The moment has passed here in Arlington, the real one. You know what I mean- two minutes of silence observed at the Cenotaph in Whitehall at eleven o’clock sharp, the symbolic moment that the Great War came to an end on the Western Front. A cenotaph is an “empty tomb,” or monument erected in honor of a person, […]

I am so far behind this morning that it seems hardly worth starting. I had a request from son Eric to drive him to Dulles to catch an early flight west and I could not pass up the opportunity to share a little time with him. He won a lottery of some sort and got […]

John-with-an-H strolled into the Willow and took Old Jim’s stool at the Amen Corner. The bar area was ding a brisk business as I organized my notes, and Mac was happily picking at his pomme frites and sipping his happy Hour red. John-with took the iPod buds out of his ears. “I was hoping to […]

“It is Election Day tomorrow,” said Mac as he climbed up on the stool next to me at Willow. “So I did some electing myself.” “What do you mean, Sir?” “I went to my oncologist loaded for bear. I told him that damned medication he had me on wasn’t worth it. I want a glass […]

It was a nice Sunday, weather wise, and the squirrels took advantage of it. They are constructing a nest in the lower branches of the maple that blocks the sun from my balcony high above the pool at Big Pink. One of the little bastards was actually on the balcony this morning, bold as brass […]

Got up early and am about halfway through resetting the clocks. I hate this- I think they ought to just let the sun alone. In the snail-mail there were a couple clippings from my 84-year-old girlfriend out in San Diego about dementia, commenting on the saga I have been trying to document on the decline […]

I am way behind this morning- normally not a big deal on a Saturday, but I had to cook this morning for the 0915 pick-up in the Alternate Lifestyle Jakemobile. Jake was a good sport when we started to disparage his old car, a 1998 Subaru Outback as being rated number one in the nation […]

Uncomfortable chairs have been the signature for the week. I was one for the second consecutive day yesterday, getting my quarterly teeth cleaning yesterday, and so grateful that they didn’t ask me to answer any questions while they worked. I hate the polygraph- it is the closest that non-Catholics get to the confessional. Of course, […]

“I don’t know anything about polygraphs, and I don’t know how accurate they are, but I know they’ll scare the hell out of people.”  – President Richard M. Nixon, whose paranoia helped establish the US Government polygraph program Kristi looked up at me with surprise as I hit the door to the suite on the […]

I am in Virginia- I think. A pal caught me up short when I was first looking at the computer screen this morning and the Dazbog Russian-roasted caffeine had not kicked in yet. I had some vivid dreams in the second installment of sleep last night which convinced me I was in Michigan. The whole […]