Category Archives: Uncategorized

Today’s adventures involved a drive from Manhattan to Abilene, Kansas, a round-trip train ride in open cars, lunch in a diner adjacent to the train tracks, a visit to the Eisenhower museum, homestead, and library, a drive from Abilene to … Continue reading →

We went to Tulsa. I hated the traffic. We spent the night. We left. We drove through parts of Oklahoma and Kansas. I have decided parts of Kansas are beautiful; parts of the state are emotionally draining, they are so … Continue reading →

You would think a mechanic, asked to check the road-worthiness of a vehicle in advance of a trip, would consider all major systems of a vehicle. At least I would have that expectation. Among the “systems” I would expect the … Continue reading →

I am alive and uninjured. It could have ended up differently. A blow-out at 60 miles per hour in a construction zone with only one lane of traffic is no fun. A two-hour wait for assistance adds insult to injury. … Continue reading →

There’s nothing to be done. You are at the mercy of the universe. That may seem overwhelming, but it’s not. Not when you consider that you are the universe. You are decency and compassion. You are understanding and appreciation. You … Continue reading →

Today is my wife’s birthday. Normally, we’d go out to dinner or I’d prepare a special dinner at home. She asked me for scallops. But then our neighbors invited us out to lunch, followed by a few hours touring Lake … Continue reading →

I read an obituary this morning. A fifteen-year-old girl in Bedford, Texas committed suicide by hanging herself. Bullying took its toll on her.  Whoever wrote the obituary put the blame squarely on the bully(ies); I hope those responsible read it. … Continue reading →

Another morning, just like so many mornings past. This early part of the day is a homonym for bereavement. A drab sky, muted green leaves, the muddy brown bark of trees sliding into black where the dim light of morning … Continue reading →

Last night’s HSV Open Mic Night had the largest attendance, by far, of any held to date: 152 people in the audience. Last night’s performances were eclectic. Banjo, acoustic guitar, piano, electric guitar, viola, violin, conga, bongos, trombone, spoken word … Continue reading →

I bounce from project to project, finishing the occasional endeavor if it’s especially short and requires little patience. It occurs to me that, if I were able to transfer the energy expended in one hundred unfinished projects into just a … Continue reading →

Imagine yourself out for a run, or a walk, through the forest. A mile away from the nearest house, you spot a raccoon in the trail in front of you. Though it’s an unusual sighting in broad daylight, more unusual … Continue reading →

We tie ourselves in knots made of sinew and sweat, stress and seclusion, sincerity and suspicion. Nothing is its own thing anymore; everything belongs to something or someone else. Community, insatiable in its allure, topples the towers of individualism, releasing … Continue reading →

A river of light sits just beyond the dark edges of the unseen horizon, poised to burst into morning. Before long, I expect light to flood through the windows. That river of light, spilling from the sky, will flush darkness … Continue reading →

The shooting in Washington, DC today pierced my heart. It showed me that even people who share my political and social perspectives can be just as monstrous, just as vile as people I’ve labeled demonic and uncaring. I condemn the … Continue reading →

It’s silly to allow a person I find irrelevant, yet offensive, to get under my skin, isn’t it? Yes, indeed it is. But I’m silly in that way. I react to his remarks, obviously intended as provocations, as if they’ve … Continue reading →

This is post number two thousand three hundred and fifty. That’s a boatload of posts. I’ll readily admit the vast majority of them are meritless drivel, thought spilled from the mind of a man who’s confused and uncertain, manic and … Continue reading →

A while ago, as I sat on the screened porch—eating my dinner of a sardicado sandwich on pumpernickel bread, accompanied by a Shiner Bock beer—I watched a storm brew in the distance. Angry clouds stirred in the distant sky and moved … Continue reading →

Last night, after an early dinner at a nearby restaurant, we sat outside in the screened porch. We heard turkeys and various other birds. And we heard the song or call of a bird I did not know, but which … Continue reading →

Maybe it was an epiphany. Maybe it was just a conscious acknowledgement of something I’ve known all along. Whatever it was, it changed the way I looked at the world for a moment. I sat outside, inside the screen porch, … Continue reading →

The internet leveled the playing field. It gave the unhinged and deranged equal access to tools of mass communication, enabling those monsters the unfettered ability to share twisted philosophies with their brethren. Their virulent ideologies spread, infecting those who had theretofore … Continue reading →

He clothed himself in invisible shackles, bands of doubt that tethered him so tightly to the lack of belief in himself that he could barely breathe. He spent his life searching for keys to the locks that kept him chained … Continue reading →

This morning, the sky merges with the earth in a grey vapor, the air damp and heavy. The atmosphere appears to be struggling to move, the clots of fog moving in slow motion, as if deliberating their next move. Will they fly … Continue reading →

I read a Facebook post that moved me almost to tears. “Almost” is a slight exaggeration. The post was made by a woman whose seventy-year-old father had served in Vietnam. Her father and another soldier broke a host of rules … Continue reading →

There’s a lot to be angry about today. Rage courses through my veins in place of blood. But if I let that venomous fluid take hold, the day and the world will lay in ruins in a matter of hours. So, instead, … Continue reading →

I spent the morning writing, then editing, then writing chapter one of the book I’ve been contemplating for a while. I should not edit at this stage, but I had to, because I’ve not settled precisely on the sequence of … Continue reading →