Despite feeling lethargic and unmotivated at the tail end of having Covid (again!), I made my way to downtown Albany because today was 50501—50 protests at 50 state capitals all on 1 day. Living right near a state capital, I felt compelled to show up. It’s been a difficult few months since the election, and an even tougher couple of weeks since the inauguration. Our country has been divided into...
It’s a thrill to discover an artist, writer, or musician for the first time. Yayoi Kusama is a 95-year-old Japanese artist whose installations I experienced at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Throughout a career lasting decades, she has harbored a fascination with polka dots and pumpkins. I can see why those shapes inspire a visual artist. This mirror room with polka dots creates...
One of the most iconic car chase scenes in movie history takes place in the 1968 film Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen as Francisco Police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt. McQueen drives a Mustang GT pursued by a Dodge Charger during a riveting car chase through the hilly, treacherous streets of San Francisco. The streets are so steep that the cars whizzing downhill launch into the air and...
I have this pillow, it has a name: Lumpy, a name Owen came up with some years ago when he used Lumpy as his bed pillow. Folklore has it that Lumpy was my pillow from childhood, and I think I remember this—tucking into bed at night with a heavy pillow that was in parts too crammed with feathers and in other parts lacking, so that my head rested on uneven, contoured terrain, in places soft, in...
It’s May, I’m in sixth grade, I’m on the sidewalk in front of my house on Amherst Street back when we still lived on the busy street. The bridal veil bushes are covered in clusters of white blooms and my parents are sitting on the front porch, drinking coffee in the evening after dinner. I’m throwing a tennis ball against the wooden porch stairs and it bounces back to me. I catch the grounder in...
We’re gathering with friends to ring in the New Year, and with every person I corner into a conversation I bring up the topic of New Year’s Resolutions. You can learn a lot about someone when you ask if they have resolutions. I hear some of the standard popular resolutions: getting more fit, being more mindful and grateful, helping others, spending more time with family, etc. A few of us wanted...
We all read listicles—”The Top Ten This” and “The Eight Ways to Do That.” It’s a popular format in this era of short attention spans. But I have a tip for readers to make listicles even faster and easier to read: skip all the introductory text (such as this paragraph) and go right to the list. There’s rarely any useful information in the introduction. Or you...
Do you hold grudges? Crows do. They have a keen intelligence on the level of chimpanzees and can identify and remember faces—and remember wrongs. I recently read a feature about crows and the people tormented by them (New York Times). The American Crow One of the victims was Gene Carter, from Seattle, who once waved a rake in his backyard at crows encroaching on a robin’s nest. Since then, crows...
I had two encounters yesterday—random occurrences but related thematically. In the morning, I pulled into the parking lot at the auto parts store where I’d gone to get a new battery installed in my vehicle. As I approached the entrance, a man came out of the store and approached me. He apologized for bothering me and said he hated to ask, but he was short three dollars for a part he needed and...
I’ve had a few days to collect my thoughts—and they aren’t good. At first, I stumbled about in disbelief, finding it hard to believe that snake got elected again. I hadn’t realized how sure I was that Harris would win. I never stated this, even to myself, but my shock and grief at the outcome proved I hadn’t been remotely prepared for what happened. I accept what happened now, and am figuring out...
Yesterday, Harriet and I participated in an organized trip to Scranton, PA to canvass registered Democrats and encourage them to vote in this swing state. I couldn’t have been more out of my comfort zone: knocking on strangers’ doors and engaging in political conversation. I might be more comfortable on the front lines in a war zone. But with a fervent desire to see Trump defeated and relegated...
Fifteen feet up in a tree stand, sitting on a narrow perch and tucked among fragrant hemlock branches, I witness nighttime become morning. I’m too deep in the canopy to see the sun lift above the horizon, but as the sky lightens, shapes appear around me: the sandy, rutted path that descends from the hill to my right and crosses a gully where a stream trickles along; the meadow to my left and the...
I don’t post much about politics because it leads to divisiveness and arguments, and I can easily be out-debated, but we’re less than three weeks until election day and anxiety is slithering through me like a dark snake. I’m having trouble sleeping, the news is like a drug I crave but fear, and the polls are spiking my blood pressure. I agree with this guy. I’ve engaged in several discussions in...
So much on the homestead list during this seasonal change and only a few hours allotted today, putting away the patio furniture and raking and getting the storm windows washed and up, and damn if one of the sills isn’t chipped and needs to be painted and on another window the exterior casing is coming off and must be tightened up, these extra tasks biting into my time, I’m not going to get done...
I had the honor and pleasure last night of being one of eight presenters at Pecha Kucha night hosted by the Opalka Gallery at Sage College. Pecha Kucha is a unique and fascinating presentation format. Every presenter works within the same structure. You get 20 slides, each slide stays on screen for 20 seconds and then automatically advances to the next. You get exactly 6:40 to present (20 slides...
