Category: Uncategorized

  • ODDS and ENDS (A Very Abbreviated Version): School Sucks, What If My Hair Came Back, and No A/C

    (I got you to help me forgive…)

    The kid hates school now.

    Well, my brain wouldn’t freeze.

    Autumn means no more using the air conditioning.

  • Labor Day

  • Gone Fishin’

    More tomorrow…

  • ODDS and ENDS: Done with Summer, Summer Cooking, and One Shirt to Rule Them All

    (Finally got myself together, baby
    Now I’m havin’ a ball…)

    It is official, I am done with Summer 2025. This decision was reached at 5:30pm, July 10th, 2025, on an uptown C train that had no air conditioning. Usually, I can make it to August, but not this year. Nope. Just too many days walking around this City sweating, and now I am ready for Autumn. There is no vacation that will change my mind. No cabin in the woods, no swimming pool, or cool soothing afternoon rain shower that causes the temperature to drop ten degrees. No, there is no Maine cool Summer afternoon, nor a Pacific Northwest early evening that will change my mind. No sir. Give me the Fall.

    And speaking of which; Summer cooking sucks. Outside of BBQ, and S’mores, all the best food is made for the Fall and Winter. Stews and soups, roasts and braising – all of it is a wonderful mix of smells and techniques. I already am building up in my mind this wonderful menu for each night of the Fall. Sure, part of this has to do with our tiny kitchen in the apartment, and how if you turn the over on, it heats up the place by ten degrees. Sure that suck in the Summer, but is a wonderful side affect in the Winter. Sure sure sure… I just might still be mad about the heat of Summer and am looking for another target to take my anger out. OR, or or… maybe all the best flavors achieve their peak when you have a sweater on.

    The blue Oxford button down. It’s my new thing. And by “new thing” it’s been my thing for thirty years. I’m just owning it now.

  • Been in a Fog (Unedited)

    The past two week, my head has been n a fog. Like I am having the hardest time focusing and getting anything done.

    The wife blames the heat. Says that it can take a lot out of you – makes me a bit loopy. And I have been out in the sun often this summer. I don’t think I have been out more than usual, but I will take my wife’s word on it.

    I’ve been out with the kid. We’ve been hitting the local community pool daily. Not that I am always getting in the water and swimming around, but I do find a shady spot to sit and watch the kid. And we have been working on the kid’s soccer skills, which is about thirty minute every other day. And then there are the normal errands that I need to do.

    Again, it all feels like the normal Summer exertions.

    But something is up.

    Reading has been an effort, and has just sitting down and writing. There is no pressure on me to do anything, other than needing to accomplish something creative so I feel like I have some worth and agency.

    I’m not giving up here. I force myself to sit and hammer something out, even if it is only for a few minutes, and meaningless.

    Just a strange feeling that is all over me.