Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
SEPTEMBER 28, 2026 – This afternoon and early evening I had the privilege of spending more time with our fifth grader granddaughter. Her parents were working, and Grandma is still on your sojourn in the Maritimes, so I was responsible for after-school pick-up and dinner. Our conversation got off to an interesting start when Illiana …
SEPTEMBER 26, 2026 – While Beth is with cousins touring the Maritime Provinces, I’ve been left to my own devices back here on the mother ship. My principal assignment is to keep the place ship-shape—no dirty dishes abandoned in the sink or on the counter; shoes off at points of ingress and egress; take-out Chinese …
SEPTEMBER 17, 2026 – Yesterday I experienced two especially memorable conversations, one in the morning with a local friend and the other in the evening with a distant comrade. They were radically contrasting exchanges; one disturbing, the other calming. The two friends are years my senior. One was a sailor stationed aboard an American Navy …
SEPTEMBER 8, 2026 – Today our 10- almost 11-year-old granddaughter attended her first day of fifth grade. Beth and I were eager to hear Illiana’s report but also anxious about it. What if she didn’t want to talk about it? Or worse, what if she did talk about it, but it was negative? Over our …
AUGUST 21, 2026 – Today at 10:00 I was left in sole charge of our three-year-old grandson . . . at the Red Cabin. “Will you be home before lunch?” I asked, as my wife, daughter-in-law and infant granddaughter exited the back of the cabin to head for town. (Byron had departed yesterday to ferry …
JULY 18, 2026 – Yesterday we attended the closing program of this summer’s daytime Korean Culture Camp, or “KCC,” which our granddaughter attended. She’s half-Korean—given that her father, our oldest son, is “100% Korean.” But what does that mean, exactly—“100% Korean”? He would have much to say about that. He and his brother, also “100% …
JULY 10, 2026 – I don’t consider myself to be an “arts and crafts” person, though in my youth I did engage in what could be described as “craft.” For several summers up at the family cabin, on rainy days I made small birchbark canoes—stitched with strips of birchbark I sliced very carefully out of …
JUNE 18, 2026 – Today I barely glanced at news headlines, and I embarked on no conversations with anyone about anything of substance in the realm of worldly matters beyond some basic issues of business law. Instead, I followed the lead of our grandchildren—and their grandmother, who has a better sense than I for how …
MAY 7, 2026 – For anyone who’s attended an actual concert, this evening’s occasion at our granddaughter’s school was more of a pep rally. In any case, concert or pep rally, the event was staged in the gymnasium of Central Park Elementary School. Covering the high wall behind the risers where the students would face …
APRIL 26, 2026 – Most of the afternoon and early this evening was art and play time with our 10-year-old granddaughter. Today was the last day of the annual spectacular Art in Bloom exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art—an event not to be missed, especially in the company of Illiana. At closing time, we …
MARCH 31, 2026 – Yesterday our son Cory sent me a mid-day text seeking confirmation that I was planning to pick up our fourth-grader granddaughter from school. I replied immediately with a “thumbs up” emoji. At my stage of life, few things could give me greater delight than time with Illiana, starting with the 15-minute …
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 …