The Life in My Years

An anthology of life

The year 2024 marked a change in this site, as I veered away from photo blogs. It wasn’t so much that I set the camera aside and lost interest in photography. It was more a function of WordPress affordability and not wanting to shell out the $$$ to support photo blogs. It was also a …

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“My thoughts & prayers were out of network.” ~ A Facebook post reacting to the shooting of Brian Thompson The vitriol was swift and caustic. Not against the gunman, Luigi Mangione, but against the victim, UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson. A Facebook post put up by UnitedHealthcare announcing the death of Thompson received 46,000 responses. UHC …

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Warning: Rough language ahead. After my recent post, I decided I needed some time away. I was poised to crack open the bottle of Polish vodka that I brought from Krakow for my son and to listen to hours of blues but I thought better of it. So I buried myself in a good book …

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It was an unusually large crowd at the Oakland Coliseum on the final day of the Oakland Athletics home season. Some came for the love of baseball. Some came as fans of the team. Others came to pass a sunny afternoon at the ball yard. The rest? The rest was most of the crowd, and …

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“Do they see the lethal insanity of a race to the brink of oblivion, and then over the edge? Apparently not. If they did, surely they wouldn’t be racing to begin with.”― Stephen King, The Dark Tower Disclosure: This past June, I left the Democratic Party and registered as an Independent. I have no intention …

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You can always recognize the road warrior by looking at his arms. The right one, the one that rests on the center console is pale. The left one, the one that rests on the frame of the open window is weather beaten and bronze. October 15th, 2022The morning sun leaps angrily off the concertina wire …

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October 14th, 2022I’m on a one night layover in Prison Town, USA. No, I’m not staying in a 6 x 8 concrete studio, courtesy of the great State of California. I am a less than satisfied guest of the Super 8 Motel, in Susanville, California. It ain’t all that super but we’ll leave the details …

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The exhale was palpable, as if the very earth beneath America’s feet had physically billowed. A massive sweeping sigh of relief as the news broke. Does it make me a bad American that I had to find out from my friend Eden in Toronto? High noon. I’d just returned home from the local coffee joint …

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A loose continuation of the post Incidental Notes From the Road – link here. “I dropped south to New Harmony, Indiana, twelve miles downstream from Grayville, Illinois where I’d spent that first grim night.”From Blue Highways: A Journey Into America, by William Least Heat-Moon. October 12, 2021I’m standing in New Harmony, in front of the …

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There’s a scene in an episode of the drama/comedy, The Bear, in which Sydney, the young sous chef, knocks on the papered over glass door of the restaurant that she and her partner and crew have been remodeling – just a simple makeover, really. She’s spent the day bouncing around Chicago, visiting various restaurants, sampling …

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