Archive for September, 2009

There are many, many ways to get dead here. The most obvious are gravity-assisted: sudden pits, false floors, collapsing beams. But there are also many serrated edges, rusty pointed pipes that reek of lockjaw and gangrene; ragged glass and naked edges of sheet metal. It is no wonder Baker County has stenciled DANGER PELIGRO on [...]

It’s harvest time at Pencilhaven. The air is full of excitement; our back deck a hive of industrious activity. For at least three to five minutes. This year we are going to make wine again! Our Pinot gris vine is in its third leaf (probably) and has matured its first crop. Our low-yield viticultural goals [...]

This is for anyone who is languishing on steroids and is puffy or greasy or bloated or sad or sleepless or hopeless or mad. This is what I felt like on steroids, one year ago: Granted, that is a particularly unflattering photo. This one was taken yesterday: So all of you on steroids: take hope. [...]

In the quotidian tides that struggle against balance, one sad item washed out to sea is my time to pause and record the things I have read and seen and done. A summary will have to suffice, playing here the part of ersatz analysis. Yesterday I was at a conference in which I played a [...]

Where there’s not much Merlot anymore and the grapes often grow on trees. Thursday: My mobile phone rang and it was Cloud Four’s retirement-handling investment managers, again, calling to prompt me to continue on the apparently endless task of moving our company’s SimpleIRA plan away from the horror that is ADP. “Can’t talk,” I said, [...]