Vic Socotra – Page 239

August 29, 2019 Vic Socotra

Point Loma: The Green Monster

310. The distance from home plate to that green edifice and a number embedded into the DNA of all members of the Red Sox Nation. To get there you have to be able to hit a major league fastball hard and high enough to clear its 37 ft height. Along with the ivy walls of […]

August 28, 2019 Vic Socotra

Swamp Postcard: Tanned, Rested and Ready

It is the bittersweet end to high summer on the farm. County fairs in the lush green country. Advertising out for the Harvest farm tours. I like the Fall here at Refuge Farm. Labor Day still looms, but the ordinary rhythm of the seasons is as perturbed as everything else these days. My thoughts go […]

August 27, 2019 Vic Socotra

Arrias: Out of Misery

I think one of the more entertaining productions of the last decade or so has to be “Downton Abbey,” which follows the lives and fortunes of a fictitious British Earl, his family and their household over a decade and a half, from just prior to World War I to shortly before the Great Depression. The […]

August 27, 2019 Vic Socotra

Island Times: Strange Days: 2020 Presidential Debates Phase II

One afternoon last week after morning eye surgery, I reclined quietly in a leather chair with my eyes closed in our darkened living room. I snoozed off and on. Drifting about I heard the following monologue. These are strange days indeed. Moderator: Good evening. Tonight is the first installment of the second phase of the […]

August 21, 2019 Vic Socotra

Swamp Postcard: On the Beach

In the olden days, this was the month to raise money back in the home district, take a junket, or just go to the beach. Some things do not change. I wish I was at the beach, though confess that the view of the pastures is pretty cool now that the hydrangea has been cut […]

August 20, 2019 Vic Socotra

Point Loma: Windy

Gentle Readers, this is a special missive from one of the Great Americans. – Vic Windy, The Table of Knowledge, and the End of an Era Well, my personal era, at least. The famous “they” say that the two happiest days of a boat owners’ life are the day that he buys the boat, and […]

August 19, 2019 Vic Socotra

Arrias: Conflict with China

There’s a lot of talk about Hong Kong. As I write this the protests continue. And as I write this people are debating what if anything the US (and President Trump) should do about the PRC’s actions. It has generated commentary that US actions could lead to a military confrontation with Beijing. Hmmm… A few […]

August 19, 2019 Vic Socotra

Life & Island Times: Great Plains

After last week’s piece on road-earth revelations these words about the Great Plains folks I met along the way surfaced. It was a strong, lonely place of dreamers The plains weren’t kindly to tyrants or schemers There were no fake patriotic wreaths Desperation wasn’t part of the air they breathed At meal tables was equality […]

August 15, 2019 Vic Socotra

Swamp Postcard: The Miasma of August

The heat and humidity linger as September looms, but there was actually a hint of chill in the air when the roosters next door started to get going a little before five. I like it. There is no possible way to roll over and tap the rooster on the head and go back to sleep. […]

August 15, 2019 Vic Socotra

Life & Island Times: Road Nickname

NDN (pronounced En Dee En) was a short-lived road nickname that was bestowed upon me during one of my earliest, long distance, two-wheeling trips as I motorcycled the back roads as a light brown buffalo man in black leather in the dustier regions of the great plains. Given to me in Kansas, it stood for […]

Author: Vic Socotra