Unsettled – June 1, 2023

June is summer Photo by Mike on Pexels.com Happy June.  In my book, June is summer. Let’s not be impressed by any merchant’s current “’tis the season” campaign or the wisdom of the Naval Observatory.  June is summer.  Go ahead, pour a tall glass of iced tea, with or without sugar and with or without

Odds and Ends – May 30, 2023

graphx: spwilcen Ninety-eight degrees at 4pm.  I did not later check the thermometer to see if it made one-hundred degrees. Deciding spring with its moderate temperatures and gentle breezes was done with us, I talked with the thermostat, suggesting seventy-six degrees would be a good target, down from the eighty-eight it declared for the inside

Everybody Up-to-date? – May 22, 2023

spwilcenski MA: body-shaming; un-PC-ness; cranky old guy language as usual This morning, cold cereal for breakfast.  Bran flakes.  Soggy. Only way to eat them. A timing problem this morning.  I want to wrap quickly and head to the Libarry. Been accused of writing “kind of like so-and-so” so I want to research the level of

Arguing the Chicken and the Egg – May 16, 2023

spwilcen He’s at it again. Not nice. If you’re a gentle person, don’t read any further. Yes, here in the subD I spend a lot of time outdoors working on the yard, chasing rabbits, filling rabbit holes, pulling herbicide-resistant weeds, stabbing dandelions, tending the compost pile, and indeed, mowing the lawn.  Mowing the lawn, what

Surrender – May 14, 2023

spwilcen Carping about the advance of years frequently visits spwilcenwrites.  I have fun with it.  It’s often humorous, at least to me.  Might as well laugh about it, the only alternative being to cry. [Disclaimer: if you think you can eat enough kale and Brussels sprouts, run enough marathons, wear out sufficient Stairmasters, and decorate

Observation – El Condor Pasa – May 9, 2023

spwilcen Condors, vultures, or buzzards – call them what you will, what you’ve called them all your life. Unless, you poor soul, you’ve seen only canyons between Fifth Avenue and Grand Prairie Boulevard, only plains between the grandstands of Burghoff Stadium or McAuliff Pitch. There are technical differences, of course. Arguable specifics declaring one a

Gentle Rain – May 3, 2023

graphx: spwilcen  Flash blog I love a gentle rain. Not a run-of-the-mill spring rain alternating torrents and pauses.  A gentle look-closely to see drops spattering on the back deck, winter isn’t ready to finally toss in the towel and may yet snow or sleet or spend an hour or two salting greening grass with bb-sized

Funeral Shoes – April 28, 2023

graphx:spwilcen MA: LANGUAGE Lexiphobes: Go away. “Funeral Shoes?1 What the hell are Funeral Shoes?” Okay.  I see where that would raise a question. You see While to-and-froing between hunting houses suitable for relo and my soon-to-be-abandoned home, life trapped me with a neither-one trip to attend a funeral.  That is, neither close to my old

Gentle Rain and Ambition – April 25, 2023

graphx: spwilcenBlack Magic when he was but a pup. Yesterday, a rare spit of energy saw me don my funeral shoes and, after re-checking that I’d tightly replaced the mower’s sharpened blade, have at the yard. For the second cutting of this nascent spring. The lawn was lush.  Both front and back yards beg for

You Can Never Go Home Again – April 7, 2023

graphix: spwilcen You Can Never Go Home Again1 That’s how I’ve always heard it.  Which means absolutely nothing, save every time I have returned to the second-most important place for me during my early teen to early twenties years, I hear the line.  In one variation or another it’s repeated to me. In my head.