Mark 1, Kudzu 0…Maybe

I love our back deck, and the arbor above it, which makes it pleasant to sit outside on those hot summer days. But there is one downside to the canopy: whatever the plant is — I call it “orange trumpet flower” for reasons that will be obvious once you glance

Read More »

Mammals Rule!

Well, at least for now… I just finished reading a fabulous natural history book, The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, by Steve Brusatte. It chronicles their (our!) origin from when they first split off from the last common ancestor of dinosaurs and mammals to the present day. What makes

Read More »

Some Life Advice

I lost a dear friend this week. Decades ago, when I first moved to California and knew literally no one, he and I would spend at least some time together every single day. No doubt that was helped by the fact our apartments were interior ones, back-to-back on the second

Read More »

Making Friends One Paw at a Time

Our cat Moose started spending time at another family’s home down the street from us about 6 months ago. I’d previously met and talked to the son and today, when I stopped by to check on/retrieve Moose I met the mom and daughter. We had a delightful conversation, and I

Read More »

Donner Pass

I’ve had a goal, for years, of riding all the Sierra passes. Why? I’m not sure, although every one I’ve done so far — Ebbetts, Sonora, Tioga, Carson, and Sherman — has been an amazing and beautiful ride. But for whatever reason I hadn’t done the most famous one, the

Read More »

Not the Kind of Vacation I’d Want

This is a sub post from the article about our recent trip to Washington, D.C. We hadn’t expected the vacate vote to take place while we were in D.C., so we hadn’t tried to get passes to the visitors gallery. But while it took some effort — thanx, Brian &

Read More »

A Different Kind of Vacation

All of the pictures in this post, and more, are available in full resolution in a Google photo album. We had a great time on our recent trip to Washington, D.C. The weather was beautiful and warm — what the locals sometimes refer to as “second summer” — and there

Read More »
Archives
Categories