The Rust-ic Life

Living in the country is not only rustic — it’s downright educational, as I recently learned once more all over again. And I am, absolutely gratis, giving you the benefit of my wisdom before you come to experience it yourself. Unless you’re already living in a modern-day house out in the wilds, in which case […]

How Green Is My Valley

The rumors, sadly, are true: True Value Hardware is closing its doors, sometime between December and February. It’s not, surprisingly, for a lack of sales, but because the owners have sold the real estate to someone who is not interested in continuing the hardware store. We have two hardware stores in town — well, had, […]

Mulligan

In golf, if you want a do-over, you take a mulligan. In the kitchen, if you’re short on dinner ideas you take whatever’s lying around and make mulligan stew. In great American literature, if you’re Mike Mulligan, you set out to prove your old steam shovel is better than modern automation Something in that paragraph […]

The Cold Spaghetti of My Life

Today is Saturday — or at least, it’s Saturday as I start this — and for the first time in a month, I do not have to be at work, a sporting event, or a social occasion. I am sitting here without any overt obligation. They’re there, lurking around the edges: Oz and I need […]

Change in the Weather

Just so you know, I didn’t overpack. The sky was leaden Tuesday, heavy with the threat of rain, and I had football games to time. Otherwise this threat would have been a promise, the potential of some badly-needed moisture. It’s funny how perspectives change based on our personal needs, hm? Even though the forecast had […]

The Cows of It All

There are probably 20 tabs open in assorted browsers on my assorted computers of stories I mean to read but which — as now is becoming clear — I might never get to. All of these tabs are stories about climate change, and while I feel I ought to read them, as a citizen of […]

Grass Day

I try to be flexible, although I mostly fail at this. On a physical level, my body knows no flexibility: the best I’ve ever been able to manage is touching my kneecaps, not my toes. A yoga zen master I am not. But if there was ever a day that called for flexibility, yesterday was […]

Implausible Deniability

I had this post 90% ready to go when my Day of Remembrance began Saturday. Who would have thought it could go out of date right away? I figured there was a body, but wasn’t really expecting them to find one so soon, if ever. Way back when we were all young, a hand-held piece […]

Herd Immunity

Sometimes the deer come into our yard one or two at a time, but other times, like this morning as I pulled back the curtain to come eye-to-eye with a grazing buck, there are more of them than you’d think. Following an unexpected rain and in the pre-dawn, the deer were the same color as […]

The Science of Belief

I didn’t forget you all, honest: I’ve been working on this for three days. It’s not worth the wait, and yesterday I read that “science” is only 400 years old, which sent me to the dictionary, where I learn that science is “the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural […]