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Monthly Archives: January 2017

Smiles of my Brother’s Daughters

Sat, 21 Jan 2017, 07:49 PM (-06:00)

The sky was blue. The sun was high in the sky. And these were the smiles of my brother’s daughters.

E. Cernan

Mon, 16 Jan 2017, 09:16 PM (-06:00)

RIP E.Cernan. Oh, that we might have returned before you left.

Turn Out the Lights

Mon, 16 Jan 2017, 11:00 AM (-06:00)

We made New Year’s cards this year that had a cover with the image of the sun sitting on the horizon. We left if up to the viewer to derive a meaning — something like Ben Franklin’s observation about George Washington’s chair. If I know the fair and industrious Trudy well, her preferred interpretation might […]

The Gentle Chimes

Sun, 15 Jan 2017, 10:20 PM (-06:00)

The radar shows pink and purple to the west — the stuff of severe thunderstorms and tornados. The rain hasn’t arrived, yet. There’s no thunder or lightning. The storms are approaching only slowly and are still far away. Still, the wind is picking up, and the wind chimes hanging from the eves are ringing. And […]

Euler’s Method

Sun, 15 Jan 2017, 05:08 PM (-06:00)

They stood there looking at the blackboard, craning their necks, staring at the equations and the calculations and the trajectories. The white men in their white shirts and skinny early 60s ties and the colored computer Katherine Goble Johnson. They puzzled over math they didn’t know — elliptical to parabolic trajectories. And then her eyes […]

Helicopters or Something

Sun, 8 Jan 2017, 07:05 PM (-06:00)

My brother: Four helicopters flew over our house again — the usual. Me: Black? Him: Olive. Me: Black olives! Him: Pizza. Me: Deep dish? Him: Grilled cheese actually. With tomato soup. Me: Ha! That’s what we had for lunch. No olives. …pause… Me: Our furnace is on the blink. Blower kaput. Lucky we got good […]

Frames of Mind

Tue, 3 Jan 2017, 02:04 AM (-06:00)

1. A purple hoodie. He was wearing a purple hoodie and running along the sidewalk. Two of his friends were nearby, one ahead of him looking back, the other running alongside. It was a sunny day at the end of the year. The holidays were just around the corner. And it was the beginning of […]