(Vincenzo Camuccini’s Death of Caesar, 1798)   I made it back home safely after the long looping road trip to North Carolina. Most of it was under steel-gray skies and periodic downpours of chill rain. It was remarkable that the sun graced the funeral. Otherwise, the last four days have been the color of gun-metal […]

  It is a gray and rainy morning on the farm. The skies match the mood. It was a solemn day yesterday, and I am concerned about Heckle. She is out in rain, instead of holing up in the garage that I left open for her, or in the barn where she is supposed to […]

(Conte’s Bicycle and Fitness Store, Arlington) Fred died twice yesterday, and I am sad, but a little numb. He is still so fresh in my mind, and I have to finish packing to go to another funeral in North Carolina.   Fred actually only passed once, of course, but there was something lost in the […]

(Tidal Basin from the 14th Street Bridge) The blood is quickening in Washington, and the last of the adamant piles of compacted snow are yielding to the rising temperatures. The lot in Big Pink is wet with the melt, and crunchy with the sand put down to enable traction in the aftermath of the great […]

(Colleen R. LaRose. New York Times version of a WPVI-TV image, via Agence France-Presse. Copyright Getty Images) No, gentle readers, this is not going to be a rant about the ex’s in one’s life. I have mellowed with time on that score as the wreckage diminishes in the rear-view. This is about an entirely different […]

“Many years ago, a friend sussed out the reason that men love Home Depot so much — they get to stand around in public together and scratch their balls . . . what part do I need for this? . . . uh, I dunno . . . you ever seen sumpin like this? . […]

(German Replica of Chinese Water Torture Device) It has been dripping in there for weeks. It did not matter how hard you pushed the handle toward the wall, the cold water valve dripped, dripped and dripped.   They say a steady drip can waste $20 or more in water in a short time. Multiply that […]

(Breakfast for the Intrepid Mayor of Refuge Farm) I am down at the farm this morning. The time here is precious- never enough of it. There are affairs that must be dealt with back in the capital, trifling ones, but necessary.   The light is just coming up after a velvet night with a profusion […]

(Entrance to the Pentagon Metro, just behind the bus platform) I have intense feelings about the old building, and they came back hard this past week, since I had to do some business there. That was before the shooting, and I could not bring myself to dig into it yesterday.   There was too much […]

But the little kitchen was purely 1964. No dishwaser. Basic icebox. nice gas range, but every dish that was used had to be washed in the single sink, and you know the peril of allowing even a single dish to remain unwashed in the shallow sink- soon they multiply.   So I had the Guatemalan […]