Thursday I took a vacation day. I went to Washington, DC for the day. I hadn’t been in the District since March for Shamrock Fest (though I had been to a baseball game in Bethesda at the beginning of August), and I hadn’t made it to a Nationals game yet this season, and I’d beenContinue reading “A Vacation Day in the District”
Category Archives: Life
A Distant Family Tragedy
People wrote differently a century ago than we do today. I do not mean the mechanics of writing, though yesterday’s manual typewriters and and fountain pens worked differently than today’s word processors and predictive text and text-to-speech. We write faster than our ancestors did because our technology has improved. What I mean is that theContinue reading “A Distant Family Tragedy”
Returning to a Cemetery
Thursday I got the Beetle back. It had been in the shop for a week and a half, after I had broken the key off in the ignition. It should not have taken that long, but the newly cut key Volkswagen sent wasn’t cut properly — keys for the Beetle are laser-etched, for security purposesContinue reading “Returning to a Cemetery”
The Best Week Ever
I broke my key off in the Beetle’s ignition lock last night when I left the office. The Beetle has always had, shall we say, a “sticky” ignition. Sometimes it takes a little fiddling in the lock to turn. I’d actually found that the easiest way to turn it was to turn it from theContinue reading “The Best Week Ever”
Exploring Cemeteries
Last weekend, after the Mid-Maryland Celtic Festival, I drove home by way of Eldersburg, mainly because it was easier to head north to Liberty Road instead of south to I-70. As I approached Eldersburg, I decided, entirely on a whim, to visit the church graveyard where my great-uncle and great-aunt are buried, coincidentally quite closeContinue reading “Exploring Cemeteries”
Musings on a Water Tower
Last Saturday at Farpoint I went to dinner with some friends and their pre-school aged daughter. As we drove up York Road, the preschooler pointed to the west. “Look! A water tower! It’s so small!” I’ve worked in the area for the past ten years. Yet this was the first time I’d really noticed theContinue reading “Musings on a Water Tower”
Frank Delaney, A Reminiscence
The author Frank Delaney has died. He suffered a stroke at his home in Connecticut on Tuesday, and he died on Wednesday. He was 74. Delaney was an occasional guest on Scott Simon’s Weekend Edition Saturday, and that was where I first encountered him. Fifteen-ish years ago — ah, I’ve looked, it was merely twelveContinue reading “Frank Delaney, A Reminiscence”
Loving the World
I had to watch this video a few times before I really got it. It’s a short film, created The Climate Coaltion, a UK organization that fights climate change, that features Charles Dance, Miranda Richardson, Jason Isaacs, and David Gyasi dramatically reciting a poem by Anthony Anaxagorou about the wonders of nature and the threatContinue reading “Loving the World”
Fun With Lightbulb Replacement
Friday morning, my driver’s side headlight bulb blew on the way to work. I noticed, stopped on Shawan Road at the stoplight there that I didn’t have two headlight reflections in the bumper of the car in front of me. Just one. On the passenger side. Hum, I thought. Hum. At the office parking lot,Continue reading “Fun With Lightbulb Replacement”
Photographing a Baltimore Church
I mentioned in yesterday’s post about the Women’s March in Baltimore that I stopped along the way and took pictures of churches. It’s something of a hobby of mine. Sacred architecture speaks to the better angels of our nature, a monument to the human need for community that spans decades and centuries. Most of theContinue reading “Photographing a Baltimore Church”