Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
OCTOBER 29, 2025 – Yesterday we flew to San Francisco to visit our inimitable California cousins, led by über-hosts Russ and Kerri. Three’s the charm: over the past year this is our third attempt to make the trip. The highlights of this journey will be the people—plenty of laughter; scintillating, full-spectrum conversations; delectable culinary experiences; …
OCTOBER 26, 2025 – Today our crew drove home from the Red Cabin so that our son Byron and his entertaining two-year-old could catch an evening flight back to Connecticut. I decided to leave the driving to him and sit in back, allowing my wife to sit up front to visit with the Connecticut Yankee. …
OCTOBER 24, 2025 – Life on earth is fleeting, and it has to be. If it were otherwise, ages ago life would’ve overwhelmed itself and its planetary host. Within this fleeting phenomenon we call “life” are fleeting moments—scenes, motions, encounters, conversations—that last but a flash. Like precious stones, these moments are special because they are …
OCTOBER 12, 2025 – As I ponder current events, I wonder how to understand matters via some metaphor; that is, what imagery best describes our circumstances? Aside from amusement value, how might a metaphorical examination of our era open doors, windows, perspectives that would allow us to grasp our predicament with greater clarity? I imagine …
OCTOBER 9, 2025 – Yesterday and today I continued work on the Pergola-on-a-Platform project and made considerable headway. The second railing on the front of the structure is now mostly in place. I should be able to complete it (the railing, not the structure) before I leave the Northwoods tomorrow for a few days. The …
SEPTEMBER 29, 2025 – I’d planned to return home today, leaving at around 2:00 to arrive home around the time our almost 10-year-old granddaughter finishes her weekly real-time, online art class. My wife signed her up for the classes, and we’ve developed the Monday routine of picking her up from school, taking her to our …
SEPTEMBER 25, 2025 – Today my wife and her traveling companions (three of her cousins) arrived back from a 12-day sojourn in Ireland. Early this morning I checked on the flight status to see if the seven-hour trip was delayed in getting under way. It had departed as scheduled. Three hours later I checked again …
SEPTEMBER 6, 2025 – The regular follower of this blog might sense a pattern of incongruity. In many posts I convey genuine optimism about life. Other posts signal deep concern about the current state of affairs afflicting our country and pessimism about our social, political, economic, and most critical, environmental prospects. How, you might ask, …
SEPTEMBER 3, 2025 – At the lake the other evening we had a clear view of the waxing gibbous moon. Our vantage point was the end of our dock, facing south over the water. The Moon occupied center stage in the darkening sky, and we watched in awe its brilliant performance. Of course, we’d attended …
AUGUST 26, 2025 – As is the case with many of my fellow members of the species, I am a person of episodic obsession. When we were building the Red Cabin and in the market for a wood-burning stove, about all I could think about during waking hours and in my dreams was . . …
AUGUST 24, 2025 – I was going to write about something else today, except late in the proceedings—at around 6:30 this evening—I experienced a “Voilá!” moment that inspired me to write about something different altogether. Readers all too familiar with my Pergola-on-a-Platform shouldn’t be surprised that the “Voilá!” moment occurred while I was working on …
AUGUST 22, 2025 – Yesterday I wrote about mastery, and as I pondered that concept further today, I thought of its companion—specialization. Just as I can claim mastery over very little in life, so too I lack any notable specialization. Sure, you could consider me a “real estate lawyer” professionally or go out on a …
AUGUST 13, 2025 – Today (now yesterday) my wife and I spent in a kind of nirvana—otherwise the Red Cabin in the company of our younger son, his wife and their two-year-old son. For one more full day at the lake, we got to interact with the little guy and watch him absorb all that …
AUGUST 9, 2025 – The gathering had been in the works for a while. Our immediate family (and our sons’ families) would spend a few precious days this month at the Red Cabin on the northwest shore of Grindstone Lake in northwest Wisconsin. Joining us would be Kumar[1] and Emma, close friends of Byron and …
AUGUST 2, 2025 – Lately, I’ve been torn. In these troubled times . . . Do I climb onto the rooftop to shout “The sky is falling!” or do I crawl into the wine cellar to mumble, “Uh, um, there’s nothing I can do about it, so I’ll just grab another bottle of grape sauce …
AUGUST 1, 2025 – Today I found amusement by being in two worlds at once on my way to the woods. Let me explain . . . Last week I’d arranged to meet with a Wisconsin DNR forester for an extended site visit of Björnholm, or at least a portion of it, to gain some …
JULY 29, 2025 – Today while waiting for an appointment, I was fully engaged in my principal distraction of late[1]—reading a 600-page biography of Mao Zedong, master of China from 1949 until his not-a-day-too-soon-death in 1976. When a younger person asked what I was reading, I held up the cover, which bears Mao’s portrait—and his …
JULY 22, 2025 – Today I joined the kickoff meeting of the planning committee for my 50th college class reunion. When I’d volunteered a while back, I naively assumed that I’d be among 10 or 12 classmates following an inner group of half a dozen leading the charge. In fact, so many people have joined …
JULY 20, 2025 – “Our lake” is unusually quiet, despite its being in the middle of lacustrine cabin country[1] in northwest Wisconsin. Wide open with dimensions described in miles, Grindstone Lake has remarkably little boat traffic, even on the Fourth of July and Labor Day. This phenomenon is especially surprising given the number of serious …
JULY 16, 2025 – Yesterday, as I drove down our winding drive and drew closer to the lake, the stiff breeze played whirlybird with every single leaf in the dense vegetation along my way. At first the fluttering leaves looked as if they were hanging on for dear life, but then I began to see …
JULY 15, 2025 – In 2020 I constructed, painted and installed a sign marking the gateway to my “träd gård” (Swedish for tree garden) up at the lake, acreage where three years before I’d planted hundreds of two- and three-year white pine seedlings. I fashioned the five-and-a-half-foot-long sign out of treated lumber to ensure that …
JULY 6, 2025 – My good friend Jeffrey Oppenheim. was among the small group that founded the Falmouth [MA] Jewish Congregation in that vibrant Cape Cod community. Today 300 households are among the membership of what has become a robust, dynamic organization, with an impressively educated and experienced staff, a broad palette of educational programs …
JULY 1, 2025 – Early Friday we bade farewell to the City and headed north . . . I mean east . . . I mean northeast . . . back to Yankeedom, to the “Constitution State.”[1] What I’ve realized quite recently is that the Connecticut shoreline along Long Island Sound doesn’t run on a …
JUNE 30, 2025 – (Cont.) The weather Thursday marked a radical departure from the wilting conditions that prevailed since our arrival Tuesday. All in our party agreed that predicted high of 75F and overcast skies would be perfect for walking the town. Jenny, our guide and consummate New Yorker, has many favorite places in the …
JUNE 26, 2025 – When you’re in Connecticut, people refer to Gotham not as “New York City” but simply as “the city.” I’ve never encountered this reference in writing, so I don’t know if it’s capitalized, but when I say it or hear it, I always think of it as capitalized, given the size and …