Rich Marin

Pax Americana Shrugs

By Rich Marin | September 29, 2024September 26, 2024 by Rich Marin

Recently, a report was released by the Commission on National Defense Strategy. This was a panel of eight Washington defense and intelligence experts, what me might call senior staffers, assigned by the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee and its senior Republican (Mike Rogers and Joe Wilson) and Democratic (Adam Smith and Joe Courtney) members. This group made an exhaustive review of public and confidential documentation and conducted extensive interviews across government and non-government sectors…

My Third State

By Rich Marin | September 28, 2024September 26, 2024 by Rich Marin

I’ve just read an interesting article about a third state of being. That would be something other than dead or alive. It seems biology is getting turned on its head by the realization that when living cells die they do not just go to dust as the old expression goes. “Dust to dust” might have to be stricken from the vernacular as we further develop our scientific research and thinking about this supposed third state…

Memoir

Poor Little Buddy

By Rich Marin | September 27, 2024September 25, 2024 by Rich Marin

Poor Little Buddy For the second week in a row, I have had to take Buddy to the urgent care vet because he was clearly off and in pain in the morning. Buddy is such a ball of fire usually that it is easy to tell when he is off because he does not run around and jump up with a toy in his mouth like he usually does. He gets lethargic and shakes. They…

Fiction/Humor Memoir

Strong Like Bull

By Rich Marin | September 26, 2024September 23, 2024 by Rich Marin

Strong Like Bull I just had my annual wellness visit today and I’m glad to report that all is….well. From what I can tell, this is nothing like annual physical that I used to get in my working days. This consists of a series of assessments that seem designed to reassure me and my doctor that I’m still bumping along as I age and that they cannot be blamed for not having asked me all…

Uncategorized

Memorializing the Maritimes

By Rich Marin | September 25, 2024 by Rich Marin

I have now published eight stories about our trip through the Maritime Provinces of Canada, plus at least two others focused on our preparations to come. At this moment, I am sitting in a red Adirondack chair at Cape Forchu on the western most tip of Nova Scotia. I am looking out at the sea across a pile of rocks and some seaweed at a lovely seascape with a large white with red roof lighthouse…

Memoir

Fun on Fundy

By Rich Marin | September 24, 2024September 23, 2024 by Rich Marin

Today we are going into our third Maritime province of this trip. New Brunswick. It is also one of the four Atlantic provinces, which add Labrador/Newfoundland to their ranks. New Brunswick is not an island, but is rather part of the mainland, adjacent to Maine and Quebec to the south and west and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Bay of Fundy to the north and east. The province is 83% covered in forest,…

Memoir

Surrounded by Green Gables

By Rich Marin | September 23, 2024September 22, 2024 by Rich Marin

In 1908 the literary world was visited by one of its great soon-to-be successes. That’s when Lucy Maud Montgomery published her classic tale of an orphaned waif named Anne Shirley, who gets relocated to a farm on the north shore of Prince Edward Island at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The farm is owned by two middle-aged siblings who, as childless and unwed brother and sister, are accidentally chosen to raise Anne in…

Memoir

Thrills & Chills

By Rich Marin | September 22, 2024September 21, 2024 by Rich Marin

The weather concerns for this week of riding in Nova Scotia have always focused on how much rain we would get. In terms of temperature, my weather app has been telling me that it was staying with highs in the mid 70s all week across the region. It looked like we weren’t gonna get any rain, but of course yesterday, we got rained on in the Highlands. Today the temperature dropped by 15° and got…

Fiction/Humor Memoir

The Road to Ingonish

By Rich Marin | September 21, 2024September 20, 2024 by Rich Marin

Ive heard about the Cabot Trail for years and it always sounded like such a romantic place. Even in my recent research when I looked up John Cabot, I came away with the impression of a Medieval Marco Polo adventurer who came looking for the Northwest Passage to these chilly environs and at least left with a place named for his explorations. The reality seems instead to be that John Cabot did whatever landfall exploring…

Memoir Politics

Towards Sable Island

By Rich Marin | September 20, 2024 by Rich Marin

Nova Scotia is a large sausage-shaped island that runs diagonally from the southwest to the northeast. Off the northeast coast by several hundred miles is Sable Island, a largely uninhabited sand bar (six people live there year round), that is mostly made famous in movies like The Perfect Storm, where it is referenced as the furthest most point of land before you go out to brave the Grand Banks on your way towards the bleak…

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Author: Rich Marin

Pax Americana Shrugs

My Third State

Poor Little Buddy

Strong Like Bull

Memorializing the Maritimes

Fun on Fundy

Surrounded by Green Gables

Thrills & Chills

The Road to Ingonish

Towards Sable Island