It was pick-up day. The on-line auction was done, the winners notified, and man, I was sweating this one- suppose I forgot? That has happened more frequently than I like to admit over the holidays. I treasure my friends, not to mention the rigid professional obligations of the last almost 41 years of service. But […]

OK- the lights, decorations and the world’s most bedraggled artificial tree have been nestled in the storage locker with care, and it is time to deal with the Bold New Year. California got smacked again- earthquake near Berkeley and then an intense rainstorm that brought down some of the hillsides in the areas that had […]

COMMENT: Happy New Year all — I pulled this one out of the internet news data torrent, just to allow some focus on what the article reports, and, perhaps more importantly, what it implies and portends. In my experience, Japan’s mainstream Yomiuri Shimbun seems to have pretty deep source connections into the Japanese government, and […]

Editor’s Note: Fired up the old laptop down at the Farm, and look at what showed up. A long time ago, in a place very far away. I don’t think I would have changed a thing. Welcome 2018! – Vic

(Amanda, along with Brian, Laura, Jason, Sean, Arrian and Shea, kept us in good spirits for nearly two years). I must say, our merry band of Refugees have conducted a remarkably successful campaign to destroy our favorite watering holes in the Ballston neighborhood of Arlington County. Any place we like gets shuttered muy pronto. Our […]

There was snow on the ground here in Arlington when my bleary eyes popped open this morning. I have developed a new sleep pattern- in bed fairly early, then awake in the small hours to read for a while, and then taking the second installment of a good night’s sleep (GNS). Consequently, rather than rising […]

平成29年12月28日 = (29TH YEAR OF HESEI ERA, 12TH MONTH, 28TH DAY) – – – – – = This week’s poem: 大晦日の焚き火 (O-Misoka No Taki-Bi/New Year’s Eve Fire) Votives and charms, last year’s luck, Are burned at the shrine In an old metal drum… Fortune’s smoke wafts and curls Up into what will become… { From […]

Oh goodness. It is starting again as the clock ticks inexorably toward the new year. The lists- you know, the significant things that define a very strange year. I can’t grapple with it all. It began with the Russia Collusion scandal- or whatever it is. There were calls for the President’s impeachment before he even […]

Christmas Eve already. Amazing how the time flies, isn’t it? I have a string of lights out on the patio and a festive light shining on the pumpkin on the porch. The World’s Most Pathetic Christmas tree spreads it wire-and-green needles in the corner with some merry colored lights to buoy my seasonal spirits even […]

COMMENT: Below is provided FYI, from Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) webpage. I bullet-ized it for easier digestion —— BTW, from Yokosuka, the core of the U.S.-Japan Alliance, I wish you: Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings, and “Yoi O-Toshi Wo”…! = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = […]