Archive




2024-03-28 Nick Cotaggio: I always assumed that if the American right were to embrace an authoritarian …

2024-03-28 Christopher Yates: The polish applied in adjectival designation inclines one to believe that a …

2024-03-26 It’s all in the ears

2024-03-25 “Fear and vigilance are not the bedrock of healthy communities.”

2024-03-24 Portland cityscape, post ice storm

2024-03-24 He he. Locals…

2024-03-24 In Maine whether it rains or it snows, or any time the wind blows, there can be little doubt the …

2024-03-22 I dreamed a dream in time gone by, When hope was high and life, worth sniffing.

2024-03-21 Peter W. Walker: The “golden legend” and the “black legend” are mirror opposites, but they …

2024-03-21 Mary Oliver: That his methods are endlessly suggestive rather than demonstrative, and that their …

2024-03-20 Nick Cotaggio Finding dignity in politics is like finding jewelry in a sewer system. There’s some …

2024-03-18 “Everyone is now chasing power. They are willing to look everywhere for it.” Call me an …

2024-03-18 Kitchen Chalk Talk

2024-03-17 Finished reading: Iron John by Robert Bly 📚 What a very, very weird book. And weirdly rich. Some …

2024-03-17 Patient puppy dog

2024-03-16 Official Backyard Overseer

2024-03-14 Happy New Book in the Mail Day! Celebrate accordingly.

2024-03-09

2024-03-08 Alexei Navalny: “If your convictions are worth anything, you should be ready to stand up for them, …

2024-03-05 This one always gets me

2024-03-03 Instant friends • A very low tide at Higgins Beach yesterday

2024-03-02 Kitchen Chalk Talk

2024-03-02 There’s a fern in the frost

2024-02-28 “I see many squirrels, and treats, and belly rubs in my… I mean your future.”

2024-02-28 “Patient Trust,” a prayer from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Above all, trust in the slow work of …

2024-02-27 Looking out from Bunker Hill onto Damariscotta Lake

2024-02-26 I recently stumbled on a quote/clip from Austin Kleon, one of those grand simplicities that …

2024-02-25 Rockland Harbor

2024-02-25 On passivity: The average American child by eighteen has seen four thousand hours of commercials, …

2024-02-12 “What? You guys sit like this.”

2024-02-09 Currently Reading: The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram 📚 Caught up in a mass of abstractions, …

2024-02-08 “What do you mean this is not my spot?”

2024-02-07 Fun to think of how much playful, generative space there is in Leah Libresco Sargeant’s phrase …

2024-02-07 Titles can be so much a part of a poem. I love this from Billy Collins for instance: Just as the …

2024-02-06 Getcha Bean boots on

2024-02-04 Kitchen Chalk Talk • “…and this something makes demands on us.”

2024-01-31 [W]hile beauty is something whose event can be remarked upon, and in a way that seems to convey a …

2024-01-24 It snows because the wind wants to be water, because water wants to be powder and powder wants to …

2024-01-23 “Most so-called innovations are now anti-progress by any honest definition.”

2024-01-14 Kitchen Chalk Talk • I think this is a pretty damn good epigraph for this year

2024-01-13 Finished reading: The Character of Virtue by Stanley Hauerwas 📚 If I have any advice, it is simply …

2024-01-12 A brief New Year’s in-lieu-of-newsletter newsletter — nothing, nothing, nothing will ever be the …

2024-01-08 Tyrannus T. Twostroke • A simple job for a simple engine

2024-01-08 Matthew B. Crawford: Superficially, litter and the rusting carcasses of salvaged cars are both an …

2024-01-07 Snow day activities

2024-01-07 “Gotta stretch for these snow zooms.”

2024-01-07 Justin Giboney: If our public witness votes and lobbies but doesn’t testify, if it debates and …

2024-01-06 D-Day + 9

2024-01-05 Well this is a first. Is there a name in rummy when the deck is out and all the cards have been …

2024-01-02 My dad wrote riddles and poetry for any number of annual events growing up. And I see he has not …

2024-01-01 January’s kitchen table clutter • Part of an attempt to read fewer things online. I’ve been …

2023-12-30 Life is complicated. It is simplifying but dangerous to have one overriding concern that makes …

2023-12-29 Oh Stink/Screw the Dealer — some close scores this year!

2023-12-28 The time for excuses is over • Gearing up for a very new year. There are a lot of dumb phone options …

2023-12-28 Signs and symptoms of a Euchre deck

2023-12-27 Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, Bethlehem, West Bank (Source) Frederick Buechner: As you …

2023-12-26 Dietrich Bonhoeffer: If only during this time bitterness and envy have not corroded the heart; that …

2023-12-24 Shear coastal madness

2023-12-24 Bacon-wrapped dates — also known as, just another excuse to eat bacon

2023-12-22 David Bosworth: But should you be tempted to purchase in advance a ticket-to-ride on Musk’s …

2023-12-21 “Conversation at its best is the encounter of difference, not as a contest, but as an act of loving …

2023-12-20 Tweedledum and Tweedledee

2023-12-19 Photo from a friend in Hallowell. That’s the highest level in 25 years. The flood standard for the …

2023-12-19 “We seem only happy enough to be partners in the abolition of the body.” — This is one of the …

2023-12-17 Mary Oliver: The second world—the world of literature—offered me, besides the pleasures of form, …

2023-12-17 The “comforts” of home.

2023-12-10 Rangifer Canis familiaris

2023-12-09 Christian Wiman: I want to write a book true to the storm of forms and needs, the intuitions and …

2023-12-09 !!!!!!!

2023-12-07 Group polarization (/every public conversation) in 15 seconds.

2023-12-05 Currently Reading: The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Paul Elie 📚 At its best, it is writing that …

2023-12-04 Lights are up, our single ornament and improvised tree topper placed with précision. But I’ll always …

2023-12-03 Last week I finally got around to christening the kitchen chalkboard. After quickly flipping through …

2023-12-02 The soft consonance of a waterfowl floating in the foggy, feather-calm final minutes of low tide on …

2023-11-30 Happy pup at Pemaquid

2023-11-29 Finished Reading (2023): Culture Care by Makoto Fujimura 📚 Simple and elegant, pointing clearly …

2023-11-24 Post-Thanksgiving reminder:

2023-11-23 … When the power is restored, transfer the roast to oven, resume normal cooking activities, play …

2023-11-23 And when the power is not returned to thee at the appointed time, light thine charcoals in order to …

2023-11-23 The second rule is to continue to relax. Light some candles and play a couple games of cribbage.

2023-11-23 When the power goes out just before cooking Thanksgiving dinner, the first rule is not to panic. …

2023-11-23 I have had four jobs today: Read books ✔️ Go for a walk ✔️ Make whippy cream ✔️ Read more books ✔️ …

2023-11-21 Sometimes, you just can’t finish the chapter

2023-11-21 Alan Jacobs: “Even as we try to keep the humanities-in-the-university afloat, I think we need to …

2023-11-21 If only it were that simple.

2023-11-19

2023-11-18 Rainy day shenanigans

2023-11-18 Kay Ryan: It is common to suppose that anyone whom one is not is predisposed to like her lot— that …

2023-11-18 October (s)newsletter/Better-late-than-never letter! I’ve wondered if I’ll keep writing …

2023-11-18 Jack’s “I had to go pee in the rain” face. “Why? They know I don’t like the rain. And I …

2023-11-17 “This is my dirt pile. There are many like it, but this one is mine.”

2023-11-09

2023-11-06 Halfway there

2023-11-06 It ain’t ya house till you’ve had to get up on the roof for somethin’.

2023-11-05 Late fall rose bloom

2023-11-05 Forecast: leaves

2023-11-04 A faithful man who’s never let me down • Dad, working on our first cord for the winter 🪵🔥

2023-11-04 UFO landing

2023-11-03 Yet another (unsurprising) reason why I love Billy Collins. Over the poem is a quote from a book …

2023-11-03 Nice view from the public house

2023-11-02

2023-11-01 “I’m Jack Sonville, and I approve of—what’s that smell?”

2023-10-31 A thought while reading Billy Collins in a hotel in Juba.

2023-10-31 A rippled, peaceful pause between the tides

2023-10-30 Paging @ablerism Sarah Hendron!! Below is a newspaper clipping my grandmother saved from, we think, …

2023-10-29 Some photos from Popham Beach. It’s good to be home

2023-10-28 Happy place

2023-10-27 Apparently Jack has a green thumb

2023-10-26 8-year-old me. This expression still pretty much covers how I feel most of the time

2023-10-25 Digging out the storage at my parents’ house and found some evidence of a 5th grade science …

2023-10-24 Just another morning in New Harbor

2023-10-23 First Second clear night over the river

2023-10-19

2023-10-19 Now I’m home

2023-10-18 Damariscotta tide, going out

2023-10-17 Some photos from Meghan last week. Jack’s fitting right in to Coastal Maine

2023-10-16 Final approach home

2023-10-15 Other worlds, other lives, even though so different from our own, have the power of arousing the …

2023-10-15 Headed back to the states from South Sudan and catching up on the news — ie, spending time behind …

2023-10-15 Me: I need help setting up reminders on the phone. Meghan: You don’t know how to set up reminders?? …

2023-10-15

2023-10-14 … clack-clack, and something that never was before comes into being … F. Buechner

2023-10-11 View of the White Nile out the window of the DC-3

2023-10-11 A Three for a taxi • From yesterday’s ride-along in the 1945 Douglas DC-3 to pick up patients in …

2023-10-09 Walking with

2023-10-07 OSHA-certified signage • These little M7s have pulled their weight. There’s four of them that have …

2023-10-06

2023-10-05 September (s)newsletter!

2023-10-03 Nashville is taller than I remembered her

2023-10-03 These lands are bad

2023-10-02 The Moon illusion, Rushmore edition. In the second photo, I’m standing about a football field’s …

2023-10-01 Heat lighting and sprites, going south on 29 toward Omaha on 09/29. Once we turned a little more …

2023-10-01 Sleepy dog

2023-09-30 Number 23, chillin with number 6 and number 7

2023-09-30 We made a quick stop at Gutzon Borglum‘s “Shrine of Democracy” yesterday — or “Shrine of Hypocrisy,” …

2023-09-29 Contrast • The near black and white sunrise before sunrise over eastern Montana

2023-09-28

2023-09-27 “This was an era of shivering jemmy on the high fly munging for a bit of cagmag, when pure finders …

2023-09-26 “A counter-reality in the scales” — my now favorite way to think about thinking

2023-09-25 Action shot • A brilliant header, or a goofy dog who can’t catch? When in doubt, go with brilliance

2023-09-25 Donations to the walking-path library. I thought I’d be lightening the book bin a lot more for the …

2023-09-24 Olivia Sokolowski: Our national obsession with certain smells is returning alongside autumn. …

2023-09-22 Going-to-the-Sun Road • A snapshot Meghan took out of the sunroof two years ago

2023-09-21 Back-sleeper

2023-09-20 Geoff Dyer: It is possible, as you don’t need me to tell you, to buy almost any book on the …

2023-09-20 This is a very good and concise and important critique of Airbnb, Inc. But it’s also an old one! I’m …

2023-09-19 Wild dog, untamable beast, living life on the edge

2023-09-18 Fabric • The one pair of jeans I’ve had with me for the last 8 months. You don’t know how little you …

2023-09-17 Sunny Sunday stroll

2023-09-17 Miso Oatmeal • Zero points for presentation, but finally got around to trying one of Audrey Waters’s …

2023-09-16 📚 💬 Kay Ryan:

2023-09-15 😊

2023-09-15 Drinking dog on Drinking Horse • Jack Dog is not generally interested in drinking out of plastic …

2023-09-15 Please, Ted, there has to be another way. Anything but that. 🤓

2023-09-14 Statue of Florence Martus, the Waving Girl, in Morrell Park, overlooking the Marsh Island Channel in …

2023-09-13 Glowing in the dark — naturally and manually

2023-09-11 Meghan: Why does my stance look so weird? Me: I used the wide angle. Meghan: You can’t put a …

2023-09-10 Winter cycles in Baxter State Park • From 2019, sundown at Abol, gearing up sleds and “fatbikes” for …

2023-09-10 Currently Reading: Aimless Love by Billy Collins 📚 I think this is my favorite piece of cover art …

2023-09-09 August (s)newsletter!

2023-09-07 Panorama atop Storm Castle

2023-09-06 Well, it appears we have a standoff (Jack won; the gopher got bored after 3 minutes and moved on)

2023-09-04 A very orange sunset • A shot Meghan took in September 2020, off the Western Promenade in Portland, …

2023-09-03 Precious — by every definition

2023-09-02 Swimmy dog • A lot of buildup to the this moment

2023-09-01 It can be difficult to interpret canine facial expressions, but me thinks Jack was not looking …

2023-09-01 Abstract Ort 🤓

2023-08-30 Seamus Heaney: [W]hatever the possibilities of achieving political harmony at an institutional …

2023-08-27 📚 Felice Benuzzi: To be perfectly honest, there were occasions when the thought of our impending …

2023-08-27 📚 Felice Benuzzi: Forced to endure the milieu we seemed almost afraid of losing our individuality. …

2023-08-27 📚 Felice Benuzzi: Time was no longer considered by the average prisoner as something of value to be …

2023-08-27 Currently Reading: No Picnic on Mount Kenya by Felice Benuzzi 📚 The night sky was clear. There was …

2023-08-27 Laaazy morning

2023-08-26 Kay Ryan: It’s such an interesting paradox: we can see a voice; we hear through the eyes. But …

2023-08-26 There is no learning; only doing. ~ Jack Sonville ~

2023-08-26

2023-08-25 Some related things on the significance of “ideals."

2023-08-25 Kay Ryan: But here’s the thing: the thing that’s exactly right may be a tiny part of a …

2023-08-22 Some really impressing views watching a storm move through the Canyon today. This first one was on …

2023-08-22 Let’s go north, and leave this Phoenix heat behind

2023-08-22 The Toasted Owl in Flagstaff • A side-menu worthy of Jack’s refined tastes

2023-08-21 The sign of a good “a.m. eatery”

2023-08-20

2023-08-19 Apostrophe: the addressing of a usually absent person or a usually personified thing rhetorically …

2023-08-19 Currently Reading: Synthesizing Gravity by Kay Ryan 📚 I have loved a few of Kay Ryan’s poems for a …

2023-08-17 Lots of murals in Phoenix. Like this one, on the old Channel 5 building on 1st Ave, with interesting …

2023-08-15 Somewhere south of Salt Lake

2023-08-13 Goat-a love a good sunrise, eh?

2023-08-09 A law of the universe, as true as any other: “If I make this face, you have to scratch my head.”

2023-08-07 Somebody wants to be friends

2023-08-07 July (s)newsletter!

2023-08-06 Highfalutin fido

2023-08-05 Finished Reading (2023): Natality: Toward a Philosophy of Birth by Jennifer Banks 📚 An excellent …

2023-07-31 Marilynne Robinson: It has seemed to me sometimes as though the Lord breathes on this poor gray …

2023-07-30 Simple things

2023-07-30 Mornings are the best

2023-07-29 Pioneer Falls

2023-07-29 Finished Reading: Neither Beast Nor God: The Dignity of the Human Person by Gilbert Meilaender 📚 …

2023-07-28 This is how much Jack enjoys TV

2023-07-27 Finished Reading: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson 📚 Third time in this book, and I love it equally each …

2023-07-25 I love biking to and from work every day. Every time, it reminds me of my home state slogan, “The …

2023-07-22 One of my favorite things about weekends/days off is the tempo: the no-rush sips of coffee over a …

2023-07-16 <3

2023-07-14 Puppy dog

2023-07-10 Before the downpour and wind started, there was a good 10, maybe even 15, minutes of nonstop …

2023-07-09 Bitchin’ book day 🤓

2023-07-09 “I think I’ll lay right . . . here.”

2023-07-06 The essentials

2023-07-04 David Dark: To the extent that we aspire to bear witness to beloved community, our hopes for …

2023-07-01 Everyone gets ice cream this weekend

2023-06-30 Oreamnos americanus: the true mountaineer

2023-06-30 Sacagawea Peak

2023-06-29

2023-06-26 Currently Reading: Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times by Jonathan Sacks 📚

2023-06-25 Finished Reading: Balkan Contextual Theology by Stipe Odak 📚 Tremendous. Refreshingly complex and …

2023-06-25 Looking down on Big Sky

2023-06-24 Goofball

2023-06-23 Andrew H. Miller: Reading stories is one way we explore attitudes of attachment to ourselves. . . . …

2023-06-23 Fairy Lake

2023-06-20

2023-06-19 Balloons • These guys fly (float?) around Bozeman a lot

2023-06-19 I’m rereading Gilead for a little bookclub with friends and really enjoying it. One of Robinson’s …

2023-06-17

2023-06-16 Sometimes the simplest juxtapositions do an immense amount of work. Bonhoeffer, for example: “bear …

2023-06-13 Montana morning

2023-06-13 True North Cafe, Livingston, MT

2023-06-12 Jack’s gopher-scented breathing excercises are getting out of control.

2023-06-11 Pals

2023-06-10 Lady Bug

2023-06-10 Finished Reading: On Lying and Politics by Hannah Arendt 📚 I have only ever dabbled in my reading of …

2023-06-09 “Arrogance of mind” (as defined by Hannah Arendt): an utterly irrational confidence in the …

2023-06-09 Trying to buy a house in today’s market feels… dirty. When every house bid has to be 30–100k over …

2023-06-09 Daydreaming

2023-06-04 Wendell Berry:

2023-06-02 Honey bee

2023-05-30 DB: Quantities compete for space; qualities complement one another.

2023-05-30

2023-05-29 Walter Russell Mead: “I don’t think America’s biggest problem is that we are divided between two …

2023-05-29 Winter-Spring contrast at Lava Lake

2023-05-28 Emerald green at the M trail

2023-05-28 Afternoon anti-inflation project (with instructions) • I’m close enough to work here in Bozeman to …

2023-05-25 Storms over Belgrade

2023-05-25 Throwback Thursday: The air band episode of Scrubs, which was absolutely iconic and hands down the …

2023-05-24 Finished Reading: American Journal by Tracy K. Smith 📚 I loved carrying this little anthology around …

2023-05-23 Scenes from our favorite Bozeman after-work walk, Drinking Horse Trail

2023-05-21 The narrative repeated by officialdom got established before the facts were in, and went on to play …

2023-05-21 Fresco Café by Bozeman Creek

2023-05-20 Currently Reading: Why We Drive by Matthew Crawford 📚 I’m a couple chapters in, and so far …

2023-05-19 Outside smiles

2023-05-18 Bonhoeffer: There, where we trust, we have learned to place our lives in the hands of others; …

2023-05-18 Dreaming of walks, of smells, of gopher holes and dog parks—oh, all that unmarked territory, …

2023-05-18 Blood moon? Or smoky sunrise?

2023-05-17 Finished Reading: Repair by C. K. Williams 📚 that something in the rest of us, some doubt about …

2023-05-16 Consider this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer an addendum to my post about Psalm 11: We may not and …

2023-05-15 Stopped by Idaho Falls on the way to Salt Lake over the weekend. The downtown by Snake River is as …

2023-05-14 “The tree is really rooted in the sky.” – Simone Weil

2023-05-14 Finished Reading: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy 📚 I need more fun novels like this in my …

2023-05-12 Oh Tetons, you big, beautiful rocks • Sighting on the road south to Salt Lake

2023-05-11 New banner for the (s)newsletter. Planning to give Buttondown a try going forward

2023-05-11 Keep the rain coming

2023-05-04 Finished Reading (2023): The Redress of Poetry by Seamus Heaney 📚 Ten perfectly and wonderfully …

2023-05-04 🙂

2023-04-30 Triple Tree Trail, overlooking Gallatin Valley

2023-04-29 Mountains Walking Brewery • The tater tot nachos were placed before me, I blacked out, and now they …

2023-04-29 Fun time last weekend with my parents visiting from Maine during their road-trip vacation. Touring …

2023-04-24 From Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams: The aurora borealis, pale gossamer curtains of light that …

2023-04-24 First personal sighting of an aurora last night. This is unedited, but I think the long exposure …

2023-04-23 Paw pillow

2023-04-19 Put down the pen, please. Less booky, more walky.

2023-04-16 Finished Reading: Atomic Habits by James Clear 📚

2023-04-16 Half ostrich, half dog • Between the pocket gophers, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, and/or …

2023-04-16 Finished Reading (2023): On Getting Out of Bed by Alan Noble 📚

2023-04-16 Finished Reading (2023): Life Worth Living by Miroslav Volf 📚

2023-04-16 Finished Reading (2023): Quiet Power & Quiet The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t …

2023-04-15 Yawning or singing?

2023-04-15 Bunny-ear vigilance

2023-04-14 Northeast strip of the Madison Range, viewed from Lone Mountain

2023-04-12 Waiting for dad

2023-04-12 Waiting for mom

2023-04-11 Monday’s sunrise over Bridger Ridge

2023-04-06 Head scratches are da best

2023-04-03 Out on the sunny Sunday town

2023-04-02 Happy hikers

2023-04-01 Alan Jacobs, Thomas Jefferson, and the liberal arts—a thought.

2023-04-01 Jack has recently decided that he deserves a seat in the front and has claimed the armrest as his …

2023-03-31 Chopstick practice at Dave’s Sushi

2023-03-30 When a prepositional phrase just says it all:

2023-03-27 Support • Picture in a hotel lobby in Jackson, WY (This is how I plan to hike The Grand with Kyle …

2023-03-26 Can you imagine eating snow without the slightest hesitation, without even one cell or synapse …

2023-03-26 A Tale of Two Blogs, or, why I keep two blogs.

2023-03-25 Finished Reading: The Home of God by Miroslav Volf 📚 The New Jerusalem does not compensate for …

2023-03-25 Bridger Bowl • Powderiest pow pow day ever

2023-03-24 “Does this angle make my nose look big?”

2023-03-22 I am a liberal—firmly liberal.

2023-03-19 Jonathan Raban, Richard Wilbur, and Christian Wiman—a thought on what was missing in Raban’s …

2023-03-19 “I’ll be waiting right here by the stairs whenever you decide it’s time to go to …

2023-03-18 Finished Reading: Every Riven Thing by Christian Wiman 📚 For I am come a whirlwind of wasted things …

2023-03-18 Sunrise hike to Lava Lake

2023-03-17 New cataracts under the portico in Maban, South Sudan (January 2020) • You should see them dance …

2023-03-12 Shiny day

2023-03-12 Reread Annie Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels” this afternoon. So good. Living: …

2023-03-12 Finished Reading: Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban 📚 “…sketching a …

2023-03-09 Dabbling together • Idaho Falls, August 2021

2023-03-08 Corbet’s Cabin/Top of the World Waffles • Yes, waffles do taste even better at 10,450 feet …

2023-03-08 No lift here. Just take off ya skis ‘n walk, bub.

2023-03-07 Rendezvous Mountain • Can see a whole lot of mountains from up here

2023-03-06 East End, Portland, ME, looking out toward Fort Gorges in 2015 • When it comes to engineering, …

2023-03-06 Skinning up Snow King

2023-03-05 “And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting”

2023-03-05 My dream • Books before boards (skis) in Jackson, WY

2023-03-05 Tile (Eastern Idaho style)

2023-03-04 A little Saturday afternoon anti-inflation sewing

2023-03-03 Call of the Wild

2023-03-03 Weather(ed)

2023-03-03 Solitude

2023-03-02 Buffler Woods

2023-03-02 Back on The Ghee, looking down into Teton Canyon

2023-02-28 Jupiter and Venus, saying hi to each other

2023-02-28 Finished Reading: Thin Places: A Natural History of Healing and Home by Kerri ní Dochartaigh 📚 Thin …

2023-02-27 “Wake we when you guys are done reading”

2023-02-27 Reunited

2023-02-26 A very good Lenten poem

2023-02-25 Every single time that I type “Wednesday,” I say to myself, “wed · nuhz · …

2023-02-22 Chillin

2023-02-20 📚 Finally! I have looked for Richard Wilbur in every bookstore in every city I have visited, …

2023-02-20 “Being torn isn’t such a bad way to be." (2-minute clip, worth your time)

2023-02-19 I wrote something about reading a poem by Wisława Szymborska while I was on the way back from …

2023-02-18 Thin Places on Saturday afternoon

2023-02-18 Apparently this is what happens when your “spicy water” freezes in the car. And, upon …

2023-02-18 Finished Reading (2023): The Ethics of Authenticity by Charles Taylor 📚 A necessary reread. A couple …

2023-02-17 Finished Reading (2023): The Ethics of Authenticity by Charles Taylor 📚 This year’s first …

2023-02-15 Don’t sit on the cactus

2023-02-15 Two sides of the same dog

2023-02-13 Glen Canyon Dam in Page, AZ • Lake Powell above, Colorado River 710 ft. below. (Power vs. Water?)

2023-02-13 “Are we to the place yet?”

2023-02-13 Moonrise

2023-02-12 Sunset through the eye of a Cheez-It

2023-02-12 Finished Reading Road-side Dog by Czesław Miłosz 📚 Quirky and often funny poetic prose from one of …

2023-02-12 Rest stop outside Las Cruces

2023-02-11 Cozy copilot

2023-02-10 What a day! • The Superstitions did not disappoint. Great hike. Photos to follow. Back on the road …

2023-02-10 Superstition Mountains • Think we’ll go for a long walk today

2023-02-09 Looking out at Mt. Lemmon from Picacho Peak

2023-02-09 Sunset at Red Rock • 1850 miles in 36 hours (with dog walks, of course). That pointy one is Picacho …

2023-02-08 Crossing the Mississippi

2023-02-07 Early start • The road trip to Bozeman, Montana has begun! Should be working there through spring. …

2023-02-07 Jack, waiting very patiently, and with laser focus, for his official invite to jump in the car

2023-02-04 Engaging the warp drive • Sometimes I think Jack looks like Scrat, the squirrel from Ice Age

2023-02-03 Best ice cream I have ever had

2023-02-03 Two short quotes against the reign of pragmatic politics.

2023-01-31 Blowing Rock awakes

2023-01-29 Don’t let a rainy forecast tell you there won’t be a sunrise

2023-01-29 Daniel Boone Scout Trail to Calloway Peak

2023-01-28 Getaway driver

2023-01-28 Finished Reading (2023): Hope Abandoned by Nadezhda Mandelstam 📚 I loved reading Nadezhda’s …

2023-01-26 Philip Hoare: “It was only after we had seen the Earth from orbiting spaceships that the first …

2023-01-25 Squirrel’s Pizza on Bull • Yes, the true (read: red sauce) pizzas have their own list and yes …

2023-01-24 W. Perry Lane

2023-01-23 Cable-stayed

2023-01-22 Treylor Park tacos

2023-01-21 Epiphytes at Forsyth Park

2023-01-20 “Grand Lady on the Bay”

2023-01-20 Six Pence Pub

2023-01-18 Happy dog • It’s “walk around town” day. Someone is excited!

2023-01-17 I’m trying out different options for posting some small photo albums online. I may eventually …

2023-01-17 A morning with the Mandelstams is never a bad start to the day 🙂☕️📖

2023-01-16 I’m going to be spending a significant amount of time in the next month or so trying to button …

2023-01-16 Finished Reading: The Need to Be Whole: Patriotism and the History of Prejudice by Wendell Berry 📚 …

2023-01-15 Espresso martini at Ardsley Station

2023-01-14

2023-01-13 The Stone Stairs of Death

2023-01-12 Sleepy dog • 7 miles of walking around Savannah, food spots, books, coffee, and watching a mystery …

2023-01-11 I wrote a little something about my goal for this year, which I’m calling The Year of …

2023-01-11 Why do they call it Driftwood Beach?

2023-01-11 Day trip to Jekyll Island

2023-01-10 Late Air

2023-01-09 S’mores night in Port Royal

2023-01-08 The Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist

2023-01-07 The Sands, Port Royal • No shark teeth here

2023-01-06 Happy Place

2023-01-05 Talmadge Memorial Bridge, over the Marsh Island Channel

2023-01-03 Wisława Szymborska:

2023-01-03 Finished reading (2009): The Winter Sun: Notes on a Vocation by Fanny Howe 📚 A thoughtfull work of …

2023-01-03 South and sunny on Whitaker

2023-01-02 E. 46th and Bull

2023-01-01 Driessen Beach, Hilton Head Island

2022-12-30 Dessert for breakfast at Alexander’s Bistro

2022-12-23 E. Bay St.

2022-12-21 Enjoying a medium-roast gift from my Ukrainian friend

2022-12-18 Out on the sunny Sunday town

2022-12-17 Driving over the Talmadge Memorial Bridge, looking down on the G. Washington container ship, sailing …

2022-12-16

2022-12-15 Beer in the nick of time • Getting out of the rain with a Black Butte Porter at The Public in …

2022-12-14 After one month without a phone with or even near me, I can happily conclude that, in spite all my …

2022-12-14 My kind of airport restaurant!

2022-12-14 On my way home again

2022-11-13 False Klamath Cove (28Oct2022) • All my heart lies with these two adventurers

2022-11-08 West of Cheyenne

2022-11-07 On the road again • Left the J-Ville bungalow last week. The west coast was shorter lived than we …

2022-10-26 On Mt. Ashland, looking out toward Shasta, after a nice fall “rain” storm

2022-10-24 No bike or dog left behind

2022-10-22 Friends

2022-10-22 Top of Mt. Ashland • 5,000 ft. of blow-your-shocks-out descent. Two shoulder injuries this summer on …

2022-10-08 Finished reading (2021): Small Wonder: Essays by Barbara Kingsolver 📚 Been picking at this one for …

2022-10-04 Finished reading (2021): Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver 📚 I don’t …

2022-10-02 Thoughts from Jack • “Are you guys done playing Euchre card game yet?”

2022-09-29 Little Bear, Wee Bear, and Jack

2022-09-28 Camping at Big Bear Lake, Trinity-Shasta National Forest

2022-09-27 On the way to Bear Lake • “Are we there yet?”

2022-09-27 Mt. Thielsen

2022-09-25 View of Shasta from McLoughlin

2022-09-20

2022-09-07 West Coast reunion tour • Best spot in Hood River

2022-08-21 Thoughts from Jack • “You must change your life.”

2022-08-21 Finished reading (2021): Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation by Jonathan Lear 📚 …

2022-08-15 Good weekend

2022-08-10 🍇🥂

2022-08-09 First view of Crater Lake (03Aug22)

2022-08-08 Mt. Joy • Britt Festival, Jacksonville, OR

2022-08-05 The Official…

2022-08-04

2022-07-31 <3 • Hobbit Beach—first time on the west coast

2022-07-27 Finished reading (2021): Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman 📚 Not as deeply …

2022-07-19 Geneva, NY

2022-07-18 Be seeing this a lot this summer ✈️🌎

2022-07-17 Quick stop at Cobbossee

2022-07-12 🙂

2022-07-04 Be like Jack: “I just wanna love the world. I wanna sniff it and pee on it (cf. Ricardo Castillo’s …

2022-07-04 Finished reading (2021): Evangelical Anxiety: A Memoir by Charles Marsh 📚 I’m too lazy to …

2022-06-29 Meet the new adoption and the happiest dog in the world. His name is Jack—not only because he looks …

2022-06-22 Dunbar Farms Tasting Room

2022-06-18 Mt. Ashland • It’s not every day you get both of these views within 5 minutes.

2022-06-18 Breadboard in Ashland, OR • I want this painting!

2022-06-18 Spring Point • South Portland, ME (2014)

2022-06-15 Finished reading (2021): The Dangers of Christian Practice by Lauren F. Winner 📚 A depth of honesty …

2022-06-14 Forest Park • Jacksonville, OR

2022-06-14 “Heaven’s Bench” • East Burke, VT (2015)

2022-06-07 Jacksonville • Welcome to the Pacific Northwest

2022-05-30 The difference 5 minutes make on the West Diamond Lake Highway

2022-05-27 Yes, yes, mountain biking is gooder than just fun

2022-05-24 Boise • Sinker Creek

2022-05-17 (Public) Secret Falls

2022-05-17 Kauai, overlooking Wailua River State Park • Now this is the Hawaii I imagined

2022-05-14 Mauna a Wākea Apocalyptica

2022-05-03 Best $6 I’ll spend this week — Island Lava Java in Kona — Bar tender was from Maine, couple …

2022-05-02 A gecko pooped on Mary Oliver this morning. I somehow think she didn’t even mind.

2022-05-02 Finished reading (2021): The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald 📚 A piercing look into carried history. …

2022-04-24 Kīlauea Volcano

2022-04-23 Eucalyptus (regnans?) • Kalōpā State Park

2022-04-22 There are about 13 rainbows a day in Waimea

2022-04-22 “Mere life is interesting enough. . . . I had always vaguely felt facts to be miracles in the …

2022-04-22 Messalonskee Lake - 21April2018 - at the Maine Arts Academy

2022-04-21 Finished reading (2021): Bonhoeffer’s Religionless Christianity in Its Christological Context by …

2022-04-19 A friend joined me for coffee this morning, though I didn’t have an extra chair

2022-04-18 Hawai’i or Ireland?

2022-04-13 Mary Oliver:

2022-04-13 This 2019 essay by Zadie Smith is the best thing I’ve read in a while. More of us need whatever it …

2022-04-12 Last flight for a while, I hope

2022-04-10 Currently returning with the cleft surgery team from Juba, after previously spending a few weeks in …

2022-04-09 Currently Reading: Bonhoeffer’s Religionless Christianity in Its Christological Context by Peter …

2022-04-09 Rynek Główny (09March22)

2022-03-31 Dubai

2022-03-29 It may sound dumb, but after living mostly underground for the last few weeks, I think Dove might be …

2022-03-04

2022-03-03 All things worth thinking and knowing need to be retold. And I would say that the central point of …

2022-03-02 Interview with Ukrainian poet Ilya Kaminsky

2022-03-02 Reading a short essay this morning from James Calvin Schaap, I came across something that makes …

2022-03-01 Feldman’s Deli

2022-03-01 Simone Weil:

2022-02-27 Quit reading (2021): The Will to See by Bernard-Henri Levy 📚 Couldn’t make it past the second …

2022-02-27 One last demo day and (maybe) last day to ski the Ghee

2022-02-22 Very sad to hear about Paul Farmer. I remember my biology program professor being one of his biggest …

2022-02-21 Finished reading (2021): Light Perpetual: A Novel by Francis Spufford 📚 In many ways a very simple …

2022-02-10 Afternoon walk to Chapolera Coffee Shop (Idaho Falls) to say hi to Lupe

2022-02-08 Table Mountain (06Feb22)

2022-02-05 Quick stop at Marcellar’s—Can’t say no to a unique cribbage board

2022-02-02 Snapshot off the I-15

2022-02-01 Searching for powder at Snowbird

2022-01-30 Alta

2022-01-26 Teton “QRS complex”

2022-01-25 Finished reading (2002): A Pelican in the Wilderness: Hermits and Solitaries by Isabel Colegate 📚 A …

2022-01-24 Ski Grand Targhee

2022-01-18 “Empathy is a moral imperative but also an epistemological one.” – Anthony Domestico

2022-01-15 Currently Reading: Erratic Facts by Kay Ryan 📚 Snagged a copy at Country Bookshelf in Bozeman. …

2022-01-14 Big Sky, little snow

2022-01-14 Big Sky, hot tub

2022-01-10 Finished reading (2021): The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion 📚 Sobering, resonant, finite.

2022-01-09 Finished reading (2021): Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman 📚 A …

2022-01-08 Finished reading (2021): The Uncontrollability of the World by Hartmut Rosa 📚 “There is …

2022-01-03 Closest cribbage game in the history of cribbage games that’s ever “been happened” …

2022-01-02 Rendezvous Mountain (après waffles)

2022-01-01 Jackson Hole • A statement of fact: It is 2022.

2022-01-01 Finished reading (2021): One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder by Brian Doyle 📚 Simply and purely …

2021-12-27 Finished reading (2021): The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber 📚 About …

2021-12-21 Currently Reading: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber 📚 Gotta love …

2021-12-21 Mary Oliver

2021-12-13 BNSF Railway

2021-12-11 Finished reading (2021): Crossroads: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen 📚 Loved the book. Wonderfully …

2021-12-05 Taylor Mountain, WY (04Dec21) — sans snowshoes . . . again

2021-12-05 Goldbug Hot Springs (25Nov21)

2021-12-05 I-93 is The Way to Salmon, ID

2021-11-27 Sawtooth Lake (26Nov21) — sans snowshoes… again

2021-11-27 Wind Cave/Darby Canyon • Alta, WY (13Nov21)

2021-11-23

2021-11-21 South Sudan Cleft Repairs, 2021 https://photo.samaritanspurse.org/stories-of-heartache-hope

2021-11-03 Finally home with a day off, and with the paperback version thanks to a very welcomed bookstore in …

2021-10-20 A 36-hour travel day, kicked off with airline computer glitches, rebooked flights, and delayed …

2021-10-07 Horseshoe loop in Driggs • Finally some good singletrack

2021-10-04 Morning “elk ride” at Harriman State Park

2021-10-01 Walking down sunny A Street, Idaho Falls

2021-09-27 Middle Teton • “Wyoming’s Katahdin”—with bugling elks, the best weather you could …

2021-09-19 Upper Palisade Lake, Palisades Creek

2021-09-13 “It is a fear tied to the knowledge that sudden, cataclysmic events are as much a part of …

2021-09-11 In Swamp Donkey Veritas

2021-09-11 My two favorite views on Go-To-The-Sun Road

2021-09-08 Rising sun over Rising Wolf

2021-09-07 Driving snapshot • Left to right: Go-To-The-Sun, Little Chief, Citadel, Heavy Runner

2021-09-07 Picea engelmannii • A stolid silver spruce, below Go-To-The-Sun Mountain

2021-09-07 radii solis inter Abies lasiocarpa

2021-09-07 Dawson Pass Trail • Standing below Mt. Morgan, Tinkham Mountain on the right, Mt. Pinchot in the …

2021-09-07 Looking north over Pitamakin Lake, surrounded by Red Mountain to the east and McClintock to the west

2021-09-07 Oldham Lake, below and above, from the northeast and the west

2021-09-04 Glacier National Park • “Welcome to Two Medicine Campground. We have 4 black bears and 2 …

2021-08-29 Japanese Friendship Garden • Idaho Falls is the International Sister City to Tokai, Ibaraki, Japan

2021-08-29 Made it

2021-08-28 Mountain bike heaven is also a place called Park City

2021-08-26 Near Grand County, UT • Turn left at the old railway depot, if you’re accidentally avoiding …

2021-08-26 Mill Creek, Moab

2021-08-24 Sunset toward Skyline Arch

2021-08-24 Arches National Park • If you find a cell phone in the mud puddle at site 46, Jane at the main …

2021-08-23

2021-08-23 Sunset above San Sophia

2021-08-23 A Timbered Choir

2021-08-23 Mountain bike heaven is a place called Telluride

2021-08-23 Telluride, CO • “Eventually, all things merge into one, and [the San Miguel River] runs …

2021-08-23 Carbondale, CO

2021-08-23 Rocky Mountains • McClure Pass

2021-08-20 “Who are we? Where are we going?"

2021-08-20 Somewhere in middle America

2021-08-19 Iowa City • Bluebird Diner

2021-08-19 Ashtabula, OH • Not quite like the postcard, but W 5th Street is worth swinging through.

2021-08-16 Niagara • Impressive falls, fun gorge trail, interesting town…

2021-08-15 Lovely

2021-08-15 Middleport, NY Never too early for some local, sulfate-free wine—stomped on the old fashioned way.

2021-08-14 View from Jersey City—on an underutilized rooftop terrace

2021-08-14 Stuffed to the rafters, but always room for a little growth

2021-08-14 Didn’t get one in front of the apartment before we left, but life is packed and we’re on the road.