Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
DECEMBER 27, 2025 – I remember the time I accidentally crushed an ant on the sidewalk. It registered on my retinas but a nano-second too late for me to rotate my leather-soled dress shoe to avoid the mishap as I rose off the downtown park bench after having finished my Subway sandwich. On my way …
DECEMBER 18, 2025 – Here’s the deal: If you’re lucky, you grow old. But being lucky in that sense isn’t for the faint of heart. The closest analogy to a human being growing old is a motor vehicle growing old. In both cases, the shine of youth fades with time. Parts wear out. Filters need …
NOVEMBER 18 – For Christmas years ago my wife gave me an electronic key finder. It was her response to my periodic insanity triggered by a desperate search for lost keys. The key finder worked fine . . . until I couldn’t find the finder. Everyone loses or misplaces one thing or another at one …
OCTOBER 28, 2025 – Thankfully, I’m not an alcoholic, but I’ve known people who are, and from what little I’ve learned about their struggles, I’ve heard it said that “once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic”; that at every AA meeting, participants in recovery announce themselves by name, followed by the phrase, “and I’m an alcoholic.” …
OCTOBER 27, 2025 – The other day in a conversation with a friend who happens to be a long-time business-banker client, I used the term “codgers” in reference to old guys, quickly adding in pre-emptive self-inoculation, that by way of my age, I myself (“I suppose”) qualified as a “codger.” This friend/client of mine is …
OCTOBER 20, 2025 – Over the past several days I’ve made major progress on the Pergola-on-a-Platform. Completion is within sight, though some details, such as touch-ups with a paintbrush and an attractive sign (“Mt. Orray[1] – Elev. 1,391’”) will have to wait till spring. I will miss making mistakes—and the satisfaction I derived from corrections …
AUGUST 21, 2025 – I have a friend who’s fond of saying, “No one is an A-student at everything.” What he means is that no one can master everything in this complex world of ours. I’ve found this to be true of most people I know, including the A+ students at one thing or another …
AUGUST 6, 2025 – These are amazing times, quite apart from all the monkey-business in Washington. I realized this while waiting for a prescription to be filled at the CVS pharmacy inside our local Target store. The order was for a 90-day supply of “OYS-SHELL CAL – VIT D,” one part of the two-pronged remediation …
JULY 30, 2025 – The time was exactly 5:00. I’d already been on the road for close to an hour, foiled by three long construction-related slowdowns on my way to a 5:00 dental cleaning appointment with Michelle, my über-hygienist at Boger Dental on the far side of town. The trip normally takes half an hour. …
JULY 2, 2025 – (Cont.) On Friday evening, as we entered the last weekend of our extended vacation, we hosted our good friends and next door neighbors, Steve and Lin and their daughter Syd. Byron’s family joined us as well, of course, given how closely they’re connected to these exceptional people. Our not-quite-two grandson is …
MAY 24, 2025 – (Cont.) My latest confrontation with lumber hoarding was precipitated by a sign . . . in the woods (where else?), more precisely, the upper reaches of the Björnholm tree garden. Not so many years ago, I’d fashioned a prominent “BJÖRNHOLM TRÄDGÅRD” [“tree garden” in Swedish] sign painted on wood, mounted on …
MAY 23, 2025 – My ancestors had a special relationship with stuff. For details, see my memoir (Inheritance), published here in a long series across the several month, mid-year 2023. A less charitable way of putting it is that several people up the chain (“tree”?) were . . . and if I include myself, are …
MAY 19, 2025 – In case my younger friends and family members require formal notice, I’m getting old . . . -er. That fact shouldn’t surprise anyone. What’s new about my growing old, however, is my now express albeit reluctant acknowledgment of this irreversible reality. Physical infirmity is too obvious to hide, especially from oneself. …
APRIL 3, 2025 – While the investor world along with major stock indices seemed to be in a free fall today, I happily stuck my head in the sand—figuratively speaking. After all, I was driving and wouldn’t have been able to travel far with sand in my eyes. My first stop was the Asian Foods …
MARCH 25, 2025 – I hadn’t intended for this to be an extension of yesterday’s post, but then again, I hadn’t planned on doing something terribly stupid either. If you’re joining the party late, you’ll need to back up a step and read yesterday’s entry before you proceed any further here . . . . …
FEBRUARY 4, 2025 – This morning, I allowed a breach of discipline to get the better of me: I read/listened to more of the latest news about President Musk than was good for my blood pressure. I’d already been stewing over reports from direct witnesses—a family member and a close friend—that the all-out assault on …
JANUARY 13, 2025 – Against the backdrop of the latest news stories, not to mention the many chronic conditions that plague our species, I feel a bit ridiculous writing about something as ordinary and unimportant as pockets; not air pockets or pockets of wealth or poverty or resistance but your basic pocket-pockets, as associated with …
JANUARY 8, 2025 – (Cont.) Under the mistaken assumption that life was good, I attempted to reconnect the main part of the Dyson with its long wand and floor brush roller. This action, however, ended nirvana abruptly: When I snapped the wand into its docking station on the combination handle/motor/filter/canister, the bottom of the canister …
JANUARY 7, 2025 – (Cont.) This unnerving development led me back to Google, this time with the critical search term, “video.” The top hit was a link to Tik Tok. I’d heard of Tik Tok, of course, but I’d never ventured forth. As a purist afflicted with a bad case of genetically-sourced OCD aversion to …
JANUARY 6, 2025 – (Cont.) Recently, my wife—whose portfolio includes Ministry of Household Procurements— purchased a new, cordless vacuum cleaner. It’s not a mere Dust Devil acquired at the bargain price of $39.99, down from $199.99, in response to a late-night television ad. No siree. It’s a high-end Dyson, a pricey machine recommended by our …
JANUARY 5, 2025 – I can’t speak for you in your world, but in mine I go around thinking I’m . . . adequately smart. For example, I know that the gas pedal is to the right of the brake pedal—even in Britain, India and other former members of the British Commonwealth, though I had …
JANUARY 1, 2025 – Quite apart from the opening weather forecast for this January (an inexorable descent into the deep freeze), a very positive aspect of turning the calendar from one year to the next is that yet again, a person gets to lay down a set of resolutions. This exercise is the most fundamental …
DECEMBER 20, 2024 – Yet again, my fingers—if not my brain—wanted to turn out a screed excoriating President Musk for having displaced the autocrat-elect as leader of United Plutocrats of America. But this still being the cheerful season of the year, I shifted gears to write something . . . well, cheerful. That was until …
DECEMBER 19, 2024 – If you hadn’t noticed, since December 4 my posts have embraced a Christmas theme in keeping with this festive season of the year which has evolved from its pagan roots to its Christian foundation to its steroidal commercial secularism and generic expression, “Happy Holiday!” With still six whole days remaining before …
DECEMBER 16, 2024 – If you read last Saturday’s post, you know the TV situation in our house during my “growing up years.” Omitted was mention of notable exceptions: the quadrennial presidential nominating conventions, the Olympics and the first manned moon-landing. For these events, Dad rented a TV—from Joe’s Western Auto hardware store in downtown …