Author: Vic Socotra

Unto Caesar

Unto Caesar If you listened really hard, you might be able to hear the cries of the missing and the dead through the open window. It is season ably cool in the darkness, for this position of the planet in its orbit around the sun. President Lincoln was shot on the day that the Earth […]

Varnish

Varnish It is the eve of the Fiesta in San Antonio, and the Ferris Wheel has already been erected on South Santa Rosa Boulevard. It will be four days of lights and excess in commemoration of this city’s history and people. It is cool this morning, and still dark. The birds are massing to fly […]

The Bubble

The Bubble I am out the door for Texas this morning, leaving too early because the flights I wanted were not available. The flying weather looks good, no storms between me and the Lone Star State, and only one plane change in Chicago. It could be a valuable trip, opening some doors at the Command […]

Curveball

Curveball It is going to be 65 degrees and sunny today. The cherry blossoms and the tourists are here and everyone is addled at the beauty of the coming of the season of life. I watched the most remarkable golf shot of my life yesterday, broadcast from the Masters golf tournament. Brilliant sunlight flooded my […]

Blacktop

Blacktop It has been a week of encounters with history, incongruous ones, to be sure, from both sides of the Atlantic. The Pope was interred yesterday, in the grotto below the altar of Saint Peter’s. It is all they can talk about in the media still, and there are all-new pictures on the web this […]

Quantum Mechanics

Quantum Mechanics It is a bit murky this morning, and the sound of rain pounding the patio pours in the window. I am home, which is good, since I can find my way around in the dark, but the place is so cluttered with junk that I still can stub my toe or trip over […]

Bag Drag

Bag Drag The bill was slipped under my door when I padded past in the darkness. Marriott efficiency, a good thing. There were newspapers outside the door, the Virginian-Pilot and USA Today. They are hyping the Masters Golf Tournament and the cut-off off the line to view the Ope’s body and the death of Prince […]

Final Four

Final Four Basketball is over, finally, the Women’s Championship decided decisively by the Lady Bears of Baylor over the Spartans of Michigan State. I have a family connection to the latter, and that is why I watched with a fatalistic attitude as MSU fell ten points behind, then more. A lot more. The woman’s game […]

Historyland Highway

Historyland Highway I wrote the story in my mind in the big bed, after the alarm went off. I thought I would recline for a moment and compose my thoughts. It was an elegant story and I think you would have liked it. I completed it, and then thought perhaps I should open my eyes. […]

TippingPoint

Tipping-Point The clock claims it is nearly eight, though my body knows better. I have reset the clocks and placed my biological system four hundred miles to the East. This tipping-point in the season, this momentary disorientation, is going to pay off in energy savings, and more efficient use of the daylight. Or so they tell […]