Category Archives: Uncategorized

Usually, my approach to big trips is to largely ignore them (besides taking care of details like checking the passport expiration) until I’m on my way. This time, heading for South Korea for a month, leaving in a couple of … Continue reading →

We made plans. Set the alarm. Put our warm clothes out, got the binos. We would rise in the early, frigid dark and make our way along icy paths to the ridge above town, just down the street, where we … Continue reading →

Lately I’ve been plagued by more than the usual ANNOYING ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ELECTRONIC WORLD and it makes me consider the state of our lives, dominated, as they are, by electronic devices that are more and more maddening and patently … Continue reading →

Snow geese have been filling the sky, along with the first big November snows. Through the gray, sifting day as I shoveled the sidewalk, their talk constant and urgent overhead, their elegant geometry, lines and V’s, skeins of them pushing … Continue reading →

A photographer friend recently revised my concept of the fall season. I had always thought of it as a beautiful waning of the year, when leaves withered on trees, rivers ebbed to anemic winter levels and the world girded itself … Continue reading →

Recently I received my Medicare card in the mail. How the hell did this happen? Suddenly I’m among the elders. Young people call me sir, out of some generic habit of respect for old people. Marypat and I have sporadic … Continue reading →

Year by year the currents of time speed up, so that, looking back, it’s like scenery clicking past as I slide downstream on a heady flow. Suddenly, it’s fall again. I am back to riding my $5 town bike up … Continue reading →

Listen. It isn’t hard. You don’t have to plan. Don’t worry about going far. It won’t take long. Just go. I was reminded how easy it is, how powerful, just last week. We decided to escape the summer heat on … Continue reading →

Traditions are a good thing. They keep me up to speed, set a deadline, establish an expectation. With traditions, it’s hard to waffle. This one began with a fantasy. Actually, fantasy might be a little strong, because it might really … Continue reading →

This time of year, I check the USGS streamflow gauges every day. Actually, I peek at them all year long, mostly out of slightly compulsive habit and in search of the occasional surprise (like last year’s November bonus of floating … Continue reading →