Category: Everyday Events
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Percentages
It’s very cozy in an Upper West Side apartment on New Years Day. In a short time I was to sit down to a late afternoon dinner of goose. That’s right, goose. Our hostess is a doctor. She was born in Belgium. Also present was a teacher friend of mine who instructs high school students…
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Throw The Lady a Sweater
Normally I’m not averse to looking onto a rooftop of a building and seeing an unclothed female. Normally. However, here it is on New Years Eve and the temperature in New York City is about 20 F, with a wind chill of -36 F. The wind from the Hudson River a few blocks away can…
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How I Forgot My Pain While Walking Down Broadway
I took a baby step over the curb and onto the sidewalk. I poked along like an aged dog. Several days after my back surgery…they said: “Get up. Get out. Walk a little. You’ll get stronger.” My back hurt. It was a #7.5 on the Great Medical Scale of 1 to 10. My only thoughts…
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A Random Meeting On The Famous Steps
I’m in New York City on or about December 6, 2013. We happen to be staying at the Hotel Pennsylvania, located on Seventh Ave. just across from Madison Square Garden. Our hotel is booked solid, so we must move to another place in order to extend our stay for two more days. We go out…
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I’m In Love With Inspector 4
I opened the package several days ago. After giving the contents a quick once-over, I tossed them on the bed of our spare room. The bed held a pile of clothes…it was quite out of control. I glanced at the closet, looking for a coat hanger worthy of my new purchase. I spotted nothing but…
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Look Now, Beauty Can Die in a Moment
And this same flower that smiles today, To-morrow will be dying. –Robert Herrick The end of beauty is strange. The time elapsed can take decades. You look at your wife…you don’t see a sudden change when she turns around to look at you…you don’t even notice the change because it’s slow…too slow for the human…
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Travels 27.2: We Save the Worst Until the Last
Let me make one thing perfectly clear: I fully intended for Travels 26 to be the Grand Finale, but in the confusion, exhaustion and labor of getting back into our house on Friday night, I had forgotten to add the Vital Statistics that I had spent so much time compiling. When I realized this gross…
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Travels 25: We Park the R-Pod Next to a Haunted House and Play a Part in Grassroots Democracy
In the last thirty hours or so, we have made zero forward progress on our trip home. We’re taking a breather, a last stretch before the last stretch, if you get my drift. A gulp of air in preparation for the final sprint to Rainbow Lake, if you take my meaning. We’re staying at our…
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Pacific Northwest Interlude: It’s Almost That Time Again
I’ll be waiting when you’re ready to love me… I’ll put my hands up. —Adele from I’ll Be Waiting. I’m sitting at the kitchen table of my daughter Erin’s house. I just made a Scrabble move against her. She’s sitting at the breakfast counter making Scrabble moves against me. It’s not that we don’t talk,…
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Pacific Northwest Interlude: The Legendary Pumpkins of Washington State
We’re sitting beside Commencement Bay in lower Puget Sound, enjoying a brunch with friends. This is not a “brunch” in the way that the word is thrown around so often these days. We’re provided with Mimosa’s that just keep coming like the tide and enough oysters and shrimp to drive a Maine shell fisherman turn…
patrickjegan 