Late-night cleansing

It’s the day before Moving Day, when all our belongings will be moved back into our rebuilt house. The last interior work is being completed; the workers were delayed by snow, which made it impossible to drive to our house for four days. The empty house is filthy. When I walked in, the hired cleaner, David, … read more Late-night cleansing

1Mbps????

My biggest accomplishment today was that I got a very low level of Internet service for our house. The service, which tops out at 5 Megabits per second download, is what we’ve had for the past nine years living in the mountains. That’s considered very sub-par by national standards – the FCC defines “broadband” as 25 … read more 1Mbps????

New Year’s Eve in Timbuktu

Dec. 31, 1996-Jan. 1, 1997 In Timbuktu, the world is sand. The streets are sand, the houses are sand, the hills beyond are sand. Timbuktu is ancient; it rose from the sand, the sand has taken the place of time. In the twilight, Timbuktu seems as though it could sink again into sand. I walk in … read more New Year’s Eve in Timbuktu

Zen and the art of office design

For many many years, I have had a divided self – torn between the practical and the spiritual, the creative and the logical. I’ve tried so many ways to work it – mostly, by giving a chunk of my time to “work” and another chunk to “art. I grew up seeing this division in the … read more Zen and the art of office design

The weight of my books

I’ve been through a lot with my books. They moved across the country from Ohio to Seattle, across the Pacific Ocean to Dubai, then at last across the Atlantic and up the mountain to our house. Between Tom and I, we have many hundreds of books. One of the things we loved about Azalea was the … read more The weight of my books