Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
JULY 27, 2021 – Yesterday, I visited our good friends Jack and Linda in their Japanese garden—a national treasure. They themselves are a national treasure. (See 7/27/2019 post, “It is Zen.”) Two years later, the world has changed, but Jack and Linda’s Japanese garden still provides respite from that wild world. As we sat in …
JULY 26, 2021 – With this post I reach a milestone: my 800th entry since I started this blog in April 2019. At 500 words per post, that works out to four books of fiction—or perhaps I meant, “friction.” In the grand scheme of things, however, I wonder sometimes whether my efforts add to the …
JULY 24, 2021 – We were running late as I strapped our granddaughter into the car. Then I noticed her ring was missing—again. Earlier she’d arrived sporting a new ring—with “magical powers.” But being over-sized, it kept coming off. The ring was always immediately recovered by my wife, me, or the little girl herself. Now …
JULY 20, 2021 – Yesterday evening I watched our five-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter attend “soccer practice.” This was her fifth week of the community sponsored activity. The kids learn some basic skills led by a couple of very laid-back “coaches” who excel at herding cats and squirrels. Our older son, Illiana’s dad and former soccer player, assists. …
JULY 12, 2021 – Yesterday, British billionaire Richard Branson made a suborbital space flight. Media outlets made a big deal of it, thanks to the fact that Branson himself—self-promotor extraordinaire—made a big deal of it. The hoopla left me unimpressed. First, Branson wasn’t at the controls. He was a passenger—one of six. Second, although the …
JULY 6, 2021 – As I write (evening of July 5), some neighborhood kid reminds me that the Fourth was only yesterday. His leftover “Whistling Poppers” (I’m making up the name) sound like they’re landing on our front doorstep. I trust that his parents will soon restore peace—assuming they aren’t the ones disturbing it. In …
JULY 5, 2021 – When I stand at the end of our dock on a clear night, I see a gazillion stars overhead—many, light years away. I also see dozens of lights on the opposite shore. From my perspective, the various magnitudes of shore lights are indistinguishable from the celestial ones. Yesterday evening we took …
JUNE 25, 2021 – Today I take time out from the highfalutin about the state of the world to talk about down-to-earth daily living on our dog-eat-dog planet. Before I get too high-minded about low-slogging, however, I should issue a disclaimer: I’m not always as well-mannered as I was on the subject occasion. Nevertheless, the …
JUNE 23, 2021 – Sunday evening, our son Cory (with five-and-a-half-year-old daughter) was pulled over. No one except the cop knows why she ran Cory’s plates, but in the process she learned that his license had been suspended three months ago. Cory called me to say, “I have a slight emergency.” Based on the prospect …
JUNE 15, 2021 – In one of my dreamworlds, I’m an “as-long-as-I-want-to-be-professor-at-large” at some small, leafy, liberal arts college in a quiet New England town. I design my courses, decide my class times, and select my students. I’m assigned a small office on the third floor of a creaky, original academic building—a room lined with …
JUNE 14, 2021 – Until recently, I’ve slogged through life with a load of envy. Whenever I encountered some highly talented musician or artist, I’d say to self, “Gee, I wish I could play like that!” or “Wow! I sure wish I could paint!” Possessing neither the talent nor discipline to emulate an artist—musical or …
JUNE 8, 2021 – Sunday brought sunshine to our backyard and upon our son Cory and his daughter, Illiana; son Byron and his wife, Mylène; nieces Linnea and Erica; Byron’s close friends, high school classmates and teammates—Christian and Kumar. As an elder, I found hope in talk and banter, play and food, picture-posing and theater …
JUNE 6, 2021 – No matter how much I read about it; no matter how many movies I’ve watched, I can’t imagine myself on the beach at Normandy on that day—this day—in 1944. The Germans knew it was coming but didn’t know when or exactly where. Thanks to their Führer who thought he was a …
JUNE 5, 2021 – Yesterday I planted more trees. Seven balsam to be exact. The entire operation was complicated. It started with the nursery that grows trees from seeds to seedlings. Move on to the media by wh ich the nursery markets its products and add the systems by which those products are processed, packaged, …
JUNE 4, 2021 – We’ve all seen the most recent set of scratchy photos of UFOs. This time around, we’re told, the bobbing lights “really are unexplainable.” I’m skeptical—especially after four years of “fake news,” “Big Lies,” and a royal fest of “conspiracy theories.” But pretend, for a moment, that aliens have actually landed on …
June 1, 2021 – Lately, I’ve experienced lots of . . . pain. Call me a wimp for my exceptionally low threshold—even for the needle that’s supposed to bring relief from pain. At midnight yesterday evening, when the ER nurse appeared to administer a shot of Toradol, I raised my hand and said, “Warning: I …
MAY 31, 2021 – I’ve long forgotten the context of the conversation, but one day when I was a firstgrader palling around with Johnny Ridge a couple of doors down, he told me nonchalantly that his uncle “sat on a grenade and got a reward.” Years later, the uncle, Rick Sorenson, came back to Anoka …
MAY 20, 2021 – Dad would’ve turned 99 today—had he lived another 11 years. In his mind, 87, almost 88, was a respectable number. When the hospitalist gave him the bad news, Dad’s response was to note the ages of Presidents Washington and Lincoln. A student of history, Dad admired deeply George and Abe. “Washington …
MAY 19, 2021 – Over years I’ve experienced episodic lower back pain—sometimes severe. I’m not alone. In searching for relief, I discovered that 80% of people older than 18 experience back trouble. A deeper dive reveals that among other maladies and dysfunctionalities, lower back pain is killing us. I wonder if other vertebrates experience “lower …
MAY 12, 2021 – Yesterday I noticed a few doors down, a parked van belonging to a plumbing outfit named, “Weld & Sons.” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a business name that included “Sons” or “Brothers” (or “Bros.”). Back in the day—my day, anyway—you’d see a lot of trucks, stores, and commercial …
MAY 10, 2021 – Walk with me here . . . Early yesterday evening as I was returning from my “hill climbs” in Little Switzerland, the reclining sun played with my imagination. Backlighting nascent leaves, splashing across greening yards, and casting playful shadows onto westward facing walls, sun beams worked their magic. Magic, I thought. …
MAY 7, 2021 – Before heading for the Red Cabin yesterday, I decided to give the yard a quick haircut. As I pushed the mower to the front, a lawn service guy hired by the next-door neighbors approached along the boundary. I greeted him, and he responded in kind. After a couple of rows of …
MAY 3, 2021 – The weather was gloomy—low, dark overcast, with intermittent rain—as I “flew” home from the Red Cabin early yesterday evening. Most of the 137-mile journey over “Thoughtland” is along two-lane, rural highways through northwestern Wisconsin. I’ll say I’ve taken the trip a thousand times, just to ensure understatement of the number. Yet, …
MAY 1, 2021 – Today, “May Day” (not to be confused with the pilot’s distress call, derived from “m’aidez!”), is when you were supposed to hang a homemade May basket, filled with candy, on the outside door handle of your girlfriend’s house, hit the doorbell, and run as the girl chased you down for a …
APRIL 28, 2021 – Over 19 months have passed since I’ve flown. Since I was 12, that’s the longest I’ve been grounded. When I do fly again, I’m sure the details of air travel will come flooding back, just as reality fills the room when I wake up from a very deep sleep. One detail: …