• Chincoteague Island, Pandemic Style

    The family and I have been traveling to Chincoteague Island, on Virginia’s eastern shore, for several years. It takes us about seven hours to drive there but it’s convenient for Beth’s sister, who typically joins us. We picked it as our pandemic vacation retreat for a few reasons: Socially distanced beachgoing isn’t too difficult. The […]

  • The Statue of a Doberman in My Front Yard is About My Beloved Pet’s Legacy and Not His Repeated Mauling of My Neighbor’s Grandmother

    There are two facts that protestors in this otherwise quiet neighborhood choose to overlook: Firstly, when our family purchased our three bedroom/2.5 bath ranch in Siesta Acres, there was nothing in the HOA covenants to prevent us from breeding a series of increasingly unhinged and dangerous Dobermans. Secondly, the warning signs (“Walk Slowly and Do […]

  • An Artifact from a Journey Years Ago

    I developed a roll of Kodak TriX that had been in my Minox 35GT for several years. This was taken in 2015 along Lake Champlain during a two-day bike ride from Burlington, VT to Alburgh, VT and back. Day one was a straight shot up the greenway out of Burlington, across the bike ferry to […]

  • Pandemic Journal Meets McSweeney’s

    Friday’s Pandemic Journal entry about Senator Susan Collins’ moral dilemma took a detour and wound up on the virtual pages of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

  • Talking About T1D and Exercise

    UPDATE (3/12/20): Due to the spread of COVID-19 this event has been postponed. A conflict with another event will prevent me from speaking at the rescheduled summit. I’ll be at the Type One Nation Summit in Winston-Salem, NC March 21, speaking about exercise and type one diabetes. No Powerpoint slides, I swear. Just sound information. […]

  • Spiritual Homelessness

    Last week I resigned my membership at First Friends, the Quaker meeting Beth and me have attended for almost 19 years. At monthly meeting Sunday, my resignation was noted and sparked a lengthy, emotional discussion. I won’t go into the reasons I chose to leave. Ministry and Counsel will have to discern whether to share […]

  • London Calling

    There’s one place we’ve traveled where Beth and I don’t see eye-to-eye: London. She’s #teamlondon, and sees something romantic in marginal weather, royals, and obscene concentrations of wealth. I, on the other hand, crank up The Sex Pistols and turn my cynicism to 11. We landed in London for an overnight stay on the way […]

  • Rich and Yet Poor

    Jason Kottke is a fabulous writer, and this observation from his recent article about traveling in Asia reflects my own experience: America is a rich country that feels like a poor country. If you look at the investment in and the care put into infrastructure, common areas, and the experience of being in public in […]

  • The Other Side of the Park

    The Other Side of the Park

    A sizable rail yard sits on the margins of our neighborhood. I like to occasionally walk over and see what’s there.

  • Isle of Man Phone Box

    Brilliant marketing. It makes me want to visit the Isle of Man.