The ZIP CodeTM of my childhood.
Total solar eclipse over Hamburg, New York, gets USPS postmark
Category Archives: Life
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Bees at work! at work
We have bees at work! at work.
Coexisting with bees in cities is easy and natural. After all, honey bees are just one of a number of pollinators like butterflies, bumble bees, and wild bees with whom we already share our urban spaces.
Petunia (January 16, 2008 – April 29, 2023)
Jaws (vs. Hodge)
Apologies to Universal Pictures, but when I saw how this photo turned out, I had to do it.
Hodge (2001 – 2013)
These are from a previous post in which photos of already questionable quality were resized. Some of the originals are lost, but I hope I can find at least a few. Hodge was a character who thought he was a lion to my antelope.
107 photos
Lessons and Carols, 2022
This is the first time since 2019 that Lessons and Carols, a Christmas Eve tradition at Rockefeller Chapel, has been held in person. I remember in 2020 and 2021, it was streamed. This year it was both in person and streamed. I attended, but within a few days had developed my first bout with COVID-19. I held out almost three years.
Rockefeller is always an experience. The snow was a great touch.
I love that the children don’t have to make or buy costumes to be farmyard animals. These days they can wear pajamas. My favorite was the Holstein cow (possibly an anachronism).
4 photos
Postcard books
In my younger days (1980s through 1990s, which, sadly, don’t seem that long ago), I’d collect certain things, like Renaissance music CDs and bookmarks. I also collected postcard books from 57th Street Books and other bookstores. After all these years, I’m finally returning to sending postcards, some yellowing, to friends and family.
The Sierra Club books were among the first I bought. Just looking at them reminds me how the photos took me away from what was then a tedious life. Sadly, I don’t see postcard books on the Sierra Club’s website, and now that I think about it I’m not sure when I last saw a postcard book in a store. I suppose I’m one of the few left who sends postcards.
Sigh.
22 photos
Lessons and Carols at Rockefeller Chapel, 2020 style
Normally I’d have taken a couple of Amtrak trains to Pennsylvania for Christmas, but 2020 isn’t normal so here I am in Chicago. Normally if I were in Chicago I’d attend Lessons and Carols for Christmas Eve at Rockefeller Chapel on the University of Chicago campus. But it’s 2020, so here we are. I lit my own candle.
Covid Chronicles: Telemedicine visit
Rheumatologist: Blah blah blah
Me: Blah blah blah
Rheumatologist: Blah blah blah
[Petunia climbs onto shoulder]
Me: Blah blah blah
[Petunia switches to chest and stares at me]
Rheumatologist: Here’s what I recommend . . . Hey, I feel like you’re not listening or paying attention because you’re too busy petting your cat.
Me: Look! [Holds up both hands] I’M NOT EVEN TOUCHING HER.