I've been down with a cold, which was mercifully a fairly brief one. Mercifully, I say particularly, because being sick colors my mental and emotional life rather bleakly. The world seems overwhelming, somehow---and even if I have the luxury of not dealing with the world immediately, putting-off-dealing-with-it always feels ominous too. Dramatic language, when the … Continue reading Technology & the SickBed-Nest
Tag: Family
A Signature Color
It was sometime in junior high or high school that my mom and my sister and I started the tradition of painting our toenails at the beginning of Spring Break vacations. We lived in a place where the snowbanks hadn't melted by March, so our toes wouldn't have seen the light of day since the … Continue reading A Signature Color
A Safe Bet
Writing yesterday about the canoe trip my dad and I took together got me thinking about the other road-trip he and I took, five years later... The first thing I signed up for, when I hit college, was a course to get certified as a Scuba diver, because I planned to study Marine Biology. I … Continue reading A Safe Bet
The Daddy-Daughter Downpour
When our parents used to tuck us into bed at night, Mother usually sang something---they had a broad repertoire of folk songs---and Daddy was our stories guy. He had an ongoing saga about a pair of mischievous alligators, "the Lucys," who followed us on all our travels, getting into trouble as they tried to keep … Continue reading The Daddy-Daughter Downpour
Roommates in a Padded Cell
Pepper and I met (virtually) when we were both freelance-writing for the same client. Well, Steve wasn't actually the "end-user" client himself; he was more like a broker of freelance writing-jobs. His jobs paid a little less-per-word than the gigs I landed on my own (because he was taking a cut), but he was a … Continue reading Roommates in a Padded Cell
Scanned-alous
I just spent the bulk of a rainy weekend scanning a load of personal photographs---several boxes-full, stuffed to bursting with the life-in-photos of an utter shutterbug. I actually have stiff muscles---not from heavy lifting, obviously, but from repetitive motions and sitting in the same position for hours on end. I bought the scanner several years … Continue reading Scanned-alous
Pirates of the London Underground
This morning I listed some of the significant maps in my life, and there's another one that stands out in my memory: the London Tube Map! The Tube Map has been periodically updated, and stylistic flourishes added, but the basic design of this subway-diagram was created in 1933, by a smart fellow who realized that … Continue reading Pirates of the London Underground






