(The new green awnings are in. The motorized one will go to the right of the back door and should be in this week. These are intended to protect the door frames, which had to be replaced due to untimely rot. With the new storm doors, kitchen upgrade new pavers, flagpole, ship’s bell stanchion, garage […]

My telephone Lieutenant laid out the ground rules in the back seat of the private car he hired to get us down to Marvin. It was fairly specific, and I considered his points in the darkness of late February in the District. “Don’t hit on the Junior Officers.” “Aw c’mon. What if they hit on […]

I have been waxing hysterical about the impact of the dreaded Sequestration that will happen next week. I am quite right about that, but the more I look at the matter, it is taking on the aspect of Chicken Little’s admonition to the other residents of the farm yard. Yes, if the sky fell, it […]

I am screwed. I have a 1000 meeting at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, have not thought of anything witty or clever to say in a story this morning. There is no time to do so as a consequence of the disbelief at the dysfunction of this great nation I read about in the morning traffic. Most […]

I was talking to the Old Hippy at the building yesterday as he puffed a cigarette. He is one of those guys with the hair thinning on top but the long stuff on the sides still gathered up in a pony tail. Nice guy. Unreconstructed. We got to talking about the gun thing. Turns out […]

(Old Jim from file footage. Photo Socotra) My day was disrupted badly. It was strange enough a it was. It was a holiday, of sorts, with the Government taking the day off to honor the memory of Presidents Past, lovely brilliant sunshine, though cold. I was at the office dealing with some cyber issues. With […]

(The Panzer waits patiently in the designated space by the main gate check-point at Refuge Farm). Mattski and Natasha stopped by the farm yesterday. We had been emailing back and forth across the pasture all morning. They were more alarmed than I was at a near fall I took trying to horse around some furniture […]

OK, OK. It is late, not even morning any more, but I am going to get to it. I actually wrote you a story this morning already, but decided not to do anything with it. Who needs dyspeptic commentary anyway? There is real stuff going on, some of it downright tasty. So, I am not […]

(Indian men supporting female demonstrators in Delhi). Have you wondered what was in that Kool-Aid we all drank? It is hard to make sense of it. I feel it in the air. A Pope quits, first time in 700 years. The first runner with no legs goes from the Olympics to prison for murder. In […]

(State of the Union Word Cloud. Image courtesy The Atlantic.) “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” V. I. Lenin I took a great amount of hope from the State of the Union Address from the President. Mr. Obama can give a great speech. […]