Wishing or Needing?

Hello from Millworks Coffee Shop, I am in the Quad Cities on the Iowa/Illinois border both to visit family for Thanksgiving as well as complete a major piece of collecting and managing what has been a fragmented first year of retirement. A moment in a coffee shop brings back so many memories from writing aContinue reading “Wishing or Needing?”

Life in Every Breath

Hello at the end of the week, It is difficult to believe we are almost into the year holiday season. This coming week I will fly back to Iowa to spend Thanksgiving with family. Certainly, holidays are a different time for each of us; they bring back memories, which for some are blessed and bringContinue reading “Life in Every Breath”

Seasons and Siblings

Hello from a low-key Friday afternoon The metaphor of seasons is well-known, and its use across the genres of art is extensive. Immediately, Vivaldi’s classic Four Seasons, comes to mind, or another Italian, artist, Giuseppe Arcimbold painted four paintings on the seasons given to HRE Maximillian II. Scottish poet, James Thomson composed poems on tueContinue reading “Seasons and Siblings”

Grandma, I Miss You

Hello from my little corner, Sometimes we are called to remember, to give thanks for those things, places, or events, which in some way influence or define the person we’ve become. I think there are definitely those things or events that are quite easy to point to for me. Collectively, health has been a seriesContinue reading “Grandma, I Miss You”

ABD and Buslife

Hello from the soggy Cumberland Plateau, The last 36 hours or so have been a struggle to get anything done as it has rained off and on since Sunday and now pretty much non-stop for the last day and a half. I had hoped to be on my way back north by yesterday. Now IContinue reading “ABD and Buslife”

Successes, Failures, and In-Betweens = Life

Hello from the bus-build, The morning was not really stellar. I had thought last fall as I pre-ordered things I was making good choices, the morning proved that to be less than accurate. Diesel heaters, what I thought I ordered for my hot water heater (e.g. electric – what I intended – rather than gas).Continue reading “Successes, Failures, and In-Betweens = Life”

Nomad-life and a new Education

Hello from the mountainside, For the last 10 days, and foreseeable future, with a required trip to Pennsylvania sandwiched in, and before another wedding in Georgia, I am at a bus building camp in somewhat North Central Tennessee. The address is technically Spencer, but I am seven miles away or so, on Baker Mountain. TheContinue reading “Nomad-life and a new Education”

Which Direction am I going?

Hello from the Cumberland Plateau and Spencer, TN, I arrived here on Saturday night, almost a week ago, having traveled from the Quad Cities, with a stop in Fenton, Missouri, and then back through the tip Illinois and north to south through the corner of Kentucky. For the most part, the drive was good andContinue reading “Which Direction am I going?”

Lonely Wind

Hello from a Starbucks on Clinton Street, It is in downtown Iowa City, where I once wandered as a student in 1982. Hard to believe it was that long ago, but it is the beginning of another academic year and there are students everywhere. I have been managing things as I work toward getting seriousContinue reading “Lonely Wind”

American Gothic and My Iowa Roots

Hello from rural Mallard, It’s about the end of the day, the sun is setting, I can smell livestock from the hog containment facility down the road, and yes, there are flies (scads of them). It was a productive day as I got the weather stripping for the main bus door ordered, and the majorityContinue reading “American Gothic and My Iowa Roots”