It’s gotten bitterly cold at night. I can’t wait to be back in my basement office at Azalea. The temperatures there plummet every winter. The corner where my desk sat was the coldest square footage in the entire house. Using a thermal gun, I learned that this corner was 10 to 12 degrees colder than Tom’s office. I poked … read more Drawing near the hearth
Category: Shelter
The structures that support us, how they protect us, and what is exposed when those give way. Travel as life experience offers dissolution of shelter, both physical and metaphysical – changes in time frames, cultural identity, architectural meaning, technology, tears in the fabric of society
Price fixing
A kid walks into the barbershop. It’s an old-fashioned, family-run place at the northern edge of Atlanta. Early evening on a weekday, it’s busy. Full of professional guys – consultants, techies, marketing men. I’m waiting while Tom gets his hair cut. The boy’s pudgy, a little bit country. He has thick hair and a square … read more Price fixing
Will the storm ever pass?
While we were eating lunch, my phone buzzed twice. It didn’t sound like a normal text message. EMERGENCY ALERT Tornado warning in this area until 2:15 pm TAKE SHELTER My phone is telling me to take shelter. My gut is telling me that today is a bad day. Tom hasn’t touched his soup yet. We … read more Will the storm ever pass?
Exploding devices
A few weeks ago, Tom’s old iPhone exploded. We didn’t hear it happen. We just opened the drawer one day, and there it was – an exploded iPhone. I discovered it while we were packing for our trip to Lexington, and didn’t have time to figure out the right way to dispose of it. But … read more Exploding devices
Turning off Facebook
This morning I felt that my grasp of reality was slipping away. I had to do something. I identified a major source of my disorientation: Facebook. When you spend hours scrolling through your feed and reading comment threads, your thought process starts to work that way – unfocused, trivialized, random, contentious, fact-free. That’s not the brain I want … read more Turning off Facebook
The Facebook lie
Mark Zuckerberg says that, despite all the fake news it disseminated, Facebook didn’t influence the election. He even called that “a pretty crazy idea.” It would be easy for any media outlet, including Facebook, to claim that each voter is responsible for filtering information in order to make a responsible decision. That’s the essence of individual … read more The Facebook lie
Lives on the line
I woke up next to a veteran. And am so glad he’s alive. Because I’m not a veteran, I’ll never be able to fully understand how Tom survived what he survived as an Army Ranger in the 1980s. I am simply grateful to him for putting his life on the line repeatedly. Not only that – he … read more Lives on the line
How you doing?
I was getting annoyed. The two cars ahead of me at the parking lot exit were taking forever. Daily parking is free so exit usually takes 10 seconds, but not these two – after handing in their ticket, they just sat there. When I got to the booth, I did the same thing. The attendant … read more How you doing?
Eternal vigilance
Today’s penny is a 2000. That’s the first time that Donald Trump ran in a primary election, as a Reform Party candidate. This post was updated throughout the day. Noon. Back at our own polling station – now there’s no line, and the handicapped spot is visible and open. We go in to vote. I fill out … read more Eternal vigilance
Time to change
I hate the time change. Why do we bother? We’re on Daylight Savings Time more than we are on regular time. It makes no sense. When I was a kid, after the Uniform Time Act of 1966, we had Daylight Savings for seven months a year. I remember people being confused by the time change, … read more Time to change