homelife
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The forecast was snow yet it isn’t cold enough. Instead, a light rain is falling… enough to keep me off the state park trail until it ends. Warm weather this time of year has become the norm thanks to increasing average, global, ambient temperatures. Climate change is cooking us on a slow roast. I looked… Read more
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I ran out of bread and didn’t want to leave home to go shopping. I baked a loaf instead. We need more of this as the Republican sh*t storm approaches. We must get along in society, conserve resources, pay down debt, use the automobile less, and eat from our garden and pantry. A bug out… Read more
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I recently read The Cooking of Provincial France by M.F.K. Fisher, et. al. It raised awareness of how cuisine can be rooted in specific locales, based not only on locally-grown food products, but on the soil, air, and water specific to a place. Local residents literally spring from the landscape and food grown there, according… Read more
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It is ironic that I used to be a member of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America Local 431 and am now vegetarian. This is because in 1982 I married a vegetarian who recently became vegan. More precisely, I am an ovo-lacto vegetarian, as long-time readers of this blog may know.… Read more
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Like it or not, the demise of my handheld device on Thursday marked the end of an era. I procured my first smart phone — that’s what we called them then — to work on a political campaign in 2012. When the technician told me last week he could not recover my files or contacts… Read more
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I had been mowing with my John Deere lawn tractor for about 15 minutes. Life was good as I prepared the yard to be more presentable when overnight guests arrived later in the day. I stopped, turned off the engine to move something, and when I returned to the driver’s seat the engine would not… Read more
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July is ending better than it started. The June 27 debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden launched weeks of political uncertainty. I did not watch the debate, yet its impact hit me and so many of my friends who are Democrats. We didn’t know what to expect. On July 13 a shooter attempted to… Read more
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I hung a piece of cloth over the lower level windows across from my writing table. As the sun rises, shadows dance on it: insects, long blades of grass, and lately, a hummingbird suspended in air as they are while searching for food. It feels I’m living in Plato’s allegory of the cave and I’m… Read more
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We live in the only home we planned and built. When I arrived from Indiana in 1993, ahead of the rest of the family, our lot was a vacant remainder of Don Kasparek’s subdivision of his farm. There were two volunteer trees and tall grass. A deal on another lot had fallen through, and there… Read more
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While walking past the boat docks between rain showers, a neighbor hailed me and asked, “Is the drought over?” I replied, “With the rain we’ve had in the last ten days, I hope so.” Because I was on the association board for so long, many know me by name, although I have to ask them… Read more
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