Monthly Archives: January 2025

I was reminded this morning that the first successful U.S. launch of a satellite into space took place on January 31, 1958, only a few months after my fourth birthday. Not quite three weeks before my fourth birthday, the Soviet … Continue reading →

The choice is deliberate: become either the victim of circumstance or the beneficiary of experience. Unfortunately, many people default to victim, when the more advantageous and more profitable option is to benefit from a lesson learned. The more unfavorable of … Continue reading →

There comes a moment when the only available options are surrender or violence. Surrender is always a minute too early. Violence is always a second too late. Both options can be tailored to circumstance, but customizing a response in the … Continue reading →

Yesterday’s chemotherapy session was postponed for a week, due to a very low red blood cell count. Instead, my oncologist arranged for me to get a blood transfusion at the hospital this morning. Therefore, I will head back into Hot … Continue reading →

Most people who know me don’t really know me. They know a public façade. It is not my intent to deceive by presenting a façade. In fact, I do not even realize that’s what I’m doing until I relax back … Continue reading →

It may be that our cosmic curiosity…is a genetically-encoded force that we illuminate when we look up and wonder. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson ~ +++ Brontology is the study of thunder. If I had ever seen or heard the word, … Continue reading →

The recent spate of wildfires in southern California renewed my concerns about living in a densely wooded area. Though the climate here is wetter and lacks the predictably fierce Santa Ana winds, there is no guarantee that an errant spark … Continue reading →

Seven years ago, my late wife and I went on a self-guided arts and crafts tour of the countryside around Malvern, Arkansas. A  day or two ago I was reminded of one of the highlights of the tour, when I … Continue reading →

The angel realized, when it was too late, her audience was gone. She had become a witch—a powerful, awe-inspiring, angelic witch—at the same moment they had stopped enjoying the antics of witches and angels. And they had no interest in … Continue reading →

Peeking out from beneath the covers, I looked outside—past the window blinds’ wooden slats—to see budding evidence of what might become a brilliant sunrise. Two hours had passed since I woke, intending to get out of bed and go about … Continue reading →

I feel restless in the extreme. The urge to hit the road gets stronger day by day. Assuming my cancer treatments do not go on forever, the prospect of making massive changes in my life and lifestyle is more than … Continue reading →

The chief problem in using gasoline to douse a fire is obvious. Equally apparent is the fact that employing rage to quell anger will lead to similarly unsatisfactory results. +++ My computer clock gently reminds me of the time: 4:57 … Continue reading →

I feel as useful as a bag of wet rocks in a dust storm. I need to sleep again. No matter how much I sleep, it’s never enough. No matter how little I write, it’s always too much. +++ Big, challenging, … Continue reading →

Maybe there’s something to be said for the argument that undocumented aliens should be deported. After all, look what happened to the indigenous people on the land that became the United States. The original inhabitants of this territory were rounded … Continue reading →

A text yesterday afternoon from the oncology nurse asked me to return for a “red blood cell shot” this morning. I subsequently checked the results of the lab draws two days ago: quite low red blood cell count and the … Continue reading →

Even the simple luxuries we take for granted can turn against us. When that happens, they remind us that luxuries can transform into burdens. And they inform of us the emotional (and financial) costs they can bring to our lives. … Continue reading →

Strength takes many forms, some appearing vicious and some benign; some soft and malleable, some hard and inflexible. The only way to know whether an attribute is a strength or a weakness is to examine its context. Even then, appearances … Continue reading →

I feel somewhat better today but not sufficiently so—thus far—to want to go for a drive. That’s fine, because I do not plan to go for a drive. I’ve been sleeping for the better part of the last almost six … Continue reading →

I am scheduled to have a blood test—to check my magnesium level—in one hour. The results are intended to determine whether I need to return tomorrow to have an IV infusion of magnesium. Snow still covers most of my driveway. … Continue reading →

Slightly better this morning than yesterday. But, still, sufficient pain in the gut and chest to make me angry at my body and the universe. I slept nearly around the clock yesterday; the latest period began around 6 PM and … Continue reading →

An unexpected crash overwhelms me this morning. At least I have no immediate obligations. Except for the notice I received on Thursday, advising me to go in for a blood draw early Monday to check my magnesium, I have no … Continue reading →

Snow started falling fast around 1:00 PM yesterday in big, wet clumps. Three hours later, after the ground was buried under roughly three inches of pure white, the snowfall diminished considerably. Occasionally, it stopped, then started again—but the new snow … Continue reading →

Neither the undeservedly rich nor the undeservedly impoverished nor anyone in the vast middle deserves the traumatic horrors engulfing them in Southern California. Money—no matter how much—cannot be a salve for the pain of watching one’s own home and neighbors’ … Continue reading →

Reading the news is akin to stumbling into an extremely hot sauna—the vapors for which are supplied by filthy water, acetone, and gasoline—and hearing the door lock behind you. Greenland. Panama. The Gulf of America. Zero percent containment of hurricane-force … Continue reading →

Writing occasional notes to people who would be quite surprised to receive them from me has long been among my intentions…my failed intentions. But I plan to give it an honest try. Some mornings, instead of writing my blog, I … Continue reading →