We went to San Francisco yesterday, on a beautiful, clear, fresh, sunny day, to celebrate Suzie’s and Will’s birthdays, and to attend the “Giants Fan Fest” at AT&T Park. (Pour mes amis étrangers, les Giants sont l’équipe de baseball de San Francisco.) We were able to walk on the field, go into the dugout (le endroit dans lequel l’équipe reste pendant le match), and watch a presentation by the Giants’ […]
This is what the past week or so has been like in Paris: The days have been cloudy, foggy, damp, and sometimes rainy, bordering on cold. The kind of weather that some people would call “miserable.” But I love it. There is something about the clouds and the drizzle that is embracing, enfolding, comforting; something about the cold that is cleansing and clarifying. To me it says: Be calm. Be […]
Yet another old picture, this one of me and my college roommate, Scott Honsey, and his wife Julie, in Des Moines in 1981 at my friend Boyd’s second wedding: This took place in the winter of 81-82, and I drove to Des Moines from Ithaca with my girlfriend Nancy in my very deficient 1976 VW Dasher (remember those?), leaving in the early evening and driving all night. Nancy was driving […]
I was looking through an old book the other day, and stuck inside was this, a picture of me and Dennis Fitzgibbon, taken in 1974, at the Rettenmaier trailer north of Burlington, Iowa, when I was seventeen: It is hard for me to comprehend that I was only 3 years older in this picture than my oldest son is now. He’s just a kid, and I was so mature and […]
My kids’ school is big into History Day. History Day is a national competition in which students are given a theme and have to do projects related to that theme. The projects can be things like a paper, a poster, a web site, or a presentation. In our kids’ school, even numbered grades beginning in Grade 4 have to do a history day project. Since our boys are in 6th […]
This post may convince you that the Blogosphere has become too accessible, but there is, I think, a point here, although to get to it you have to read about big socks. I have big feet: Size 12 American. For all my life, I’ve bought socks that say they are sized for shoe sizes 6 – 12, but are always too small — too small when you wear them the […]
Since coming back from Paris, I’ve slowly fallen back into my normal routine. Routines are very helpful. They keep us from having to rethink our schedule of activities anew every single day. If every work day I get up at the same time, drink coffee and read the paper for the same amount of time, shower and get dressed in the same amount of time, I can be safely assured […]
For years the parcel behind our house has been vacant. We came to think of it as ours, even though we knew it wasn’t, and knew that someday it would get built on. That’s now happened. Although mostly I think that people should be able to do whatever they want to do with their property, and although I don’t begrudge the new owner the right to build on a parcel […]