Dinner in the Field and other stories
I find you can discover your strengths at any age. For example, I find I’m a better writer than I am an editor. I have a full-length draft of a memoir that I’ve devoted countless hours to, and it’s finally finished. I’m anxious to move on to new material. But finishing the book is not the same as completing the project. Doing it right, I’m told, entails a less than...
Fishing Century Lake 1
A brace of ducks skittered off the water as we rounded the first bend in the Musclow River. We had eased slowly into the river from the west side of Job Lake. The ducks flew low with the pines as background and then rose, clearing the tree line into a blue sky where we could see them more clearly before they flew out of sight. Buffleheads we thought, maybe Mergansers. ...
Carpe Diem
Golf has been going well. If you have golfed much at all you know that as a game golf presents great challenges. You can play really well Tuesday, hitting the ball a long way, more or less where you intended, connecting solidly on nearly all your swings, chaining together three or four good shots in a row, putts included, to score well. Try as you might, knowing it’s not true...
Paper Route
My son Dean, out of nowhere, told us long ago at the dinner table he wanted a paper route. He was maybe 11. My kids amaze me. Just when I think I know them, they change. “It’s a hard job Dean. Why do you want to do it?” “I want the money. And I think it will be fun.” He envisioned himself riding his bike briskly down the middle of...
August Shack Report
August is the best month of summer. Things most anticipated come to fruition; tomatoes, BLT’s, peppers, melons, vacations. August is an ending of sorts but a good ending. August is when summers are reflected upon as promise realized. This one, the summer of 2016, was particularly good. I’m turning 65 Saturday, entering the safe harbor of socialized medicine called Medicare, and finally reaching the age in which I’m old enough...
Makers and Takers
A week ago Monday, after returning rented bikes to a bicycle shop early on a sunny morning, my wife and I were sitting outside a kosher donut store in Madison, Wisconsin having mediocre coffee and cold donuts. We were wrapping up four nice days in that town, which as a state capitol is about as unlike Illinois’ as you can imagine. Had I been forced to make overnight stays and...
Out of Selfishness
Out of selfishness, I want to talk to you about something important. It will sound preachy. There will be imperative sentences. I don’t know how else to say this. You need to sleep. You need to make sure you go into a dark room at night, lie down, and sleep for a long time. Go for a long interrupted period of good sleep. Strive to dream and then remember your...
What was Gained?
I surprise myself sometimes. While I was golfing last Friday someone brought up the state budget in casual conversation and I heard myself go off on a rant. I’m not sure I get out enough. Anyway I recognized it as a rant pretty quickly and managed to contain myself. I hope it didn’t affect anyone’s game. This was Friday morning golf, which is different than Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday afternoon...
Governor Rauner Comes to Ottawa
Illinois state government is wearing me out. I find it hard to keep up. Here’s news from the beginning of June. Illinois’ Governor Bruce Rauner came to my hometown the first Monday in June. He was to speak at city hall at 1:30. After swimming laps at the YMCA I got the Number #6 sandwich at Jimmy John’s drive through (the veggie) for $5. “Any chips, pickles, cookies or drinks...
Garden Report
My garden is doing well. I fenced off the peppers from the rabbits with chicken wire. At first glance that sentence sounds like a recipe; peppers, rabbit and chicken. It’s not. Put it in the category of struggling to coexist and live in peace. We live by a ravine where rabbits flourish. In the winter we have rabbit tracks in the snow all over the backyard and every...
Muhammad Ali
On the night of June 30, 1975 I was hitchhiking in Algeria. I had left Algiers, where I stayed a few days, and was headed to the Tunisian border and ultimately Egypt. I was getting good rides. I was on the main road which was taking me through a sparsely populated coastal plain along the Mediterranean. Villages were small and far apart. Looking back at my world atlas now I...