I left work early this evening. It was snowing heavily, I had finished with a project, and it was a good time to go. There were light flurries in the morning when I left for work. Nothing that amounted to much. At lunchtime, even though it was forty degrees, the snow was heavier. Mainly, though,Continue reading “Wheels Down”
Monthly Archives: January 2019
Gathering Evidence on a Genealogical Puzzle
Today, being a nice day before the polar vortex arrives midweek (or not), I went down to Baltimore for some cemetery exploring. On Monday, I found a reference to my great-grandfather Allyn Gardner in a defunct Baltimore daily German language newspaper. According to a one-line note, he was the witness to a marriage license issuedContinue reading “Gathering Evidence on a Genealogical Puzzle”
The Absence
On Friday, a colleague of mine at work was let go. He had been with the company twenty-two years. A dozen years ago, he was the best mentor I could have had, taking a not-inexperienced writer and turning him into a copywriter. Then he moved into other, consumer-oriented projects, and we didn’t interact every dayContinue reading “The Absence”
A Potential Genealogical Discovery
I found something interesting yesterday, a reference to my great-grandfather in one of Baltimore’s German language newspapers, Der Deutsche Correspondent, on December 1, 1899. Der Deutsche Correspondent was Baltimore’s daily German newspaper, and it was published for nearly eighty years, from the early 1840s to 1918. It reads (translated thanks to Google): Marriage LicensesMarriage licensesContinue reading “A Potential Genealogical Discovery”
Full Moon
The soles of my feet are numb. Tonight is a full moon. Not only that, it’s a lunar eclipse. I went outside to look, and part of the moon was missing. “But that’s true most of the time!” you say, and that’s true; most of the time the moon shows a phase, a waxing gibbousContinue reading “Full Moon”
Winter’s Arrival
It’s a bit chilly. I’d like to stay under the covers all day .. Yeah, definitely a day to spend under the covers hibernating. Bears have the right idea.
Pounding Away at the Keyboard
Last Monday, I started writing a short story. I was driving to work that morning, and idle thoughts played in my head. “What if I took this kind of character, put them in this kind of setting, and told this kind of story?” None of these three things should go together, but sitting in myContinue reading “Pounding Away at the Keyboard”
Bailing on Shamrock Fest
Yesterday, Shamrock Fest announced their 2019 line-up. For me, it didn’t really matter; I’d already decided against attending this year. I was already leaning against attending — Carbon Leaf announced last month part of their 2019 touring schedule, and they had already booked a show on March 23rd that was not at RFK Stadium —Continue reading “Bailing on Shamrock Fest”
Contact
Yesterday afternoon, my buddy Julio Angel Ortiz quote-tweeted this to his Twitter timeline: I thought about it for a moment or three, and one scene came to mind: I ran out of characters while typing that, hence some brutal edits that resulted in the double “and” I noticed five seconds after hitting “Tweet.” The longerContinue reading “Contact”
The Next Secretary of Defense Will Be…?
Reports surfaced today that President Donald Trump is considering Jim Webb, former Secretary of the Navy and later Senator from Virginia, to replace Jim Mattis as Secretary of Defense. Mattis, famously, resigned in protest a few days before Christmas due to the president’s abrupt announcement of a troop withdrawal from Syria. Webb would be anContinue reading “The Next Secretary of Defense Will Be…?”