Gunshots
Greece, NY 10:21 AM I woke up today to the sound of repeated gunshots. This has been the case for the past few weeks. It’s a weird thing, lying in bed preparing for the day and hearing the rat-a-tat-tat. Lucky for me, I am not in Iraq or Afghanistan or any of the countries where there is constant fighting. I am not in the depressed part of the cities of our country where Americans kill Americans. Where I am currently living is three miles from a police station. And they do their practice range shooting there. My middle class suburban upbringing was not mixed with guns and violence....
Read MorePolitical Ads
Everywhere Please, make them stop! Only a week to go until the web, TV and radio waves are cleared of the political fodder that continues to ramp up in frequency and foolishness. Attack, attack, attack. How about detail who you are and what you’re about in comparison to your opponent? The sad part is that type of advertising probably doesn’t work. An interview subject of political note told me that for our democratic system to truly work, we need an educated electorate. I am an educated person, but I couldn’t go into detail on specific candidates in my area. And I now the large...
Read MoreTime
Rochester, NY 5:18 PM As I sit and type at the kitchen table, the reality of the time change has hit. What was a joyous occasion to many Halloween revelers on Saturday night (an extra party hour), now the night settles in before many are out of work. If the drive home has headlights, that’s normally not a great thing. I am one where the weather can dictate my mood. Darkness, grey skies, and rain bum me out. It was a sunny day here, which helped and is the reason why I’m typing from the kitchen table and not my closed in office. Staring out at the lake puts things in perspective,...
Read MoreSurvivor
Buffalo, NY I just drove to and from Buffalo, NY. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the first snow that we had in Rochester. It was a few minutes of white stuff. Sixty miles west they got two feet of snow, and for October, even for the B-lo, that is rare. And bad. Because the leaves were still on the trees and the snow was wet, the trees couldn’t handle the weight. They showed it on the national and local news and I read about it in the paper, but driving there today, I was amazed by the decimation of the trees. The further west I went on I90, the more limbs and trees were crumpled...
Read MorePainter
Hamilton, Ontatio, CA 1:17 PM The house where I type this sits on land that has been in our family for over 150 years. And I must say, it’s been a great place to be while off the road and writing. Living down south for as long as I did, it’s been awesome to be close to a lot of my family. My parents are here, my sister 20 minutes away, and my aunt, uncle and cousin, next door. As much as I am ready to hit the open road once the book is out, this is a great time in my life. Three years ago the family took a bold step and decided to expand on the cottages that were here. They knocked down...
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