Say What?

I've been devoting my stained glass hours to the new category of sun-catchers I've been working on; the mini minis I spoke of a few blog posts ago. They're fun to work with. I hope to do more before moving on to other projects I've been contemplating—larger projects for our home.  I'm 63 years young, or as the boy in me might say, I'm 63 and a half! I've posed this question here before but it's been a while: Do you ever wonder where your parents were in their lives at the age you are today? It can be an interesting question to ponder.  This online calendar  makes quick work of figuring out the dates for you. My dad would've been the age I am today on March 25th, 1989. I always seem to ponder this question with respect to my father rather than my mother. With the calculated date in hand, I'll then go through my online collection of family photos and try and find one of my father that's closest in age to the age I am and then proceed to reminis...

I woke up at 6:30 this morning and reached for my phone before getting out of bed—a routine I fell into when our country took a hard right and ventured down the road to fascism . Thankfully, we put the breaks on that shit with November's election and are in the process of trying to right that wrong. It's going to take some time. A post from a friend on Facebook caught my eye and fit nicely with a blog post I'd begun laying the foundation for yesterday. Paul is a gifted writer all on his own so it's unusual for him to share a 'copy and paste' from an unknown source. It caught my attention.  Here's what he shared:  "Found online: Huge numbers of our population believe in a complete alternate reality. Alternate facts as it were.  But just as intensely as I believe they are deluded, they think I am the one who is deluded. Maybe I am. So how can I be confident in my perception? It can be quite difficult.  But, I have found that in times of political confusio...

When Trump came on the scene, there was a lot of pushback from people such as myself who saw him as a con man who'd conned his way into the White House and into the hearts of millions. He was cheered by those who were attracted to his racist views and hoodwinked by his fake billionaire status. His populist message struck a chord with legions of people who were willing to overlook his constant barrage of lies, his assault on our democratic norms and so much else that was disgusting about the man—and of all people, Evangelical Christians made up the core of his support. He promised he'd build a wall to keep the brown people out (Jesus wept, btw). He'd push aside our allies, rip up agreements and go it alone because only he alone could fix what ailed us. He'd make America great again, or his vision for it, anyway. Tens of millions of you foolishly  believed him .  As I look out over the landscape today at the sobering videos and photographs that tell the story of the assa...

PJ (Pepper Jack), Rachel and Drew's pup, came to stay with us for several days last week. He's such an adorable little boy and so much fun! Thinking of him as I write this brings a smile to my face. Here's some video of PJ, and to a lesser degree, Charlie—Cotton avoided PJ as much as possible and was quick to let him know of her displeasure with his antics when he'd try and get her to play with him. Rachel and Drew spent several days up north in Lutsen where they plan to wed this fall. The last day they were there they met with a photographer who shot their engagement photos. ( Photo to the right courtesy of Narrowleaf Photography .) They're planning a small wedding with a reception to follow at a later date. Exciting!  I had really hoped to be done talking about Trump's presidency after the election but as many of us feared, he was never going to quietly go away. After this most recent news broke about Trump's phone call with the Georgia Secretary of Stat...

This past week marked 41 years since leaving the Navy and leaving the city of San Diego, CA—a city I very much fell in love with during my time there. I really do need to make a trip back there and take a week or more to ride some of the routes I used to love to ride (it's where I got into cycling) and to walk along the streets outside the naval base. I'm sure I have countless dormant memories waiting to be awoken by a ride or a walk along some of the roads and sidewalks I used to regularly use. How cool it would be to see the ship I served on again and walk its passageways, but that can't happen because she lies at the bottom of the ocean  in water too deep for even sea life to inhabit and make use of. Enlisting in the Navy was one of the better moves I could've made as an 18-year-old, six months out of high school with little self-confidence and no idea what I wanted to do with my life. It was never on my radar to enlist— until it was .  I'm not a particularly pat...

Has it really been a full week since Thanksgiving? Yikes! I'd be bummed if I was still working and a week off from work flew by this quickly. I'm doing my best to make the most of each day as it's the only way I can think of to push back against the ever-increasing pace of days and years as they pass me by. I have a sense of guilt that creeps in if I allow myself too much downtime. It's the way I'm wired and I'm okay with that.  Brad, Monique, and Roger (Moniques's father) stopped by Thanksgiving day to drop off some tasty treats for us. How nice of them! They were making the rounds. We chatted socially distanced from one another and masked, catching up on so much that's happened in our lives since we last saw them nearly one year ago. Later in the day, we had a Zoom meeting hosted by my brother Bryan in Oregon. It was a lot of fun and a nice substitute for actually getting together in this year of quashed plans due to the pandemic. I prefer not to have ...

We had to have one of our ash trees taken down. Vineland Tree Care came out a few months ago to trim our trees and they noticed that one of them was failing due to a split in its trunk . They said we could try and support it with a metal strap around it but that it may still die. We opted to have them remove the tree instead. I went out in the morning before they arrived to spend a few minutes in its presence. Yes, that's kind of who I am. I will miss it. We're considering putting a white pine in its place next spring. Winter has been teasing us with some sizeable snowfalls the past few weeks but it's still too early for the snow to stay around long. I thought I'd put my golf clubs away for the year a few weeks ago but Steve and I managed to find an open course (CreeksBend near Elko) last Thursday for one last round. I'm in a bit of a lull, somewhere between being done with fall riding and waiting for winter fat-bike riding to begin. I've spent some time on my i...