Author Archives: John Swinburn

Unexpected shocks reverberate through the night, their echoes loud enough and sufficiently strong to keep even the dead-tired alert and on edge. Last night, one such shock came in the form of a phone call from a neighbor, informing me … Continue reading →

Several hours ago, my wonderful neighbors treated my IC and me to a wonderful dinner consisting of a marvelous salad, steamed snow crabs, and rice pilaf. That was accompanied by a delightful sparkling white wine, Amrita Cuvée, from Oregon’s Willamette … Continue reading →

I had a late night last night, hence may failure to write my usual morning blog post. Given the diaristic nature of my posts lately, that’s not a significant loss, except to me and my reliance on my blog to … Continue reading →

We conversed, my “girlfriend” and I, about the extent to which altruism may be an expression of egoism. I questioned whether, when we do good for other people, our primary motivator might be as much the pursuit of self-satisfaction as … Continue reading →

It’s just after 6 in the morning. The day has long been engaged in daylighting; when I got out of bed a little before 5, the sky was already amply endowed with sunlight. Though I like the light of day … Continue reading →

Wildfires, hurricanes, a monstrous pandemic, collapsing buildings, an aging and crumbling infrastructure,  and hundreds or thousands of assorted mini-disasters affecting villages, tribes, families, countries, states, and other miscellaneous political subdivisions. In other news, the world goes on, as if calamities … Continue reading →

Except during rare periods in which I purposely post at least twice a day, I infrequently post twice in a day. So, this is an infrequency. Maybe it’s because I suddenly realized half of 2021 has evaporated into the mist … Continue reading →

Yesterday was a lovely, leisurely day, despite being unnaturally hot. But I do not feel like writing about it, so I will look elsewhere for something to inspire my fingers to express themselves. Damn! I cannot ignore the impact yesterday … Continue reading →

Four hours from now, we’ll get in a van (or, maybe, an SUV) belonging to neighbors and head into Little Rock for shopping at Trader Joe’s and lunch at Ya-Ya’s. There’s nothing in particular that I require to justify a … Continue reading →

Sleep sometimes eludes me. I feel it getting nearer, but it fails to fully express itself. Only scraps of sleep find me, pushing me into a state of semi-consciousness but refusing to fully embrace me. Dreams enter my semi-conscious state … Continue reading →

I have begun, again, looking longingly at RVs. I had essentially given up on the idea of an RV because I felt like I would feel especially lonely in an RV on the road, by myself, But now I have … Continue reading →

Disappointment. It’s a symptom of misunderstanding, I think. It emerges from unmet expectations that take their shapes from molds designed for other purposes. And it lingers, even after it is explained away as an aberration. Disappointment and depression go hand … Continue reading →

I knew little of the Bluebell Café and Country Store until yesterday, when my girlfriend (also known as IC and other such terms of endearment) and I went for a not-terribly-long, leisurely drive. We drove Highway 298 from Blue Springs, … Continue reading →

Last night, the World Tour of Wines dinner and wine tasting delivered samples of some very nice wines and a meal far superior to all previous offerings. Perhaps because of recent history, especially the horrors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, … Continue reading →

From time to time, we need to step back from ourselves and look at the world through a different set of eyes. We must consider that our certainty may be a symptom, not a solution. If we examine the world … Continue reading →

We had planned on having Indian food for lunch last Friday, but instead we at at Brood & Barley. Though Brood & Barley was, as expected, wonderful, the fact that we missed out on an opportunity to eat Indian food … Continue reading →

Euphoria is an exaggerated sense of well-being; a state of intense happiness and self-confidence. The state of being—I’ll call it an emotion, though some might quibble with that characterization. saying it amplifies an emotion but is not one of its … Continue reading →

The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed; the total amount of energy in the universe is—has always been, and will always be—constant. Energy simply is converted from one form to another; it does not … Continue reading →

So many things on my mind, yet so few of them are compatible with thinking with my fingers. I can’t figure out how to write them to solution or resolution, so I’ll have to depend on my brain, with no … Continue reading →

Yesterday, as we drove down a major thoroughfare in Little Rock, we commented to one another about the beautiful houses that lined both sides of the heavily-traveled street. When those houses were built, we speculated, the street would have been … Continue reading →

My visit to the surgeon today, following my pulmonary function test, was good. The results of my lung biopsy were negative! The surgeon called for the pulmonary function test “just in case,” so I would not have to return to … Continue reading →

We finally found the pulmonary function lab. Signage, none mentioning the lab, did not help. People did. So here we are, waiting for my test, the scope of which is not clear to me. I will know soon. In the … Continue reading →

We tend to gravitate toward what we believe with absolute certainty and toward the absolute unknown. Don’t we? We have a strange bondage to the unknown that parallels our comfort with what we think we know (but often don’t). I … Continue reading →

Despite humankind’s vast knowledge about this planet of ours, we know only a fraction of all there is to know about where we live and who lives with us. Our understanding, even of ourselves, is extremely limited. While our limited … Continue reading →

This morning’s post will be shorter than usual, surely a welcome respite to followers of this blog, people who must tire of regularly reading screeds that lately take on characteristics of a poorly-written nonfiction version of War and Peace. I … Continue reading →