A Fifty Mile Trip

Captain Stevens, shame on you! Your greed in selling that salt and those shingles made you venture out, short handed, along a heavily fog encrusted coast in Northern Michigan. With a crew of only three to battle the wintry gale that blew in that Friday evening in early May? Did you not stop to consider …

A Northern Perspective

"Up North" is a land of wizened souls and the courageous .  My people tell tales of great migrations: Indians in canoes, sowing rice in shallow rivers; of Blacks running up from the South seeking freedom; French fur trappers sent by LaSalle, and farmers from all parts of Europe clamoring for fruit growing land. Yes, the …

Colonel Cordero

Oh, seeds of rebellion and chaos born of colonization! Could we not have held firm in our Spanish conquest against the Mexicans?  We had the love of God behind us with our missions, canons, and swords of security to fortify us. Add to that good hearted Canary Islanders to settle a happy San Antonio to …

Live All You Can!

"Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?" (Henry James in The Ambassadors) If I had one piece of advice to share with others, it would be something …

The Fog

The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. (Carl Sandberg, 1878- 1967) Sailing the Great Lakes this summer, our boating plans often shift on account of reports of early morning fog. The fog renders reality unclear. It is a shape shifter. It …

Repurposed Boat Shoes

From the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam "Who is the Potter, pray, and who the Pot?" ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** A monk brought two potted plants to his Master. "Drop it," ordered the Master. The monk dropped one pot. "Drop it," again ordered the Master. The monk let the second pot …

One Last Thing Before I Go: Podcast

What if you could just dial up a friend or family member who has died and gone to heaven? What would you talk about?

No Fair! Podcast

I got a huge kick out of the first segment of This American Life about a pre-school class where tattling was getting WAY out of hand. Kids evidently have a very keen sense of justice from a very early age. This is one teacher's solution: install a recordable red old fashioned push button phone and …

Colorful San Antonio

I spent most of Thursday last week at the Daughters of the Republic of Texas library in downtown San Antonio. The city was in the pre-fiesta phase anticipating Cinco de Mayo with colorful papel picado flags flying, wreaths on every door wrapped in brightly colored ribbons, adorned with flowers, small maracas, tiny clay jarros, corn …

Doing versus Spewing

While hiking the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado last March, I picked up a copy of You are a Badass, a New York Times Bestseller by Jen Sincero.  Just perusing the cover, back, and a few inside pages had me laughing to where I just had to buy it. Think about this: "I tried" …