Replacing the fountain pump was a half-hour job that I procrastinated on for over a year. There was no good reason; I just didn’t get around to it. But last week, a minor miracle on the porch finally brought the water back—and taught me a surprising lesson about peace.
Continue reading “Sounds of Silence”
The summer Solstice is today, June 21st. Actually, it was at 4:24AM this morning. Here in the DC area, this longest day of the year stretches almost fifteen hours between sunrise and sunset. While it marks the official start of summer, I always feel a touch of sadness as well. A wistful emotion that is silly, and yet…
Continue reading “Summer Solstice”All – I don’t usually post from other bloggers, but made an exception in this case. My old friend Mark Dunavan has an ongoing blog about financial issues. He just penned this piece concerning IPOs. If you want to gain a bit more understanding about IPOs, especially given SpaceX and the other upcoming AI IPOs, you may want to give it a read. This piece isn’t political, but more nuts and bolts. I think you will find it interesting.
You can read it here: https://marksmacromusings.blogspot.com/2026/06/beware-of-ipos.html
My wife Cathy is a certified badass. Seventy years old, she still does CrossFit regularly, while I only get my exercise from peaceful walks in the woods. I was thinking about this in the weeks leading up to our 48th anniversary on June 16th.
Continue reading “Cathy, The Badass”
A small mystery – Recently, I ordered a used book online. When it arrived from Texas, I was surprised to see the book was from a library in Pennsylvania. A card inside the book showed someone checked it out on November 8th, 2025, and it was due on the 29th. It never returned. What happened? A book thief? This required some digging.
Continue reading “A Small Mystery”
Our friend Colleen decamped to Panama last week. Not for a vacation, but to live there. While Colleen has long planned a move to Central America after retirement, events here in America accelerated the timeline. Unfortunately, Donald strikes again. We will miss her and her spirit.
Continue reading “Colleen”
It was raining hard our last day in Singapore. We had planned to walk around their famous Botanic Gardens, but scrapped that idea with the rain, and came up with an alternative – visit Long Bar and have a Singapore Sling at the place where they invented the drink in 1915.
Continue reading “An Afternoon at Long Bar”
As we left Labuan Bajo, it was raining. It almost felt like our three days on The White Pearl were a pleasant, but fading dream in the mist. Snorkeling, baby sharks, an early morning hike to see sunrise from a mountain top, thousands of bats, and Komodo Dragons were all a part of this chapter.
Continue reading “Here Be Dragons”
Our hunting of the Pygmy Elephants in Borneo was more difficult than hunting African Elephants in Botswana or Zimbabwe. In fact, we almost didn’t see any. We were down to our sixth and final safari before we were lucky and magic struck. It was worth the wait and we had an amazing hour of viewing.
Continue reading “Pygmy Elephants”
In February, I wrote a blog about Trump and racism. At the end I said, “I have written several blogs about racism here in America. I have to say, they don’t seem to do much good.” Afterwards, my friend, Andrea Codd, sent me wonderful words of encouragement I would like to share. They are a lesson for all of us.
Continue reading “Keep Speaking Out”
Live Life Exuberantly 