“See that tree line on the ridge up there?” I shade my brow with one hand and squint into the late afternoon sunlight to look, our last afternoon in daylight saving time. Tomorrow morning we’ll wake to an earlier sunrise and a shorter day. “Yep.” “Now look to the right. See where the trees are missing?” Against the fiery orange western sky, the ridgeline hovers … Continue reading Reflection: O, Asheville
Not too long ago I ordered a subscription to The New Yorker, the three-dimensional paper version. It’s just one of many gifts to myself in recent years that represent an attempt to regain ‘wholeness’ after the financial ruination that marked the end of my first marriage in 2012. I’m savvy enough to know there’s much from that long chapter I’ll never have, or get to … Continue reading Reflection: The Singular Joys of a Paper Magazine Subscription
When I was a young student of archaeology, I recall being gobsmacked by the notion that the curvaceous Tennessee River had changed its course again and again over millennia and the one I knew, the one whose bluff I lived on for roughly a decade and where my kid spent the first few years of his life, probably looked radically different from the river native … Continue reading How a Control Freak Deals With Nature
I have been spending long hours writing, but working on a more ambitious project outside of the blog. It is high time to check in, not quite high summer but sure feels that way. Against all odds, when the atmosphere outside is this oppressive (but not this oppressive), somehow our screen porch has remained a tolerable place to linger over coffee in the morning, iced … Continue reading Sunday Almanac 7.7.24: Summer Is Here
Some 900-plus days into our tenure in coastal North Carolina, and I believe this dog has finally made his peace with the sometimes-oppressive humidity, the stormy nights, rambunctious neighborhood kids, the unpredictable action of the ocean on a good beach day, and all the rest. And while he may not have whole-heartedly embraced all these conditions in his life, like most dogs living their best … Continue reading Reflection: Scout-the-Goldapeake-Retriever at 11½
It is five of five in the morning and I am hanging my head over the sofa from behind it, about to awaken a sleeping chef until I realize he is wide awake. I am driving him to an early appointment at the doctor’s office in an hour for a little thing, so it is time to get moving. He is not fine, he tells … Continue reading Reflection: The Current State of Things
You know that feeling at the end of the day, when the anxiety of that-which-I-must-do falls away… That moment when you think, Oh God, what have I done with this day? And what am I doing with my life? And how must I change to avoid catastrophic end-of-life regrets? […] At the end of my life, I know I won’t be wishing I’d held more … Continue reading Reflection: Why Is ‘Hurrying Never’ So Elusive?
The little yellow radio transmitted only two signals clearly despite its glossy, new façade, one of them Christian talk shows and the other a 24 / 7 classical music station. The child had plastered it with colorful stickers and placed it on the window ledge in her bedroom just behind a pair of gauzy curtain panels. Stretched prone on the carpet, she passed idle days … Continue reading Sunday Miniature 2.25.24
There are stretches of busy highway here and elsewhere in coastal North Carolina where dwellings long abandoned stand in various states of ruin; some are so far gone an observer must look closely to find any evidence at all of the built structure nature seems intent to reclaim. Nor is it unusual for glossy new shopping centers or prosperous neighborhoods to pop up on either … Continue reading Reflection: Forgotten Dwellings, Untold Stories
A certain ‘smart speaker’ makes quick book purchases a tad too easy, doesn’t she? Open email, flip through the Times book review, ask her to buy it now, and Bam! an exciting new read (or a pile of ‘em) shows up on your doorstep in a day or two. To make matters worse, I happen to be a hardcover snob and relent to a paperback … Continue reading Reflection: Exploring the Deep South (Slowly) With Paul Theroux
Carolina Thinklings 