however deficient …
FEBRUARY 7, 2026 – Yesterday evening we opted for take-out from Dino’s Gyros, the local Greek fast-food joint. I ordered the grilled chicken plate with sides of falafel and tabouli salad. Among the “sauce” selections, I chose tzatziki—I’m sure I did—but when I got home and pulled everything out of the bag inside the bag …
DECEMBER 29, 2025 – As we close in on the end of the year, Mother Nature reminds us that she is still very much in control. Witness yesterday’s weather—a veritable blizzard that interfered with countless post-holiday travel plans. I was ever so grateful that I’d dashed to and back from the Red Cabin the day …
DECEMBER 12, 2025 – Life lately has been a blur of images—as is often the case during a period featured by the absence of “dull moments.” But when you feel the train wheels bouncing off the tracks, you stay with the train. You trust that gravity, die Bahn, der Zug, and a pinch of good …
DECEMBER 11, 2025 – (Cont.) If you read yesterday’s post, you know what happened and the tragedy that didn’t happen—all because of a Christmas tree stand stored in the attic above the garage. Aware of the circumstances plying our household this season, the reader surely understands my reticence—strike that; fear—about venturing up into that forbidding …
DECEMBER 10, 2025 – Hug your loved ones—hug them tight and tell them you love them. Cherish your friends, and be generous with empathy. Embrace everything in life, even when it’s difficult. Over the past 36 hours, I’ve learned that L.I.F.E. is (among other things) an acronym for “Love,” “Irony,” “Friends,” and “Empathy.” I’ve also …
NOVEMBER 29, 2025 – Late this morning all members of our household visited our son and daughter-in-law’s Francophone friends, Flo and Luke, up in West Hartford. In preparation for the trip, Mylène packed a bag of trucks from Diogo’s collection to keep him occupied while the grown-ups visited. I’m a “truck man” myself, so for …