Category: Real Personal History
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What Happened at 9:54 PM on September 22?
[The earth and sun at the equinox. Source: Google search.] Are you regular? I mean do you feel in balance? Was everything right as it should be on Saturday last, September 22? Many of you, myself included, will say that nothing is in balance these days. Nothing is as it should be. But let’s leave…
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Adorable Aquatic Mammals Of Rainbow Lake
[Castor canadensis. Source: Wikipedia] beaver n. A large aquatic rodent having thick brown fur, webbed hind feet, a broad flat tail and sharp incisors used for felling trees and building dams. –The American Heritage Dictionary (5th ed.) When late summer arrives here in the North Country and the leaves begin to turn red, gold and…
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Books I’ll Never Finish While I Can’t Sleep
[Source: Google search.] It’s 5:30 am. I just put aside a book that I probably will never finish. And I can’t sleep. I toss. I turn. I stare at the ceiling…at the wall and the glowing numerals of my digital clock. Hypnos has not come to my bedside tonight. Morpheus will not visit me and…
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The Night Lauren Bacall Heard Me Cough
[Photo source: IMDb] I lived for almost thirty years on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It’s an artsy neighborhood. And it’s not uncommon to cross paths with famous people, most often actors. My wife was in the Blockbuster Video store, in line behind Michael J. Fox. “I think your next,” he said to Mariam.…
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The Birch Tree Clock: An Update
After I posted the blog about a clock that my father made from a birch tree in our backyard in Owego, NY., I got some responses. Several people said that it would be a tribute to my father to restore the clock. Refurbish it. Make it come alive again. So, I did it. A friend,…
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An August Omen
Omen n. Something believed to be a sign of good or evil. –The American Heritage Dictionary Can you see it? Between the two large trees…behind the birch. I can see it. I first noticed it a few days ago but held-off saying anything about it. It’s not a cardinal or an oriole. It’s a leaf.…
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It Just Isn’t That Simple
I am waging a war here in the North Country. I am waging a war against spiders. I am the General and I am losing. Look, we bought the house in 2000, but the spiders think they are the real owners. That’s eighteen years of warfare. The two World Wars didn’t last that long. Okay,…
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I’m Not Alone On A Wide Wide Sea
[NOTE TO READERS: I’M REPOSTING THIS BLOG ON MONDAY, JULY 2. IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT MANY OF MY FB FRIENDS DID NOT GET THIS WHEN I FIRST PUBLISHED IT ON JUNE 27. I’VE MADE A FEW CHANGES. SOME PHOTOS ARE OUT OF THE PROPER TIME SEQUENCE.] Sometime in the 1980’s, I…
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Of Time and Distance: A Departing
[Corfe Castle] Yesterday, in the late afternoon, I sat on unmowed grass leaning against a stone wall. I was on the grounds of Corfe Castle in south Dorset. The mason who built my backrest had fitted the stones into their places over 1,000 years ago. There was still a strong sun in the west and…
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