While sweeping the back deck, I noted several shards of broken concrete. Leaves and pine needles were the focus of my attack. The wind storm left plenty. Yesterday, I picked up tree branches; today, I took on clearing out the detritus from the driveway and the decks. Naturally, perplexed by the discovery, I picked up…
Category: Home Posts
Reflections from a Smoothly Swinging Door
Each time I enter the house from the back deck, it crosses my mind. I perform the task at least six or seven times daily; it’s Ellie’s portal to the potty. It’s not a fancy door. It’s functional, swings well, and closes tightly. I participated in the installation. Oh, I’ve installed doors before, a…
Hearts
He came after breakfast, and our first meeting was via the FaceTime application on our Apple device. Both parents looked fantastic, but Mom was tired, as one would expect. Parents should be the ones who make birth announcements, but I can tell you that he is heavy and healthy. His sister was with us,…
The Edges
David hadn’t been home for Thanksgiving in thirteen years. Only one of those years, for both November and December, he’d been in jail, taking his lumps for driving drunk and hitting a light pole. Most of the other years, he was intimately involved with spirits of the worst kind. Sobriety came slowly and disappeared…
Pie
Now, it’s just me and the pie. It didn’t start that way, of course. It came as a gift from the Significant One. I mentioned apple pie, sure. I’ve never made one, and I’m not starting now. A man needs to know his limitations. When she showed some passing interest in the idea, I put…
Cleaning Windows
With Lewiston, Maine, on the hearts and minds of a whole nation, we’ve experienced some heartfelt celebrity outreach in recent days. Pro footballers from the New England Patriots gave shout-outs of support to the Lewiston Blue Devils and City of Auburn Red Eddies high school football teams. It all took place before the cross-river…
Ode to Davidson
It was the day of a dump run. Yes, we call it a transfer station now. I grew up in the era of the dump, the EOTD. It wasn’t a pretty time, but the name sticks. I’ll call it a dump until death; it connects me to the past, as did the stepladder. It’s a…
Medium hot, One and One.
I remarked that the newly constructed Dunkin (formerly known nationally as Dunkin’ Donuts) looked clean and inviting. And it did. I pulled in. Sammy didn’t say anything but, “Ooooh, coffee.” We usually agree on coffee stops and are typically equally excited about the next one. My new second-cup-of-coffee-of-the-day ordering paradigm was in full force. I…
The Last Impala
“Now, you’re sure it’s a ’79? “As sure as I can be. I have the Virginia title paperwork right in front of me. Runs like a top.” Kurt had been looking for the automobile for over nine months. He didn’t want to spend the money hauling the wrong car nine hundred miles north to Maine…
A Dooryard Visit- A Downeast Primer
I didn’t meet Tin White by mistake. We were introduced, but not in an official sense. Tin happens to live in my glide path to Downeast. I am lucky enough to drive by his house about fifty percent of the time I head to camp. There are other ways, of course. And I tend to…