“Mister,” he said. The classroom was full of students milling around in the moments remaining before the bell. “Mister,” he said again. I looked over at him. “She took it to school!” He was talking about his sister. She is very sick and until recently had been getting chemo. The other day, he told me […]
Category Archives: Default
Out In It
Sun, 10 Feb 2019, 02:40 PM (-06:00)
It was in the low 40s, which to be honest almost passes for a “hard freeze” in Central Texas. Break out the winter gear! It was drizzling, and my glasses were speckled with raindrops. I was coming back from a 4 mile run, heading downhill. In the distance, I saw a man walking the other […]
Uncertainty
Sat, 2 Feb 2019, 08:33 PM (-06:00)
It was Saturday just after lunch. Tony was on the floor of our kitchen. There were ice maker parts spread about. When he had arrived, Tony had pulled the ice maker out of our freezer and tested the water supply, which was fine. He mumbled something about how the valve must be ok, so he went to his truck for […]
Sore Throat
Thu, 31 Jan 2019, 10:46 PM (-06:00)
One of the students in class was holding her throat. She had a look on her face as if she hurt. I asked her if her throat was sore. She nodded, squinting her eyes to milk the moment as much as she could. “It’s the little round things,” she said. “Lymph nodes?” I asked. “That’s […]
K
Sun, 27 Jan 2019, 08:35 PM (-06:00)
Thursday Afternoon On Thursday afternoon after school, I was in my room winding down. A few students had been getting help, but they were gone. K came running around the corner. She was in shorts and a jersey and was covered in sweat. She had a smile on her face. “I was worried you might […]
R
Sun, 27 Jan 2019, 01:22 PM (-06:00)
At the end of the day on Friday, they called the faculty together. Afterwards, I walked slowly down the hall. Someone was walking next to me, but we were both silent. I was looking at the floor. I don’t know who it was. And when I got to my room, I wasn’t sure what to […]
Bilobate Planetesimal
Wed, 2 Jan 2019, 02:13 PM (-06:00)
The images have begun to arrive from Ultima Thule as New Horizons begins a long, slow data dump. Lest you misunderstand, this is not one of those.
New Year’s Day
Tue, 1 Jan 2019, 02:23 PM (-06:00)
The strings of gravity are attenuated out there. Out at ultima Thule. Yet celestial music plays even in those farthest reaches. On New Year’s Eve 2018, the spacecraft that visited Pluto approached, encountered and promptly left behind a second celestial body orbiting our sun in the distant, primordial quiet. A body beyond Pluto in the […]
A Small World
Mon, 31 Dec 2018, 08:10 PM (-06:00)
Tonite, New Horizons will scream through the darkness past Ultima Thule.
Going Around the Corner for Coffee
Sun, 9 Dec 2018, 11:48 AM (-06:00)
I went to Ottawa during Thanksgiving to visit my dad. Mainly just to visit. To spend time. I wasn’t much help doing anything other than putting dishes in the dishwasher and carrying stuff out to the car from where they had been staying. But there was one day when my dad and I went to have […]