School Daze It’s early August and despite my every effort to the contrary, I cannot make myself into Rod Stewart. My Freshman Fall at Cornell was heavily dominated by Rod’s rendition of Maggie May, which came out in July, 1971 on his Reason to Believe album. You may recall that for him it was “late September and I really should be back at school…” Well, for me at age 68, it is a case that…
The Presumption of Aging I have never been one to have a fear of getting older. In fact, whenever I am asked my age, I always state a number one year beyond my present age. Right now I am 68 and when asked, I say I am 69. This might be due to the fact that I always had a bit of a baby face and liked to think of myself as older, and it…
Losing My Grip I am increasingly feeling like an observer of the world as it rushes past rather than an active participant. Some of that feeling is inevitable as I get further and further out of the mainstream. I am still actively trying to remain relevant and I do that by keeping up on the news and engaging friends in lively debate when the topics are not too controversial or the people involved are not…
Thursdays Suck I suspect that many people, probably the same ones who invented Thank God It’s Friday (TGIF), have felt that Mondays are the day of the week that sucks the most. Needless to say, this likely has mostly to do with the need to go back to work or school come Monday, and the fact that that represents an obligation rather than a desire. There are plenty of songs and accolades to Saturday and…
Aye, There’s the Rub Shakespeare has Hamlet say, “To sleep, perchance to dream, aye, there’s the rub…”. It is part of the great “to be or not to be” soliloquy and I have a new take on the whole affair. Hamlet was very troubled, to say the least, and was contemplating death by suicide. I love life and am way too much of a chicken to ever come within a mile of that contemplation, but…
Summertime and the Living is Breezy It’s been an unusually nice summer weather pattern here in Ithaca the past fortnight. Some days get up into the 80’s and feel a bit hot in the afternoon, but most days have been in the mid 70s and start and end cool. Yesterday, my big event for the day was to be a barbecue in the early evening with several friends from my University involvement days. The granddaughters…
When Work is Done Does everyone know the joke about the sex survey that ends with the question, “How many people have sex only once a year?” And the little guy in the back is excitedly waving his arms and when asked why that makes him so happy he says, “Because tonight’s the night!” It’s a classic, right up there among the best because its all about wrong-footing the audience and then surprising them. I…
Into Thin Air My hilltop is dominated by boulders. I haven’t really done an accounting of the exact number of boulders, but as I look at various drone photos I have of the property, I estimate that I have about 100 large boulders fairly evenly split between front and back hillside. It’s quite hard to come up with an exact number since one has to make an impromptu judgement as to what size rock constitutes…
A Dental Damn OK, admit it, you just had to start reading this story with a title like that, didn’t you? Don’t worry, this story has nothing to do with the latex product sold by that similar name, though I bet a lot of you are as curious about the device as I am. I have no particular reason to be so curious, but its just one of those things that you hear about along…
Totems My life is now all about one totem after another. We all know what a totem pole is, but I’m not sure many of us have stopped to wonder about the underlying reasons why native people display them. A totem is a cultural symbol that tells people who we are and what we respect. They are most often a natural object or an animal that is believed by someone to have spiritual significance. I…