All our tiny backyard pond plans have come together.
Category Archives: Default
Essential Work
Fri, 24 Jul 2020, 05:34 PM (-06:00)
1. Ron We worked in a big room filled with desks and tables. One wall was made out of glass and looked out onto a hallway. This used to be the mainframe room, the 60s era computing technology that got the astronauts to the moon. Our computers were Sun workstations that sat on the tables. […]
I Do
Fri, 24 Jul 2020, 02:39 PM (-06:00)
“I like your writing, except…” “Except what?” “Except that you write so much in the first person. It’s all me, me, me, I, I, I.” “I’m telling stories.” “Stories in which you seem to always have a cameo if not prominent role.” “You’re right. I’m sorry. I do.”
Quite Meta and Very Meta
Fri, 24 Jul 2020, 01:13 PM (-06:00)
1. Tangential Background Years ago, the University of Illinois had a 5-year joint liberal arts/engineering undergraduate program. I was curious. Eventually (some time during my freshman year), and in spite of the Engineering Dean’s pronouncement that “that program is meant for civil engineers who want to build bridges in South America,” I enrolled. What degrees […]
Pest Control
Mon, 13 Jul 2020, 11:08 AM (-06:00)
1. He must have thought we were easy marks. After knocking at the door and stepping back, the salesman started pitching his pest control. “We’re not interested,” I said, turning to close the door. “But,” he said, looking and pointing at the two wasp nests under the eaves. “I know about them,” I said. “We’re […]
Tutoring and More
Mon, 13 Jul 2020, 08:29 AM (-06:00)
1. The End of Dreaming Years ago, something happened in my brain. I stopped remembering my dreams. Stopped remembering so completely that I wake up every day with a blank slate, as if nothing happened all night. Sometimes there’s an echo of a dream. Once or twice, I have recognized where the dream took place […]
Vertigo
Mon, 6 Jul 2020, 08:24 PM (-06:00)
So the end of the massive disk herniation story is this: the back injection worked. Except… that’s not quite the end. Although within days the pain had substantially receded, the fact is that I had been on my back for almost two weeks. And in the process, the crystals in my ear had migrated to […]
Lost and Found Songs
Sun, 5 Jul 2020, 06:56 PM (-06:00)
1. Jotting Down Songs There was a time when I would jot down a song or singer whenever I heard something I liked. Sometimes it was on the last page of the journals I used to keep. Sometimes it was a quickly scribbled note on a notepad. Sometimes it was on the outside of the […]
While Mozart Plays
Sat, 4 Jul 2020, 09:50 PM (-06:00)
We play Mozart to mask the explosions of fireworks in an effort to settle Izzy down. The industrious Trudy having returned from a walk with Izzy just as dusk was settling and only a few firecrackers were popping, we thought Izzy might be worn out enough to not care about the noise. But she cared. She […]
How I Leaned On Khan Academy
Tue, 16 Jun 2020, 03:51 PM (-06:00)
As I already said, days and events are jumbled up, but that’s not significant. Let me tell you one more thing about the lessons, and then next time I’ll wrap up this pain-in-the-back story. 1. Grace Over Grades Our grading philosophy for the last ten weeks of the school year was grace over grades. I […]