“Pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain,” goes the line from everyone’ s favorite half black-and-white and half Technicolor movie. But on this day, the first working one of the New Year, after the very first School Night whose strictures I happily ignored, I am having a hard time hitting my rhythm. […]

  It is still dark at the farm this morning. I slept on the red couch, bathed in the brilliant cold blue-white mercury vapor security lamp. It was quiet except for the 3:05 freight on the old Alexandria & Orange line sounding its horn at the grade crossings at Winston, Virginia. It was nearly sixty […]

I am not getting far this morning, nor fast. I am not furious about that, though wary of the first storm of winter which is bearing down on us- I should therefore get to the farm today while the getting is good, and probably take the Police Cruiser rather than the Hubrismobile, though of course […]

I rose at 0330 and could not get back to sleep, so I folded the now-dry laundry from last night’s pre-Willow-suitcase-emptying drill. Part of the frantic hurtling across the Rust Belt I looked blankly at ninety or so personal e-mails, most of which mean nothing. One did. It was an account of a journey to […]

In the pre-dawn ink of the Detroit Metro Region I found myself on a major thoroughfare, moving with deliberate speed in the rental car, peering out, hoping for the dawn to cut the gloom and allow a decent speed of advance toward the Imperial City 560 miles away. I saw headlights coming up behind me […]

Yesterday featured some qualified success and a failure, but it is just about a wrap for Christmas 2011 in the Little Village by the Bay. The failure: I had an appointment with Doc B for Big Mama but spaced it out in the activity of donating the green car, deferred from before Christmas Day. The […]

Actually, it is not Godot that I am waiting for. It is the Northstar Towing guy, Denny O’Boyle, who called early to announce his imminent arrival to collect Big Mama’s little green car. My task was not space out his arrival and have him to collect the rental car instead. That would be awkward, and […]

  Big Mama was not surprised when I told her I had work across town. I always do when I am in the Little Village By the Bay. She thinks it is part of The Plan, in which I have a significant role. I have discovered that I am a Team Lead, in fact, part […]

Hope you are doing well, and that this morning is full of joy with peace. I remember the special dishes that came only once a year, after the presents were opened, the egg casseroles and biscuits and the warm friendly smell of cinnamon. I had Christmas Eve lunch and dinner with Big Mama and sat […]

  It is Christmas Eve, and the Little Village by the Bay is preparing for the last paroxysm of activity before buttoning up for the holiday tomorrow. I don’t know if that includes putting up the Mad Santa lighted display on top of the Hospital. Every year for as long as I can remember, the […]