More Than Enough–on walking at 5:00 a.m.
I’ve been thinking about topophilia of late. “One’s mental, emotional, and cognitive ties to a place,” as University of Wisconsin geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, who coined the term, defines it. Where I’ve had this feeling, of being tied to and restored by a…
When Bacco Smiles–from American English, Italian Chocolate
My wife’s old aunt has an omino (the diminutive of uomo, the Italian word for “man”). Omino. Little man. When she wants to cook a rabbit for lunch, she has an omino who sells her the rabbit. She wants fish, she has…
On Wine Tasting and the Limits of Winespeak–from Get Thee to a Bakery
“You taste wine the same way I do,” the guy pouring says. “We all have the same equipment: nose, mouth, tongue, palate. Technically, yes. And it’s very nice of him to say that. It’s my last day in Sonoma.…
Hang Up–taking my tech for a walk
There’s a guy coming down the hill on Sodon Lake Road. Tizi and I are walking up the hill, twenty minutes into our morning route. He’s wearing hiking shorts and walking shoes. So: we’re on the same page, out walking for our…
Bag Man–the things I carry
We heard animals last night, yipping and howling in the woods across the road from the orchard. It was not a sound we are acquainted with. “Coyotes?” Tizi said. “They sound like dogs,” I said. Coyotes, David confirmed the next morning. They’re…
Hold It Right There–how we feel and why
Aristotle, 14; Charles Darwin, 5. It sounds like the final score in the big-names-in history wrestling contest. Aristotle destroys Darwin. It’s actually the number of human emotions these thinkers could think of. Both list fear and anger. Aristotle distinguishes between shame and…
Lighten Up–reading, working, sleeping
I’ve been using my Kindle as a flashlight the last couple mornings. At 4:30 a.m. the display lights my way from a bedroom to a hallway to the kitchen, where I can light a light and make some quiet coffee and pull…
Ride It–desert miles and wild horses
“That’s two,” Tizi says. “You’re counting?” Whatever she murmurs in response I can’t hear. Because even with my hearing aid cranked to HIGH, I can’t hear murmur in the car. And besides, this I don’t really want to hear. It’s a little…
Facsimiles–the West, a breakfast, some shade
I couldn’t be this lucky, I think to myself. What are the odds of finding a rattlesnake skin that’s been sluffed off, left behind in one piece, and in pretty good condition? But there it is, of all places on the driveway…