It’s gray and rainy this morning. Yesterday it was only gray – the rain held off. The dog is stretched across my lap making it difficult to write or reach my coffee. Nick, my cat used to do this as well, but I could sometimes type over him. Last night I was talking with my…
Category: Life
A Time Before
The other day a friend shared one of those Facebook memories that we all get and see. It was a picture of his daughter. She’s away at college now and he found the “memory” to be bittersweet. I sometimes wonder why we keep those mementos around, why we dive into the bittersweet. Old photos that…
Stealing a Moment
Yesterday morning, despite having a three-day weekend, I woke up tired and preoccupied with work. I suddenly felt like I had a few dozen things on the to-do list and was aggravated with myself for letting it get to me first thing in the morning. It didn’t help that the dog was nudging me for…
Between Seasons
The daffodils have started to bloom, but the temperatures have dipped into the low 20s and may kill them off. Yesterday, snow blanketed the mountain tops and while driving to work I drove through a squall that made it difficult to see – a corvette had spun out and was in a ditch. Times of…
Ticking Away…
Throwing stuff away, cleaning the table, deleting spam emails. This is me wanting to sit down and be productive (write) but putting it off. I’d love to say that it’s about trying to make space or clear out… but it feels more like it’s about tackling some easy things instead of the thing staring me…
Attention
Inevitably, the moment I look in a different direction, diverting my attention ever so briefly during one of our walks, is the precise moment Kimbrough (my dog) walks in front of me or spies something and tries to give chase. A slight stumble over the pooch or an arm-yanking jolt, the message is always the…
Under Construction
It’s amazing how quickly the mind jumps from one thought to something only tangentially related to something else tangentially related to that. In the span of a few minutes, I went from thinking about the vast wasteland ruins of the internet to starting a literary journal in 1996 to my long-standing interest in building things…
In Stereo Edition
Last night I hooked up the stereo. I’ve missed the rich sounds of actual speakers (compared to just an Alexa). I haven’t used my stereo since leaving Yardley. There are entire albums (Michael Kiwanuka and Glass Animals) that I’ve listened to a lot, but not through decent speakers. The apartment in Memphis was supposed to…
An Evening Walk
By the time I got home, I wasn’t in the mood for it – any of it. It was a nice day here in central PA. It was probably the warmest it’s been in months. Even the sun was out. When I left the office, I put the windows down a little and turned the…
Temperature and Temperament
While my friends in Memphis are seeing high temperatures in the upper 50s, we’ve had bitter wind chills in the single digits. There have been morning walks with the dog when the wind was so biting that I was certain that this place was evil, or at the very least, intentionally mean-spirited, or perhaps Siberia….
Gus Burnside Kimbrough
Today I adopted a dog. He’s a 3-year-old pit mix. A rescue from Cincinnati who made his way to PA last week. He’s about as sweet as can be. He walks well on the leash, knows how to sit and stay and come, and is very affectionate. His name is Gus, but I’m thinking of…
A Brief Thaw
Last night I started on a short art project called kickstart your art. It’s a series of prompts and short videos intended to get you moving in the direction of creating art every day. My friend Stacy is doing it and suggested I join her. It’s a 10-day program consisting of 10 minutes a day….