(I am not sure, but since I have been gone, Jim may have entered the witness protection program. All photos Socotra.) Ah, the longest day of the year! Wait, before Old Jim beats me up for a deplorable for lack of precision, it is actually the day with the most sunlight of the year. The […]

“Rio+20 will be one of the most important global meetings on sustainable development in our time.” – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Mubarak? Not quite rest in peace time for the old man as I go to press, but close enough. I guess that is to be expected when a life-time job and a nation is […]

It feels out of control this morning. Not that it ever was in control, mind you. I thought maybe I would be feeling a certain buoyancy with the funerals and the estate crap in the rear view, but instead, I have a curious sense of emptiness and dead air. I would not have expected it. […]

 (Eby Granite Works did us proud. The new stone is done by computer etching. To match the other stones would have taken a stone carver four days work. The footing is nice and will last as long as the little town of Shippensburg does. Photo Socotra.)   It beyond weird here this morning. It is […]

(Oliver Hazard Perry shifts his colors from USS Lawrence to Niagra, War of 1812. Photo Naval Academy.)   Well, you could go watch Greece melt down this weekend, or ignore the lies, half-truths and general crap spewing from the Continent and the Campaign and do something fun.   My Guardian Ensign has agreed to drive […]

I had two martinis at around what used to be the cocktail hour and drifted off to sleep for an hour or two on top of the covers after the big trial run to Move the Bluesmobile and navigate on the crutches around Big Pink. This convalescence is screwing up my drinking. It is too […]

(George Stephanopoulos on set. Photo ABC News. I think that used to be a network.) I have to move the car today. The leaflet from the box told me in no uncertain terms that the re-paving people are coming to do half the parking lot, and if the Bluesmobile is still parked proudly near the […]

(70th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway coins from USPACOM and COMFACFLT, with macadamia nuts and dried peaches. Photo Socotra.) Kimo was in town on other business- important stuff, dealing with aging family and surgery and you can imagine how well attuned to his circumstances I was. Except that I was on the other side […]

Special Characters(The hierarchy of commercial air passengers. Image by Sergio Poqanho and rights to the NY Times.)It is Day 18 of the healing process. Boring. I could talk about health care, I suppose, but that is way too close to navel-gazing and I refuse to wallow in the might-have-beens. Forward! I heard that somewhere, recently, […]

(Etneded forecast of central Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Image courtesy of The Weather Channel.)   I got stabbed in the heart while seated in my wheelchair at the dining table. It was a reminder from the flower shop in the Little Village By the Bay about Mom’s birthday. I always sent flowers for that event, […]