Extrajudicial torture, rape and killing by the top authorities. The main plot engine of Tosca, but it could also be the nightly news ( Read more... )

A lazy walk around the Steigerwald Lake NWR. Bald eagle in a tall cottonwood along the Columbia River bank. Ducks and geese strolling the paths and browsing the fields. Heard but did not see a frog - tree frog? Herons. Unidentified robin size birds with yellow bellies, no clue. A kestrel caught the steady east wind and hung motionless for a long ( Read more... )

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (opening sentence)

Afterwards, when the world was exploding around him and the lethal blackbirds were massing on the climbing frame in the ( Read more... )

Reading the Salman Rushdie memoir Joseph Anton. Went to pick it up at the library and per routine read the first five pages. If I don’t like it, I don’t have to check it out. Twenty pages later suddenly realized the parking meter had expired, so a quick checkout and dash for the exit ( Read more... )

Las Vegas. Wedding of Joyce’s nephew Ryan Owens and Mariia Moroz (Masha) at the Orthodox Church in America, on Annie Oakley Drive. All Ryan’s cousins aunts and uncles from both sides of his family were there - from Washington, California, Nevada, Colorado, Virginia, New York. Maybe 40 people, plus another 20 local friends. Masha is an immigrant ( Read more... )

Last week a too-brief visit with friends Rick and Carol. Perhaps a spell of temporary insanity impelled them to leave California for the dubious benefits of Vancouver-Portland winter adventure. Whatever our friends peculiar reasoning, it was a wonderful time, fun and relaxed and bountiful ( Read more... )

Christmas in Zion National Park. I included a couple links to Dan’s photos from the trip ( Read more... )

Thanksgiving trip to Tucson. A chance for a family visit in a sunny location vs our gloomy rainy homestead ( Read more... )

Thanksgiving approaches. The Native American national day of mourning. They could have killed us and taken all our stuff way way back in the day when they had the chance. But we turned those tables ( Read more... )

People are revolted by their private debts, near as I can tell. We intuitively know personal indebtedness is a bad thing for our financial well being ( Read more... )