(The view of gray sky and gray waves, with whitecaps, from the deck in little city by the bay. Photo Socotra) As a midwesterner, the Labor Day weekend marks the change of season. There are weeks of summer left here in the Northland, months of it back in Virginia, but this is when the Fudgies […]

Overwhelmed   (Rven and mom. Photo Socotra.)   I am on dial-up in the house on the bluff above the Bay, which about sums it up. I am frankly and completely overwhelmed. There is more than a century’s worth of crap all around me, some precious, but mostly crap.   Five or six years of […]

    I am going to miss the Hurricane, or at least Earl, anyway. They are saying there will be five named storms this season, and the Carolinas (and maybe us in Virginia) will take the brunt of it. I don’t think it will affect business, though it clearly will have an impact on travel. […]

“Yeah,” I responded. “What was he then? Director of Naval Intelligence?”   “No, he was up at CIA by then, as the Deputy Director. Bill Studeman was the DNI,” said Mac. “Of course, he got four stars as well.”   “We wanted a four-star on the board,” said Pete. “He agreed to do it, but […]

(Humpback Whale breaching, taking a Spy Hop during seasonal migration).   My pal Boats is a retired USCG Master Chief Bo’suns Mate. That is an awesome rate in the Sea Services, the iron backbone of the Navy and the Coast Guard.   He is an authentic Coon Ass from Louisiana, a raconteur of the waterfront. […]

I was cut off this weekend, and missed something as completely as if I was a myopic national political correspondent.   But I repeat myself.   The Glen Beck thing apparently happened on the Mall downtown on Saturday, and I was blissfully unaware. Mom and Raven knew about it, since they watch Fox News when […]

  I have to crash through the morning, so sorry about the brevity and lack of focus this morning. Goes with the territory, I suppose. Life seems to accelerate and gain complexity with all the moving parts. Beats the alternative, I suppose.   I was up blurry this morning from the discount price on Pino […]

(Season’s End. Photo from Daniel Keys Fine Art 2010)   So flies the Summer. It is cool today, and the skies a wistful blue. The garage at work is lightly populated, which indicates the last vacation of the season is already in progress. Vendors are selling sunflowers in the Farmer’s market in the square in […]

Jackie seemed pleased, and it is something to try, and if it works, could provide a new revenue stream for the Village. It is at least something to try before we have to confront the prospect of clipping the Raven’s wings and locking him down.   I thought about that option for Sturmer, too, as […]

(Dad posed at the wheel of his 1959 Rambler, August 2010. Photo Anook Socotra)   It was a professionally rewarding day under crappy skies, scatter showers and an unseaonal coolness that told me Fall was advancing around the corner. I got to be on a panel of old Spooks who got the opportunity to tell […]