Last year, 2018, was a difficult one for the reasons laid out in the previous two posts. One aspect of my life that was affected was the ability to just lie in bed and read for hours, though that would have been more wholesome than obsessing on puzzles and other mindless occupations. However, here is … Continue reading Dibby Hill Awards 2019

What follows is a series of events that all too clearly show the disintegration of our healthcare system. In my lifetime I have gone from having one of my best friend’s father come to my bedside with his stethoscope to a series of interactions with healthcare providers who barely know you and care even less. … Continue reading A Trip Down the Healthcare Rabbit Hole: Part I

Foolishly perhaps, nine years ago Jeff and I decided to plant bamboo along the west side of our house that faces the windows of a triplex next door, at most 10 feet away. The precious little things grew quickly and screened beautifully. Now however? And in back? For perspective these are about ten feet higher … Continue reading Wrestling Bamboo

April 4, 2018 I have not posted in more than a year. It's partly WordPress. Partly some breakdown in mind. An identifiable breakdown in body leading to a knee replacement in October 2017. Now it's 2018, April 4. Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis on this day in 1968. It is also the date … Continue reading Driving My Stake in the Earth

Since I retired in July 2015, I have been kind of at a loss to say what it is I'm doing.  I am a freelance writer and a novelist, but neither of those provide me with any concrete justification for my existence, especially the latter. My reviews for Chapter 16 are the sole exception. People … Continue reading Protest as a Way of Life

Pistaco: A Tale of Love in the Andes by Lynn F MonahanMy rating: 4 of 5 starsPistaco is a tale of a conflicted young American priest called to the high Andes, where he finds both love and death in the height of the Maoist Shining Path uprising. Pistaco is billed as a thriller, and it … Continue reading Pistaco Review

Dibby Hill Book Awards General Fiction: A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles Young-Adult: This Savage Song, Victoria Schwab Sci-Fi/Fantasy: The Slow Regard of Silent Things, Patrick Rothfuss Non-Fiction: H is for Hawk, Helen MacDonald 2017 List: H is for Hawk, Helen MacDonald 2. The Slow Regard of Silent Thigs, Patrick Rothfuss 3. A Gentleman in … Continue reading Dibby Hill Awards

I wrote this in July. And already, the catastrophe is playing out. Our democracy, this precious freedom we've enjoyed and defended for 240 years, is in danger. ****If Trump is elected, here is how I think it would go down.He wins by a small margin, maybe 46-44, less than a majority because of the Libertarian and … Continue reading Here’s How It Will Go Down UPDATE

Is this the end of civil society, of progressive values, our dreams of a more inclusive, sustainable, just future?This lady's comments on a friend's post last night seem to sum up what has been unleashed upon us, enabled by craven "establishment" Republicans.I am sorry I am a Christian and I voted for him just like … Continue reading Is This the End?