Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
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 20, 2025 – Today “UB” would’ve turned 102. He didn’t do too bad in the longevity column, having lived just 44 days shy of 95. I remember exactly where I was when I received the call—walking down a broad corridor of Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, awaiting a flight back to the U.S. A hospice …
AUGUST 11, 2025 – Yesterday our grandson turned two. The occasion was celebrated by a crowd of well-wishers around the long table on the porch of the Red Cabin. He is of the fifth generation of Nilssons to enjoy the beauty of Grindstone Lake in northwest Wisconsin. Everyone showered him with smiles and attention as …
AUGUST 10, 2025 – Today our crew—Cory and family, Byron and family, Beth and I—took an extended lake cruise aboard Northern Comfort. After steaming the long diagonal from home port to the channel into Little Grindstone, thence west-southwest along what I call the “Barbary Coast,” I changed course toward the islands in the southwest. Very …
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 …
JULY 23, 2025 – This morning right up to noon, darkening clouds marched overhead to the command of Notus, Greek god of the south wind. The air was so laden with humidity, a heavy sweat covered the stepping stones along the pathway arching from our porch door around to the lake. Such conditions were the …
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 13, 2025 – This afternoon I received a call from Erik Ibele. I hadn’t heard from him in several years and was pleasantly surprised when he announced himself. He’d called to inform me that his father, Warren E. Ibele, had died recently. Warren would have turned 101 next month. Erik and his three siblings, …
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 4, 2025 – (Cont.) On Sunday, our last full day in Connecticut for this third annual June sojourn, we awoke to a short downpour. In the aftermath, the lingering mist over the cove teased our imaginations and distracted us quite effectively from the artificiality of the “real world” that dominates the news. Once we’d …
JUNE 16, 2025 – Today on I95 we crossed over the Connecticut River about two and a half miles north of where it empties into Long Island Sound, technically part of the Atlantic Ocean. As we hurtled along, I stole a glance at the broad river mouth and sealed the fleeting image in my memory …
JUNE 13, 2025 – (Cont.) On the occasion of Byron and Mylène’s wedding extravaganza at the Red Cabin in the year prior to Covid, I fixed up the Capri to entertain a host of guests from overseas who were staying with us before and after the Big Day. My favorite crew members were the Portuguese …
JUNE 12, 2025 – (Cont.) I never attended to the naming of the Bayliner—officially or unofficially. It was simply called the “power boat” to distinguish it from the Capri sailboat, as well as from the other watercraft in our growing fleet consisting of a paddleboat, two aluminum canoes and two kayaks[1]. The Bayliner served us …
JUNE 11, 2025 – (Cont.) With the family’s collective directive in hand (“rent a boat that we can use to water ski and tube behind and that’s comfortable to ride in”), I drove to M & M Rentals to make arrangements. They offered exactly what I figured would please the family—a 16-foot Bayliner runabout with …
JUNE 10, 2025 – (Cont.) On a weekend trip to the cabin the next spring, we spotted a boat for sale in front of a familiar battered country house on Highway 70 just east of Spooner 30 miles from Grindstone. It was a Ouchita (an alternate spelling of “Witchita”) rowboat with an eight-horse Mariner motor, …
JUNE 9, 2025 – (Cont.) Just after nightfall the hot, humid weather had transformed into the perfect storm. After putting the kids to bed, Beth and I sat down on the front porch to watch the meteorological sound and light show. A few minutes of crash–BANG was followed by gusts that stirred up the water …
JUNE 8, 2025 – (Cont.) A year after the Love Boat voyage, Beth and I were married—in the exact spot where we’d met . . . overlooking the great inland sea that is Grindstone Lake. In October 1989, our second son arrived, and soon thereafter, we bought the very cabin where I’d drifted toward after …
JUNE 7, 2025 – (Cont.) The next spring brought good fortune on the waterfront. Fred Moore, our friend and neighbor across the street, the inveterate entrepreneur who’d recently sold his successful business, had now become a distributor of “water bikes.” A couple of models were chained to an elm tree in the Moore’s front yard. …
JUNE 6, 2025 – (Cont.) For the next two summers, my time at the cabin was equally divided among four pursuits: practicing my violin, writing letters, reading articles in old Coronet magazines from the 1930s and 40s stored in various nooks and crannies around the cabin, and, of course . . . sailing the ocean …
JUNE 5, 2025 – (Cont.) At the cabin, Dad used the cabin mower in the same fashion he’d deployed the home mower: as a jerry-rigged dolly. Together we maneuvered the Fleetwind hull from the trailer to the west side of the cabin. He then attached an extended painter to the bow, and while he controlled …
JUNE 4, 2025 – (Cont.) Late in the afternoon, the big Sears delivery van pulled up to our house. Its two occupants hopped out, one holding some papers. I happened to be standing in the driveway, so I was able to vouch for the precious cargo in the hold of their ship . . . …
JUNE 3, 2025 – (Cont.) Beginning my sophomore year of high school, I transferred from Sterling School in the Green Mountain State to Interlochen Arts Academy, located in the wilds just south of Traverse City, Michigan. The campus lay between Duck Lake and Green Lake, each a sizable body of water conducive to small craft …
JUNE 2, 2025 – One aspect of aging I’ve observed is the increase in vicarious living. Back at the other end of my personal time scale, whatever was vicarious in reality remained theoretically possible within my imagination. Olympic gold, for example; becoming president of the United States, for another; or . . . sailing the …
JUNE 1, 2025 – This evening our son and granddaughter joined us for dinner, while “Mom” was working. Well into the proceedings when Illiana slipped away to fetch something, Beth summoned her back and issued a mild reprimand. “At school do you just get up and wander around the lunchroom when you’re finished but before …
MAY 25, 2025 – (Cont.) The hoarder’s grip as it pertains to lumber afflicted my dad in the same two-handed fashion that it applies to me. There was naturally and habitually, the whole matter of frugality. When other people observed this trait in Dad, they’d attribute it straight away to his having grown up during …